The Commonwealth Fund

Strengthening Rural Primary Care Will Require More Robust Research and Evidence

Investing more in rural-specific research. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy supports rural health research ...
The Commonwealth Fund

Overdose Mortality from a Global Perspective: Why Are Rates Falling?

Despite still having the highest rate of overdose deaths, the U.S. and several countries have seen a decrease in overdose ...
Commonwealth Fund

Trends in Employer Health Insurance Costs, 2014–2023: Coverage Is More Expensive for Workers in Small Businesses

Explore our newly updated, enhanced, and expanded International Health Care System Profiles to learn how 31 countries across six continents approach health care. Employer-sponsored health insurance ...
Commonwealth Fund

Maternity Care Providers and Trainees Are Leaving States with Abortion Restrictions, Further Widening Gaps in Care

Maxine Fuqua, 33 (right), of Wilmar, Ark., is examined by Leia O’Fallon, APRN, with the help of Fuqua’s daughter Kael, 8, during a routine checkup at 29 weeks pregnant at Mainline Health Monticello ...
Commonwealth Fund

State Strategies for Slowing Health Care Cost Growth in the Commercial Market

Explore our newly updated, enhanced, and expanded International Health Care System Profiles to learn how 31 countries across six continents approach health care. The American public has become ...
Commonwealth Fund

U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2026

Countries around the world are grappling with the shared challenges of rising health care costs, physician burnout, and aging populations.1 Yet the United States has long been an outlier in several ...
Commonwealth Fund

Unforeseen Health Care Bills and Coverage Denials by Health Insurers in the U.S.

Explore our newly updated, enhanced, and expanded International Health Care System Profiles to learn how 31 countries across six continents approach health care. In this brief, we report findings from ...
Commonwealth Fund

What Health Insurance Risk Pooling Is, and Why It’s Key to Maintaining Affordability

Explore our newly updated, enhanced, and expanded International Health Care System Profiles to learn how 31 countries across six continents approach health care. Federal policy changes that decrease ...
Commonwealth Fund

How Small Rural Hospital Networks Are Leveling the Playing Field with Larger Health Systems

In North Dakota, references to the Rough Riders — a famed cavalry in the 1898 Spanish-American War — abound. The name graces hotels, grocery stores, and golf tournaments and has become a shorthand ...
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

The Commonwealth Fund 2026 State Health Disparities Report

Disparities in health and health care between racial and ethnic groups do not exist in the abstract. In every U.S. state, differences in access to care, quality of care, or outcomes of care affect ...