In her 20 years as a registered nurse, Christen Nelson says she’s never seen so many of her patients make such tough financial decisions, choosing between paying for health care or rising utility bills.
As a home health care aide in Myrtle Beach, SC, who works specifically with elderly patients, Nelson has a unique edge in her patients’ lives. She says rising costs due to inflation have forced many of her roughly 70 patients on fixed incomes to resort to trickery over which bills to pay.
“As utility costs, food costs, everything is going up, they’re not getting an increase in their Social Security benefits,” Nelson told Yahoo News. “They have to choose between food, services and medicine.”
The people Nelson cares about are not alone. According to the National Association of Energy Assistance Directors (NEADA), approximately 1 in 6 US homes, or more than 20 million, are currently behind on their utility bills.
Financial circumstances have become so dire, Nelson says, that some patients are also using pill-sharing to ration them over a long period of time, or going without medication for days at a time. Others have gone without eating meals or paying certain bills to get by.
“It’s really a sad state of affairs,” she said.
Many of the half-dozen patients Nelson sees on a daily basis are representative of a growing number of Americans who skip medical treatment or cut back on medication altogether for fear of not having enough money to cover housing and food. According to a new survey released this month by a West Health-Gallup survey, an estimated 98 million Americans have skipped care or cut back on basic needs to cover rising medical costs.
As inflation hit a new four-decade high of 9.1% in June, many Americans have had to make tough decisions about what to pay and what to expect.
“People have been making trade-offs to pay for health care for years,” said Timothy A. Lash, president of West Health, in a news release. “Inflation has only made things worse as people are now struggling with the high price of gas, food and electricity.”
An increase in electricity prices caused by an increase in the cost of natural gas has left many Americans in a situation where they cannot keep up. According to an August report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, energy prices rose 1.6% nationally in July, the third straight month of increases of more than 1%. Annually, energy prices are 15.2% higher than the same time last year, the biggest annual jump in 16 years.
However, experts are reluctant to say that relief for consumers will arrive soon.
“Slowing economic growth here and abroad will dampen demand somewhat, but not enough to lower the price of energy significantly over time,” said Sung Won Sohn, president of SS Economics, a focused economic consulting firm. in the American economy. Sacramento Bee.
Households nationwide owe a combined $16 billion in unpaid utility bills, according to NEADA — double the pre-pandemic total. Overall, the average consumer debt balance has increased nearly 100% since 2019, to $792.
In an effort to keep up, many Americans have turned to the gig economy to try to keep the lights on.
“I deliver with #GrubHub. I can’t afford my car payment, let alone my rent and utilities, because of the high gas prices,” Kansas resident. Debra Axon wrote on Twitter. “Unions are also declining. One order today was over 15 miles for just $2. I’m looking for a better gig. I help my friend, Kamsa, but still unpaid.”
While some Americans hope Washington will do more to address the situation, labor experts warn against too much government intervention, especially too soon.
“Government can do a lot, but unfortunately, a lot of times it makes the problem worse,” Joel Suarez, an assistant professor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, told Yahoo News. “Interest rate hikes are deliberately designed to ‘cool’ the economy, which is a euphemism for rising unemployment and putting millions of people out of work. This is definitely a way to keep prices down, but it’s one of those “The operation was successful, but the patient died” situations.
As high summer temperatures continue to blanket large parts of the country, keeping the electricity on can be a matter of life or death. In 2021, 190 people died in the US from heat, an 80% increase in average heat-related deaths from the previous decade, according to the National Weather Service.
But as summer gives way to fall and temperatures begin to cool, the economic crisis will not end.
“I expect a tsunami of closures,” Jean Su, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Bloomberg.
Nelson, a married mother of three, admits that while she personally feels the strain of rising costs, she’s optimistic that given recent moves by the government to ease student loan debt, Congress will ensure things get better sooner rather than later.
“I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “Student loan relief will help a lot of people. I think it will free up some income for people to be able to afford more food, gas and contribute to the economy. I think they are working hard trying to help the average person.”
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Cover photo photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images (2)
