The Group that Struggles the Most in American Health Care Author: Drew Altman Published: Sep 14, 2026

https://www.kff.org/from-drew-altman/the-group-that-struggles-the-most-in-american-health-care/ There are more than enough needs to go around in American health care, but if I had to pick the one group that struggles the most with costs and access, it would be people with chronic illnesses who are also uninsured. These are people with cancer or heart disease or diabetes or mental health conditions, or multiple chronic health problems, who also don’t have insurance coverage. We don’t have an exact count of the number of people with multiple medical conditions who are uninsured, but we can say it’s millions of people: about a quarter of the uninsured report that they have been treated for one or two health conditions over the past year and 1 in 10 for three or more conditions. There are about 27 million uninsured people in the U.S., and that number is projected to grow into the low 40 millions when the cuts in federal funding for Medicaid and ACA coverage fully kick in (unless they are reversed).