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“...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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How Unaffordable is Health Care and What Can We Do About It?

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On Tuesday, July 21, three experts joined Health Wonk Shop series moderator Larry Levitt in an hour-long discussion of health care affordability. During the discussion, panelists considered affordability from a variety of perspectives, including how to define affordability and the question of affordability for whom, how to measure it, and what can be done to address affordability and the underlying cost of health care.

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  • Summary: National Survey of Enrollees in Consumer-Directed Health Plans

    Poll Finding

    This survey summary provides an in-depth analysis of the National Survey of Enrollees in Consumer-Directed Health Plans conducted between June 21 and July 10, 2006. The survey looks at the views and experiences of people enrolled in consumer-directed health plans as compared to people with traditional health insurance. Survey Summary (.pdf)

  • Designing a Medicare Drug Discount Card: Implications of Policy Choices for Medicare Beneficiaries and Plan Sponsors

    Report

    This report analyzes key issues surrounding the implementation of a Medicare-endorsed prescription drug discount card program. Medicare prescription drug discount cards have been proposed as a short-term strategy for lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. The report considers the implications for both discount card sponsors and beneficiaries of alternative program designs, including such features as the annual lock-in for consumers, exclusive formularies, providing comparative information to consumers about drug prices and discounts, administration of…

  • Characteristics of Frequent Emergency Department Users

    Report

    The increased use of U.S. hospital emergency departments has received considerable attention from both the health care community and policymakers in recent years. This analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines the demographic and health characteristics of people who frequently visit the emergency room to help understand why their utilization is so high. Using data from the nationally representative Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, the analysis finds that high emergency department users (those who made four…

  • National Survey on Consumers’ Experiences With Patient Safety and Quality Information — Toplines

    Poll Finding

    National Survey on Consumers' Experiences With Patient Safety and Quality Information -- Toplines This document includes the complete toplines from a national survey assessing Americans' perceptions about the quality of health care, their awareness and reported usage of information in making their health care choices, and their experiences with their health care providers five years after the Institute of Medicine's landmark report on medical errors. The Kaiser Family Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and…

  • Prospects for Retiree Health Benefits as Medicare Drug Coverage Begins

    Poll Finding

    Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2005 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits The 2005 Kaiser/Hewitt survey of large businesses that provide retiree health benefits to their workers assesses their responses to the new Medicare drug benefit in 2006, their plans for the future, and the way these changes affect retirees. It also looks at the rising costs and changing benefits of retiree health coverage overall in 2005. News Release Report Chartpack Materials from the December 7, 2005…

  • Managed Care For Low-Income Populations with Special Needs: The Tennessee Experience

    Report

    This paper provides a targeted review of Tennessee's experience providing health care to individuals with special needs under TennCare, its Medicaid managed care initiative. The first part reviews the experience of TennCare Partners, the behavioral health carve-out program created in 1996. The second part reviews how TennCare's structure affects the disabled and chronically ill.