Report from Commonwealth Fund Finds Patient Worry About Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs at All-Time High

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Report from Commonwealth Fund Finds Patient Worry About Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs at All-Time High

Few patients are confident they can afford an expensive medical bill, as high out-of-pocket healthcare costs continue to be a cause for patient concern, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund.

This report was informed by a survey the Commonwealth Fund conducts each year asking patients about the affordability of their healthcare costs.

Each year, the survey asks whether patients are confident they can afford their medical bills should they fall seriously ill. In 2018, 62.4 percent of patients said they were confident they could afford their healthcare costs in a dire situation. This is down from an all-time high of 70 percent of patients saying such in 2015.

Only about half of individuals who make under 250 percent of the federal poverty level (nearly $30,000 for an individual) said they could afford their healthcare costs. This is 20 percentage points lower than the number of high-income adults who said the same thing.

Also adversely affected by healthcare costs were young adults, individuals ages 50 to 64, women, and individuals with health problems. Each of these demographics saw serious declines in confidence to pay patient financial responsibility within the past two years...

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