A Tangled Web: Healthcare and Financial Wellness

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Author

Deb Dupont
Assistant Vice President Workplace Benefits Research, Institutional Retirement
LIMRA and LOMA

October 2026

Wellness is a vast and multidimensional concept.

And good health (physical wellness) is a foundation of wellness and a good life.

The effort and investment of achieving and maintaining good health can be overwhelming and stressful.

LIMRA’s wellness research explores the practical and financial aspects of maintaining health, recognizing that the holistic nature of wellness means health-related wellness cannot be completely separated from financial, emotional and mental wellness.

To better understand the relationship between financial wellness and health-related well-being, we examine how frequently consumers worry about various financial aspects of maintaining their own and their families’ health:

Personal and family members’ physical and emotional health issues
Healthcare costs for personal and family members’ physical and emotional well-being (prescriptions, doctor visits, procedures)
Expenses associated with improving physical health and well-being (healthy meals, gym memberships, etc.)
Healthcare costs related to mental and emotional well-being (prescriptions, therapy, etc.) for themselves and their family members

Nearly half of consumers (between 45% and 48%, depending on the specific situation) report worrying about these issues half or more of the time, while about 10% say they are a constant source of worry. Baby Boomers report the least stress on these dimensions, while members of Generation Z report the most. Interestingly, neither gender nor coverage by an employer’s medical insurance plan makes a significant difference.

Significantly, 80% of our survey respondents (which represent and are weighted to a nationally representative consumer sample for gender, age and race/ethnicity) report that they have incurred large medical bills of $500 or more. How they manage and pay these bills may be detrimental to their longer-term financial health and well-being (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Paying for Large ($500+) Medical Expenses

Filter the data in this chart by clicking on a color bar in the chart legend.

Most commonly, respondents pay for large medical expenses using credit cards, by a wide margin and across genders and generations. Of all the potential payments we examined, this option is potentially the most damaging to long-term financial security and can create significant stress for those who choose it. Among consumers who experienced an increase in financial stress over the past year, 37% report major expenses, including healthcare, as a root cause of the increase; 33% cite increased debt, and 28% specifically cite increased healthcare costs. While overall inflation and the cost of daily living are the clear leading causes of increased stress, these three situations immediately follow (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Reasons for Increased Financial Stress

Top three reasons for increased stress

Working out a provider payment plan, another common means of paying oversized medical bills, is the second most frequently cited solution, but it also involves increasing debt and accruing interest.

Perhaps the most prudent solution for large medical bills — using a Healthcare Savings Account (HSA) — is far from consumers’ go-to solution. Just 19% employ this strategy, while 55% report that HSAs are available in their workplaces. Still, fewer use a Flexible Spending Account (FSA).

The Price of Healthcare

Just 30% of consumers and 34% of those covered by their employers’ health insurance feel that healthcare costs are “very easy” for them to manage. Another 38% find them “somewhat easy” to manage, leaving nearly a third who admit to difficulty managing healthcare costs, to the extent that 29% have delayed or avoided appointments, procedures or other expenses due to cost.

Gen Z is most likely to delay medical procedures due to cost, with 46% responding that they have done so, compared to just 12% of Baby Boomers. Workers whose employers do not offer health insurance are also significantly more likely to delay or avoid medical procedures due to cost, with 38% reporting that they have done so, compared to just 22% of workers who are offered and enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance.

Concerns about physical well-being (or lack thereof) can also have physical consequences. Half of respondents report that concerns about their own or a family member’s physical well-being (including acute and chronic conditions, as well as mortality) cause them physical symptoms of stress half or more of the time. These concerns also cause work distractions; half of employed respondents are distracted at work due to their own physical health issues, while nearly as many (47%) are distracted by household members’ physical issues. In both cases (their own and household members’ health issues), distraction is greatest among Gen Z workers, and significantly less so among Baby Boomers.

Implications and Solutions

Regardless of insurance coverage, and how that coverage is obtained, the cost and effort of remaining healthy are significant for most consumers and workers. Ballooning healthcare and insurance costs, especially for consumers losing federal subsidies, make the situation more likely to worsen than improve. The burdens and impacts of healthcare cost issues are numerous for consumers, including increased debt burden, delayed or stopped care, and stress.

A quarter to a third of consumers (and employees) are regularly stressed by healthcare needs and costs, and half report being distracted at work by health concerns, which may also result in increased healthcare costs.

None of this is conducive to emotional health and financial security for consumers as individuals (and as life, annuity and financial services clients). Nor are these circumstances conducive to productive workplaces and employee well-being.

Financial advisors should address these issues when counseling and offering holistic, personalized financial advice and solutions. Workplace employers, advisors and consultants, and benefits providers also need to understand and design around the role of benefits and workplace wellness efforts in helping individuals manage healthcare needs, challenges and costs beyond a standard health insurance offering.

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Findings cited in this article are based on LIMRA’s 2026 financial wellness research, which informed the 2026 update to the LIMRA Financial Wellness Index. Conducted from late 2025 through early 2026, the study surveyed 5,119 consumers ages 18 to 75. Additional insights can be found by comparing results across the three iterations of the biennial index conducted in 2022, 2024 and 2026.

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