Survey: One-Third of US Adults Made Financial Tradeoffs for Healthcare

About one in three U.S. adults—equivalent to more than 82 million people—reported making at least one “daily life trade-off” in the prior year to pay for healthcare expenses, according to a West Health–Gallup survey released March 12, 2026. According to the release, these tradeoffs reflect day-to-day household decisions respondents said they made specifically to cover medical costs. The report presented the findings as part of its ongoing tracking of affordability pressures among adults across the U.S.

Two of the most commonly reported actions were prescription rationing or non-adherence (15%) and borrowing money (15%), according to the release. It grouped these as cost-driven coping behaviors respondents said they used to manage out-of-pocket expenses, spanning medication-taking decisions and short-term financing choices. The release also referenced a separate West Health–Gallup survey in which respondents reported delaying events such as surgical or medical treatments and major life decisions such as purchasing a home or postponing retirement because of healthcare costs. Across these examples, respondents described both immediate spending adjustments and deferred decisions tied to medical costs.

In the release’s subgroup reporting, reported tradeoffs varied by insurance status and household income. Adults without health insurance were reported to have the highest prevalence (62%), and households earning under $24,000 annually were also reported to have high prevalence (55%). The release also reported tradeoffs at higher income levels, including 25% among adults in households earning $90,000 to $120,000 and 11% among those in households earning $240,000 or more, suggesting that reported prevalence was not limited to the lowest-income strata.

A separate end-of-year survey described in the release included reported delays in medical and life decisions tied to healthcare costs, including delaying surgical or medical treatments (26%), changing jobs (18%), and purchasing a new home (14%); smaller shares reported postponing retirement (9%) or having or adopting a child (6%). The release also described postponement patterns over multiple years and by perceived burden, including that 78% of those describing costs as a “major financial burden” said they had postponed at least one life decision in recent years. Methodologically, the press release’s State Survey description reports that the survey was conducted by web June 9–Aug. 25, 2025, with 19,535 adults and a design-effect-adjusted margin of error of ±1.3 percentage points for full-sample estimates, while the Gallup Panel study ran Oct. 27–Dec. 22, 2025, with 5,660 adults and a maximum margin of sampling error of ±2.1 points. Organizational leaders quoted in the release characterized affordability pressures as influencing long-term planning and called for system-level reforms.

Key Takeaways:

• The release reported that financial tradeoffs tied to healthcare costs were common in the prior year, affecting about one in three U.S. adults.
• Prescription rationing/non-adherence and borrowing money were described as the most frequently reported tradeoff behaviors.
• Tradeoffs were reported as more concentrated among uninsured and lower-income adults, while still present in higher-income groups, with estimates accompanied by published survey fielding and margin-of-error information.