What Americans think about rising health care costs, according to a new AP-NORC poll, Associated Press, Oct. 21, 2025, by Ali Swenson & Linley Sanders
Most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive. About 6 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about their health costs going up in the next year, the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds.
The poll found that about 4 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about not being able to pay for health care or medications they need, not being able to access health care when they need it, or losing or not having health insurance. Federal policies have left millions of people at risk of skyrocketing health insurance premiums or of losing their health insurance altogether.
About 8 in 10 U.S. adults say the issue of health care is “extremely” or “very” important to them personally. That includes about 9 in 10 Democrats and three-quarters of Republicans, and it puts health care next to the economy among Americans’ top issue priorities.
President Donald Trump’s mega-bill that passed this summer cuts more than $1 trillion from federal health care and food assistance over a decade. Republicans say the cuts will prevent people who don’t need aid from gaming the system, but the cuts will ultimately result in millions of people losing health insurance coverage, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
In interviews, some Americans said they doubted government leaders would take the necessary action to address their concerns on health care. But the poll reveals a deep ideological divide over what the government’s role should be, with Democrats far more likely than Republicans to say it’s the federal government’s job to make sure all Americans have health coverage. About 8 in 10 Democrats say this, compared with about one-third of Republicans.
About 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they trust Democrats to do a better job handling health care, compared with about one-quarter who trust the Republicans more. About one-quarter trust neither party, and about 1 in 10 trust both equally.
Comment:
By Don McCanne, M.D.
Let’s see if we can make sense of the attitudes of Americans toward health care costs.
First, probably the most important fact is that 80% of Americans believe that health care is ‘extremely” or “very” important to them personally. This has clear bipartisan support – 90% of Democrats and 75% of Republicans.
Second, 60% of all Americans are concerned about health care costs going up next year, and 40% believe that health care and insurance will be unaffordable or inaccessible.
Across the board, Americans believe that some changes need to be made to assure that health care will be affordable and accessible. But then comes the partisan divide: whether Democrats or Republicans would be more capable of taking the necessary actions to address Americans’ concerns on health care.
Let’s break down the numbers. Fifty percent believe that the Democrats would do a better or at least a competent job in handling health care (40% better, 10% equivalent to Republicans). Thirty-five percent believe that the Republicans would do a better or competent (25% better, 10% equivalent to Dems).
So what have we learned from this poll? People are clearly worried about affordability and accessibility of health care now, and even more for the future. Although a majority of Democrats and a minority of Republicans believe that the Democrats would do a better job in fixing the system, it appears that we should seek solutions that would receive bipartisan support.
We now have many studies that show that a well-designed single payer system could both provide affordable and comprehensive care for everyone, while bridging political differences in reform ideologies. Here’s how:
Single payer design features would automatically include everyone while reducing the profound excess expenditures caused by private insurers and private equity that diverts patient care funds to the entrepreneurial intermediaries that have driven up costs and driven down system performance. These funds would be re-directed to the delivery system for the benefit of patients (and thus reduce moral injury for providers). By eliminating administrative waste and profits for passive investors, we would have sufficient funds to provide care for everyone.
How about the political differences? With preferences for Democratic policies outweighing Republican policies, we could sit down and agree that the taxes used to pay for the system would be progressive, based on the ability to pay. The vast majority of taxpayers – Dem & GOP – would find that those taxes are reasonable. Billionaires might object to the numbers on their tax forms, even though they would see no impact on their lifestyles.
Isn’t it about time that the Republicans, Democrats, and Independents decide to cooperate on striving for a better society for all of us – by sitting down to craft a health care system that would solve our current problems and work well for all of us? Efficient cooperation seems like a much better approach than expensive and inefficient bickering. That’s the wealthy nation standard; let’s get with the program!
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