Thirty-eight percent of Americans said they put off medical treatment in 2022 because of the cost, according to a Gallup poll published Jan. 17. This marks a 12 percentage point increase from those who said the same a year earlier, and the highest since Gallup began tracking the question in 2001.
The findings come amid the highest inflation rate in more than 40 years. To conduct the poll, Gallup surveyed a random sample of 1,020 U.S. adults via telephone interviews from Nov. 9 to Dec. 2.
More than 25 percent of respondents who reported delaying care for themselves or a family member said it was for a "very or somewhat serious" condition. Overall, lower-income adults, younger adults and women were more likely to report delaying treatment. Americans with an annual household income under $40,000 were nearly twice as likely to report that someone in their family delayed care for a serious condition than households making $100,000 or more.