Private Insurance

Health Care Affordability

BTD Health Policy in 2026

Health Policy in 2026

President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman forecasts eight things to look for in health policy in 2026. “First and foremost,” he writes, “is the role health care affordability will play in the midterms.” And, he notes: “The average cost of a family policy for employers could approach $30,000 and cost sharing and deductibles will rise again after plateauing for several years.”

View all of Drew’s Beyond the Data Columns

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  • Analysis: Insurer Financial Indicators Show Signs of Stabilizing After Transition to ACA Marketplaces

    News Release

    A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of key insurer financial indicators suggests that the individual insurance market showed signs of stabilizing in 2016, although profitability remained below the level of performance prior to the opening of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces. The new analysis tracks insurer financial performance in the individual market through two key indicators: average medical loss ratios (the share of health premiums paid out as claims) and average gross margins per…

  • The Effects of Ending the Affordable Care Act’s Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments

    Issue Brief

    This analysis estimates that total federal spending on Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies would rise $2.3 billion, or 23 percent, in 2018 if payments for the cost-sharing reduction program were eliminated and insurers increased premiums to compensate. Established to reduce out-of-pocket costs for marketplace enrollees with lower incomes, the cost-sharing payments are being challenged in a lawsuit from the U.S. House.

  • New Analysis Finds High Out-of-Pocket Spending Increased for People Covered by Large Employer Plans

    News Release

      A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds about one in four people (24%) covered by large employer plans spent more than $1,000 out-of-pocket on health care in 2015, an increase of seven percentage points from 17 percent in 2005. About 1 in 10 people in such plans (12%) paid more than $2,000 out-of-pocket in 2015, a distribution that mirrors the distribution of overall health spending, according to the new analysis of claims data. Dollar…

  • The Republican Health-care Plan the Country Isn’t Debating

    From Drew Altman

    In this Washington Post op-ed, Drew Altman discusses how Republicans' ideas to change Medicaid and Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act would fundamentally change the federal role in health, calling it: the biggest change in health we are NOT debating.

  • The American Health Care Act: New House GOP Bill Summary and Interactive Maps of Its Effects on Tax Credits

    News Release

    The Kaiser Family Foundation today issued a summary of the Republican House leadership’s March 6 proposed Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement bill, the American Health Care Act, that can be compared in 17 key policy areas to the ACA and several other proposed replacement plans. In addition, the Foundation updated its interactive maps that compare county-level estimates of premium tax credits consumers would receive under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2020 with what they’d receive…

  • Why Deductibles Would Rise Under the GOP Health Care Plan

    From Drew Altman

    This inaugural Drew Altman column for Axios examines how the GOP House bill would impact deductibles for people who buy insurance in the non-group market. A KFF analysis for the column shows deductibles in a typical non-group plan would be about $1550 higher under the American Health Care Act compared to the Affordable Care Act.

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – October 2017: Experiences of the Non-Group Marketplace Enrollees

    Feature

    The start of the open enrollment period for non-group insurance in 2018 is less than one month away, and the majority of individuals who are targets for enrollment – those who currently purchase their own insurance and those who are uninsured – are unaware of the key dates of the next open enrollment period. This report, focusing on enrollees in the non-group market, compares the experiences of individuals who purchase their own insurance through an…