Category: Kaiser Family Foundation

How Much Could COVID-19 Vaccines Cost the U.S. After Commercialization?

This analysis illustrates the potential total cost of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, based on their publicly-announced expected prices, once they enter the U.S. commercial market. It compares the average price paid by the federal government for …

How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries?

The analysis finds that life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 2.7 years from 2019 to 2021, whereas in peer countries’ life expectancies fell by an average of just 0.2 years in this period. COVID-19 has erased two decades of life expectancy growth in the …

The Nation’s Largest For-Profit Health Systems Have Typically Had Operating Margins That Meet or Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels

Despite higher inflation and dwindling COVID-19 relief funding from the federal government, the nation’s largest for-profit health systems so far this year have operating margins that meet or exceed levels in 2019 prior to the pandemic, a new KFF analy…

Operating Margins Among the Largest For-Profit Health Systems Have Exceeded 2019 Levels for the Majority of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This data note examines the financial performance of the three largest for-profit hospital systems in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. All three health systems have had positive operating margins that have exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the ma…

How does medical inflation compare to inflation in the rest of the economy?

Prices for medical services typically rise more quickly than the broader economy, but the reverse has been true recently as general inflation rose rapidly. This analysis finds that overall prices grew by 6% in February 2023 from the previous year, whil…

KFF’s Kaiser Health News Investigates Private Equity’s Stealth Takeover of Health Care in the United States

A new investigation by KFF’s Kaiser Health News (KHN) lays bare the sizeable efforts by private equity investors to take over large and lucrative parts of the U.S health care system in recent years. KHN found that private equity firms have invested nea…

Cost of COVID-19 Hospital Admissions among People with Private Health Coverage

This analysis examines the cost of COVID-19 treatment for inpatient care among people with health coverage through large employers. It finds that in 2020, COVID-19 hospitalizations cost an average of $41,611, including an average out-of-pocket payment …

COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking

This updated analysis examines COVID-19’s effect on mortality rates, and estimates that in January 2022, COVID-19 was number two on the list of leading causes of death in the U.S.

National and State Analysis of the Role of Health Care and Abortion in the Midterm Available through KFF Online Dashboard

Health Care Costs Were Among Economic Concerns for Voters Motivated by Inflation, and Abortion Was a Motivating Factor for Many Democratic Voters and Women Inflation was widely expected to be the driving issue for voters on Election Day, and poll resul…

Hospital Charity Care: How It Works and Why It Matters

This issue brief examines the role that hospital charity care programs play in helping patients who are unable to afford their care. It describes how hospital charity care programs work, the amount of charity care that hospitals provide, relevant feder…