Dive Brief:
- Americans primarily blame insurance companies for rising healthcare costs, as widespread concern about unaffordable medical care coincides with growing public animus against insurers for care delays and denials, according to a new survey.
- The survey commissioned by the hospital-backed Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare found that 47% of people say corporate health insurers are the principal driver of rising spending, followed by 36% who blame the federal government and 34% who blame drug companies.
- Insurer groups said the survey was skewed against their industry and that hospitals are largely at fault for spiking costs.
Dive Insight:
Inexorable growth in healthcare spending is taking a heavy toll on the U.S., gobbling up a greater share of the nation’s economy and eating into the pocketbooks of everyday Americans.
U.S. health spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, up 7.2% from the year prior, according to the most recent government data. Healthcare’s share of the gross domestic product also grew to 18% that year, meaning nearly one out of every five U.S. dollars is funneled into the industry.
Meanwhile, just under half of American adults say it’s difficult to afford healthcare, according to health policy research firm KFF. The high cost of healthcare has led one-third of Americans to skip or postpone care they need, which can lead to worse health outcomes — and potentially pricier medical bills — down the line. About 2 in 5 adults, an estimated 100 million Americans, are in medical debt.
And voters mostly blame insurers for the situation, according to the new survey of 2,000 adults fielded by Morning Consult in May.
It’s the latest poll finding that many consumers are unhappy with their insurance companies amid spiking costs for coverage.
Insurance premiums skyrocketed this year, especially for plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces after Republicans in Congress allowed more generous subsidies to expire. Meanwhile, Americans who get coverage through their employer are currently absorbing the steepest jump in benefits costs since 2010, according to Mercer.
Insurers argue that rising premiums aren’t their fault, and instead reflect the cost of care, which has increased significantly due to America’s older and sicker population, growing hospital spending, the entrance of high-cost drugs into the market and other factors.
Influential insurance lobby AHIP slammed the survey as a blatant attempt by the hospital industry to deflect blame for spiking prices.
The survey was commissioned by the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare, a pro-hospital advocacy group managed by the CEOs of multiple hospital lobbies, including the powerful American Hospital Association. One of the Coalition’s six key goals is “holding corporate insurers accountable.”
The survey includes descriptions and questions that are highly skewed against insurers and doesn’t ask respondents their perspective on issues like hospital pricing, AHIP argued.
“Hospital costs account for more than 40 cents of every premium dollar — more than any other category — and many hospital systems continue to raise their prices at rates that dwarf inflation while also sticking patients with layers of opaque fees,” Chris Bond, a spokesperson for AHIP, said. “Instead of looking around for someone else to blame, the hospital industry should stop their anticompetitive consolidation, opaque billing practices and unaffordable price hikes that continue to drive Americans’ premium costs higher.”
It’s nothing new for stakeholders in the healthcare industry to cry foul at their rivals. But the blame game has heated up as hospitals, insurers, drugmakers and more hope to divert the attention of regulators and lawmakers on the Hill hunting for areas to reform, especially ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Hospitals have recently acknowledged the part they play in driving up spending, though they argue escalating hospital costs reflect patient demand, growing regulatory compliance spending and sharp increases in labor and supply costs.
“Delivering on their unique promise to always be there to care requires resources. Even so, hospitals remain deeply committed to making health care more affordable,” the AHA wrote in a recent affordability report.
And, though insurers may not be the root cause of growing spending, they certainly play a role, experts say.
Market watchers are particularly concerned about vertically integrated behemoths that own physician groups, pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers and other subsidiaries that give them outsized control over multiple markets of the U.S. healthcare system. That control appears to be driving costs higher, according to research.
