Health insurance traps a quarter of Americans in unwanted jobs
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Almost a quarter of Americans — 23 million adults — are experiencing "job lock," staying in roles they don't want to avoid losing health insurance benefits, according to a new Gallup analysis.
Why it matters: Women and people who have chronic health conditions feel the burden most because health care costs limit their career mobility, wage growth and life satisfaction.
By the numbers: Almost half (48%) of respondents who described health care as a "major financial burden" are staying put in unwanted jobs.
- Fifty-three percent of Americans who experience "a lot of stress" because of health care costs keep unwanted jobs to maintain their insurance.
- About 44% who have personal or household medical debt say they are staying in an unwanted job for insurance.
- Thirty-seven percent of Americans who borrowed money in the past year to pay for medical expenses say they are staying in an unwanted job, compared with 22% of those who did not borrow money.
The intrigue: Americans with one or more chronic conditions are also 12 percentage points more likely than those without chronic conditions to report job lock (29% vs 17%.)
- About 41% of Americans with three or more diagnoses will do the same. The phenomenon is especially common among people with conditions that require ongoing or intensive care.
Between the lines: The chronic disease burden is more prominent among women, affecting 66% of women compared to 57% of men.
- Women are more likely than men to experience job lock, at 30% vs. 20%, respectively.
- Women are also 12 percentage points more likely to experience financial problems due to healthcare expenses than men.
Zoom out: Job lock coincides with broader healthcare affordability challenges, with about half of Americans reporting difficulty paying for care or prescriptions.
- At the same time 5 million Americans have dropped their health insurance in 2026 after the Trump administration declined to extend subsidies for enrollees under the Affordable Care Act.
Worth noting: Large employers are raising insurance premiums this year by up to 10% after health care costs sharply outpaced expectations.
- The increase is driven in part by pricy anti-inflammatory specialty drugs and high demand for GLP-1s, the weight loss drugs that also treat diabetes.
Methodology: Gallup conducted this survey from Oct. 27 to Dec. 22, 2025, among 5,660 U.S. adults. This analysis focuses on 2,322 employed respondents who rely on employer-sponsored health insurance as their primary source of coverage.
Go deeper: Health insurers point fingers over affordability woes
