The Link Between Wellness & Wealth Is Powerful for Everyone – and Especially Women

In the U.S., the link between wellness and wealth, money and health, is strong and common across people, young and old. But the impacts of money on health, well-being, and life choices varies across the ages, based on a study from Lively, a company that builds platforms for health savings accounts.

The first chart illustrates that health care costs challenge people in many ways: the most obvious health care cost problems prevent people from saving more for retirement or paying down debt.

Note that young people under 35 are particularly hard-hit across the board, and particularly for significant life choices, milestones and objectives — like buy a home, planning a wedding or attending one, and having a baby.

As Lively puts this finding, young adults are “caught in the middle” and “can’t save for now or later.”

In other words, health care costs prevent young people from “adulting” based on personal financial obstacles in buying a house or having a baby.

Women are more likely negatively impacted by health care costs than men, Lively found. This confirms other research I’ve analyzed on women’s health economics, which you can further explore here in Health Populi. 

Over one-third of women in the Lively study said they could spend less money on activities, hobbies and other lifestyle spending due to the cost of health care.

And fully one in four U.S. adults overall haven’t gone on a vacation due to personal medical spending.

Lively also measured Americans’ “preparedness” to cover various categories of health care costs, with fewer women able to cover these costs across-the-board…

• Over 4 in 10 people were not prepared to cover a serious or chronic illness for themselves (42% men, 44% women)
• Just under 50% of U.S. adults could not cover the costs of an unexpected injury (41% men, 54% women)
• Just under one-half of Americans said they could not cover costs for a sick child (43% men, 48% women); and
• Nearly 50% of people could not cover health care costs for a sick or aging parent (50% men, 62% women).

Lively surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults 18 and over in June 2019 to measure peoples’ perspectives on physical and financial health decisions.

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