Americans Mostly Blame Health Insurers for Rising Costs

Around half of Americans say that health insurers are responsible for rising health care costs in the country, while only 36 percent said the same about the federal government. This is despite the fact that major cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicare as well as changes to its eligibility will potentially lead to millions of Americans becoming uninsured over the next couple of years. Many of these changes became law as part of the Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

Meanwhile, it is also true that inflation in the health care sector has made private as well as employer-sponsored health insurance more expensive. While KFF example calculations shows that in terms of ACA coverage, loss of subsidies was potentially the bigger factor in rising costs, Mercer said that it expects employer-sponsored plans to increase in price by 6.7 percent this year.

The survey conducted by the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare and Morning Consult also shows that half of Americans do not trust health insurance corporations and drug companies to have their best interest in mind. Trust in hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health care staff was much higher. When asked what the biggest issues in U.S. healthcare were, almost half of Americans said that premiums and deductibles were too expensive. 40 percent said that drug prices were too high and that they thought insurers denying or delaying coverage was a problem. Respondents could pick up to three answers.