Rising health care costs are quietly reshaping family life and pushing homeownership, parenthood and financial stability further out of reach for millions of Americans.
The youngest of Millennials will hit 30 years old this year. For them and their older Millennial-counterparts, this is supposed to be the stage of life where people buy homes, have kids and settle into the textbook version of stability. But the reality for far too many Americans is something entirely different. It means delaying marriage, delaying children, delaying homeownership — and adopting pets to save them from college tuitions and pediatric specialists.
It’s not because an entire generation is collectively bucking the way “adulthood” used to be. It’s because the math doesn’t work anymore – and health insurance costs are a huge part of why.
Health care is eating the family budget
According to a new analysis from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the typical working family spent $3,960 on health care in 2024, including premiums and out-of-pocket costs. That’s the median… meaning half of families paid more.
Another striking finding from CEPR is that one in ten working families paid more than $14,800 in a single year on health care expenses. And for many low-income and rural households, health care consumed more than 10% of their entire income.
When the average Millennial earns about $47,034 a year, even the “average” health insurance spending now represents a meaningful slice of take-home pay before rent, student loans or the price of simply existing are even deducted. That threshold forces real tradeoffs: rent or deductible? Daycare or co-pays? Savings or prescriptions?
For young families trying to get started, that tradeoff answers itself.
Families with children spend significantly more on both health insurance and health care than those without. Working families with at least one child spent a median $5,150 per year.
Add that to childcare costs and it becomes clearer why many Millennials are putting off parenthood — or skipping it altogether. Hence the cat that doesn’t need braces or an albuterol prescription.
Health costs and home ownership
Diapers aside, medical bills also directly collide with the ability to own a home.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open found that adults carrying medical debt were significantly more likely to experience housing instability such as trouble paying rent and mortgage, or evictions and foreclosures. As KFF researchers found, more than 100 million Americans have medical debt, and the vast majority of them have health insurance. It just isn’t adequate coverage because of ever-growing cost-sharing requirements.
That matters enormously for young families and would-be homeowners. Medical debt lowers credit scores, drains savings needed for down payments and makes lenders more hesitant. It’s hard to compete in today’s housing market when your emergency fund got wiped out by an MRI. Or your credit score took a hit because you found a lump.
This is not about lifestyle choices
In part because of these costs, the traditional milestones that once built financial security now often increase financial risk. Health insurance and health care costs are rising faster than inflation and faster than they did for previous generations. That’s why more and more insured families are delaying prescriptions and skipping care because of cost.
These uniquely American costs bleed into career moves, relationships, everything.
Millennials aren’t afraid of commitment. They’re afraid of math that doesn’t add up in large part because of a health care system that continues to be an ever-growing weight that is capable of wiping out savings and reshaping family decisions.
It’s easy to frame these trends as cultural shifts or personal preferences, but the data helps fill in the blanks. It’s not just Millannials facing these issues. Gen Xers and even Baby Boomers (some of whom still have a few years until they cross the Medicare and Social Security finish line) are dealing with budget-eating health care costs and medical debt, too.
When nearly half of adults say they couldn’t afford an unexpected $500 medical bill, it’s not surprising that people hesitate before taking on a 30-year mortgage or the lifelong responsibility of raising a child (or taking that trip to celebrate their retirement for that matter.)
For now, all that can be said is that Millennials’ cats are doing fine. They are benefiting heavily from the status quo. Maybe they have something to do with all of this.
HENRY KOTULA 