Although the rising costs of healthcare have moderated in recent years, the middle class bears perhaps the heaviest burden of paying the tab.
Middle-income households devote 8.9 percent of their spending on healthcare, up three percentage points between 1984 and 2014, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said healthcare constituted the “largest share” of middle-income household expenditures, although it did not provide specifics, such as how it compares against expenditures for transportation or housing.
And in 2014, spending on healthcare by middle-class households was 25 percent higher than before the Great Recession began in late 2007. By contrast, spending for other needs (housing, clothing, food) dropped 3.6 percent to 18.8 percent.
David Cutler, a Harvard University economist, told the publication that the current healthcare spending climate exposes what he refers to as the “three Americas.” The richest can afford their care, the poorest receive public assistance, but the middle-class has few places to turn for relief.
A Gallup Poll released earlier this year concluded that the most important financial concern facing families is healthcare costs. Some hospitals, cognizant of costs being borne by consumers, have cut costs in some areas, such as for parking.
A lot of the cost rise has been connected to cost-shifting in health insurance, primarily in the form of higher deductibles and co-payments.
“The growth in deductibles for workers shows no sign of slowing,” Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Wall Street Journal. “What consumers have been paying has been going up much faster than wages. Even people who are insured are having problems paying medical bills.”
The result is that many middle-class households are looking more carefully at all healthcare expenditures such as elective diagnostic procedures, and have sworn off other spending instead.