More Americans today are struggling to pay for health care than they were two years ago, a new study from Gallup and West Health has found.
In the post-pandemic age, many people are keeping a closer eye on their health, but the largest barrier is the rising costs of things like doctors visits and prescription medications.
Over the past decade, the cost of physician services has risen more than 4% , and hospital care has risen even higher, according to the American Medical Association.
Some prescription drug costs have risen as high as 15% from January 2022 to January 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services reports, including some 4,000 different drugs.
Now, half of the country — particularly those over the age of 50 — say they are going as far as avoiding going to the doctor because of the anticipated cost.
A new low
Researchers conducted the survey online and through the mail from Nov. 13, 2023, to Jan. 8, 2024.
Using an index first developed in 2021, the researchers asked more than 5,000 people in the U.S. over the age of 18 whether they are “cost secure,” “cost insecure” or “cost desperate” when it comes to paying for medical services, according to the study published July 17.
Cost secure is defined as having “no recent problems with affording and accessing health care and prescriptions.”
Cost insecure means you’ve been “recently unable to either pay for care or medicine or unable to access it.”
Those that are cost desperate were “recently unable to pay for care and medicine and lack immediate access to quality care,” according to the study.
About 55% of respondents said they feel cost secure, with 47% of adults between the ages of 18 and 49 falling into that category, the study reports.
That’s a six-point decline since 2022.
“The downturn is largely attributed to two groups — adults aged 50 to 64 (down eight points to 55%) and those aged 65 and older (down eight points to 71%), a troubling sign since Medicare eligibility for most Americans begins at 65,” researchers said.
Health care cost security actually went up from 2021 to 2022, from 56% to 61%, according to the study. Now it’s “headed in the wrong direction,” Timothy Lash, president of West Health, said in the report.
“High prices are one of the biggest impediments to a healthy aging population and a prosperous economy,” Lash said.
The study also found that young adults are three times more likely to be cost desperate than those over the age of 65. Black and Hispanic adults fall into the category more than white adults of the same age.
Women, according to the study, are also twice as likely as men of the same age to be struggling to pay for care.
“The decline in 2024 is concerning in that it shows the fragility of Americans’ purchasing power amid a high-priced health care system,” Dan Witters, a senior researcher at Gallup, said in the report. “In a relatively short time, many adults have gone from feeling confident they can cover their health costs to struggling to cover their medical bills.”
Biden’s actions
“The good news is that health care provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act — including empowering Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, which has not yet taken effect — may help slow these negative trends and provide more stability. But much more must be done to rein in prices for Americans of all ages,” Lash said.
President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022. The act particularly targeted reducing medical costs for seniors, many of whom are on Medicare.
The act capped the price of insulin and other prescription medications for Medicare recipients, allowed Medicare to negotiate drug costs directly with manufacturers, required drug companies increasing prices faster than inflation to pay Medicare a rebate and extended the low-income subsidy program under Medicare Part D.
But, portions of the bill — like capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors to $2,000 a year — don’t go into effect until 2025, meaning the daily impact of the act has yet to be felt by Americans across the country.
The act also leans heavily on reducing the financial burden for seniors, but those under the age of 49 who report being unable to pay for basic health care still have to work through the health insurance marketplace with the help of the Affordable Care Act.
McClatchy News reached out to the Biden administration and is awaiting a response.
Health care under Trump
During former President Donald Trump’s time in office, his administration proposed spending cuts for Medicaid and Medicare, KFF reported. He also proposed providing states the opportunity to limit Medicaid recipients by implementing barriers like work requirements.
McClatchy News reached out to the Trump 2024 campaign and did not receive an immediate response.
The Trump administration proposed actions to reduce drug prices — including reducing insulin costs which went into effect in 2021 — but many were not in effect by the end of his presidency or were held up in the court system, according to KFF.
From 2016 to 2020, the average person’s medical costs increased from $5,147 to $5,607, according to the Health Care Cost Institute.There was a 5% decline in use of the health care system during that period but a nearly 16% increase in cost, the institute reports.
Trump also vocally supported repealing the Affordable Care Act through which 45 million Americans get their health insurance, according to the HHS.
In the days leading up to the Republican National Convention in July, the Republican National Committee released its official platform, which stated “Fight for and protect social security and Medicare with no cuts , including no changes to the retirement age,” as a key goal for a second Trump term.
Project 2025, which supports a second Trump presidency in its “Mandate for Leadership,” says Medicaid, which offers health coverage and assistance for low-income Americans, should “add work requirements and match Medicaid benefits to beneficiary needs.” This would include “add(ing) targeted time limits or lifetime caps on benefits to disincentivize permanent dependence.”
In 2021, 18.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries qualified for the program on income alone, the Center for American Progress reported, meaning they would be at risk of losing Medicaid if a lifetime limit were enacted.
Trump said in a Truth Social post July 5 that “ I have no idea who is behind (Project 2025),” but six of his former Cabinet secretaries are credited with helping to write the manifesto from the Heritage Foundation, CNN reports.
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