The Price We Pay for Health Care

     One major issue I have found in the US health care system is the continuously rising cost. According to KFF polling, about 1/3 of adults have skipped or postponed getting necessary health care services due to cost, 1 in 5 people said the same thing about filling prescriptions, and just under half of people say that affording health care can be difficult. 

    At first glance, one might think that these affordability issues are mainly due to lower socioeconomic status or household income, but studies have found that about 1/3 of people struggling with health care costs or delaying treatment or preventative care had a household income >$90,000. In terms of general concerns, health care costs are the household expense that the public is most concerned about, with over 60% of people surveyed stating that they are very worried or somewhat worried about being able to afford health care for their families. One might also think that these affordability issues may stem from people being uninsured, which increases the out-of-pocket price of health care services dramatically, but that isn't the case. In these surveys by KFF, over 40% of the people that reported struggling to afford health care had health insurance. 

    One would think that insurance coverage would make affording health care easier for people, but having insurance comes with its own set of problems. Even though over 90% of people in the US are insured, less than 60% of the population did not experience coverage gaps or underinsurance, meaning that over 30% of insured people in the US do not have adequate coverage to meet their health care needs. For these people, out-of-pocket costs (excluding premiums) was 5-10% of their annual household income even with insurance coverage. A study by the Commonwealth Fund also found that 2/3 of people who were considered underinsured got their health insurance via a plan through their employer. Even though underinsurance is a major problems, even people with complete insurance coverage cannot cover all of their medical expenses, over 20% of these people need to pay off medical debts over time because they cannot afford to pay it all at once.

    In summary, rising health care costs are a major problem in the US, especially because these essential services have become unaffordable even for people with complete insurance coverage. Ideally, reform of current policies would be very beneficial for the general consumer, but this would take time, money, and legislative action so it may not be feasible in the near future. 

https://www.kff.org/health-costs/americans-challenges-with-health-care-costs/ 

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/surveys/2024/nov/state-health-insurance-coverage-us-2024-biennial-survey

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