For many Americans, basic health care is still unaffordable, even with health insurance
The Affordable Care Act was introduced more than a decade ago, making several preventative services available at no charge to millions of Americans. But many are still struggling to financially cover their basic health care needs.
In the event of a medical emergency, 28% of Americans with health insurance said they wouldn’t be able to pay their entire deductible, according to a new report released by insurtech leader, Policygenius. Even 18% of Americans with health insurance and earning $80,000 or more a year said they would have to borrow money or use mostly credit to cover their deductibles, making them “underinsured.”
A staggering 45% of insured Americans have even avoided medical care because they knew or feared their health insurance wouldn’t cover the costs.
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The Policygenius 2023 Health Insurance Survey also found that:
- Among insured Americans who have seen a mental health provider, 42% have had their health insurance declined.
- 9% of insured Americans said they would go without insurance coverage if they lost their current health insurance, while 25% aren’t sure what they would do.
- 63% of insured Americans said they would need at least some help signing up for a plan on the individual health insurance marketplace, with 15% of them saying they would be “not at all confident” in doing so.
- Almost a third of people currently on Medicaid (32%) said they expect to be able to re-enroll in the program if they lost coverage, but 17% said they would go without health insurance. Millions of Americans are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage this year because of the end of a “continuous coverage” provision enacted during the COVID-19 public health emergency and people are split on how they’ll maintain health coverage.
“The Affordable Care Act may have expanded access to health insurance, but we have a long way to go before we have truly affordable health care for all Americans and the findings in our annual survey support that. For many people who have health insurance, a medical emergency could still mean they have to deplete their savings, borrow money, or go into debt,” Myles Ma, Certified Personal Financial Counselor and health insurance expert at Policygenius, said. “When you’re choosing health insurance, you have to consider all the potential costs, not just the premium. If you can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs, like the deductible, you can’t truly afford the plan.”
Policygenius commissioned YouGov to poll 2,051 Americans 18 or older who confirmed having health insurance at the time of the survey. The survey was carried out online from Aug. 24 through Aug. 31, 2023. The results have been weighted to be representative of all U.S. adults. The average margin of error was +/- 2%. You can see more data and the full methodology in the Policygenius 2023 Health Insurance Survey.
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