It is not only the high price of eggs or the increase in the cost of homes that contributes to the unhappiness of the Americans on the cost of living. Health care remains obstinately inaccessible for millions of people, according to a new survey published on Wednesday who underlines the struggle that many people have in paying for a medical examination or a prescription drug, even before any cutting of government coverage.
In the survey, 11 percent of people said he could not afford care and care in the last three months, the highest level in the four years in which the survey was conducted. More than a third of the interviewees, representing about 91 million adults, said that if they needed medical treatment, they would not be able to pay it.
The investigation, conducted from mid -November to the end of December 2024 by West Health and Gallup, has also shown expansion of disparities for black and Hispanic adults and for those who earn the slightest amount of money. A quarter of those with an annual family income of less than $ 24,000 has declared that it cannot afford or access care in the last three months.
“The measure that this has expanded and expanded really exposes how vulnerable these classes of individuals are,” said Dan Witters, a senior researcher by Gallup.
Bianchi adults and high earnings said they had not experienced a real change in their ability to pay. 8 % of white adults reported that they are unable to afford care, the same share of 2021, according to the survey.
Higher prizes, the additional cost to go to the doctor and the recent Rollback in the Coverage of Medicaid has helped make it more difficult for people to afford 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 the Trump Administration and the Republican legislators, will probably exacerbate the problem, according to experts.
“It has further pressure on a system that already has financial toxicity that is pervasive,” said Tim Lash, president of the West Health Policy Center. Many families are already fighting with medical debt, he said. Unlike doing without a new blender, the people who give up can suffer or die, he said.
While there have been significant improvements in the last 15 years in the field of the Effordable Care Act, which has significantly expanded Medicoid, “we are not a country in which health care is convenient”, said Sara R. Collins, a health economist who is vice -president for health coverage and access to the fund of the non -profit Commonwealth. Even when people have insurance, many do not have enough coverage to pay medical bills.
If the hundreds of billions of dollars pass through that republican legislators and the Trump administration are taking into consideration, it is likely that the number of people who will not be able to afford care, said, since millions of people lose coverage or replace it with less generous plans.
“We are returning to the levels that existed before the Effordable Care Act,” he said.