As Americans prepare to vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections, rising healthcare costs are among the top financial and economic concerns, according to recent polling.

A quarter of voters say they are “very worried” about being able to afford healthcare costs and more than one-third say they are “somewhat worried,” according to a KFF poll earlier this month.

Those who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) saw their average monthly benchmark premium jump from $497 per month in 2025 to $625 in 2026, according to KFF, particularly after enhanced premium tax credits expired at the end of last year.

A new analysis from KFF published Friday found that finalized benchmark silver premiums for healthcare plans under the ACA will rise by an average of 13% next year, marking the second year in a row of double-digit percentage increases.

Premiums have risen even for those with employer-sponsored health insurance. Workers are paying nearly 10% more for their premiums, according to a new KFF survey published earlier this month.

The average single-coverage deductible for workers increased by 43% since 2015, according to KFF, reaching $1,886 in 2025.

Prescription drug spending rose in 2025 by 12.7% to $915 billion and is on track to surpass $1 trillion in 2026, a report from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) found.

The top 25 brand-name drugs have seen their prices increase by an average of 81% since entering the U.S. market, according to a report this year from AARP’s Public Policy Institute.

While prescription drug spending and higher insurance premiums are contributing factors, as many U.S. voters face sticker shock, some healthcare and economic policy experts say there are many other reasons why health costs are rising, and that Americans may experience short-term pain before seeing any relief.

“At this point in time, I am not seeing that there’s going to be any sort of magic bullet in the short term to bring costs down,” Sabrina Corlette, a research professor, founder and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, told ABC News.

Corlette expressed concern that prices will rise even more in the coming years.

“I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but I think it’s [going to] get worse before it gets better,” she said.

Here are three reasons some experts say are why healthcare costs have risen recently.

Increased use of AI

The experts told ABC News that, recently, more providers — including hospitals and doctors’ offices — are reportedly using ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribes to document visits, scan lab results and generate medical notes to reduce administrative tasks for physicians.

Insurance companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, and healthcare analytics companies, including Trilliant Health, have suggested the use of such scribes is leading to secondary diagnoses or even a mismatch between the care patients receive and the bills sent to insurance companies.

“There’s been the adoption of some new AI tools used by providers and one of the things that that seems to be allowing is more aggressive coding,” Zack Cooper, an associate professor of public health and economics at Yale University and director of the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale, told ABC News.

Cooper said the use of some AI tools is pushing some patients into higher billing categories.

Corlette shared a personal experience with this, during which she visited a doctor for an annual check-up and said she had a co-payment for the first time.

Corlette said her doctor told her an ambient scribe was being used at the start of her visit. 

When she called the doctor’s office to ask about the co-pay, “they were like, ‘Well, you asked a question that made your visit no longer preventive. Instead, it became a diagnostic visit, and so that means that you have a cost-sharing obligation,'” Corlette said.

“It was literally like a 20-second question and answer that I think normally, if it was just me and my doctor, she probably wouldn’t have bothered to put it into the notes,” Corlette continued. “But the ambient scribe picked up that conversation, put it in and then turned it into a higher code on the claims form.”

Corlette said she paid the co-pay.

Corlette said it seems the use of AI could result in higher claims costs for insurance companies, but it’s hard to determine what this will mean in terms of overall healthcare costs in the long-term.

She added that insurance companies have also been accused of using AI to deny care or coverage. In November 2023, a lawsuit was filed against UnitedHealthcare, claiming one of its subsidiaries denied claims for post-acute care using an artificial intelligence program without human review. The case is ongoing.

UnitedHealthcare told ABC News its “predict tool” is not used to make adverse coverage determinations, but rather to provide information to families, caregivers and providers on what care or services a patient may need in a facility and after returning home

“We believe the lawsuit has no merit and we look forward to vigorously defending ourselves,” UnitedHealthcare said.

Additionally, a 2024 Senate subcommittee report found denial rates for post-acute care in Humana and UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage plans and post-acute requests subjected to prior authorization for CVS rose significantly after increased use of automated tools, predictive technologies or AI. 

CVS told ABC News in a statement that the company has invested in AI and other technologies to streamline processes and improve experiences for patients, providers and CVS employees.

“We never use AI to deny claims, but instead to accelerate real-time approvals of prior authorizations, expedite payment to providers and enable our colleagues to deliver more effective and efficient customer service,” CVS said in a statement.

In a statement to ABC News, UnitedHealthcare said the report “mischaracterizes the Medicare Advantage program and our clinical practices,” and ignored criteria from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that “demanded greater scrutiny around post-acute care.”

“Compared to beneficiaries enrolled in Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage members experience 45% lower out-of-pocket costs and have more than a 40% lower rate of avoidable hospitalizations and report a 96% satisfaction rating — all at a lower cost to the Government,” the insurer’s statement read.

“Hospital monopolies, brand drugmakers and certain private equity-backed providers are driving up premiums and out-of-pocket costs for American families and employers through their consistent anticompetitive practices and excessive price hikes,” Chris Bond, spokesperson for AHIP, a national trade association and advocacy group representing U.S. insurance providers, told ABC News in a statement.

