Americans report that health care bills are the ones they have the most difficulty paying, according to a new poll from Monmouth University.

The poll asked consumers how difficult it was to pay for the following items: rent; groceries; health insurance premiums; health care deductibles and out-of-pocket costs; and taxes.

Health care premiums and deductible/out-of-pocket costs were the top responses in the “very difficult” category. Deductibles and out-of-pocket health costs were ranked “very difficult” by 20 percent of respondents, followed by heath insurance, which was rated “very difficult” by 18 percent of those polled. The next-highest response for “very difficult” was taxes, at 15 percent.

Paying taxes (26 percent) came in first for the “somewhat difficult” response, but the two health categories came in second and third, with health insurance at 22 percent, and deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses at 25 percent.

Costs on the rise

The poll also found that more than 45 percent of consumers reported seeing health care costs rise in the past two years. Twenty-one percent of respondents said health costs had gone up a lot; 25 percent said their health care costs had gone up somewhat. Forty-four percent of Americans said health care costs had stayed about the same over the past two years. Prices had gone down for relatively few respondents (6 percent).

One in five respondents said there has been a time in the past two years that they had to choose between paying for health care and paying for things like rent or mortgages. That 20 percent answer was the same as the last time the poll was taken, in March of 2017. In addition, 27 percent of respondents said that they or someone in their household had gone without needed health care because they felt they could not afford it. This was down a bit from 2017, when 31 percent of Americans said they had made that choice.

An affect on jobs

The poll also asked about how health care cost concerns affect how people think about their job situations. Americans were asked, if they were to consider taking another job or starting their own business, how much a factor access to health insurance coverage would be in that decision. “Major factor” polled 49 percent in this question; “minor factor” was at 21 percent; “not a factor” was chosen by 26 percent, and 4 percent said they didn't know.

When asked whether this had actually happened—whether, in the past ten years, they had chosen not to pursue other opportunities because of a need to maintain current health insurance coverage, 20 percent said it had happened, and 78 said it had not happened.

“The growth of health care costs remains a burden,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “There have been some slight improvements over the past two years, but a large number of Americans report that these concerns pervade nearly every aspect of their lives. The fact that health care is tied to employment has a negative impact for many people on job mobility and potential entrepreneurship.”

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More than rent, taxes or groceries, consumers worry about health care costs

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