Americans are becoming increasingly worried about the affordability and availability of healthcare, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's first healthcare tracking poll of 2009.
Many have postponed or skipped treatments due to cost during the past year, and a minority was forced into "serious financial straits" due to medical bills, according to the poll.
Slightly more than half (53 percent) of Americans say they cut back on healthcare due to cost concerns in the past 12 months. The most common actions reported are relying on home remedies and over-the-counter drugs rather than visiting a doctor (35 percent) or skipping dental care (34 percent).
Roughly one in four report putting off needed healthcare, while one in five say they have not filled a prescription and one in six say they cut pills in half or skipped doses to make their prescription last longer.
"Experts and policymakers have multiple agendas in health reform, but when half the public reports skimping on care because they can't afford it, it's very clear that what the public wants most from health reform is relief from healthcare costs," said Kaiser President and Chief Executive Officer Drew Altman.
Not all medical care can be postponed, and the survey indicates that roughly one in five people experienced serious financial problems recently due to family medical bills. Specifically, 13 percent say they have used up all or most of their savings trying to pay off medical bills in the past 12 months, and just as many say their medical debt means they have difficulty paying other bills.
The survey also saw a rise in worries associated with healthcare costs. Nearly half of Americans report they are "very" worried about having to pay more for their healthcare or health insurance, the highest proportion measured in Kaiser polls since late 2006.
More than one-third (34 percent) of those with health coverage are worried they will lose it. While these concerns are prevalent among low-income Americans, one-third of households earning between $30,000 and $75,000 per year are also "very worried" about losing their healthcare benefits.
Healthcare continues to rank as one of the top issues on the nation's policy agenda. The economy dominates (71 percent) the public's priorities for the president and Congress, followed by making Medicare and Social Security more financially sound (49 percent)- a new issue added to the list this month. Terrorism (42 percent) and healthcare (39 percent) rank third and fourth, respectively.
"Far more people see themselves directly benefiting from health reform and far fewer see themselves being negatively affected than we saw in the Clinton health reform debate. Today's economic anxieties have created a better starting point for health reform than we saw last time around," said Altman.