A new report from West Health and Gallup shows how routine healthcare costs are reshaping household finances for tens of millions of Americans.
Instead of drawing on savings, many are borrowing, cutting back on basics or postponing major decisions to stay current on medical bills.
According to the survey, about 1 in 7 Americans had to borrow money in the past year to cover healthcare expenses. That translates to an estimated tens of billions of dollars in medical borrowing, much of it on credit cards or personal loans, for routine care rather than big-ticket procedures. For households already carrying other balances, some are now looking at consolidation tools that match borrowers with lenders for a personal loan aimed at simplifying payments and potentially lowering their rate.
The report also found that 15% of Americans have rationed prescriptions—skipping doses, splitting pills or not filling a prescription—in order to manage costs. That behavior shows up across income groups and carries clear clinical risks, since untreated or under-treated conditions often lead to more intensive and expensive care later.
In practice, that means the same families juggling co-pays and deductibles are also deciding which bills to prioritize each month, a calculation that could call on a restructure of high-interest medical and household debt into a single, fixed-rate loan.
In total, about one-third of adults—more than 80 million people—reported making at least one significant trade-off in the last year to pay for healthcare. Those decisions range from cutting back on everyday …
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