News Briefs Archive

What Seniors Pay For Healthcare & What They Get for It

May 1, 2019

A recent Gallup study has revealed seniors face a cost burden due to a health-care system in the U.S. that spends almost double per person what any other developed nation in the world spends, Lance Stevens and Lawrence Mallory report on Gallup Blog.

West Health and Gallup’s recent report, The U.S. Healthcare Cost Crisis, included the findings of a poll of more than 3,500 Americans about health-care cost and value. The study discovered that seniors have great anxiety over health-care costs, and for good reason: millions of seniors cannot afford care, and billions of dollars are being paid for medication.

Seventy-seven percent of seniors, defined as those 65 and older, reported being concerned that rising health-care costs will result in significant and lasting damage to the economy. This forward-looking pessimism is pervasive, with 92 percent of the older population expecting that health-care costs will increase (73 percent) or stay about the same (19 percent).

The impact of high health-care costs goes beyond perceptions. Seniors are feeling the effects on their finances and health. Older Americans pulled an estimated $22 billion from long-term savings to pay for their healthcare in the past 12 months. Such savings withdrawals can be problematic for younger Americans, but for seniors, the impact can be severe. Many seniors are living off long-term savings, so this can put their day-to-day solvency at risk.

The cost of prescription drugs is a large part of the cost hindrance for seniors. Medicare projects spending $116 billion on retail prescription drugs in 2019. An estimated 7.5 million seniors are unable to pay for medicine prescribed to them because they don’t have enough money. And to make the matter worse, seniors reported that 80 percent of the prescriptions they cannot afford are for a somewhat or very serious health condition.

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