The Commonwealth Fund

In Kentucky, Insured People Experience High Costs and Delays in Care, Putting Health at Risk

Insured patients, especially those outside urban areas, described a shortage of health care providers, both for primary care ...
The Commonwealth FundOpinion

How Will Making English the Official Language of the U.S. Affect Patients with Limited English Proficiency?

On March 1, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States ...
The Commonwealth Fund

Lessons from the ACA: Simplifying Choices to Optimize Health Coverage

Additional standards in the Affordable Care Act for plan design, marketing, and enrollment could improve consumer ...
Commonwealth Fund

Insights into the U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis: An International Comparison

The United States continues to have the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation, despite a decline since the COVID-19 pandemic. And within the U.S., the rate is by far the highest ...
Commonwealth Fund

The U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis Continues to Worsen: An International Comparison

The maternal mortality rate in the United States has for many years exceeded that of other high-income countries. Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Centers ...
Commonwealth Fund

Finger on the Pulse: The State of Primary Care in the U.S. and Nine Other Countries

For many people, primary care is their first point of contact with the health system, and decades of evidence shows it is critical for population health, health equity, and the overall efficiency of ...
Commonwealth Fund

Maternal Mortality in the United States, 2025

This brief was originally published in December 2020 and updated in July 2025. In 2023, at a time when maternal mortality was declining worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the ...
Commonwealth Fund

Maternal Mortality in the United States: A Primer

In 2017, at a time when maternal mortality was declining worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the U.S. was one of only two countries (along with the Dominican Republic) to ...
Commonwealth Fund

Health Care for Women: How the U.S. Compares Internationally

Recently released federal data once again show the United States with by far the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation, despite a decline since the COVID-19 pandemic. 1 Racial ...
Commonwealth Fund

Essential Connections: Community Health Centers’ Role in Facilitating Healthy Transitions Out of Incarceration

Issue: Recent Medicaid policy changes to improve health care continuity and access for people during incarceration and following release will require health care providers to facilitate care ...
Commonwealth Fund

The State of Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.

An estimated 26 million Americans, or 8 percent of the U.S. population, lacked health insurance in 2023. 1 While the United States still lags countries that have universal coverage, today’s uninsured ...
Commonwealth Fund

A Strong Public Health System Depends on Making the Invisible Visible

A well-functioning public health system is vital to keeping individuals, and the population at large, safe and healthy. Success in public health, however, is often invisible — we don’t notice until ...