Home Health Costs Topics

Health Costs

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.”

New and noteworthy

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

Event Date:

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.

Health System Tracker

Among adults 18 - 64 with private insurance, mental health and substance use treatment accounted for 10% of all overnight stays at hospitals or other medical facilities in 2023.

Cost and Utilization of Inpatient Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment This analysis describes the most common diagnoses for inpatient treatment and total associated costs.

What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage? Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65, but its reach is uneven.

How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries? The life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in 2024 as U.S. mortality dropped.

How Does Health Spending in the U.S. Compare to Other Countries? While the U.S. still spends the most in total dollars, eight OECD nations had a higher percentage increase in per-person health spending in 2024.

Latest News

More KFF Health News

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Health Costs

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Health Costs

View the Latest: Health Costs

Filter

List Grid

961 - 970 of 1,600 Results

  • Polling Data Note: Beyond the ACA, the Affordability of Insurance Has Been Deteriorating Since 2015

    News Release

    The debate about the future of the Affordable Care Act and its individual insurance marketplaces may be taking the focus off the affordability challenges facing the broader population, most of whom get their health coverage through employers, Medicare or Medicaid. New survey findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation show that health care has become somewhat less affordable even among those with health insurance. Since 2015, larger shares of people with health insurance say they have…

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – October 2017: Open Enrollment and the ACA Marketplaces

    Poll Finding

    The October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll focuses on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplaces as the November 1st open enrollment period approaches, amidst a period of uncertainty on the future of the individual market. The survey finds the majority of the public think it is more important for President Trump and Congress to work on legislation to stabilize the marketplaces rather than continue efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. A majority – across parties…

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – May 2017: The AHCA’s Proposed Changes to Health Care

    Report

    With House Republicans passing the American Health Care Act (AHCA), their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Senate currently debating the plan and discussing their own approach, the latest tracking poll finds more view the ACA favorably than view the AHCA favorably. The poll examines attitudes towards specific provisions included in the replacement plan and how the public thinks the replacement plan will affect their own health care.

  • Poll: Public Views the ACA More Favorably Than Congress’ Plan to Replace It, Though Republicans Favor the Replacement

    News Release

    Public Grows More Pessimistic About How Repeal Will Affect Them Personally Most (55%) of the public holds an unfavorable view of the Congressional plan that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and the same share (55%) want the Senate either to make major changes to the House-passed bill or not pass it all, finds the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Three in 10 (31%) of the public hold favorable views of the American…

  • Medicaid and Managed Care: Implications for Low-income Women

    Report

    This commentary reviews Medicaid's role for low-income women and examines the implications Medicaid managed care on the delivery of health services to this vulnerable population. Today 40% of the Medicaid population, mostly poor women and their children, is enrolled in managed care. Medicaid agencies are hoping managed care will control spending and address longstanding problems with access to care. Low-income women have a number of characteristics that make them doubly vulnerable to have trouble accessing…

  • Health Centers’ Role as Safety Net Providers for Medicaid Patients and the Uninsured

    Report

    This issue paper profiles the role America's health centers have played in providing care for Medicaid patients and the uninsured. The paper presents information on health center patients and revenue sources and analyzes similarities and differences both between health centers and private practices and among health centers. These centers perform a unique role in the American health care system as nearly 85 percent of their patients are low-income and more than a third of their…

  • Pending Patient Protection Legislation

    Other Post

    Recent reports on patient protection legislation were prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation by Phyllis Borzi and Sara Rosenbaum of the Center for Health Services Research and Policy, The George Washington University Medical Center. These reports provide a side-by-side comparison of the patient protection provisions in the differing versions of H.R. 2990 passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1999, which are being considered in Conference Committee in 2000. The comparative analysis…

  • Managed Care and Low-Income Populations in Florida: 1996-1998 Update

    Report

    This report, Managed Care and Low Income Populations in Florida: 1996-1998 Update, updates our 1996 case study of Florida's Medicaid managed care initiatives and their effect on low-income populations. The focus of this report is on how the program has matured and how it has affected access to care and the safety net. It is one of a series of reportsfrom the Kaiser/ Commonwealth Low-Income Coverage and Access Project. This project examines how changes in…

  • National Survey of Consumer Experiences with Health Plans

    Report

    A national survey of 2,500 insured adult Americans on their experiences with health plans-documents problems people have experienced with their plans, the impact of those problems, and how people resolve their disputes with their health plans. The survey was designed and analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation staff with advice and input from Consumer Reports under a joint project developed to help consumers resolve difficulties with health plans. Highlights from the survey were featured in…