Report: Neary half of U.S. adults report struggling to cover medical expenses

Nearly half of U.S. adults are struggling to cover the cost of prescription drugs and doctor visits, new research shows, marking a new low for healthcare affordability (Source: “Nearly half of U.S. adults struggle to afford healthcare, research shows,” MarketWatch, July 17). 

A growing share of adults across all age ranges are having trouble covering medical bills, according to the new West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index — with people age 50 and older seeing the sharpest deterioration in affordability. While the percentage of all U.S. adults who can readily afford quality care dropped 6 percentage points since 2022, to 55%, even steeper declines of about 8 percentage points were reported both for people age 50 to 64 and those 65 and older. 

Although U.S. healthcare affordability improved in 2022, according to the index, it’s now “headed in the wrong direction,” Timothy Lash, president of the nonprofit healthcare research and policy group West Health, said in a statement.

Racial and gender gaps in healthcare affordability have also widened, according to the index. Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than white people to fall in the “cost desperate” category, the researchers found, and women are about twice as likely as men to be in that category.