One-Third of Americans Cut Back to Cover Healthcare

Roughly one-third of Americans cut back on food, utilities or other daily expenses to pay for healthcare last year, research from the West Health-Gallup Center showed on Thursday, as steeper prices and rising living costs hit households.

A nationally and state-representative survey of nearly 20,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, conducted from June to August 2025, found that 33% of respondents had made at least one trade-off in daily expenses to pay for healthcare.

This was far more common among Americans who do not have health insurance, with 62% of those surveyed saying they have made at least one sacrifice to pay for healthcare, including 32% who had to borrow money and 24% who had prolonged their current medication.

Among those with insurance, close to three in 10 have made at least one sacrifice, the survey found.

Most Americans with private health insurance are paying higher premiums and steeper out-of-pocket costs in 2026, including millions of people in the government-subsidized Affordable Care Act plans in which extra COVID pandemic-era subsidies have expired.

"We're actually finding that people are reporting higher incidences of metabolic disease or depression and anxiety. We're not getting healthier as a society, we're actually getting sicker, and the healthcare cost is going up on top of it," said Timothy Lash, president of West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit organization focused on healthcare and aging.

In another survey of 5,660 U.S. adults, collected primarily through Gallup's panel between October and December last year, Americans reported having delayed a life event or change within the past four years due to healthcare costs, such as buying a new home or taking a vacation.

Nearly 9% of the respondents of this survey, also released on Thursday, postponed their retirement due to healthcare costs, whereas twice as many reported delaying a job change.