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KFF/AP Survey Probes Rural Voters’ Increasing Anxieties About the Rising Cost of Living, Including Health Costs, Heading into the Midterm Elections

The KFF/AP Rural Voters Survey examines the views and political priorities of voters living in rural areas across the United States ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The survey gauges rural voters’ top election issues, growing struggles with cost of living and health care costs, as well as views on the Trump administration’s health care policies.

The MIDTERMS

“...the search for a single top issue through polling questions — whether it’s health costs, or gas prices, or the cost of food — is artificial. People worry about and experience these costs together. There is no top issue, unless that issue is the catchall, ‘cost of living.’” — Drew Altman, KFF Founding President and CEO

Are Health Care Costs THE Top Issue for Voters?

In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, Founding President and CEO, analyzes the polling on health costs as a voting issue and concludes that there is no one top voting issue. He writes: “I have come to the conclusion that the search for a single top issue through polling questions—whether it’s health costs, or gas prices, or the cost of food—is artificial. People worry about and experience these costs together. There is no top issue, unless that issue is the catchall, “cost of living.”

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  • Surprise Bills Often Hit in Emergencies

    From Drew Altman

    In an Axios column, Drew Altman previews new data highlighting that people with critical health issues are especially vulnerable to these bills. 

  • Changes in Employees’ Health Insurance Coverage, 2001-2005

    Issue Brief

    This paper examines the underlying reasons behind the decline in employer coverage among employees from 2001 to 2005. The paper finds that almost half of the decline in employer-sponsored coverage was due to a loss of employer sponsorship. Another quarter of the decline was due to lost eligibility for benefits or losing access as a dependent of another employee. The remaining quarter of the decline was due to employees not participating in the offer of…

  • Retiree Health Benefits Now and in the Future, Report

    Report

    Retiree Health Benefits Now and In the Future - Report This survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates between June and September 2003 provides detailed information on retiree health programs offered by large private-sector employers. The data in this survey reflect the responses of 408 large firms (private-sector employers with 1,000 or more workers) and provides information on eligibility, benefits, premiums, and total cost in 2003, and offers insights as to what…

  • Page Two

    Other Post

    Employee Contributions Almost 80% of covered workers with single coverage, and over 90% of covered workers with family coverage make a contribution toward premiums in 2004 (Exhibit C). Workers on average contribute $558 of the $3,695 annual cost of single coverage and $2,661 of the $9,950 annual cost of family coverage toward premiums (Exhibit B). Click on Thumbnail for larger image (opens in a new window) Click on Thumbnail for larger image (opens in a…

  • USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health National Survey of Households Affected by Cancer

    Poll Finding

      USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health National Survey of Households Affected by Cancer This USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health National Survey provides an in-depth examination of how families cope with cancer and highlights problems of health insurance and health care costs through the lens of those who have experienced this major illness. The survey shows the disease’s devastating impact often extends beyond an individual patient to affect entire families…

  • Explaining Health Care Reform: What is Health Insurance?

    Issue Brief

    A key element in any comprehensive health reform plan is defining what health insurance is and the amount of insurance coverage people will have. There are two components to that coverage: the types of services covered (e.g., physician care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, etc.), and the cost sharing required of enrollees (e.g., the annual deductible, the copayments or coinsurance, and the maximum out-of-pocket costs for a year). The overall approach to reform drives the kinds of…

  • Inside Deficit Reduction: What It Means for Medicare

    Event Date:
    Event

    Proposals to generate Medicare savings abound, from the various commissions recommending change, members of Congress and others. Which proposals will, or should receive serious considerations by the Congressional super committee in its quest to find $1.2 trillion or more in savings by its November 23 deadline? What impact would these changes have on beneficiaries, providers and insurers? Would stakeholders prefer the automatic, but capped, Medicare reductions in the sequester rather than any recommendations on Medicare…

  • The Changing Medicaid Managed Care Market

    Report

    Trends in Commercial Plans' Participation This background paper analyzes the trends in commercial plan participation in the Medicaid market by using a database specifically designed for this purpose. It examines changes from mid-1996 to mid-1997 in the types of full-risk plans serving Medicaid Beneficiaries. It also looks at trends through mid-1998 for the 15 states with the largest number of Medicaid enrollees. Background Paper: : Trends in Commercial Plans' Particpation

  • Pulling it Together: Reflections on This Year’s Four Percent Premium Increase

    From Drew Altman

    Our 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey found a 4% increase in premiums this year, continuing the recent trend of moderation in health costs and spending reported in several studies. Double digit increases in premiums were once a common occurrence, but we have not seen any since a 10% increase in 2004 and 13% growth in 2003. Rates of increase in total health spending have been holding at 4-6% per year recently, and per capita spending…