15 WAYS TO LOWER YOUR HEALTH CARE COSTS

Stressed out by the high price of staying well? These strategies can save you hundreds, or even thousands, on your annual medical bills.

- KATHERINE HOBSON

GAS prices are soaring, the cost of beef is through the roof, and electricity bills have shot up everywhere.

But in a year when the affordability of basic goods and services is causing great anxiety across the board, there seems to be no expense more worrisome to Americans than what they're paying for health care.

The evidence is everywhere. Two-thirds of Americans now say they worry about how they'll be able to afford health care for themselves and their families—overshadowing concerns about any other necessity, including utilities, food and groceries, housing, and gas, according to a recent poll from nonprofit health policy organization KFF. And the majority, some 56%, say they expect the price of receiving care will become even less affordable this year.

“The problem of higher health care costs is bad, and it’s getting worse,” says Caitlin Donovan, senior director at the nonprofit Patient Advocate Foundation.

The price of health insurance—the thing that’s supposed to protect you from high medical bills—has grown especially burdensome. That’s particularly true for many people who get coverage on the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace.

Four out of five people who re-enrolled in marketplace plans for 2026 report their premiums, deductibles, coinsurance and co-payments are higher than last year, with about half saying they're a lot higher, KFF says. The benchmark premium is up 22% on average, compared with 2% average annual increases between 2020 and 2025, according to the Urban Institute. Meanwhile, the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits for people who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level means those enrollees, on average, saw their premiums about double.