Surging number of people in the US are skipping medical care due to costs, poll finds
A surging number of people in the U.S. are skipping medical treatments they need because of the cost, a poll found.
The poll, conducted by Gallup and West Health, found that the percentage of people skipping these treatments reached a new high during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also found that the pandemic has worsened views of the American health care system and increased concerns about unequal access to care.
The poll was conducted “over successive field periods” of Sept. 27-30 and Oct. 18-21. It included 6,663 adults living in the U.S. and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points for “response percentages around 50%” and plus or minus 1.3 percentage points for “response percentages around 10% or 90%.”
Surge in people skipping medical treatments
Thirty percent of respondents said they or someone in their household had a health problem over the last three months that they did not seek treatment for because of the cost of care, the poll found. That’s up from 14% in a survey conducted in June and 10% in a March survey.
It’s also the “highest reported number since the COVID-19 pandemic began,” West Health said.
The poll also found 30% of adults said they would “not have access to affordable care if they needed it today” — up from 22% in June, according to Gallup. An additional 23% said health care costs are a “major financial burden” on their family, and 71% agreed that their household “pays too much for the quality of health care they receive.”
Forty-two percent said they are worried they won’t be able to pay for needed health care services in the next year.
The poll also found that people in the U.S. are increasingly forgoing drugs prescribed to them.
Fourteen percent of respondents said that over the last three months they have been unable to pay for medicine their doctor prescribed to them. That’s up double from 7% in June and 6% in March.
“Americans have reached their breaking point,” Shelley Lyford, president and CEO of West Health, said in a news release. “Between March and October, the percentage of people reporting trouble paying for health care, skipping treatments and not filling their prescriptions spiked to their highest levels since the pandemic began, exacerbating another public health threat borne out of cost rather than illness.”
Behind the increase
Gallup and West Health note that inflation and other factors related to the pandemic are likely behind these trends.
The Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change over time in the prices “urban consumers” pay for goods and services, rose 6.8% over a year in November — the largest yearly increase since June 1982. Notably, food prices rose 6.1%, energy services prices rose 10.7%, and gasoline prices rose 58.1% compared with November 2020.
“As consumers are spending more on basic food items, utilities and gasoline — causing hardship for 45% of households — the effects of simultaneously rising costs of care are likely exacerbating their ability to afford it,” Gallup said.
Gallup pointed to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey published in August that found 72% of the two largest insurers in each state are no longer waiving out-of-pocket costs for some COVID-19 treatments.
“That, coupled with the major summer surge in hospitalizations, has resulted in much more money paid out of pocket for affected Americans and much less money available for other household expenses,” Gallup said.
It also noted that reports have suggested people who avoided elective treatments in 2020 are getting them in 2021, which is “driving up health care utilization generally and increasing costs.”
The poll also comes as 8.6% of people in the U.S., or about 28 million people, did not have health insurance at any point during 2020, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Additionally, many people lost their jobs during the pandemic and in turn may have lost their job-based health insurance.
COVID-19 and opinions on the health care system
Forty-eight percent of respondents said the pandemic has worsened their opinions on the health care system.
The poll found 59% said they have become more worried about the cost of health care services and 45% said they have become more worried about prescription drug costs during the pandemic.
Respondents are also more concerned about health care inequities.
Sixty percent said they’re more concerned that “some Americans have unequal access to quality health care services.” That increased to 74% among Black respondents and 68% among Hispanic respondents.
Gallup and West Health also noted that there’s a “racial divide” in the consequences of skipping health treatments.
“One in every 20 U.S. adults — an estimated 12.7 million people — report knowing a friend or family member who died this past year after not receiving treatment because they could not afford it,” Gallup wrote. “Black adults (8%) are twice as likely as White adults (4%) to know someone who died.”
Dan Witters, a senior researcher for Gallup, said in the West Health news release that the worsening public opinion on “the affordability of care and medicine is startling.”
“From rapidly rising inflation, to deferred care pushed into 2021, to more people having to pay for COVID-19 care itself, the U.S. health care cost crisis is now coming to a head,” Witters said.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Surging number of people in the US are skipping medical care due to costs, poll finds."
