Health Costs

KFF’s analysis of KFF/AP VoteCast supplemental questions shows how abortion, abortion-related ballot measures, and other health care issues influenced the 2024 election.

In this column, KFF president and CEO Drew Altman explores why health costs weigh heavily among voters’ economic concerns, even in an election where health was not a flashpoint. The need to reframe health as a pocketbook issue for voters will be central to the competition for the votes of working class Latino voters, two groups very focused on the cost of living.

This policy watch examines the implications of new proposed regulations that would allow Medicare and require Medicaid to cover drugs used to treat obesity, including a relatively new class of highly effective but costly drugs known as GLP-1s.

Health of the Healthcare System is a diagnostic look at the state of our healthcare system. How does the U.S. healthcare system compare to health systems of other high-income countries, and how has it fared over time? Kaiser Health News and former-NPR reporter, Julie Rovner, takes us through a check-up…

This data note examines trends in hospital margins from 2018 through 2023 and how operating margins varied across different types of hospitals in 2023. It shows the industry overall experienced a rebound in 2023 after margins fell sharply the previous year, though some hospitals – particularly those in rural areas and those who see many Medicaid patients – continue to struggle.

With the enhanced subsidies for enrollees in ACA Marketplace plans set to expire at the end of 2025, this calculator illustrates how much out-of-pocket premiums would increase if Congress does not extend the subsidies. It shows the projected premium increases based on incomes, zip code, family size and ages based on 2025 ACA Marketplace premiums.

This analysis finds that Medicare’s negotiated prices for 10 high-expenditure prescription drugs are lower than what private Medicare drug plans had been paying, but still much higher than the prices available in 11 other wealthy nations.. It is available on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

The Health Spending Explorer on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker helps users examine five decades worth of numbers documenting expenditures by federal and local governments, private insurers, and individuals on 15 categories of health services, including hospitals, physician and clinic care, and prescription drugs.