Pennsylvanians are skipping doctor’s visits and rationing medication due to high costs

Four years after being treated for breast cancer, Renee Banford was still so underwater in medical debt that she filed for bankruptcy.

The Philadelphia woman, now 49, had decent health insurance and good credit. But as she and her husband tried to pay off thousands of dollars in medical bills, they found themselves turning to credit cards to cover groceries and other necessities for their teenage daughter, which only added to their debt.

“You try to chip away little by little, but the bills keep coming,” she said. “It’s a constant back and forth.”

Medical debt is pervasive: Some 41% of Americans reportedly have at least one unpaid medical bill and roughly half say they’d be unable to pay an unexpected $500 bill.

A new survey shows many Pennsylvanians are unable to afford health care. Just over half of Pennsylvania residents who responded to a survey by nonprofit research and consulting firm Altarum said they had skipped a medical appointment or rationed medications because of cost. A quarter of respondents said they had at least one overdue medical bill. A third of those with debt said they had drained their savings, taken out loans or gone without basic necessities in an attempt to pay it off.

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“This new data confirms what we already know from talking to Pennsylvania families every day: paying for medical care is a struggle for most Pennsylvanians, and costs are getting higher each year while family budgets are increasingly squeezed,” said Antoinette Kraus, executive director of Pennsylvania Health Access Network, a consumer health advocacy organization that partnered with Altarum Health Care Value Hub for the medical debt survey.

The online survey polled more than 1,400 Pennsylvania residents between July 11 and July 24. It found that low-income families were most likely to report problems paying medical bills, but that the issue affected families of all income levels.

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The survey also found that Black and Latino respondents faced greater challenges paying medical bills and accessing health care compared to white respondents.

Fifty-three percent of Black respondents, and 76% of Latino respondents reported going without care due to cost in the past year, compared to 49% of white respondents.

It’s been five years since Banford filed for bankruptcy. The decision wiped away her medical debt, but her family is again struggling to keep up with bills from new medical issues.

Their health plan’s $6,000 deductible means they must spend thousands of dollars out of pocket on co-pays for doctor’s visits, medications and the routine monitoring that Banford needs to ensure her cancer remains in remission.

She takes shorter showers, shops discounts at the grocery store and waits deep into the fall to turn on the heat. For a while, she took a medication she needs to manage a lung condition half as often as prescribed because it costs $300 for a three-month supply. The savings go toward overdue medical bills.

Her adult daughter has been putting off doctor’s visits and stopped seeing her mental health therapist for fear that she, too, will wind up with bills she can’t pay.

“It makes me feel pretty dreadful for the future,” Banford said. “If things are the way they are now, what will they look like down the road?”