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About Kaiser Health News

Excerpt: In his latest column from his 'Pulling It Together' series, the Kaiser Family Foundation's President and CEO Drew Altman explains the Foundation's new nonprofit health policy news service, Kaiser Health News, set to launch in early June, and why the Foundation developed it and what he hopes it will accomplish.  MORE >>

ABC News/Kaiser Family Foundation/USA Today Health Care in America 2006 Survey (PDF)

Excerpt: This poll examines Americans' views and experiences related to health care costs and quality, as well as their attitudes toward possible policy solutions. The results are featured in a series of reports on ABC News programs, ABCNews.com, and in USA Today during the week of Oct. 15, 2006.  MORE >>

Kaiser Health Care Public Opinion Tracking Poll -- February 2009 (PDF)

Excerpt: The first Kaiser Health Tracking Poll of 2009 finds the public is increasingly worried about the affordability and availability of care, with many postponing or skipping treatments due to cost in the past year and a notable minority forced into serious financial straits due to medical bills. [The target page has links to the News Release, Key Findings, Chartpack, and Toplines.]  MORE >>

Kaiser Settlement Demonstrates DOL Commitment to Behavioral Health Parity

"A recent settlement by the Trump administration has made it clear that it intends to enforce parity compliance when it comes to proper access to mental health and substance use disorder services.... In addition to paying a $32 million settlement, Kaiser has agreed to improve monitoring of its behavioral health network for adequacy. According to EBSA, Kaiser violated parity regulations by failing to have sufficient mental healthcare and substance abuse treatment providers in its network."  MORE >>

The Average Employer Health Plan Now Costs $15,745, and That's Kind of Good News

"Workers' contributions to their health insurance premiums have grown by 180 percent since 1999. Earnings, meanwhile, have grown just a quarter as fast. The average health insurance plan offered by a large company now costs $15,745. That's the bad news. But there's also some good news buried in this report: Health insurance premiums rose by 4 percent between 2011 and 2012. That's not nothing, but it's a whole lot less than the double-digit premium increases that were common about a decade ago. In fact, since 2004, the Kaiser Family Foundation has not seen any double-digit increases at all. Just like national health expenditures, employer-based premiums are seeing a cost-growth slowdown."  MORE >>

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, March 2007

Excerpt: This Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll is the first in a new series on the public's views of health reform and the presidential candidates' positions on health care. Through the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, Kaiser will track changes in the saliency of health as a political and policy priority, what the public's priorities are for a health reform plan, and whether any candidates are breaking through with the public with their health reform plans.

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Promising Better, Cheaper Care, Kaiser Permanente's National Expansion Faces Wide Skepticism

"Industry experts believe KP's aim is to build a big enough presence across the country to effectively compete with players like Amazon, Aetna CVS Health, Walmart Health, and UnitedHealth Group in providing health care for large corporate customers.... But it's not clear how KP will be able to bring its model, in which facilities and doctors receive a monthly per-member fee for all care, to markets where it doesn't own an integrated system of physicians, hospitals, and health plans, as it does in California."

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Could Kaiser Permanente's Low-Cost Health Care Be Even Cheaper?

"It's difficult to discern just how Kaiser fares against other companies since negotiations between health plans and employers are largely confidential. Kaiser says its costs increase by about 5 percent each year. But some of Kaiser's biggest customers say their premiums have jumped much higher, in some cases 20 percent."  MORE >>

Kaiser White Paper on Health Care Costs Helps to Evaluate Presidential Candidates' Proposals (PDF)

7 pages. Excerpt: At a national level, health care accounts for a large and growing slice of the overall U.S. economic pie. The growth in health expenditures routinely outpaces growth in income, making health insurance less affordable for all Americans and making it more costly to extend coverage to the over 45 million Americans who are uninsured. These rising health costs also make public health programs more difficult to sustain, straining federal and state budgets. Finding a way to address high costs and cost growth without unreasonably reducing access to new and needed services is a significant challenge. How the candidates for the upcoming election propose to address the challenges posed by the increasing costs of health care is a critical component of the current political debates.

