Americans ration medicine and postpone retirement to afford health care: Gallup

About 1 in 3 U.S. adults say they’ve made trade-offs to afford health care in the past year, including rationing or skipping medications or borrowing money, according to a poll from West Health-Gallup

About 1 in 3 U.S. adults say they’ve made trade-offs to afford health care in the past year, including rationing or skipping medications or borrowing money, according to a poll from West Health-Gallup.

A second survey from the group found nearly 1 in 10 adults say they’ve postponed retirement because of health care costs. Others reported delaying a job change, buying a home or having a child.

Both nationally representative surveys were released Thursday. The first was conducted from June through August of last year and included nearly 20,000 adults. The other was conducted several months later, from October through December, and included more than 5,600 adults.

Timothy Lash, president of West Health, said almost every metric in its health care surveys has moved in “a negative direction.” West Health and Gallup began tracking in 2021.

Lash said the issues transcend both geography and political party.