Credit: Cathy Yeulet/Thinkstock
Many Americans with commercial health coverage are nervous about out-of-pocket health care costs, according to a group that provides grants people can use to pay medical bills.
About 48% of people with commercial insurance said their out-of-pocket health care costs were higher in 2024 than in 2023, according to the Patient Access Network Foundation's research arm.
Recommended For You
Roughly 37% of the 1,948 U.S. adults surveyed said their out-of-pocket health care costs had increased.
Commercially insured people were more likely to report seeing an increase than members of any other subgroup. The percentage reporting an increase was 37% for survey participants with Medicare for just 21% for participants with Medicaid.
The foundation also found that 61% of the people with commercial insurance said they were somewhat or very stressed about health care financial obligations in 2024, compared with a stress rate of 54% for all participants.
Related: To protect workers from medical debt, help fill their coverage holes
The survey team did not distinguish between people with individual major medical coverage and people with employer-sponsored health coverage.
The PAN Foundation runs programs that help patients pay hospital bills, prescription drug bills and other bills related to health care.
Health insurers and employer plans say that some patient assistance programs increase health care costs by reducing the effectiveness of patient cost-sharing arrangements that are supposed to discourage patients from making unnecessary use of costly care.
The foundation argues that it's doing the right thing by providing peace of mind for struggling patients.
The summary of the foundation's new survey includes a list of issues that the survey participants "feel should be policy priorities in 2025."
About 39% said they want coverage for dental, vision and hearing services, and 38% said they want help with the out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, according to the foundation.
Only 14% agreed that expansion of telehealth services should be a policy priority.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
