21% of Americans struggle with medical bills

In December 2008, 21 percent of Americans reported having difficulty paying for necessary health care during the previous year, according to a poll of more than 355,000 people by Gallup and the disease management company Healthways, the largest poll ever conducted by Gallup, reports USA Today in a March 10 article.

The results show a three percentage point rise from January 2008, which represents 6.6 million more people having trouble paying for medical treatment and medications. "Struggles to pay crossed all socioeconomic lines but hit some Americans harder than others," according to the article, with more than half of the uninsured and 30 percent of blacks and Hispanics reporting problems paying their medical costs, compared to 17 percent of whites and 13 percent of Asians. The poll also pointed out the discrepancy between lower-income and higher-income Americans, with 40 percent of people making $500 to $1,000 a month saying that they are dissatisfied with their health while only 10 percent of people making at least $10,000 a month reported being dissatisfied.

As the economy worsened over the year, the percentage of people getting health care coverage through their jobs dropped from 59 percent to 58 percent, according to the poll. A February report from the Institute of Medicine shows that about one in 10 children and one in five adults under age 65 lack insurance. It found that the uninsured are "less likely to get preventive care, more likely to be diagnosed with later-stage cancers and more likely to die if they suffer a heart attack, stroke, lung problem, hip fracture, seizure or trauma," reports USA Today.

The article profiled 39-year-old Denise Prosser of New Jersey, who has been dealing with cancer since she was a toddler. Prosser and her husband lost their jobs in December and are now uninsured. They cannot afford to pay for COBRA, which would allow them to keep their employer-sponsored coverage, even with the help provided by the recently passed economic stimulus package. Prosser needs a radioactive therapy treatment for her cancer once a year, but she has had to postpone it indefinitely and has cut back on her asthma medications, "sacrifices that often leave her gasping for air and could allow her cancer to come surging back."

"The biggest problem that the country has is actually the cost of health care," said Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup. "It's a lot bigger problem than war and a bigger problem than the current meltdown because there are no fixes to it on the horizon right now. …You can't just throw money at it. That's still not a fix."