Almost a third of Americans (31 percent) say they or a family member have postponed medical treatment in the past year because of related costs. This is nearly unchanged from the 33 percent who said this in 2014, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Gallup conducted its annual Health and Healthcare poll between Nov. 4 and Nov. 8.
Since 2001, at least 19 percent of Americans — and closer to a third beginning in 2006 — said the cost of some healthcare services are so high that they or a family member has had to put off a medical procedure to avoid the cost, according to the report.
Among the uninsured, 53 percent of Americans said they or a family member has had to postpone medical care due to costs from 2014 to 2015, though this rate is down from the 57 percent of uninsured Americans who said this in 2012 to 2013, according to the report.
All Americans who put off treatment are more likely to say they did so for a serious condition (19 percent) than a nonserious condition (12 percent). Nationally, the proportion of adults saying they delayed treatment for a serious condition has risen since Gallup first asked this question in 2001, reaching a record high of 22 percent last year before dropping to 19 percent this year. The percentage of adults postponing treatment for a nonserious condition has remained relatively stable, according to Gallup.
Americans have consistently named healthcare costs as one of the top two "most urgent health problems" in the U.S., with less than one-fourth of Americans responding they are satisfied with the cost of healthcare nationally.