Healthcare Costs Are Causing Widespread 'Health-xiety'
There's now a clinical-sounding term for something millions of Americans feel every time they consider making a doctor's appointment: health-xiety. And a new survey suggests the cause is less about fear of illness and more about fear of the bill.
Talker Research surveyed 2,000 adults who had visited a primary care doctor within the past year, commissioned by healthcare engagement company PatientPoint. The results are stark. Nearly half of respondents — 43% — said their anxiety about healthcare has increased. When asked why, 54% pointed to the general cost and affordability of care as their single biggest concern. Inflation came in second at 41%, followed by concerns about affording specific treatments at 34%, government policy changes at 39%, and simply not trusting the healthcare system as much at 28%.
That anxiety is changing behavior in ways that create a vicious cycle. Nearly half — 47% — said healthcare-related concerns have caused them to delay or skip preventive care. The thing people are anxious about affording is the same thing they're avoiding, which means small problems go undetected and become bigger problems that cost even more.
Despite all of that, 84% of respondents said they still trust their doctors and the information they share. The anxiety isn't about the people delivering care. It's about everything surrounding it.
The Numbers Behind the Fear
The survey results don't exist in a vacuum. The financial anxiety people are reporting tracks directly with what's actually happening to healthcare costs in America.
The average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance climbed to $17,496 per worker in 2025 — up 6% from the year before, well above both inflation and wage growth. For families, premiums for employer-sponsored coverage hit nearly $27,000 annually, with workers personally contributing around $6,850 of that. Healthcare costs are projected to jump another 6.7% in 2026, rising to roughly $18,500 per worker — what Mercer analysts are calling the biggest single-year hike in 15 years.
A separate West Health-Gallup survey found that almost half of all American adults — 47% — are worried they won't be able to afford healthcare at all. That's the highest level recorded since West Health and Gallup began tracking the question in 2021. Concerns about prescription drug costs specifically have nearly doubled over that same period, rising from 30% of adults worried in 2021 to 37% in 2025. The share of adults saying healthcare costs cause "a lot of stress" in their daily lives has nearly doubled since 2022, rising from 8% to 15%.
"Americans are saying, 'Hey, now that I really think about it, I'm paying too much and I'm not getting enough,'" said Timothy Lash, president of West Health. "Health care is not what it needs to be right now."
What Health-xiety Actually Costs
The practical consequences of widespread healthcare anxiety are significant and self-reinforcing. When people delay preventive care — skipping annual physicals, putting off mammograms and colonoscopies, ignoring symptoms that might be nothing or might be something — the healthcare system loses its most cost-effective intervention point. A cancer caught in stage one costs a fraction of what stage four treatment costs. A blood pressure medication started at the right time prevents the stroke that costs hundreds of thousands in acute care.
Roughly 1 in 3 Americans reported delaying or skipping medical care entirely over the past year because they couldn't afford it. That statistic represents an enormous amount of undetected disease, untreated chronic conditions, and deferred care that will eventually become crisis care at the worst possible time and the highest possible price.
The cruel irony of health-xiety is embedded in the cycle itself. People are anxious about healthcare costs, so they avoid care, so their health deteriorates, so they eventually need more expensive care, so costs go up further. The anxiety is both a symptom and a cause of the problem it describes.
One bright spot in the data: despite all of it, Americans haven't lost faith in their doctors. The relationship between patient and provider remains largely intact even as the financial architecture around it continues to erode. That trust is the one thing the system has left to build on — if it can figure out how to make the care those trusted doctors provide actually affordable to the people who need it.
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