A growing number of Americans are struggling to afford high-quality healthcare, according to new data from the West Health-Gallup Affordability Index. The index shows that only about half of U.S. adults could afford their healthcare and had access to quality care last year.
Concerns About Affording Healthcare
Concerns about affording healthcare in the year ahead were at a record high since tracking began in 2021, signaling that many were feeling anxious about rising healthcare costs as 2025 ended. The new findings draw on a survey conducted from October to December 2025, before major recent changes to health policy took effect.
Twannetta Weaver, a 43-year-old from Sanford, Florida, felt like she made the responsible choice when she enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan through her employer. However, when she slipped a disk in her back in 2025, requiring medication and physical therapy, the medical bills were overwhelming, and she had to delay her graduation by a year.
Weaver’s experience is familiar to a growing number of Americans. The index used the responses from multiple questions to place Americans into three categories depending on their access to quality care and ability to pay for care and medicine. In the new data, 49% of U.S. adults were considered “cost secure,” meaning that they had access both to high-quality, affordable care and they had recently been able to afford the care and medicine they needed.
Healthcare Affordability is Declining Across Demographics
Younger adults, older adults, and women were among several groups of Americans that saw drops in healthcare affordability and access in 2025, according to the findings. Among Americans under 30, only about one-third were categorized as “cost secure,” down from 46% in 2021.
Patients are making sacrifices to pay their health bills. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults in the 2025 poll said there had been a time in the prior three months when they or a member of their household was unable to pay for medicine or drugs that a doctor had prescribed because of costs. About 3 in 10 said they or someone in their household did not seek treatment for a health problem because of the expense.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
