Healthcare is Top U.S. Cost Concern—Over Tax Increases, Military Spending

We’ve seen lots of data indicating that patients worry about being able to afford good healthcare for themselves and their families. Those concerns go beyond the household budget, though: A new study shows that citizens are more concerned about domestic healthcare costs than any other financial issue. In fact, “healthcare costs” were named by nearly twice as many people as Social Security benefits, which was the second most mentioned concern (31% vs 16%), followed by “income inequality” (15%), tax increases (13%), higher education costs (13%), and military spending (11%). One rationale: The true cost of healthcare goes beyond out-of-pocket expenses and what services are covered by insurance plans; many workers are bringing home less money even if their wages remain steady or grow because their employers are taking out more to cover healthcare costs. On the flip side, data from other studies have proven that urgent care can help reduce the healthcare burden, a point that should inform marketing campaigns and negotiations with payers. The only age groups in the study that did not choose healthcare costs were the under 24 and over 65 sets.