Even with Health Insurance, Half of Working-Age People in the U.S. Can’t Afford Healthcare (and a PS on Retiree Health Costs)
Nearly Half of Working-Age Adults Had Difficulties Affording Health care in 2025 is the title of new research jointly authored by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The researchers conducted the Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey in December 2025, capturing U.S. adults’ experiences with health care affordability among people ages 18 to 64. The first bar graph shows that 46% of working-aged people in the U.S. had any difficulty affording healthcare, including 35% who had unmet health care needs in the family due to costs in the past 12 months; 29% whose
AI Is Expanding Healthcare Access, Enabling Clinician Wellbeing, and Preparing Proactive Patients – The Philips Future Health Index 2026
AI is already transforming healthcare delivery for clinicians, patients, and their clinical partnerships, we learn in The Philips Future Health Index 2026. For this year’s annual futures report, Philips conducted two surveys among 2,011 healthcare professionals and 20,085 patients, spanning ten countries and fielded between February and April 2026. AI adoption among healthcare providers and patients in this early phase is showing benefits translating into greater productivity, clinician well-being, improved data workflows, and expanded access and capacity for clinicians to see more patients. Health systems the
Jane joined host Dr. Geeta "Dr. G" Nayyar and colleagues to brainstorm the value of vaccines for public and individual health in this challenging environment for health literacy, health politics, and health citizen grievance. Click onto the Pfizer Value of Vaccines site and you can watch four episodes covering the challenges with adult vaccination, the employer and health plan member's journey to vaccination, reimbursement, and collaborating for proactive prevention.
I'm grateful to be part of the Duke Corporate Education faculty, sharing perspectives on the future of health care with health and life science companies. Once again, I'll be brainstorming the future of health care with a cohort of executives working in a global health care enterprise.
Jane will be working with EU- and UK-based clients in September and October 2026, collaborating with stakeholders in digital health, public/community health, retail health, and growing opportunities for health-at-home. Stay tuned to her updates here on Health Populi on-the-ground as she lives the digital nomadic work-life in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and in London.