Becker's Ranks States by Share Skipping Care Over Cost
In a state-by-state ranking, Becker's Hospital Review reports that 12.8% of U.S. adults said they needed to see a physician in the past 12 months but could not because of cost, citing KFF's analysis of the CDC's 2025 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Texas had the highest share at 18.1% and Hawaii the lowest at 7.3%; California, Mississippi and Nevada lacked sufficient 2025 data to rank. The piece also cites West Health-Gallup data showing just 49% of adults were "cost secure" in 2025, a five-year low down from 61% in 2022, and that 1 in 3 adults made a financial trade-off such as borrowing money or delaying prescriptions to pay for care, rising to 62% among the uninsured. Finance leaders at Banner Health, Trinity Health and HCA Healthcare said patients are delaying care in 2026, which Trinity Health's CFO linked to the expiration of enhanced ACA premium tax credits at the end of 2025 and a resulting rise in uninsured adults.