This week’s graphic highlights new Gallup survey data and Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation data to consider growing healthcare affordability challenges. Compared with 2021, a greater share of adults is unable to afford healthcare in 2024, surpassing 1 in 3 adults. In 2024, only about half were considered cost secure for healthcare. Additionally, high inflation over the past few years has financially strained many households. Since January 2021, prices have increased more quickly across all final goods and services in the economy—as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)—than in medical care or hospital care. While prices for medical care and hospital care did increase more quickly than economists would consider ideal, healthcare affordability challenges appear to also be a sign of the challenging economic times. This will make rising costs more challenging for providers to address, especially as inflation expectations for the coming year do not appear to offer any sign of relief.
