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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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  • Kaiser/Harvard National Survey of Americans’ Views on Managed Care

    Other Post

    Is There A Managed Care "Backlash?" Embargoed for release: 9:30 a.m. ET, Wednesday, November 5, 1997 For further information contact: Matt James or Tina Hoff Most Americans Give Their Own Health Plan A Good Grade, But Have Concerns About Key Aspects Of Managed Care Washington, DC -- At a time of expanding enrollment and stricter federal and state regulation, how does the public feel about managed care? Most insured Americans -- regardless of whether they…

  • A Guide to Developing Assistance Programs for Health Care Consumers

    Report

    The Health Rights Hotline, based in Sacramento, California, wasestablished in 1997 as a model to demonstrate and assess how anindependent assistance program can help consumers successfully accesscare, navigate the health care system, and improve the system for allhealth care consumers. Based on the experiences of the Health Rights Hotline, this Guideprovides a framework and specific steps that organizations may take to set up a consumer assistance program. Areas covered include program design, staffing and training,…

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

    Poll Finding

    National Survey on Consumers' Experiences With Patient Safety and Quality Information -- Summary and Chartpack This chartpack summarizes key findings from a national survey assesses 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…

  • The Innovation Center: How Much Can It Improve Quality and Reduce Costs – and How Quickly?

    Event Date:
    Event

    The new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) seeks to test new health care payment and service delivery models that can potentially enhance quality of care for beneficiaries while reducing costs. How is the agency planning to administer its $10 billion in funding? What early projects is the center undertaking? Is there private sector evidence that its goals can be achieved? What will happen to existing innovations now being rolled out by providers and…

  • Health Care Costs and Election 2008

    Issue Brief

     Download PDF KEY FACTS ON HEALTH CARE COSTS Health spending in the United States is an estimated $2.4 trillion in 2008, an average of $7,868 per person The share of the economy (GDP) devoted to national health spending has increased from 7.2% in 1970 to an estimated 16.6% in 2008 Eighteen percent of the nonelderly were in families that spent over 10% of their disposable on out-of-pocket health care premiums and cost sharing in 2004.…

  • Prescription Drug Procurement and the Federal Budget

    Issue Brief

    This brief commissioned by the Foundation considers areas where Medicare faces limited opportunity for market-based competition and price negotiation to drive down drug spending. These areas include drug purchasing for low-income people enrolled in Part D plans who face minimal cost-sharing requirements, and purchasing certain unique drugs, such as biologicals, that have no therapeutic alternatives or competitors. Authored by Richard G. Frank of Harvard University, the brief discusses policy options that could lower Medicare spending…

  • USA Today/Kaiser/Harvard Survey Highlights Problems in the Health Care System Through the Experiences of People With Cancer

    Poll Finding

        Embargoed for release until:Monday, November 20, 2006   For further information contact:Craig Palosky, cpalosky@kff.org or (202) 347-5270Larry Levitt, llevitt@kff.org or (650) 854-9400     USA Today/Kaiser/Harvard Survey Highlights Problems in the Health Care System Through the Experiences of People With Cancer Survey of Families Affected by Cancer Shows People With and Without Health Insurance Often Suffer Serious Financial Hardships A major national survey of people affected by cancer provides an in-depth examination of…

  • Key Findings: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 – April 2008

    Poll Finding

    This document presents key findings from the April 2008 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, which tracks changes in the saliency of health as a political and policy priority, what the public’s priorities are for a health reform plan, and whether any candidates are breaking through with the public with their health reform plans.  Key Findings (.pdf)

  • Chartpack: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — February 2009

    Poll Finding

    This document contains findings presented in charts from the February 2009 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. The survey was conducted February 3 through February 12, 2009, among a nationally representative random sample of 1,204 adults ages 18 and older. Telephone interviews conducted by landline (903) and cell phone (301, including 123 who had no landline telephone) were carried out in English and Spanish. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus or minus…