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• Posted March 12, 2026

Millions Of Americans Making Financial Sacrifices To Afford Health Care, Survey Finds

Borrowing money. Skipping meals. Driving less. Cutting back on utilities. Taking meds less frequently than prescribed.

One-third of Americans — an estimated 82 million people — have to make these sorts of financial sacrifices on a daily basis so they can pay their health care bills, a new survey found.

Uninsured people and lower-income families feel the pinch worst, but even some wealthier people with insurance are making trade-offs, according to results released by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.

“When families across every income level are forced to choose between medical bills and paying their heating or electric bill, that’s not a personal budgeting problem — it's a systems failure,” Tim Lash, president of the West Health Policy Center, said in a news release.

The survey found that people most often ration their prescription meds (15%) or borrow money (15%) to help cover their health care expenses.

Many also skip meals (11%), drive less (11%), or cut back on utilities (9%), results showed.

About 55% of people making less than $24,000 a year said they’d needed to make financial sacrifices to afford health care, the new report said.

Likewise, about 62% of uninsured folks cut costs elsewhere in their lives to pay for health care, the survey found.

But 1 in 4 adults (25%) making $90,000 to $120,000 a year said they’re making trade-offs too, as are 11% of people making $240,000 or more, the poll showed.

The poll also found that 29% of people with insurance still had to make trade-offs to pay for health care or medicine.

People in poor (62%) or fair (47%) health were more likely to make financial sacrifices for care, compared to those in good (33%), very good (21%) or excellent (18%) health, the survey found.

The results jibe with a West Health-Gallup poll last year that revealed millions of Americans are delaying events such as surgical and medical treatments (26%), changing jobs (18%), or purchasing a new home (14%) due to the financial pinch from health care.

Nearly 1 in 10 (9%) said they had postponed their retirement, and 6% had put off having or adopting a child, results showed.

About half of adults earning $48,000 to $180,000 a year said they’d postponed at least one major life decision in the past four years due to health care bills.

But even a third (34%) of people earning $180,000 to $240,000 also have delayed major life decisions, as have a quarter (25%) of adults earning $240,000 or more.

“What stands out in these findings is the relationship between health care affordability and long-term life planning,” Joe Daly, global managing partner at Gallup, said in a news release. “The data offer measurable insight into how Americans are experiencing cost pressures within the health care system and how those experiences are influencing their broader financial decisions.”

The newer poll involved a sample of 5,660 people surveyed between Oct. 27 and Dec. 22, 2025, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The earlier survey, conducted from June 9 to Aug. 25, 2025, involved 19,535 people and had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.

More information

KFF has more on health care costs and affordability.

SOURCE: West Health Institute, news release, March 12, 2026