Fewer than half of Americans say they can afford healthcare: Gallup
Close-up of examination table in doctor’s office (Grace Cary/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Fewer than 49% of Americans can afford healthcare, the lowest rate since tracking began in 2021, according to Gallup data released Thursday.
In a single year, roughly 2.8 million people no longer identified as being “Cost Secure” meaning they could no longer afford access to quality care or pay for visits and prescriptions, according to the data. Worry about future healthcare costs, including visits and prescriptions, amongst Americans is also at an all-time high of over 40%, according to Gallup.
Gallup developed what it calls the “Healthcare Affordability Index,” which is sponsored by West Health, in 2021 drawing on self‑reported experiences from nationally representative surveys. The latest data comes from a study conducted between October and December of 2025, according to Gallup and West Health.
Healthcare has become a financial burden across income levels, according to the new data. According to the index, one in three upper-middle income households ($120,00 to $180,000) are not cost secure, nor are one in five households earning above $180,000.
Young adults, aged 18-29, have experienced the sharpest decline in ability to afford healthcare with those identifying as “cost secure” dropping 7 percentage points in a year.
Women continue to trail behind men when it comes to affording healthcare.
Between 2021 and 2024 the difference between men and women being able to afford care was 9% but in 2025 the gap widened to 15%, making it the largest gender gap in healthcare affordability on record.
Healthcare and inflation continue to rise with healthcare spending reaching $5.3 trillion in 2024. This, in part, is due to hospital prices increasing to 3.4% in 2024, the fastest rate increase since 2007, and insurance premiums going up by 20% after the expiration of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
With many Americans experiencing significant healthcare-related financial challenges, studies show that this can lead to significant consequences, including delaying or deferring care, leading to worse health overall.
Torie A. Livingston, MD, MPH, is a third-year pediatric resident physician at the University of Chicago and is a medical intern of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Adi, 38, has been struggling to access health services for her daughter Camila, 10, who was injured a few months ago, due to the high cost and limited services. (Mauro Jose Medina Garcia/The International Rescue Committee)
(NEW YORK) — As Venezuela continues to recover from powerful twin earthquakes that rocked the north-central part of the country in late June, humanitarian organizations are warning of a “dire” situation on the ground.
The earthquakes, which officials say killed more than 4,400 people and injured more than 16,000, have displaced thousands of Venezuelans.
Aid workers told ABC News that countless people are in need of psychosocial support, in addition to those recovering from earthquake injuries.
Many Venezuelans are also suffering from chronic conditions — such as diabetes and hypertension — and are struggling to get care in the aftermath of the natural disaster.
Additionally, there has been a rise in reports of skin conditions and gastrointestinal diseases due to a lack of clean water and poor sanitation conditions, the workers said.
“The situation on the ground is pretty dire in terms of humanitarian needs,” Aisha Majid, a media manager at the international NGO Save the Children who is currently based in Caracas, told ABC News. “I’ve been here for a week, and there are thousands of families who are displaced on the streets.”
Mobile clinics treating wide range of conditions
Aid workers told ABC News that hospitals in Venezuela are currently overwhelmed treating people injured by the earthquakes, adding that some of the backlog predates the earthquakes.
“There are thousands of patients seeking help, and there aren’t enough doctors or hospitals or primary healthcare facilities,” Claudia Manresa, a regional compliance legal manager for the humanitarian organization Project HOPE in Latin America who is based in Venezuela, told ABC News. “There also aren’t enough medications, so this crisis joins a system that was already overwhelmed.”
Mobile clinics have been helping to fill some of the gaps. Manresa said Project HOPE has two mobile medical units running every day and, as of July 9, they have treated about 2,000 patients.
Save the Children is running a mobile clinic treating both patients with earthquake-related injuries, as well as other health needs including infections and chronic conditions. Majid said the organization is hoping to set up several mobile clinics across the capital of Caracas and the city of La Guaira, which was hit hard by the earthquakes.
Majid recalled that she visited a mobile clinic earlier in the month that Save the Children ran on the northeastern outskirts of Caracas through a local partner, which treated about 150 patients in around four hours.
“The second the clinic opened, there was a queue of people waiting to receive services, which just tells you how much in need people are, and the doctors in the clinic were working nonstop all day, just seeing patient after patient,” she said.
Everardo Esquivel, associate director for communications for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), told ABC News that many healthcare facilities were damaged in the earthquakes. As a result, he said people lost access to primary care and follow-up care.
Thirty-eight hospitals were damaged by the earthquakes, with the main referral hospital in La Guaira exceeding capacity within one day, according to the IRC.
The IRC’s mobile medical unit has been trying to help manage the increase in patient care, providing medicine for those with chronic conditions, including hypertension and diabetes, as well as antibiotics for certain conditions, he said.
Esquivel explained that there’s been a rise in skin conditions and diarrheal diseases due to the lack of clean water in the aftermath of the earthquake. Many shelters have virtually no access to toilets or showers, he said.
“People don’t have access to clean water and to properly clean wounds every day, so they get infections,” he said. “So, it’s two cases [at the mobile clinics]: it’s people with chronic diseases or in need of regular treatment and people who got new diseases related to the situation after the earthquakes.”
