One-third of Americans cut back on other expenses to cover healthcare in 2025, survey shows
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Th cut-back comes as steeper prices and rising living costs hit US households.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - Roughly one-third of Americans cut back on food, utilities or other daily expenses to pay for healthcare in 2025, research from the West Health-Gallup Center showed on March 12, as steeper prices and rising living costs hit households.
A nationally and state-representative survey of nearly 20,000 US adults in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, conducted from June to August 2025, found that 33 per cent 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 per cent of those surveyed saying they have made at least one sacrifice to pay for healthcare, including 32 per cent who had to borrow money and 24 per cent 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-subsidised 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 Mr Timothy Lash, president of West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit organisation focused on healthcare and aging.
In another survey of 5,660 US adults, collected primarily through Gallup’s panel between October and December in 2025, 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 per cent of the respondents of this survey, also released on March 12, postponed their retirement due to healthcare costs, whereas twice as many reported delaying a job change. REUTERS
