The percentage of U.S. adults who said they did not seek medical care because of cost increased significantly last year, reaching 28%. That percentage is up from 24% in 2021 and 23% in 2020, according to a survey released this week by the Fed titled “U.S. Household Economic Well-being in 2022.”
The percentage of people who skip health care due to financial hardship is currently trending downward as the country goes into full force with the Affordable Care Act, which provides affordable health care options for all Americans. the highest since 2014. In 2013, 32 percent of Americans reported not seeking medical care because of costs, but in 2014, that number dropped to 31 percent, and in 2015 to 27 percent.
People without health insurance will be significantly more likely to skip medical care due to cost in 2022 than those with insurance, according to a Federal Reserve study. It is Forty-two percent of uninsured people said they could not get medical care because they could not afford it, compared to 26 percent of insured adults. everyone said the same thing.
However, the study did not find significant changes in premium rates to explain the surge in people without access to health care in 2021-2022. In both years, about 91% of adults said they had health insurance. Rather, the Federal Reserve suggested that the 4 percentage point rise could be partly related to high inflation. Overall, Americans’ self-reported financial well-being declined last year, with only 75% saying they were “at least okay” financially, five percentage points below 2021.
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The U.S. Federal Reserve has said medical care is one of the things Americans neglect when cash is tight. Among the types of health care Americans defer, dental care is the most skipped, with 21% of American adults saying they put off visiting the dentist last year. Next, 16% of her adults said she did not see a doctor or specialist. 10% said they didn’t refill their prescriptions, 10% said they skipped follow-up care, and another 10% said they skipped mental health care.
That number could rise in the US as the COVID-19 emergency program ends and states begin removing people from Medicaid. During the health crisis, Congress enacted federal legislation to keep people enrolled in Medicaid on an ongoing basis until the COVID-19 public health emergency ends March 31. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the number of Medicaid/CHIP enrollees increased by 23.3 million, an increase of about almost. Between February 2020 and the end of March 2023, 95 million people could be insured and between 5 million and 14 million people could lose their insurance.
The United States already spends more on health than any other high-income country in the world, yet ranks last in many key health indicators. For example, compared to other high-income countries, the United States has the shortest life expectancy at birth, the highest avoidable mortality, the highest neonatal mortality, the highest maternal mortality, multiple chronic disease highest percentage of adults with Obesity rates are among the highest, according to an analysis published in January.