A One-Pager on What’s Wrong with U.S. Health Care Author: Drew Altman Published: Apr 23, 2026

https://www.kff.org/from-drew-altman/a-one-pager-on-whats-wrong-with-u-s-health-care/?utm_campaign=KFF-This-Week&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--mIOvlQUQd_nzkTqzRBTS6vK7MHoJQ5yVWri64Z13cxcRJhwu-8N97WwlXjjsK3aGdVHxIAu1d67OE4dFJ9nsrHznuKA&_hsmi=415552419&utm_content=415552419&utm_source=hs_email The other day, I was asked for a one-pager on what’s wrong with the U.S. health system. “Just one page.” To my amazement, with our thousands of fact sheets and policy briefs and even our Health Policy 101, we didn’t have anything short or current, nor could I find one elsewhere to send along. The closest we came was this 2022 policy brief. So, while this isn’t my usual column about current issues, and it’s only about problems, not the reasons for them or solutions, it might be useful to some of you. Asked for a one-pager on what’s wrong with the U.S. health system, Dr. Drew Altman, Founding President and CEO, explains the top issues in this piece, published today as his latest column. Altman explains, “We have neither a competitive health care system nor a regulated one—we have a fragmented, micromanaged health system that fails to control costs and makes both patients and health professionals more miserable than they should be…”