Half of Floridians delayed or skipped medical care because of high cost, survey shows

Sep. 12--More than half of Floridians are uninsured, delay or skip medical care, or struggle to pay their medical bills because health care is too expensive for them, according to a new survey.

"The survey results are a good reminder that [health care] is a serious source of distress for Floridians," said Anne Swerlick, a senior health policy analyst and attorney at the Florida Policy Institute. "And it's valuable for overall public education, because the public needs to keep putting pressure on their legislators to act to help solve this problem. It's not going away."

The online survey was conducted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization Altarum in June and July. It included a demographically balanced sample of more than 1,200 Florida adults, 18 years and older. More than half of the survey respondents were over age 50. About 40% had Medicare and 6% said they were uninsured.

The survey measured Florida residents' struggle to afford health care and asked for their opinions about what should be done.

The majority, regardless of political affiliation, said the government had to solve the problem, particularly the high cost of care and prescription drugs.

When asked what they wanted their legislators to work on, health care took precedence over issues such as immigration and jobs.

The results also showed that 78% of Floridians were worried about affording health care in the future.

In Central Florida, concerns about health care were even more pronounced.

Four out of five Central Floridians were worried about not being able to afford health-care in the future, whether it's nursing home care, a serious accident or health insurance, the survey showed.

"People tell us, even if they have good health insurance right now, they feel like they're just lucky. They feel like they're temporarily beating the system and at any point they could be the victim of all these horror stories that they read about -- of people who went into debt or had to declare bankruptcy or lose all their savings due to impossibly large medical bills," said Lynn Quincy, director of Healthcare Value Hub at Altarum.

More than 60% of the respondents, especially people who bought private individual health insurance and those who had Medicaid, said they were worried about not being able to afford health insurance in the future.

Respondents who had coverage via the Affordable Care Act or had Medicaid were worried about losing their coverage, according to the survey.

Floridians aren't alone in dealing with such health-care affordability burdens. Altarum surveys in other states have shown similar results, said Quincy.

The survey showed that across party lines, Floridians expressed strong support for government-led solutions, although nearly twice as many Republicans than Democrats -- 41% compared with 20% -- thought the United States had a great health-care system.

Meanwhile, 76% of Democrat respondents said that they agreed that the health system needs to change compared with 68% of Republicans and 69% of individuals that didn't identify as either party.

About 70% of Republicans and Democrats said that health-care costs are rising because hospitals are charging too much money. More than 70% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats laid the blame on drug companies for rising health-care costs.

The majority of respondents in both parties agreed that the government should make it easy to switch between insurers if a health plan drops their doctor. They also agreed that doctors, hospital and insurance companies needed to provide upfront cost estimated to patients.

"When you see broad bipartisan support like this, it's time for action. This is not a polarized issue. This is an issue in which we all agree. So what's the problem?" Quincy said.

The survey comes on the heels of a Census Bureau's annual report, which showed that nearly 2 million more Americans were uninsured in 2018 compared with the previous year. The portion of people without health insurance coverage was also slightly higher than 2017.

In Florida, the number uninsured people rose slightly from 12.9% to 13% of the total population. That's an increase of about 50,000 people.

Meanwhile, a proposed constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid in Florida, and received more than 53,000 signatures, has been pushed back to 2022.

"There's a growing body of research that shows families in [Medicaid] expansion states have experienced significant reductions in unpaid medical bills and improved credit scores and greater economic security, so we continue to urge policy leaders in Florida to consider this strategy," said Swerlick of Florida Policy Institute.

nmiller@orlandosentinel.com.

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