In the past year, a fourth of Americans say they or a family member delayed treatment for a serious medical condition because of cost — a new record in Gallup's trend.
The previous high was in 2014, when 22 percent of Americans said the same thing. A year ago, 19 percent of Americans said they or a family member postponed serious medical treatment.
Americans are delaying less-serious medical care because of cost, too: Eight percent said they or a family member delayed less-serious treatment in the past year. That brings the total percentage of households postponing either critical or less serious care to 33 percent.
"A cautionary note in the new findings is that most of the recent increase in reports that family members are delaying treatment for serious conditions has occurred among self-identified Democrats," according to Gallup's poll. "Whether these gaps are indicative of real differences in the severity of medical and financial problems faced by Democrats compared with Republicans or Democrats' greater propensity to perceive problems in these areas isn't entirely clear. But it's notable that the partisan gap on putting off care for serious medical treatment is currently the widest it's been in two decades."
Read all of the poll findings here.
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