Nearly Half of American Women Are More Afraid of the Medical Bill Than the Diagnosis
A Cleveland Clinic survey found that nearly half of U.S. women are more worried about affording healthcare than they are about getting cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s. Maria Shriver presented the findings at the Cleveland Clinic Global Women’s Health and WAM Forum in May 2026.
The survey doesn’t just measure anxiety. It measures what happens when fear of cost shapes health decisions: which appointments women skip, which symptoms they wait on, which diagnoses come too late.
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When asked about their greatest health fears, women ranked the financial burden of care above the prospect of a serious diagnosis. That inversion matters because it shapes behavior. Women who delay care due to cost concerns are more likely to present with advanced-stage disease, more likely to forgo preventive screenings, and less likely to follow up after an abnormal result.
The survey included responses from women across income levels, not just those without insurance. Even women with coverage reported cost-related avoidance. Out-of-pocket maximums, surprise billing, and the unpredictability of what insurance will or won’t cover have made the financial exposure of seeking care feel unmanageable, even for women who are technically insured.
Shriver’s presentation at the Forum framed the finding as a systems failure. The problem isn’t that women are irrational about risk. It’s that the financial architecture of American healthcare has made their fear rational.
Source: Cleveland Clinic Global Women’s Health and WAM Forum, May 2026. Survey on women’s healthcare fears and financial concerns presented by Maria Shriver.