Americans are having a hard time keeping up with their health expenses.

That's according to a survey conducted by the American Heart Association.

We talked with an official from the nonprofit to learn more about affordability and access.

There's been increasing recognition that health care affordability is reaching a crisis level, not just among patients who are uninsured, but even among patients who are insured.

The out-of-pocket costs related to the care they need, can push this care out of reach.

What we consistently heard is that patients are making day to day trade offs between health care versus other things they need, such as food or the utilities or gas prices.

At a time such as this.

In the U.S.. Medical debt is now an equivalent of $220 billion, and 22 million Americans owe money on account of their health care spending.

It's the it's a leading cause of bankruptcy.

These are all uniquely American problems, because most other high income countries do not have out-of-pocket costs to the tune that we see in the American economy.

And as a result, patients are on one hand forgoing care that they need.

So, you know, I'm not going to go see my, my doctor or get my preventative mammogram or my preventative statin because I'm afraid of the costs, not just of the pills, but of the bloodwork, maybe of the clinic visit that go along with that.

And on the other hand, when I do get care, the I end up finding myself, laden, burdened with this medical debt, as you mentioned, that is going to have consequences not just for me, but for my entire family, because now it affects my ability to get other loans and maybe a mortgage for the house, or to be able to buy a car that I need to get to work.

We're very concerned about the rising costs of chronic diseases, particularly heart and brain diseases.

In 2024, we led a projection exercise which showed that if current trends continue.

Health care costs attributable to cardiovascular disease will quadruple between 2020 and 2050.

There are three main reasons why health care costs related to cardiovascular disease are rising.

As in Kentucky and the rest of the country, the burden of cardiovascular risk factors is increasing, particularly obesity, diabetes, and uncontrolled blood pressure, all of which are priorities, to address for the American Heart Association.

The second is our population is aging.

And all of these risk factors increase as we age.

And finally, our population is becoming more diverse and certain parts of our population that do not have adequate access to care have a higher burden of these risk factors, particularly, for instance, uncontrolled blood pressure in black communities.

And so this combination of an aging and more diverse population, as well as a rising burden of risk factors in all parts of the population, are what's driving health care costs.

As people in Kentucky know, health care access is becoming increasingly challenging.

So you can in many parts of the country, it's almost impossible to get a primary care doctor or even a cardiologist.

And so, again, this narrative that the reason health care costs are rising is because we're using more care is a false one.

On average, most Americans are having trouble accessing care they need.

And so part of solving for health care is in some cases expanding access, allowing people to have the services, both the treatment and preventative services they need to live healthier lives.

It's important to observe that not all prevention saves money.

So prevention is not just about saving money.

Sometimes prevention actually ends up costing money, but it is money well spent.

So if we control, community's blood pressure, we find lower levels of stroke, which results in lower disability, less heart failure, which means increased participation in the workforce over time.

The goal of prevention is, is again, to ensure people have the ability to live long, healthy lives in ways that are important to them.