A Federal Reserve report released last month on the economic well-being of Americans finds that nearly three in 10 Americans opted to forgo medical care because of the cost in 2022. And, the plight of Americans struggling to afford their health care appears to be getting worse, even though more had health insurance in 2022 than in the past. People in retirement are struggling.
Now that continuous Medicaid coverage has ended with the end of the public health emergency and with health care costs continuing to soar, unless Congress acts to fix our broken health insurance system, it’s fair to assume that a larger and larger cohort of Americans will become uninsured and underinsured. They will struggle to pay for the health care they need.
In the single year between 2021 and 2022, four percent more Americans said they were concerned about health care costs and went without getting care. In 2021, 24 percent of Americans reported skipping care. In 2020, 23 percent of Americans reported skipping care. Shockingly, 2020 represented a “historical low.” People skipped dental care more than any other medical service, likely because a lot of people do not have dental coverage.
Of note: Skipping care was high even though 91 percent of Americans had health insurance in 2022. However, because so many of them are underinsured, nearly one in four adults had big medical costs in the 12 months prior to the October 2022 survey that they had not foreseen. Their costs averaged between $1,000 and $1,999.
Not surprisingly, survey participants in October 2022 had a much lower sense of financial well-being than in the years prior. The Federal Reserve found their sense of financial well-being was as low as it had been in 2016. Twenty-seven percent of adults surveyed reported that they were not doing OK financially, up from 22 percent in 2o21.
Only 63 percent of Americans said they would pay for an emergency expense of $400 with cash or a cash equivalent. In 2021, 68 percent said they would pay with cash. What’s even more troubling is that 32 percent of Americans reported that the largest expense they could pay for with savings was under $500. More than half of them, 18 percent, reported that the largest expense they could cover with savings was less than $100.
As for retirees, the report was bleak. More than one in five retirees, 21 percent, reported that they were not doing okay financially. They were just getting by or finding it difficult to get by. Those retirees who received wage, pension or investment income fared better than those without this type of income.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Don’t count on 401(k) annuity investments for retirement security
- Retirement Reboot: What you should know and how to plan ahead
- 2022: What will your health care costs be in retirement?
- Financial scams: Beware of strangers offering help
- Senate Finance Chair looks into deceptive Medicare Advantage marketing practices
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