More than 82 million Americans, or about one-third, make daily trade-offs in order to afford health care, according to a new study.
The research from West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America, released Thursday, revealed a list of trade-offs people are willing to make to afford health care in the U.S., including rationing prescriptions ( about 15% of those surveyed said they did this), borrowing money (15%), skipping a meal (11%), driving less (11%) and cutting back on utilities (9%).
The Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits expired at the beginning of the year, forcing Americans enrolled in ACA health care plans to pay higher premiums. An article from KFF, an independent information organization on national health issues, said that without the enhanced premium tax credits, payments would increase by more than 75%. For example, someone paying $888 annually would have to pay $1,593 without the tax credits.
Ellyn Maese, research director for the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare, told HuffPost in an email that the U.S. health care system is “not working for Americans.”
“With concerns about rising health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs looming for this year, we need to be thinking about what those costs mean for everyday people,” she said. “Without a major change or intervention, millions of Americans will continue to have to make sacrifices, and that number may continue to grow. This research is an important wakeup call about the cost of doing nothing.”
