More Americans cannot afford medical care: Gallup survey
It is not just the high price for eggs or the increasing housing costs that contribute to the accident of the Americans about the cost of living. According to a new survey published on Wednesday, in which the struggle that many people have when paying a doctor’s visit or a prescription drug does not yet stubbornly underline health care for millions of people.
In the survey, 11 percent of people stated that they could not afford medication and care in the past three months, which in the four years in which the survey was carried out, the highest level. More than a third of the respondents who represent around 91 million adults said that if they needed medical care, they could not be able to pay for it.
The survey, which was carried out by West Health and Gallup from mid -November to the end of December 2024, also showed expanded differences for black and Hispanic adults and for those who earn the slightest amount of money. A quarter of those with an annual budget income of less than 24,000 US dollars said that they could not afford or have access to access within the past three months.
“The extent to which this has expanded and expanded really shows how vulnerable these classes are of individuals,” said Dan Witterers, senior researcher at Gallup.
White adults and high earners said they had no real change in their solvency. Eight percent of white adults stated that they were unable to afford to be a supply, the same stock as in 2021, according to the survey.
Higher bonuses, the additional costs for the doctor and the latest rollback of the Medicaid cover have contributed to the fact that people have made it more difficult to afford for care. The costs for health care continue to increase and dramatic cuts in Medicaid and the elimination of tax subsidies that reduce the costs for Obamacare plans, as discussed by the Trump administration and the Republican legislature, are likely to exacerbate the problem.
“It is further under pressure, a system that already has a financial toxicity that is omnipresent,” said Tim Lash, President of the West Health Policy Center. Many families are already fighting with medical debts, he said. In contrast to a new mixer, people who do without, suffer or die can, he said.
While it has been significantly improved in the past 15 years as part of the Affordable Care Act, which Medicaid was significantly expanded: “We are not a country in which health care is affordable,” said Sara R. Collins, a health economist, the Vice President of Health Insurance and Access to non -profit Commonwealth funds. Even if people have insurance, many do not have sufficient cover to pay their doctor bills.
If the hundreds of billions of dollars run through cuts, the Republican legislators and the Trump government are considering, the number of people who will not affect care will probably increase because millions of people lose their cover or replace them with less generous plans.
“We return to stages that existed before the law on affordable care,” she said.
