112 Million Americans Can’t Afford To Get Sick As Healthcare Costs Soar 600%

Most Americans are just a single illness away from losing everything. We all know that by now The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the entire world. The shocking results of a recent survey just revealed that more than 122 million Americans can’t afford to get sick because of the insane costs of medical care in the U.S. In fact, healthcare debt is the No.1 reason why individuals file for bankruptcy in this country, and it is also one of the primary reasons why the U.S. middle class is disappearing so rapidly. All over the nation, families are being financially eviscerated by extremely high health insurance premiums, ridiculously high deductibles, and very large out-of-pocket expenses that were not anticipated – and all of this should serve as a major wake-up call for all of us. If significant changes aren’t made quickly, this out-of-control health care system will destroy the U.S. middle-class all by itself.
Healthcare in America is largely an unmitigated mess, experts say. Today, over 30 million Americans don’t have health insurance, and for people to have access to the medical care, they often have to navigate through a maddeningly tortuous and obscure bureaucracy. Even those who do have insurance can face wildly expensive medical bills that lead them to take on massive amounts of debt or even declare bankruptcy. Healthcare costs are still the number one reason for personal bankruptcy in the U.S.
A new survey published by the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization West Health and Gallup found that 112 million, or 44%, of American adults, are struggling to pay for healthcare, and more than double that number, 93%, feel that the quality of the service doesn’t match the cost. “The bottom line is that Americans are increasingly getting priced out of the system and many of those who can still afford to pay don’t think they’re getting their money’s worth relative to the cost,” researchers wrote.
Healthcare costs have been on a steep rise since the 1980s. Forbes recently published an analysis from U.S. Federal Government actuaries that shows Americans have some of the highest costs in the developed world; exceeding $4.3 trillion in 2021 alone. In the 1970s, health spending totaled $74.1 billion in 1970. By 2000, health expenditures had reached about $1.4 trillion, and in 2020 the amount spent on health tripled to $4.1 trillion.
On a per capita basis, health spending has increased sharply in the last five decades, from $353 per person in 1970 to $12,531 in 2020. In 2022, health insurance for a family of four is $28,000 – easily the cost of a car. Needless to say, that can be financially crippling for most U.S. households. About 46 million U.S. citizens carry medical debt on their credit reports, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Because of the risk of facing a surprise medical bill, many people prefer not to receive any medical care at all, the West Health and Gallup survey reported. In the second quarter of 2022, 30% of Americans reported deferring medical care in the prior three months due to fear of the cost, a figure that has tripled since March 2021. But their decision can have serious consequences: The same survey found that 21% of adults said they or a household member experienced a health problem after deferring care due to cost.
“The velocity of change in the number of Americans who cannot afford health care is alarming. In a short time, we’ve witnessed healthcare affordability become an issue for most middle-income earners and even the nation’s wealthiest households. This goes to show the problem is growing larger and deeper,” the study highlights. The only way that we are going to have a thriving middle class is if we get healthcare costs under control, but unfortunately, we are stuck with this system for now. The healthcare industry is certainly not going to reform itself, and then by the way things are going in Washington, nothing is likely to get done for the foreseeable future. So our healthcare system is going to continue to deteriorate, and the citizens of the wealthiest country in the world will continue to travel to developing nations when they need important procedures to be done. A clear sign that America is failing us all.