March 12 (Reuters) - Roughly one-third of Americans cut back on food, utilities or other daily expenses to pay for healthcare last year, research from the West Health-Gallup Center showed on Thursday, as steeper prices and rising living costs hit households.
A nationally and state-representative survey of nearly 20,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, conducted from June to August 2025, found that 33% of respondents had made at least one trade-off in daily expenses to pay for healthcare.
This was far more common among Americans who do not have health insurance, with 62% of those surveyed saying they have made at least one sacrifice to pay for healthcare, including 32% who had to borrow money and 24% who had prolonged their current medication.
Among those with insurance, close to three in 10 have made at least one sacrifice, the survey found.
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Most Americans with private health insurance are paying higher premiums and steeper out-of-pocket costs in 2026, including millions of people in the government-subsidized Affordable Care Act plans in which extra COVID pandemic-era subsidies have expired.
"We're actually finding that people are reporting higher incidences of metabolic disease or depression and anxiety. We're not getting healthier as a society, we're actually getting sicker, and the healthcare cost is going up on top of it," said Timothy Lash, president of West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit organization focused on healthcare and aging.
In another survey of 5,660 U.S. adults, collected primarily through Gallup's panel between October and December last year, Americans reported having delayed a life event or change within the past four years due to healthcare costs, such as buying a new home or taking a vacation.
Nearly 9% of the respondents of this survey, also released on Thursday, postponed their retirement due to healthcare costs, whereas twice as many reported delaying a job change.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)