LGBTQ+ Adults Are Skipping Needed Health Care at Far Higher Rates, New Survey Finds

A new national survey has put a hard number on something LGBTQ+ people and the clinicians who serve them have been saying for years: getting basic medical care in the United States is significantly harder if you’re queer or trans.

The KFF Survey of Health Status and Caregiving, fielded May 4 through May 26, 2026, polled a nationally representative sample of 25,873 U.S. adults, including 2,640 who identify as LGBTQ+. The topline finding, first reported by Stateline and KFF this week: 6 in 10 LGBTQ+ adults said they’d missed needed health care in the past year because of cost, an inability to find a provider with an open appointment, or other barriers. Among non-LGBTQ+ adults, that figure was 38%.

The gaps show up across nearly every category KFF measured. LGBTQ+ adults were about twice as likely to skip filling a prescription because of cost — 22%, compared with 12% of non-LGBTQ+ adults. Nearly a third, 30%, said they’d struggled to pay a medical bill, versus 21% of non-LGBTQ+ respondents. And a third of LGBTQ+ adults who missed care said their health got measurably worse as a result.

Who’s hit hardest

The survey found the burden isn’t spread evenly within the LGBTQ+ population. Transgender respondents, adults under 30, and those with lower incomes or no insurance at all reported the steepest barriers. Among uninsured LGBTQ+ adults specifically, more than three-quarters said they’d missed care they needed in the past year — a rate that dwarfs nearly every other subgroup KFF has tracked.

That combination — younger, lower-income, more likely to be uninsured — lines up with what other researchers have documented about the LGBTQ+ population for years. Trans and nonbinary adults are more likely to have lost jobs or been denied employment because of discrimination, more likely to have been refused care outright by a provider, and more likely to live in states that have restricted or eliminated gender-affirming care in the years since 2023, cutting off a familiar doctor even for people not currently transitioning.

Why this survey matters

KFF’s Survey of Health Status and Caregiving isn’t a one-off poll — it’s part of a larger, ongoing project the organization uses to track how different populations experience the American health system, and its LGBTQ+ oversample (2,640 respondents) is large enough to break out findings with real statistical confidence, unlike smaller surveys that have to lump “LGBTQ+” into a single undifferentiated bucket.

The timing also matters. This data was collected in May 2026, meaning it reflects a health care landscape already reshaped by two years of state-level restrictions on transgender health care, ongoing fights over insurance coverage for gender-affirming treatment, and — as covered elsewhere on this site — a Supreme Court that has moved to uphold state authority over trans health and athletics policy rather than expand federal protections. None of that shows up as a single line in the survey, but it’s the backdrop against which “missed needed care” and “worsening health” are happening.

What it doesn’t capture

KFF’s numbers describe the country in aggregate, and the reality on the ground is not uniform. LGBTQ+ people living in states with strong nondiscrimination laws, robust Medicaid coverage, and LGBTQ+-competent providers are almost certainly faring better than the national average; those in states that have restricted trans health care or where insurers can still legally deny coverage for gender-affirming treatment are likely faring worse. The survey’s topline hides that range.

It’s also a snapshot of self-reported experience, not a clinical study — respondents are describing what happened to them, not what a chart review would show. But self-report is exactly the right tool for measuring something like “did you decide not to go to the doctor,” since that decision usually happens well before anyone in a clinic writes it down.

The bottom line

Cost and access barriers touch most Americans to some degree, and KFF’s broader survey work has documented that reality repeatedly. What this release adds is a clear, quantified gap: LGBTQ+ adults aren’t just navigating the same overstretched, expensive system as everyone else — they’re navigating it with fewer resources, thinner safety nets, and a higher chance that the provider on the other side of the appointment isn’t equipped, or willing, to treat them. For a third of the LGBTQ+ adults surveyed, that gap wasn’t abstract. It showed up as health that got worse.

If you’re an LGBTQ+ American struggling to find affordable, competent care, organizations like the GLMA (Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality) maintain provider directories, and many states have LGBTQ+ community health centers that offer sliding-scale fees.