“Health plans are doing everything they can to help shield Americans from the full impact of rising costs, but commonsense, bipartisan reforms are needed to address the healthcare affordability crisis,” Bond added.

In a statement to ABC News, Chanse Jones, deputy vice president of PharmaceuticalResearch and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association representing biopharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, said that list prices do not account for rebates and discounts that insurers and pharmacy benefit mangers (PBM) receive on medications.

“Patients do not often benefit directly from these savings due to the insurance benefit design choices of PBMs and insurers — for example, formulary placement, cost-sharing design and decisions about whether negotiated savings are shared with patients — which play a central role in determining what patients pay out of pocket for medicines,” Jones said.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) told ABC News in a statement that it shares concerns about healthcare affordability. It said “affiliation,” which may include mergers and acquisitions, “can help keep hospitals open and preserve 24/7 access to care, particularly in rural and other underserved communities.”

“Policymakers and purchasers should focus on the consolidation and size of corporate health insurers, many of which sit atop the Fortune 500 list and continue to acquire physician practices,” the AHA’s statement said, in part. “The market dominance of these corporate insurers has had negative effects on affordability and access to care.”

Tariffs drive up costs

These experts told ABC News that tariffs implemented under President Donald Trump are another recent reason healthcare costs have increased. Corlette noted that it may not be the biggest factor.

“But it is increasing the cost of goods and supplies that hospitals and other providers have to acquire and use, and that does drive up the cost of care,” she said

The Food and Drug Administration estimates about 78% of active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturers are located outside the U.S. and imports account for nearly half of medical devices used in the U.S.

Additionally, hospitals and health systems depend on the global supply chain for pharmaceuticals and raw materials. Increases in procurement costs could lead to patients taking on a higher financial burden, according to experts who spoke with ABC News.

A study published this year from Georgia Tech’s School of Economics and the University of California, Davis found that the federal government’s tariffs on imported medical supplies totaled $3.4 billion in the first six months of 2025.

Of that amount, more than half — nearly 56% — was passed on to medical facilities, providers and “potentially consumers in the form of higher prices,” according to a press release from Georgia Tech.

“Anything that’s facing a tariff that goes into the care production process has become more expensive,” Cooper said. “That ends up ultimately raising the cost of care and insurance premiums.”

Trump has defended his administration’s tariffs on a number of occasions and, at times, has dismissed concerns about higher prices due to tariffs.

White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster told ABC News in a statement that the Trump administration’s most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing agreements — which link the price of prescription drugs in the U.S. to the lowest prices paid for the same medications in other comparable, developed nations — have saved Americans more than $1 billion.

“With all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico signing onto the GENEROUS model to provide MFN drug pricing on Medicaid, these deals are driving the biggest drop in drug prices in decades,” Schuster’s statement continued. “The White House continues to work with Congress to pass the President’s Great Healthcare Plan to codify his Most Favored Nations deals and expand drug pricing savings for everyday patients.”

GLP-1 price tag

Another reason for recent rising healthcare costs is the increased use of GLP-1s, the popular medications used for type 2 diabetes and weight loss, experts told ABC News.

There has been a noticeable increase in the use of GLP-1s for weight loss since the first medication received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2014, and even more so following approval of Wegovy in 2021 and Zepbound in 2023.

About 11% of U.S. adults currently take GLP-1 medications specifically for weight loss, up from 3% in 2024, according to a Gallup News poll in July.

As more people take the drugs, more money is being spent on them. In 2025. a research letter published in JAMA Network Open found that spending on GLP-1s rose by more than 500% between 2018 and 2023, from $13.7 billion to $71.7 billion.

The brand-name drugs typically cost more than $1,000 a month for patients. In turn, GLP-1 drugs made up about 14% of all U.S. prescription drug spending in 2025, according to the ASHP.

ASHP’s report on U.S. prescription drug spending in 2025 found that it was largely driven by GLP-1s. About $60 billion was spent on tirzepatide and semaglutide each. By comparison, $29 billion was spent on the third-highest prescription, apixaban, a blood thinner.

KFF’s survey from this year found there was limited coverage for GLP-1s for weight loss on employer insurance plans with only about one in five large companies doing so. However, most companies covering weight loss drugs described their impact on prescription drug spending as “significant” (29%) or “moderate” (27%).

Matthew Rae, associate director of the healthcare marketplace program at KFF, told ABC News at the time that “high spending on GLP-1s can generally increase premiums overall.”

Similar to other prescription drugs, Cooper said it will take the availability of generic GLP-1s for Americans before they can expect to see prices come down.

“I think there’s basically the period between now and when GLP-1s see generic competition that we’re [going to] be wrestling with how to afford them,” he said. “So that’s about 2030. And so, we have sort of three or four years here before the first GLP-1 generic comes online where we’re going to have to wrestle with the very, very high prices for these products.”

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