Americans are cutting back on utilities and food to pay for health care, a new study finds

Americans are struggling to make ends meet, while also keeping up with the high cost of health care, according to the results of research released on March 11. 

The research was gathered by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America in collaboration with West Health. The West Health-Gallup Affordability Index shows that, between the rising cost of health insurance and the expiration of expanded tax credits that subsidized premiums for insurance policies purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, many Americans could end up without any health insurance at all. 

The study surveyed nearly 20,000 adults in the United States from June 9 through Aug. 25, 2025. Some 62% reported that, to afford health care, they would have to forgo at least one day-to-day expense or more — skipping a meal, spacing out doses of a current prescription, or cutting back on utilities. 

Most of those facing the greatest financial challenge were people earning under ​​$24,000 annually, over half of those surveyed. But even in households earning between $90,000 and $120,000, 25% of respondents said they were making at least one trade-off in order to afford their health care.

“Even middle-class and upper-middle-class Americans are still having to make decisions like cutting back on utilities, driving less, borrowing money to pay for health care,” said Ellyn Maese, research director for the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare, in an interview with CNN. 

Maese writes in a Gallup article on the findings: “In 2026, millions are expected to face higher insurance premiums and rising out-of-pocket costs as the expiration of some Affordable Care Act subsidies and upcoming cuts to Medicaid enrollment threaten coverage. Collectively, these shifts could leave millions of Americans without health insurance at a time when financial stress is already running high.”

Tax credits that subsidized premiums for ACA insurance policies were expanded to cover more people in 2021, during the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Joe Biden. The credits were extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.  

On Dec. 17, 2025, House Republicans passed a health care package that did not include another extension of funding for the subsidies, and they expired at the end of the year. As a result, 22 million Americans who had paid for their insurance with the help of the subsidies saw skyrocketing health insurance premiums. Many people were expected to drop their insurance altogether due to the higher costs

Data from a separate survey of 5,660 U.S. adults carried out by the West Health–Gallup Center on Healthcare in America between October and December 2025 shows that over the past four years, one in 10 Americans has put off significant life events because of health care expenses. They have postponed vacations, purchases of homes, retirement, surgery, and other medical treatments. Some 34% of households with reported incomes of $180,000 to $240,000 were among those who said they’d delayed life events. 

According to a CBS price tracker, the overall costs of household items such as food, utilities, pet care, tools, gas, and medical care have all increased in the last two years. 

In a January poll from KFF, those surveyed said that they are anxious about the cost of health care above all other economic concerns, with 67% saying that Congress should have extended the ACA subsidies. 

Overall, the survey found that most U.S. adults, regardless of party affiliation, report feeling that costs have gone up in the past year. According to the KFF poll, 41% of Republicans, 53% of independents, 56% of Democrats, and 38% of those who support the “Make America Great Again” agenda said their cost of living had increased a lot in the past year.