Financial Stability and Women’s Health: Stark Divide Unveiled in New Report

• 23% of women who struggle to pay monthly expenses say medical bills are the culprit.
• One-quarter of women see financial constraints as a challenge to managing their personal health and well-being, and mothers spend 26% less on their own health than their partners.
• When women are financially constrained, their healthcare suffers: Women who have difficulty paying monthly expenses have 13% worse health outcomes than the average woman.

PYMNTS Intelligence created the 2024 Women’s Wellness Index to explore factors negatively impacting women’s health and how to overcome them. The index leverages respondents’ reports of overall health, their skill in securing healthcare, the dollar amount spent on personal health relative to household health and the time spent caring for their own health and well-being.

Considering these factors, the 2024 Women’s Wellness Index holistically accounts for health and wellness and the resources needed to support women’s overall well-being. We found that medical bills are linked to how women seek medical care and their health outcomes. This brief explores why.

This brief is part of the “2024 Women’s Wellness Index,” a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and CareCredit, a Synchrony solution. This edition draws on insights from a census-balanced survey of 10,045 U.S. consumers conducted from Nov. 10, 2023, to Dec. 6, 2023.

• Key Findings
• Conclusion
• Methodology

Key Findings

Medical bills take a toll on monthly finances and can worsen women’s health outcomes.

PYMNTS Intelligence finds that medical bills can impact women’s monthly finances — and, ultimately, how healthy they feel overall. Struggling to make ends meet with little savings left over is a reality for many. Of all U.S. consumers surveyed, 62% reported they lived paycheck to paycheck when this data was collected in December 2023. That means just more than one-third are financially stable enough to manage additional expenses such bills for healthcare.

Fifteen percent of women living paycheck to paycheck said medical expenses were one of the biggest reasons they lived that way. Twelve percent of men said the same. The subset of paycheck-to-paycheck women who struggle to pay monthly expenses is overrepresented. Twenty-three percent said medical bills have an outsized effect on their monthly ability to make ends meet.

Additionally, 11% of women who are unable to save but are somewhat financially stable on monthly budgets consider medical bills a top reason they could not build savings last year.

Tight budgets mean women may forgo health spending.

If women are on a tight budget, the ripple effects can impact their well-being. Data shows that women with less financial stability tend to be less proactive about their health. They are also more likely to forgo getting treatment when they are less financially stable.

Women who can save every month often take more preventative care measures. Out of this group, 88% seek out preventative medical care, and 91% make preventative healthcare visits to the dentist. This suggests it is easier for women who are on track with their budgets to get the healthcare they need.

Among women who are somewhat financially stable (living comfortably paycheck to paycheck but cannot save), 80% are proactive about getting preventative medical care. That means this group is less likely to have received preventative care in the last year than women who comfortably save.

Compared to women who are financially stable and saving, those living paycheck to paycheck and struggling are twice as likely not to get medical care. Just 70% of this group seek preventative medical care.

Women living paycheck-to-paycheck have the worst health, in part accounting for mothers’ low health outcomes.

Women who live paycheck to paycheck have considerably worse health than women who do not. Those who live paycheck to paycheck and struggle with monthly expenses scored 13% worse on the Women’s Wellness Index than average. Lower scores indicate a greater likelihood of worse health outcomes.

Mothers are more likely to live paycheck to paycheck. Data shows stark differences, however, between single mothers and moms in nuclear families living with a partner and a child. In nuclear families, 49% of mothers live paycheck to paycheck without issues paying bills. At the same time, 31% are financially unstable, living paycheck to paycheck with issues paying monthly bills.

In comparison, fewer single mothers are somewhat stable and more are financially unstable. Data shows 38% do not save but comfortably pay bills, while 43% live paycheck to paycheck with difficulty paying monthly expenses. However, even with a partner at home, caring for a child has major financial impacts. Mothers in nuclear families are 23% more likely to live paycheck to paycheck than those living with a partner without children under their care.

The work factor for mothers

Work can tip the scales for women’s health — especially mothers — further. Data shows that slightly more than half of working mothers in nuclear families live paycheck to paycheck comfortably. This means these working moms are more likely than their nonworking counterparts to have that relative stability. Similarly, working mothers in nuclear families are less likely than their nonworking counterparts to struggle to pay bills, though 80% still cannot save.

Compared to working mothers in nuclear families, single working mothers are less likely to live paycheck to paycheck comfortably (40%, an 11 percentage point drop). They are also significantly more likely to have difficulty paying bills (46%, an increase of roughly 18 percentage points). Thus, work tends to correlate with improved financial stability for mothers in nuclear families but worse financial stability for working mothers.

Conclusion

Monthly spending and saving habits can be closely linked to women’s medical care decisions and healthcare outcomes. Paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyles have thinner margins, and the average unplanned medical expense in the U.S. — which is consistent regardless of consumer spending — is $1,310.

For women who struggle to save, such a sum could seem insurmountable. Solutions that spread out healthcare payments over time could better accommodate their paycheck-to-paycheck budgets. These solutions can help them avoid the pitfalls of not accessing preventative medical care. Given that 15% of women living paycheck to paycheck say medical expenses are an issue, solutions that can alleviate these bills’ financial pressure and stave off the related negative health impacts could make a meaningful difference for many women.

Methodology

The “2024 Women’s Wellness Index,” a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and CareCredit, a Synchrony solution, is based on a survey of 10,045 U.S. consumers conducted from Nov. 10, 2023, to Dec. 6, 2023. The survey explored how women’s finances, time and social context impact their overall health and well-being. Our sample was census-balanced across several key demographic variables. The average respondent was 48 years old, 51% identified as women, 33% had college degrees and 38% reported incomes of $100,000 or more per year.

For more, read the June 2024 data brief, “Women Without Reliable Transportation are 78% More Likely to Delay Their Medical Care.” Or, read the full index, “2024 Women’s Wellness Index: Women’s Life Stage Priorities in Health and Wellness.”