A June 2022 survey by West Health and Gallup found that in the prior six months, high health care prices drove 38% of American adults - nearly 100 million people - to delay or skip treatment or cut back on driving, utilities and food or borrow money to pay medical bills. Delays in treatment result in patients being sicker when they do seek care, leading to costly health events such as hospitalizations and surgeries.
Inflation-fueled healthcare affordability problems are especially problematic for people of color, who say the rising cost of healthcare is limiting patient care access, according to polling from NPR, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In particular, people of color are reporting challenges affording medical care and prescription drugs, saying they cannot access necessary medical care for current illnesses.
Other factors, such as skyrocketing rental costs, lead to housing insecurity and reduce the amount of money people have available for other essential needs. The inability to pay utility bills can be quite detrimental, as extremes of weather may lead to heat stroke or hypothermia. The stress of dealing with such matters adds to the burden of mental health and concomitant deterioration of chronic disease, along with the inability to afford medication/rationing of medicines (e.g. insulin) and increased risk of uncontrolled chronic disease.
Employers are taking note of the challenges faced by their people who are impacted by the SDOH. According to the Business Group on Health 2022 Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey, three-quarters of large employers are concerned about ways to improve health equity by way of their company’s health and wellbeing initiatives.