Remarkable. Even with single payer advocates running, an HHS secretary and the issue on voter’s minds, not a single health question during the televised part of the California governor’s debate. Police 24/7 was more important.
No group is more screwed (in health research speak, faces more barriers to care), than the chronically ill uninsured. I explain in my new column: on.kff.org/4mhgHWk
Two things candidates need to connect with voters on health:
+ Convince them they really care about their health care costs
+ Have a simple, tangible solution voters can understand (even if it doesn’t solve the whole problem and isn’t a comprehensive health reform plan).
Gallup also finds health at the top now.
A different take separating health costs from economic concerns and combining “availability” and “affordability,” but however you ask it these days, the public has health costs on their minds.
Today’s new KFF poll. Lots of people are using AI for health information. That’s probably not surprising.
What is: many are doing it because they can’t afford medical care.
Why health care affordability will be a top economic issue after the Iran war.
My latest column: on.kff.org/4splo2D
People say prior authorization review is their number one problem when they try to get health care. Can we get rid of it?
My new column:
This may not last with gas prices rising, but we have not seen it often: health costs are THE top household economic concern, propelled by reality, political debate about ACA tax credits, and media coverage.
Deepest sympathies for the many great journalists laid off at the Washington Post today. A comment on many things about the news industry and why I prefer our non profit model with our own stable funding and no need to chase revenue or clicks.
Stacked bar chart showing the public's levels of worry when it comes to affording living necessities. Shown among total adults.
It’s not going to be a health care election but it will partly be a health cost election.
Our new poll: on.kff.org/3LGVtUh
When you think about us having a health care cost problem, which part of this Venn diagram comes to mind first?
@drewaltman.bsky.social
www.kff.org/from-drew-al...
Everyone wants to reduce health care spending – their own, often at the expense of someone else’s health spending. No one really wants to take on underlying costs.
My latest column: on.kff.org/4a11umO
States are starting to cut Medicaid as revenues fall and federal cuts loom, making lots of different cuts to spread the pain and ease the politics. But work requirements and the $1T in federal Medicaid cuts have not hit yet. on.kff.org/45rYOND
Trump is not interested in Greenland’s rare earth minerals, or national security. He wants their single payer health system.
We have been trying to analyze the Trump health “plan” but I worry that unless Congress puts something real together we are analyzing air. Big Q’s such as are pre-x protected are impossible to answer from their Fact Sheet. What we do know: it partly captured a news cycle.
It looks like Trump’s “buy your own insurance“ plan would largely do away with pre-x protections and the Marketplaces, but not insurance companies he doesn’t like who would still provide most of the coverage.
Today Trump called on R’s to “ own health care”, an issue they have never won. But with what? Trump favors narrow, glitzy industry deals, not comprehensive plans dealing with coverage and costs. Can that formula work?
My column: on.kff.org/4ssYisr
The Rural Fund grants are a grab bag from telehealth to mobile health to parks and trails for recreation.
Our analysis based on rural population:
1 in 4 in our Marketplace enrollee survey say they will drop insurance. But 1 in 3 will pick cheaper high deductible plans, many with deductibles and co-pays they cannot afford. on.kff.org/4464PPo
No one likes prior authorization review. But could we get rid of it? My new column: www.kff.org/from-drew-al...
Our survey of immigrants with the NYT, out now, shows while the immigration crackdown has caused fear and anxiety, immigrants still prefer the U.S. to where they came from and are optimistic about the future.
With that resilience, nativism can’t win long term.
With all the talk about ACA costs being out of control, they are actually quite similar to and slightly less than employer (group) health costs.
The problem is health care costs, not the ACA.
If Republicans decide to make a deal on ACA tax credits to reduce the political danger for moderate R’s in the midterms, there are compromises with Democrats that can work. See Jonathan Cohn in Bulwark today. That’s if.
With one vote on the ACA tax credits in December, no agreement on a plan, and no commitment from the House or Trump, there is no apparent path to extending the credits. It means the issue will prosecuted in the midterms, and it means pain for tens of millions of Americans.
Not this again. Insurance provides access to health care, so it’s actually health care that “doesn’t save lives”, statistically in the aggregate, because most people aren’t sick. But if you get sick, it absolutely does. Anybody ready to go without it. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Trump has now called for replacing the ACA (again) so people can buy skimpier policies from insurance companies (again)?? In a shutdown debate where tax credits are the issue not the popular law. As a negotiating strategy that’s tripling down.
Many implications of the big Dem win tonight. One for health care: it could provide an incentive for Republicans to make a deal on ACA tax credits to deny Democrats the issue in the midterms and further momentum.
KFF bar chart graphic titled "About 4 in 10 Parents Support the MAHA Movement, Including 8 in 10 MAGA Republican Parents." Data shows varying levels of support across different demographics including party ID, race/ethnicity, education, age, and gender. Key insights include higher support among Republicans and lower support among Democrats and Independents. Presented by KFF/The Washington Post, dated July 18-August 4, 2025.
Who are MAHA parents?
The breakdown from our poll with the @washingtonpost.com: on.kff.org/477Oo5L
