One-third of Americans skip meals or cut back on utilities to afford health care

[dalton99a]

https://news.gallup.com/poll/702596/one-third-americans-cut-back-cover-healthcare-expenses.aspx

March 12, 2026
One-Third of Americans Cut Back to Cover Healthcare Expenses
Cost of healthcare also causing many to delay pursuing milestones and life-enhancing goals
by Ellyn Maese

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New findings from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America reveal that some Americans are cutting back on a wide range of other expenses, including utilities, driving less to save gas money to pay for healthcare, and stretching out doses of prescription drugs or borrowing money.

Americans also report that healthcare expenses are influencing long-term planning and major life decisions. Even middle-income households are feeling the strain.

In a nationally and state-representative survey of nearly 20,000 U.S. adults conducted from June through August 2025, roughly one-third of respondents — the equivalent of more than 82 million Americans — said they have made at least one trade-off with daily living expenses to afford healthcare.

These financial trade-offs are far more common among Americans who do not have health insurance, with 62% saying they have made at least one sacrifice to pay for healthcare, including 32% who have borrowed money and 24% who have prolonged medication. But even among those with insurance, close to three in 10 have made at least one sacrifice.









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https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/health/americans-health-care-expenses-costs
Millions of Americans are skipping meals or cutting back on utilities to afford health care

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/health/health-costs-cutting-back.html
A Third of Americans Have Cut Spending or Borrowed Money for Health Care

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/03/12/americans-cut-costs-health-care/
One-third of Americans skip meals or cut back on utilities to afford health care

[gab13by13]

1. Record numbers are also declaring hardship

and taking money out of their 401k's.

[dalton99a]

2. +1

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Are we headed for economic conflagration? Consumer spending is a harbinger

My reasoning is that this time period is most like 1973, the Oil Embargo following Nixon's devaluation of the US dollar. That sparked the 1973-75 recession, still the deepest cyclical recession since the 1930s. As a bonus observation, 1973-75 was still largely a pre-credit card era. People had home equity, no one lived on credit cards back then.

Furthermore, here in 2026, debt is piled higher and deeper than the housing bubble. Mortgage debt, car loans, business loans, government debt. The Great Recession.

So those two waves are present today as the background for the consumer pullback.

Anyone care to add Vietnam War level guns and butter economic choices, stagflation, the cost of the Iran War? Look at it this way - Putin's Russia has been unable to crush Ukraine into submission. The 4 day war is now four years. Ukraine begs and borrows weaponry, manufactures it's own drones. Iran is far larger than Ukraine, controls a chunk of the world's energy, has a formidable military, and manufactures drones like few others.

Tough times ahead IMHO.