Need for psychosocial support
Humanitarian workers told ABC News there are also mental health issues that may arise after the earthquakes.
The World Health Organization said almost all people affected by emergencies experience psychological distress, which generally improves over time, but a fraction of people will go on to develop mental health conditions.
Manresa said Project HOPE is providing what aid workers refer to as psychological first aid, with a psychologist team deployed in La Guaira, offering different activities for kids and for adults.
She said the organization also has several phone lines that people can contact if they need help.
Children are particularly vulnerable. After a disaster, they may develop mental health symptoms including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A 2017 review of eight studies of children following natural disasters found that 4% to 23% experienced chronic symptoms, with persistently elevated PTSD over time.
Majid, with Save the Children, said she’s met several children who are experiencing trauma after the earthquake.
Majid recalled meeting an 11-year-old boy who told her he’s scared when he sees cracks in the ground because he thinks it means the Earth will open again. She noted that another boy told her he’s scared to use the bathroom nearby because there is a crack in it.
“What we’re seeing is that there is a huge need for psychological support for children, and this is something that we provide through safe spaces that we run in affected areas,” Majid said. “And this is a place where children can come, they can play for a while.”
She noted that the organization has psychologists and specialists in mental health working with the young people there.
“It’s so important that children not only have a place where they can play but a place where they can also safely express their emotions and find a way to connect with the trauma and the grief that so many of them have been through,” she said.
Workers wearing protective visit a patient in an isolation unit an Ebola treatment center on June 2, 2026 in Monigi, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Daniel Buuma/Getty Images)
(GENEVA) — The World Health Organization said on Thursday that the risk of Ebola transmission in Europe and World Cup host countries is low as the tournament gets ready to kick off across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, said in a statement that there are currently no Ebola cases in North America or Europe amid an outbreak spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The DRC has recorded 676 confirmed cases as of Thursday morning, according to DRC’s minister of health. In Uganda, there are 19 confirmed cases — many of them travel-related — and two deaths, the country’s health officials said.
Kluge made reference to an Ebola patient who was treated in the European Region after being evacuated from the outbreak region.
An American physician, Dr. Peter Stafford, tested positive for Ebola after being exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital. Stafford, a medical missionary with the mission organization Serge, was transferred to Germany and treated at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital.
His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, and their four children were also transferred to the same hospital, where they were monitored in quarantine for 21 days as high-risk contacts.
Last week, the family was released from the hospital after Dr. Peter Stafford had no symptoms for more than 72 hours and a negative result in repeated PCR tests, Serge said.
“There is no reason to change your plans. Travel as normal, stay informed and enjoy the tournament,” Kluge said.
Kluge said there are several reasons why the risk is low in other countries: most cases are in remote areas of the DRC, Ebola is not an airborne illness and it is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sick person.
Additionally, screening is in place before travel is allowed from affected regions and people are only infectious once visibly ill, according to Kluge.
The CDC has temporarily restricted entry to the U.S. for certain travelers who were recently in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan. Currently, U.S. citizens and nationals may still enter but will undergo enhanced public health screenings.
Kludge said the WHO does not recommend travel restrictions, “though if you don’t have to travel to the affected areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Uganda, it is safer not to.”
He added that it’s important to challenge the stigma associated with Ebola patients and those from affected regions or African communities.
“The spread of Ebola is not determined by nationality or ethnicity,” he said. “Stigma discourages people from seeking care and can make outbreaks harder to control. Stay informed, rely on trusted sources and treat others with understanding. With common sense and compassion, we can keep both people and the game safe.”
Marty Makary attends an executive order signing in the Oval Office on April 18, 2026.(Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary intends to resign on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
His departure was in the works after he clashed publicly with lawmakers, major pharmaceutical companies and President Donald Trump himself. He was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Makary, who is a surgeon by training, gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing against masks for children and vaccine mandates, and criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for citing Israeli data in recommending boosters rather than conducting its own research.
Since taking office in March 2025, the commissioner has focused his efforts on reshaping vaccine policy in the U.S. and transforming American diets.
Makary appeared in a video on X alongside Kennedy when the secretary announced in May 2025 the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC’s immunization schedule for “healthy children and pregnant women.”
“There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children,” Makary said at the time.
Last year, Makary appeared at a news conference announcing the HHS and FDA would be implementing a series of measures to phase out eight artificial food dyes and colorings from America’s food supply by the end of 2026.
Makary said at the time that the agencies are looking to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings and to work with the food industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes used in cereal, ice cream, snacks, yogurts and more — claiming American children “have been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals.”
Makary also supported Kennedy’s updated federal dietary guidelines earlier this year. The guidelines recommended that Americans limit highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates but also advocated for consuming red meat and full-fat dairy, a reversal of past nutrition guidance.
“For decades, we’ve been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak and ignoring a giant blind spot: refined carbohydrates, refined sugars, ultra-processed foods,” Makary said. “In this new guidance, we are telling young people, kids, schools, you don’t need to tiptoe around fat and dairy. … You don’t need to push low-fat milk to kids.”
In early May, Trump criticized Makary for not moving quickly enough to approve flavored vape and nicotine products, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s advisers informed him that Makary was delaying the president’s effort to “save” vaping,” a pledge Trump made on social media during his presidential campaign, according to the Journal.
