The poll shows that Americans want lawmakers to directly tackle prices that drug companies, providers and insurers charge instead of patient behavior. | George Frey/Getty Images Health Care Poll: Americans blame pharma, insurers and providers for high health costs

Most Americans are focused on what they're being charged for health care, not how much they or an aging population are consuming, according to a new POLITICO/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll.

Respondents blamed drug companies, insurers, providers and even the federal government for surging costs while dismissing overuse as a central issue. That's at odds with many politicians and health policy experts and raises questions about whether cost-cutting focused on overutilization could backfire politically.


“They aren’t hearing ‘overuse’ — they are hearing 'use,’” said Harvard’s Robert Blendon, an expert on health care policy and public opinion, who designed the poll with POLITICO.

Blendon said people are afraid that high costs are going to prevent them from getting the care they need, or think they need.

About 54 percent of respondents believe that high health costs are a serious problem. Asked about the reasons, nearly 80 percent said the prices charged by drugmakers were a major factor, while 75 percent held insurance companies responsible and 74 percent held hospitals responsible.

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Only 23 percent said people overusing health care was the problem.

The results didn't vary greatly by political party and illustrate a disconnect between public attitudes and federal and state efforts to bring down health prices.

Many of the Trump administration’s efforts have focused on curbing overutilization with initiatives such as reducing hospital readmissions. States, meanwhile, have been moving to a Medicaid managed care model that caps payments to insurers who pay for patient services.

But the poll shows that Americans want lawmakers to directly tackle prices that drug companies, providers and insurers charge instead of patient behavior.

About 67 percent said the government should make it easier for health care professionals and hospitals to compete based on price and quality, and 65 percent said that the government should establish limits on what providers can charge, although few thought the proposals would actually make a major dent in costs. About 84 percent of those polled say policymakers should focus more on prevention.

Less than 40 percent of Americans favored policies that would change patient behavior with higher prices, such as coverage limits and incentives for high-deductible health plans. And only a quarter thought allowing people age 50 to 64 to buy into Medicare would reduce the nation’s health care costs a lot.

Few respondents reported shopping around, with some saying they skipped coverage because of high costs. Less than half said they switched to a generic drug to save money; 19 percent attempted to negotiate with hospitals or other facilities to lower their price. Meanwhile, 28 percent of Americans said they have not sought care or bought a prescription drug because of costs.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,003 adults from Feb. 26 through March 3. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points overall, and 5.1 percentage points for questions asked of smaller samples.