In a new West Health-Gallup poll of nearly 20,000 U.S. adults, roughly one-third of respondents — the equivalent of more than 82 million Americans — said they have made at least one trade-off with daily living expenses to afford healthcare.
A second survey found nearly 1 in 10 adults say they’ve postponed retirement because of health care costs. Others reported delaying a job change, buying a home or having a child.
What they’re saying: Timothy Lash, president of West Health, said almost every metric in its health care surveys has moved in “a negative direction.”
- “This isn’t simply about health care spending,” he said. “It’s about financial stability for individuals and for communities.”
Go deeper: While the financial strain was most severe among people with low incomes and those without health insurance, a quarter of adults earning $90,000 to $120,000 a year said they made financial trade-offs to afford medical care, as did 11 percent of those earning $240,000 or more.
