Poor health exacerbates financial stress, but it’s not the worst among seniors

Poor health exacerbates financial stress among Americans, but it’s worse for those aged 50 to 64 than it is for those aged 65 or more years — people who often are on fixed incomes.

That’s according to recent findings from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. The poll is based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by AARP and Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center.

“Our biggest surprise from this poll is that the age group most likely to be affected or stressed by pressures on personal finances is not the group whose incomes are more likely to be ‘fixed’ by reliance on Social Security or retirement savings,” Helen Levy, PhD, a health economist and professor at U-M’s Institute for Social Research, said in a statement.

Financial stress also was prevalent among self-identified caregivers, the researchers found.

“Among those who reported being a caregiver, 14% said they felt a lot of stress because of the financial demands of caregiving, and another 27% said they felt some stress from these demands,” according to the report.

Reduced spending

People in their 50s and early 60s were more likely to say they had reduced their spending than did older Americans, according to the data. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents aged 50 to 64 of the younger group said they’ve cut back in the past year compared with 45% of those aged 65 or more years. 

Inflation was a major factor driving spending cutbacks among all respondents, according to the research. Sixteen percent of the total respondents said they’ve had difficulty in the past year paying for health-related costs or that they put off some healthcare because of cost.

“Despite the slowing of inflation, higher costs over the past couple of years have had lingering consequences for debt and savings,” AARP Senior Vice President of Research Indira Venkat said. 

In addition to age and economics, cutbacks were higher among those who said they are in fair or poor physical health (69%) or mental health (76%), those with lower incomes (60%), and those who are Black (58%) or Hispanic (60%).