Just under half of U.S. adults are struggling to pay medical bills as the debate about the cost of the American healthcare system continues to rage, a healthcare research firm has found.
KFF, which tracks consumers' opinions of their healthcare costs, found in its recent round of data collection that 44 percent of adults said they were having a “very” or “somewhat” hard to afford their healthcare costs.
“For many years, KFF polling has found that the high cost of healthcare is a burden on U.S. families, and that healthcare costs factor into decisions about insurance coverage and care seeking,” the organization said. “These costs and the prospect of unexpected medical bills also rank as the top financial worries for adults and their families.”
KFF found that around three in 10 adults say they’ve had “problems paying for healthcare” over the past year.
Costs hit certain populations harder
While affordability is a widespread concern among U.S. adults, certain populations are struggling harder than others, KFF found.
Those groups include:
- Hispanic adults
- Black adults
- Young adults
- Adults without insurance
Additionally, KFF revealed that adults under 65 years old without insurance are “much more likely to say affording healthcare costs is difficult” compared to adults with health insurance.
Hispanic and Black adults faced affordability difficulties at a higher rate than white adults: 55 percent and 49 percent compared to 39 percent, respectively.
Cost difficulties were more acute for lower-income households, too. KFF found that adults in households with annual incomes below $40,000 had a harder time paying for healthcare costs than households with higher incomes.
Those with health insurance weren’t immune to difficulty, either. KFF noted that nearly four in 10 adults with coverage worried about affordability.
Not only that, but many policyholders felt their insurance coverage didn’t live up to the premiums they paid, with “large shares of adults with employer-sponsored insurance and those with Marketplace coverage rate their insurance as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ when it comes to their monthly premium and to out-of-pocket costs to see a doctor.”
Affordability issues lead to debt, postponed care
The results of the affordability issues many adults face are varied. In just over 40 percent of cases, consumers went into debt to cover medical or dental costs.
In other cases, adults put off care because it’s too expensive:
- Some 21 percent of adults said they skipped a prescription because of cost.
- Another 23 percent said prescription costs drove them to find an over-the-counter alternative.
For those who struggle to afford prescriptions but still buy them, cost-cutting measures have emerged. KFF said that one in seven adults cut pills in half or skipped doses to save money.
Overall, 33 percent of adults did not buy a prescription, took an over-the-counter alternative, or halved or skipped their medication to cut costs, KFF said.
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