Gallup: The U.S. Healthcare Cost Crisis

Every day, Americans are burdened by the strain and fear of ballooning healthcare costs. Yet despite the hardships many Americans endure, 64% say they are “completely” or “mostly” satisfied with their personal experience of the healthcare system.

Additionally, one in four skipped a medical treatment because of cost, and in the past year alone, Americans collectively borrowed an estimated $88 billion to cover healthcare costs.

Partisan divides split Americans’ perceptions of the healthcare system’s quality. While 48% of the general population believes that the quality of care in the U.S. is the best or among the best in the world, this swells to 67% among self-identified Republicans, compared with just 38% among Democrats.

Other key findings in The U.S. Healthcare Cost Crisis include:

• the sacrifices Americans make, and the tradeoffs they are willing to accept, to offset the impact of high healthcare costs
• Americans’ concerns about the damage rising healthcare costs could do to the U.S. economy and to their own personal finances
• Americans’ expectations about their healthcare costs over the next two years
• the extent to which Americans defer or forgo care or medicine due to high costs
• Americans’ understanding of their out-of-pocket costs before receiving care