Healthcare Insurance

The question of what would happen when a new, expensive prescription drug comes to market for a disease like Alzheimer’s that afflicts millions of people has loomed large in discussions over drug prices in the U.S.’and now we’re about to find out. After a nearly 20-year dry spell in new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, the

Key Findings The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds majorities of the public saying many current health care proposals being discussed by lawmakers are important priorities for Congress to focus on in the coming months, and few (less than one five) saying each of the health priorities “should not be done.” While majorities of the

With increased attention to the global need for COVID-19 vaccines and the Biden administration’s announcement today about how it plans to distribute the first portion of the 80 million doses it will share by the end of this month, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that two-thirds of the public (66%) say that the

In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt examines the implications of lowering Medicare’s age of eligibility, which is emerging as a potential pathway toward Medicare-for-all or a public option among single-payer advocates. He explores the implications for costs, industry, people and broader reform efforts.

Prescription drug spending has again returned to the policy agenda, with Congress and the Administration developing proposals to target drug prices. Though attention in current federal actions is largely focused on Medicare and private insurance drug prices, federal legislation also has been recently introduced or enacted that would affect Medicaid prescription drug policy. In 2019,

President Biden proposed lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 during the presidential campaign and reiterated his support recently, with the goal of broadening coverage and making health coverage affordable for older adults.  Proposals to lower the age of Medicare, either to 60 or a younger age, may be considered by Congress.  One KFF

A new KFF analysis shows that lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 could improve the affordability of coverage for people who are already insured and expand coverage to over a million of the nation’s 30 million uninsured. Such a policy could provide a path to Medicare coverage for up to 11.7 million people

As the coronavirus pandemic took shape in the U.S. in the early months of 2020, there was some uncertainty about how it would impact the financial performance of health insurers. Hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers cancelled elective procedures to free up beds, staff and supplies early in the pandemic and to limit unnecessary

A new analysis of health insurers’ financial data suggests that they remained profitable across markets in 2020 due in part to an unprecedented decrease in health spending and utilization in the spring as the COVID-19 pandemic led to massive shutdowns. The analysis examines insurers’ 2020 data for four distinct markets: Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care,

A shorter version of this column has been published by Axios. In an apparent break with the past, a surprising share of corporate leaders are now willing to support government efforts to tame health spending. Historically Republican-leaning and weary of government, only a tiny share oppose regulation. The test of how serious they are will be

Top executives at nearly 90% of large employers surveyed believe the cost of providing health benefits to employees will become unsustainable in the next five-to-10 years, and 85% expect the government will be required to intervene to provide coverage and contain costs, according to a new survey released today from Purchaser Business Group on Health

With the events of past year, how we view health care in the United States is changing. The COVID pandemic has made even more clear the problems with our current system, including high costs, incomplete coverage, limited access to care, under-investment in public health, and serious racial and ethnic inequities. All of this, occurring against

President Biden proposed lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 during the presidential campaign, with the goal of broadening coverage and making health coverage affordable for older adults. This analysis illustrates the potential for employer savings and finds that lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 could reduce costs for employer health plans

Two new KFF analyses find that lowering the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 60 could significantly reduce health spending for employers, who could potentially pass savings to employees in the form of lower premiums or higher wages. Additionally, per person health spending for older adults who move from employer coverage on to Medicare

Medicare currently offers health insurance coverage to more than 60 million Americans ages 65 and older and younger adults with long-term disabilities. During the presidential campaign, President Biden proposed to lower Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60, along with other policies to address health insurance coverage and affordability. Then-candidate Biden stated that the proposal

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent elections are changing the national conversation around expanding health care coverage and reining in rising health care costs. President Biden campaigned on a platform of expanding access to public health coverage in ways that could change the role of employer-sponsored health insurance, which currently covers about half of all Americans.

A new KFF analysis finds that a relatively small share of drugs, mainly those without generic or biosimilar competitors, accounted for a disproportionate share of prescription drug spending in Medicare in 2019. This finding suggests that recent proposals that focus on prices for a limited number of high-cost drugs could achieve significant savings. The 250

Policymakers are once again focusing attention on proposals to lower prescription drug costs. During the previous session of Congress, the House passed legislation (H.R. 3) to allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare Part D, Medicare’s outpatient prescription drug benefit, and private insurers. Under H.R. 3, the HHS Secretary would negotiate prices

Majorities Favor Provisions to Expand Marketplace Tax Credits and Encourage States to Expand Medicaid As Congress considers an additional $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, more than a third (37%) of Americans say that someone in their household has had trouble paying basic living expenses over the past three months, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll

Key Findings After one month in office, a majority of the public (62%) approve of the way President Biden is handling the coronavirus pandemic ’ including nine in ten Democrats (92%). The pandemic’s economic effects continue to be felt as 37% of adults say they or another adult in their household have had trouble paying

During the 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden supported several policies to lower prescription drug costs, including proposals to authorize the federal government to negotiate drug prices, cap out-of-pocket drug costs in Medicare Part D, and limit drug price increases to the rate of inflation. Whether or not the 117th Congress acts on these or other

A new KFF issue brief examines 2020 data on excess mortality ’ the number of deaths above what is expected in a typical year ’ and finds that among similarly large and wealthy nations, the United States had the highest premature excess mortality rate in 2020, indicating that younger people in the U.S. were more

Even as the pandemic took a devastating toll on health care workers and older adults in the United States, many home care workers continued to report to work and provide vital care to vulnerable people despite the health risks to themselves and their own families. KFF’s Kaiser Health News and The John A. Hartford Foundation

In spite of a new price transparency rule that requires hospitals to publish the prices of common health services, comparing prices across hospitals remains challenging due to limited compliance with the law and a lack of standardization in the available data, a new KFF analysis finds. The federal rule, which went into effect on January

A new issue brief examines compliance with a new federal price transparency rule and variation in payer-negotiated rates at U.S. hospitals. The analysis looks at the websites of the two largest hospitals in each state and the District of Columbia, and finds that a lack of consistency in the data and limited compliance among the

A new issue brief reviews excess death rates in the U.S. and peer countries by age groups to examine how the pandemic has affected excess mortality rate among younger people. The analysis looks specifically at the excess deaths that arose in 2020 to examine how the age at death during the pandemic has differed between

Admissions to hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19 fell markedly again in November as cases of infections with the novel coronavirus began to surge anew, suggesting that more people were delaying care due to the worsening pandemic, according to an updated analysis by Epic Health Research Network (EHRN) and KFF. The recent decline follows a

A new issue brief shows where Americans typically get flu vaccines in the U.S. and how much it costs to administer flu and other vaccines. Among the analysis’ findings: while most people get flu vaccines at a doctor’s office or retail health clinic, White people are more likely than Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian

Introduction In the closing days of 2020, Congress enacted and the President signed into law the No Surprises Act, providing new federal consumer protections against surprise medical bills.  The measure was included in omnibus legislation funding the federal government for fiscal year 2021 and providing stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic.  Its enactment followed nearly

A new issue brief examines the most recent data on deaths from COVID-19 and other causes, and finds that COVID-19 is currently the number one cause of death in the United States. As of January 26, 2021, an average of more than 3,000 people per day died of COVID-19 in the U.S. during the first