{"id":640310,"date":"2026-03-08T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T06:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/640310\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T06:00:20","slug":"californians-worry-more-about-surprise-medical-bills-than-housing-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/640310\/","title":{"rendered":"Californians worry more about surprise medical bills than housing: survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Californians worried more about unexpected medical bills than any other expense in 2025 \u2014 even housing \u2014 according to a new survey by the California Health Care Foundation.<\/a><\/p>\n

Two-thirds of Californians said they worry about affording unexpected health care bills, while 48% worried about paying their rent or mortgage, and 47% worried about affording food, according to the Oakland-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shocking, actually,\u201d said Kristof Stremikis, director of market analysis and insight at the foundation, given the high costs of housing and groceries in the state.<\/p>\n

The last time anxiety about surprise medical bills topped the survey was in 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. The foundation and nonpartisan pollsters at the University of Chicago conduct the survey each year.<\/p>\n

In 2023 and 2024, it found that Californians were most concerned about paying for gasoline and other transportation costs. Gas prices had spiked past $6 per gallon in the Bay Area, and lawmakers attempted to stabilize the state\u2019s gas supply, with mixed results.<\/a><\/p>\n

Concord resident Lorraine DaRosa, 69, lives with the type of medical-bill stress that so many Californians worry about.<\/p>\n

She was diagnosed with cervical cancer about 20 years ago and underwent surgery that left her cancer-free. She was relieved she didn\u2019t have to undergo chemotherapy afterward.<\/p>\n

But the potentially life-saving procedure came at a steep price: DaRosa said she\u2019s on the hook for at least $70,000 in debt, something she and her husband \u2014 a warehouse worker \u2014 struggled to afford while paying the mortgage on their mobile home.<\/p>\n

DaRosa said her medical debt has only swelled since then, even though she is insured by Anthem Blue Cross through her husband\u2019s employer, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s anxiety-inducing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Federal cuts to the safety net health insurance program for low-income people in President Donald Trump\u2019s signature One Big, Beautiful Bill Act are expected to increase the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured, experts said. And, pollsters conducted their survey in October and November, when health care expenses took center stage in U.S. politics.<\/p>\n

The survey took place during the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, when Democrats in Congress tried and failed to force Republicans to extend tax credits that offset the cost of insurance purchased under the Affordable Care Act and generated $2.5 billion in savings for Californians. Since those credits expired at the end of 2025, new enrollment in California\u2019s health insurance marketplace dropped<\/a> 32%, state officials said this week.<\/p>\n

Plus, health insurers raised premiums for subsidized and employer-sponsored plans<\/a> at the beginning of the year, in part because those tax credits expired, and widespread use of expensive medications such as Ozempic.<\/p>\n

The survey found Californians dislike the changes. Just 1 in 10 Californians thought the Big, Beautiful Bill would have a positive impact on their family\u2019s ability to afford and get health care, the survey said.<\/p>\n

Even registered Republicans appeared weak, the survey found: 42% said they favored the law, 45% said they weren\u2019t sure and 13% said they had an unfavorable opinion.<\/p>\n

Health care is likely to be a top issue this year as Republicans and Democrats campaign for control of Congress.<\/p>\n

A separate recent poll<\/a> by the nonpartisan research group KFF found U.S. residents were most worried about health care expenses, and a majority expected to pay more for care this year. More independent voters favored Democrats than Republicans on the issue, that poll found.<\/p>\n

With funding from the California Health Care Foundation, the Chicago pollsters surveyed 2,552 adults in California.\u00a0The sample was designed to represent the state\u2019s population, and the survey\u2019s margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.<\/p>\n

Top stressers:<\/p>\n

Californians worry more about covering the costs of surprise medical bills than housing or groceries, according to a new survey\u00a0by the California Health Care Foundation.<\/p>\n

64%<\/strong>\u00a0are worried about affording unexpected health care bills<\/p>\n

48%<\/strong>\u00a0are worried about making rent or mortgage payments<\/p>\n

47%<\/strong> are concerned about covering the cost of food<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Californians worried more about unexpected medical bills than any other expense in 2025 \u2014 even housing \u2014 according…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":640311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[8161,272549,59418,175902,79,272548,210,1141,3168,1142,7065,18487,16990,3235,7045,9703,5620,9108,277,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-640310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-affordability","tag-california-health-care-foundation","tag-costs","tag-covered-california","tag-economy","tag-family-budget","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-insurance","tag-healthcare","tag-housing","tag-medi-cal","tag-medical-debt","tag-medicare","tag-obamacare","tag-one-big-beautiful-bill","tag-republicans","tag-survey","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116192033200857756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}