More Americans cannot afford medical care: Gallup poll

It is not just the high price of eggs or the increasing housing cost that contributes to the misery of Americans in relation to the cost of living. Health care remains stubbornly unacceptable for millions of people, according to a new study released Wednesday that highlights the fight that many people have to pay for a doctor’s visit or a prescription drug – even before any discussion of cutting.

In the survey, 11 % of people said they could not withstand medication and care in the last three months, the highest level in the four years of the investigation. More than one -third of respondents, representing about 91 million adults, said that if they needed medical care, they could not pay for it.

The study, conducted from mid -November to the end of December 2024 by West Health and Gallup, also showed expanding inequalities for black and Spanish adults and for those who made the minimum amount of money. One quarter of people with annual households under $ 24,000 said they could not afford or have access to care in the last three months.

“The degree to which this has expanded and expanded really exposes how vulnerable these categories of people are,” said Dan Witters, a senior researcher at Gallup.

White adults and high employees said they had no real change in their ability to pay. Eight percent of white adults said he was unable to provide care, the same share as in 2021, according to the survey.

The highest premiums, the additional transition cost to the doctor and the recent reinstatement of Medicaid coverage have helped make people more difficult for people to care. Healthcare costs continue to increase and dramatic cuts in Medicaid and the elimination of tax subsidies that reduce the cost of Obamacare plans, as discussed by Trump’s administration and Republican legislators will probably deteriorate the problem, according to experts.

“It exerts further pressure on a system that already has an economic toxicity that is widespread,” said Tim Lash, president of the Western Health Policy Center. Many families are already struggling with medical debt, he said. Unlike doing without a new blender, people who give up care can suffer or die, he said.

While there have been significant improvements over the last 15 years under the law on affordable care, which has largely extended Medicaid, “we are not a country where healthcare is affordable,” said Sara R. Collins, a health -based health economist who is vice president to cover her health care. Even when people have insurance, many do not have sufficient coverage to pay their medical bills.

If the hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts go through those Republican legislators and Trump’s administration are considering, the number of people who will not be able to provide care is likely to go up, he said, as millions of people lose their coverage or replace it.

“We return to levels that existed before the affordable care act,” he said.