Diabetes and Family Out‐of‐Pocket Medical Spending Relative to Income Across Adult Age Groups in the United States

BackgroundPrior Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) studies documented out-of-pocket (OOP) spending among working-age adults and Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes [1,2].A recent analysis found financial hardship in 40.3% of nonelderly adults with diabetes [3].Cost-related medication nonadherence and differing treatment costs by diabetes type add clinical context [4][5][6].We examined diabetes-associated differences in family OOP medical-service spending relative to income across adult age groups and evaluated related affordability indicators separately in three surveys.