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Several News Organizations Publish Explainers and Fact Checkers on Health Reform Bills

Excerpt: The Los Angeles Times provides a Q&A that dissects the costs and various proposals of the pending Democratic healthcare bills. 'The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that after revenue-generating provisions and savings in Medicare and Medicaid, the House bill would add $239 billion to the deficit over 10 years.' The Times also examines which plans qualify as so-called Cadillac plans and how the government might 'squeeze savings out of Medicare without cutting patient services' (Geiger and Oliphant, 8/31). The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) has 'a look at the differentiating factors between the main bill, the House Tri-Committee bill commonly known as H.B. 3200, and various proposals and other bills on the table' (8/29).

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Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Non-Group Enrollees, March 2018

"This report examines people's experiences with the current health insurance market focusing on individuals who currently have health insurance they purchased themselves ... In the first half of 2017, 10.1 million people had health insurance that they purchased through the ACA exchanges or marketplaces. For comparison, the report also examines individuals ages 18-64 without health insurance ('uninsured') as well as those who get their insurance through their employer ('employer-sponsored insurance')."  MORE >>

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, June 2013

"Among the public overall, 87 percent say it is 'very important' to them personally to have health insurance, 88 percent describe health insurance as 'something I need,' and two-thirds (68 percent) say insurance is worth the money it costs. Even among younger adults -- a group that many have speculated may be resistant to getting coverage under the ACA -- more than seven in ten rate having health insurance as 'very important,' and similar shares feel it is something they need and that it is worth the money. Overall, just a quarter of those ages 18-30 feel they are healthy enough to go without insurance."  MORE >>

Kaiser Permanente Is Seen as Face of Future Health Care

"[E]ven with all of its effort, its chairman and chief executive, George C. Halvorson, acknowledges Kaiser has yet to achieve the holy grail of delivering that care at a low enough cost. He says he and other health systems must fundamentally rethink what they do or risk having cost controls imposed on them either by the government or by employers, who are absorbing the bulk of health insurance costs. 'We think the future of health care is going to be rationing or re-engineering,' he said."

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Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 -- October 2008 (PDF)

Excerpt: The final Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds more people are reporting problems with health care bills, and paying for health care retains a solid hold on the public's list of their top economic concerns. About one in three Americans now report their family has had problems paying medical bills in the past year, up from about a quarter saying the same two years ago. Almost one in five (18%) of Americans report household problems with medical bills amounting to more than $1,000 in the past year.  MORE >>

Kaiser September Health Tracking Poll Finds Health Care Ranks Behind Economy as Election Issue Among Independent Voters (PDF)

Excerpt: The September poll, the tenth in a series designed and analyzed by the Foundation's public opinion research team, also examines the voters' specific health care issue interests and perceptions of the major presidential candidates' positions on health care and reform.  MORE >>

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 for August 2008 (PDF)

Excerpt: The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 poll finds that one in four (24%) Americans continues to struggle with paying for health care. Health care ranks as a 'serious problem' above paying for food (18%), problems with debt (16%), and paying the rent or mortgage (15%) and below paying for gas (37%) or getting a good paying job or raise in pay (26%).  MORE >>

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll - Election 2008, April 2008 (PDF)

Excerpt: An April 2008 poll finds that health care costs rank among Americans' top personal economic problems, and their struggles to deal with those costs have affected both their financial well-being and their family's health care. Conducted by the Foundation's public opinion researchers, the poll probes into the economic concerns facing Americans and the ways they have dealt with the cost of health care.  MORE >>

A Global Look at Public Perceptions of Health Problems, Priorities, and Donors: The Kaiser/Pew Global Health Survey (PDF)

Excerpt: Specifically, the survey looks at what people consider to be the top problem facing their country, such as HIV/AIDS, crime, pollution and political corruption. It also examines the top public health priorities in low and middle income countries, such as preventing and treating HIV, fighting hunger and malnutrition, and accessing health care.  MORE >>

Kaiser Health Security Watch, October 2007 (PDF)

9 pages. Excerpt: Since February 2004, the Kaiser Health Security Watch has asked several questions to compare Americans' health care worries to their worries about other possible problems. We have consistently found that more Americans are worried about their health care costs than about losing their job, paying their rent or mortgage, losing money in the stock market, or being the victim of a terrorist attack.

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Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, February 2014

"[T]hose who are most likely to be customers in the [ACA's] new insurance exchanges (the uninsured and those who purchase their own coverage) are more likely to prefer less costly plans with narrow networks over more expensive plans with broader networks. Narrow network plans are a tougher sell among those with employer coverage, who tend to pay less of their health care costs directly since their employers pick up much of the cost."  MORE >>