Stephanie Colombini
Mar 21, 2023
A Gallup poll shows Americans are delaying medical care because of rising inflation and housing costs. In Florida, the difficult tradeoffs become clear at a health fair for the uninsured.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Many people facing higher food and housing costs are paying the bills by putting off critical medical care. WUSF's Stephanie Colombini reports from Florida's Gulf Coast.
STEPHANIE COLOMBINI, BYLINE: In the Newtown neighborhood of Sarasota, people were milling about in a parking lot where doctors had set up a health screenings event. Tracy Green joined a line outside a pink and white bus to get free mammograms.
TRACY GREEN: To see if I have cancer or any kind of things going on with my breasts.
COLOMBINI: Green says her breasts cause her severe back pain and says a doctor once recommended she get reduction surgery, but she can't afford it. The 54-year-old says her teeth are in bad shape, too, but they'll also have to wait. Green doesn't have health insurance. She also doesn't have a stable job and finds work as a day laborer when she can through a local temp office.
GREEN: I only make, like, 60, 70-some dollars a day. You know, that ain't making no money. And some days you go in, and they don't have work.
COLOMBINI: In another state, Green may have been able to get on Medicaid, but Florida is one of 11 that still haven't expanded the program to cover more working-age adults. With rent and other bills to pay, Green says her health is taking a back seat.
GREEN: I don't have money to go to the dentist, nothing. It's so expensive. Now, to get one extraction, one tooth pulled, it's, like, 200, 300-some dollars that you don't have. I don't know what to do. It's like fighting a losing battle right now.
COLOMBINI: Nearly 40% of Americans say they put off medical treatment last year due to cost, according to a Gallup poll published in January. It's a 12-point increase from the year before and the highest since Gallup started tracking the issue in 2001. The country experienced record-high inflation last year. And parts of Florida, like nearby Tampa, sometimes fared even worse.
LISA MERRITT: We see an increasing desperation.