Affordable health care access of acceptable quality and affordable access to prescription drugs are now out of reach for nearly half of all Americans.
This warning comes from the latest report issued by the Healthcare Affordability Index, which makes it its business to track the number of people in the United States who have been forced to avoid seeking medical care, or who have proven unable to refill their prescriptions in the previous three months. The Index also tracks the number of Americans who would struggle to pay for health care if it were unexpectedly needed.
Health care affordability has fallen a total of six points since 2022 according to the Index. It now sits at 55 percent, a record low since the Index launched in 2021.
Researchers for the Index believe that the drop in access reflects changes in the financial and living situations of two key demographics—those in late middle age (from fifty to sixty-four years of age, whose access and affordability have dropped eight points over this period and who sit squarely on the 55 percent line as a group), and the elderly (aged sixty-five and over, whose access and affordability dropped eight points to 71 percent over the same period).
Despite the drops in access shown by these demographics, the group with the least access to affordable medical care are under-50 adults. Fifty three percent of them are unable to cover their own bills (a drop of five percentage points since 2022).
The Healthcare Affordability Index is a project undertaken by West Health, a confederation of nonprofit organizations funding research into the state of medical acre in the United States. Polling for the Index is conducted by Gallup.
These numbers struck Timothy Lash, the President of West Health, as particularly distressing because it’s beginning to appear that health care affordability reached a high-water mark in 2022. There was an uptick at that point, Lash said, but since then it’s gone downhill.