One California woman felt forced to choose between a $400 medication or buying food for the month, which cost about the same
Another got a “crippling” $7,000 hospital bill after delivering her daughter by emergency C-section — even though she had health insurance
One family regularly weighs whether to pay a co-pay to see the doctor or get gas, saying, “Sometimes (the doctor’s visit) is going to have to wait for next time.”
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These are some of the ways Californians are struggling to afford healthcare, according to a survey released last month by the California Health Care Foundation, an Oakland-based nonprofit that researches health policy and trends.
The survey, which interviewed about 4,000 Californians in 2025 and 2026, offers insight into residents’ anxiety over affording care — and their cynicism and distrust of the medical system — at a time the overall cost of living is also soaring.
“Your wage can’t catch up to inflation,” Megeal Frazier, the survey respondent who described having to pick between doctor’s visits and gas, said in an interview with the foundation. His family chose the most affordable insurance plan from the state’s health insurance marketplace, Covered California, “but even that’s not affordable for us at this time,” his partner Kia Frazier-Hill said.
The household is also among the roughly 40% of Californians who have medical debt, following an emergency room visit and subsequent ICU stay Frazier needed for breathing problems, which incurred a large hospital bill they couldn’t afford.
Their concerns over an unexpected medical bill, as well as routine expenses like co-pays, are common, the foundation’s research found.
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Nearly two-thirds of Californians, 64%, say they are worried about affording an unexpected medical bill — making it the top financial concern among the state’s residents, exceeding housing (48%), food (47%) and gas (46%), according to a separate survey the foundation released in February. The survey was conducted and released before gas prices began spiking dramatically due to the Iran war.
This and other previous research has shown similar struggles with affording care, but the foundation’s latest report also highlights the emotional distress many families are facing as a result.
“People expressed a lot of anxiety and fear,” said Catherine Teare, associate director of market analysis and insight at the California Health Care Foundation. “People are really worrying about unexpected medical bills. They worry about that more than rent or groceries. They aren’t just struggling to pay the bills, they’re really losing sleep over them.”
About 6 in 10 Californians say they or a family member skipped or delayed care in the past year because of cost. And nearly half of Californians, 46%, say they distrust hospitals and insurers and feel they are motivated solely by financial gain; this rises to 64% among people who’ve skipped care because of costs, the survey found.
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“Being priced out of care doesn’t just leave you sicker, it really leaves you convinced the system isn’t built for you,” Teare said.
When asked about potential solutions that would make healthcare more affordable, most respondents say they support policies that would stop hospitals from charging excessive prices, and more oversight on mergers to protect competition
