Thirty-four million Americans say they know someone who died after they could not afford medical treatment during the last five years, according to a new poll
Photo: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images Thirty-four million Americans say they know someone who died after they could not afford medical treatment during the last five years, a joint poll by Gallup and West Health reported on Tuesday. Rates are highest among households making less than $40,000 a year; the poll also shows a massive racial gap. Just over 20 percent of nonwhites say a friend or family member died after being unable to pay for care. That figure shrinks to 9.
Gallup’s results are new, but they confirm the existence of a long-standing problem. America’s heavily privatized health-care system is too expensive and burdens vulnerable households in particular. Twenty-six percent of patients with diabetes say they’ve rationed their insulin in the past year, the T1 International advocacy group reported in June; another 38.6 percent say they’ve had to ration their blood-glucose monitoring strips. “I can’t afford a home.
Insulin rationing isn’t the only sign of a health-care system in crisis, but it’s a powerful barometer. People with type 1 diabetes can’t live without insulin, but the barriers to care are so steep they can’t consistently access a medication they need to stay alive. Though Gallup doesn’t specify which medications its respondents say they can’t afford, insulin is almost certainly one of them.
Put Gallup’s data together with these older findings, and an unflattering portrait of America emerges. Income inequality hit a 50-year high this year, lifespans are getting shorter, and people are dying because they can’t access life-saving care. The situation isn’t that dissimilar from the economic conditions that sent Chileans out into the streets to protest. There’s no widespread unrest in the U.S. yet, though voters consistently rank health care as one of their top electoral concerns.
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