The cost of healthcare is becoming an increasingly big issue for many people. About 90% of people say healthcare costs will influence whether and how they vote in November, and more than half say it will have a major impact, according to a new poll from the health policy nonprofit KFF.
If you ask people what they’re most worried about being able to afford these days, healthcare is No. 1. That’s what KFF found back in January — about two-thirds of people were stressed about healthcare costs.
When they asked again last month after gas prices spiked, “healthcare was at the top of the list, now tied with gas,” said Liz Hamel, senior vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at KFF. “Even at a time when gas prices are in front of your face every time you drive by a gas station, the fact that healthcare remained near the top of the list was really striking.”
Even people who have insurance are often afraid to use it. In 2024, more than half of adults put off care because it was too expensive, noted The Commonwealth Fund’s Sara Collins.
“They included not filling a prescription because of the cost, skipping a recommended treatment because of the cost, having a medical problem and not going to the doctor,” she said
Since then, many people’s premiums, co-pays, and deductibles have risen. According to Vivian Ho, the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics at Rice University, the increases have been most abrupt for people who buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace and who lost enhanced subsidies this year.
“But everybody else who gets insurance from their employer is also suffering, because it's been over 300% cumulative increase in the amount that workers have to contribute toward their own health insurance premiums over the last 25 years,” she said — and wages haven’t kept up.
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