American families struggling to pay medical bills, Kaiser Family Foundation survey says

Many Americans are struggling to pay their medical bills, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported on medicalxpress.com.

More than half of those surveyed have foregone or cut back on health care, according to the survey. About one quarter of Americans said they have trouble paying their medical bills and 64 percent said they worry about the rising cost of health insurance and health care.

The majority of people going without health care don't have health insurance at all, Kaiser said. "Fully eight in ten of the uninsured (81 percent) report delaying or foregoing care due to cost in the past year."

About 26 percent of those surveyed said they or a family member had a hard time paying their medical bills at some point in the last year, according to the survey. And 58 percent reported skipping or postponing health care in the last year because of cost.

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