One-third of Americans skip meals or other needs to afford health car

Washington Post -   Americans are driving less, skipping meals and putting off big life moves, like buying homes or having children, to keep up with health care costs, according to two Gallup polls released Thursday.

Roughly one-third of Americans are cutting back on daily spending to cover medical costs, and about half of middle-income households said they have delayed a major life event because of the same expenses, the polls found, as premiums rise and the federal government cuts Medicaid spending.

Eleven percent of respondents said they had skipped a meal in the past year to meet health care costs, according to the first poll on Americans’ daily spending. Fifteen percent said they had borrowed money or prolonged a current drug prescription. The trend was most pronounced among Americans who don’t have health insurance, 62 percent of whom said they made at least one financial trade-off to pay for health care.