Medicine or Medical Equipment Shortages Impact Nearly 1 in 5 Americans

Access to medication and medical equipment can be lifesaving for many patients, but shortages are a reality in these critical areas.

Be it a manufacturing issue, supply-chain hiccup or natural disaster, unexpected circumstances can hinder patients from getting the medical goods they need. Indeed, according to a ValuePenguin analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data from September and October 2023 (the latest available at the time of research), 18.7% of American adults faced a medicine or medical equipment shortage over the past month.

Our newest study examines these shortages at the national and state levels and the resulting negative impacts on patients' physical and mental health. Here's what we found.

Key findings

Nearly 1 in 5 adults faced medicine or medical equipment shortages over the past month

Across the U.S., 18.7% of adults experienced a medical shortage — nearly 1 in 5 residents. Breaking this down, 14.8% reported an inability to access a prescribed medication, while 4.8% said they couldn't get an over-the-counter medicine. Meanwhile, 2.6% reported a medical equipment shortage. (Some respondents may have experienced multiple types of shortages.)

Most of us remember the bevy of supply-chain issues that plagued 2022, and the ripple effects may still be to blame for present-day medical shortages.

The pandemic, too, may be a culprit: Along with causing historic declines in the manufacturing industry, COVID-19 has also increased the demand for many types of medicines and medical equipment, such as Paxlovid and N95 masks.

Nearly a quarter who experienced shortages suffered resulting negative health consequences

Experiencing a medically related shortage can negatively impact patients' health and well-being. And, according to our survey, it did.

Nationally, nearly a quarter of respondents who faced a shortage (24.1%) reported a negative physical health consequence related to that shortage. An even higher percentage of adults experiencing a shortage (31.9%) reported mental distress.

Worse, nearly half of respondents — 48.5% — who reported experiencing such a shortage said they delayed or stopped the use of medically necessary drugs or equipment. (That figure accounts for 9.1% of the overall adult U.S. population.) After all, you can't use medicine or equipment that's unavailable to you.

Shortages most severe in West Virginia, South Carolina and New Hampshire

While problematic nationally (and in any amount), certain states suffered more severely from medical shortages. West Virginia, South Carolina and New Hampshire were the leaders in this regard, with 24.3%, 23.7% and 23.1% of their adults experiencing at least one kind of shortage, respectively.

Each of these three states also faces substantial medical staffing shortages, an unfortunate confluence that places additional strain on patients. According to an August 2023 report from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 11 critical hospital professions are experiencing vacancy and turnover rates of around 20%. These professions, according to the report, are part of four broad categories: nursing, diagnostic imaging, medical laboratories and respiratory therapy. (Medical staffing shortages are a problem nationally, too.)

States experiencing the worst medicine or medical equipment shortages

At the other end of the spectrum, some states enjoyed a relatively low percentage of medicine or medical equipment shortages. That said, no state's percentage was in the single digits.

Hawaii experienced the lowest rate of shortages, with just 11.3% of its adults reporting such an experience over the past month, ahead of Wisconsin (14.3%) and Vermont (14.7%).

It's worth noting that the state with the third-lowest shortage rate falls just 4 percentage points below the national average, suggesting the problem is endemic.

States experiencing the worst shortages (by type)

When you dig deeper into the types of medical shortages, the state rankings change a bit — though there's some overlap with West Virginia and New Hampshire.

For example, when it comes to states experiencing the worst prescription medicine shortages, West Virginia led with 19.7% of adults reporting the problem, followed by Louisiana (19.0%) and New Hampshire (18.6%).

States experiencing the worst prescription medicine shortages

Meanwhile, Hawaii consistently enjoyed significantly lower rates of medicine shortages than other states in our rankings, perhaps due to its unique location. Because the state has to import many of its goods from the mainland, it might make more of an effort to stockpile necessities. Additionally, some medical and pharmaceutical products are manufactured in the Aloha State.

In this case, Hawaii saw only a fraction compared to the national average of prescription medication shortages: 6.6% of its adults reported facing such an experience over the past month. New York (10.5%) and Wisconsin (11.2%) were the next closest.

Over-the-counter medicine shortages were worst in Wyoming, where 8.1% of adults reported the experience — substantially more than the national average of 4.8%. In this category, New Hampshire (7.3%) and Oklahoma (7.1%) followed.

States experiencing the worst over-the-counter medicine shortages

Hawaii enjoyed the lowest rate of over-the-counter medication shortages, with just 3.5% of adults reporting such an experience over the past month. Vermont, Maryland and Florida were next, all tied at 3.6%.

Finally, home medical equipment was scarcest in Nevada, where 5.1% of adults faced shortages — just shy of double the 2.6% national average. West Virginia showed up again at 4.4%, followed by Delaware (4.3%).

States experiencing the worst home medical equipment shortages

This time, Rhode Island scored the best spot on the list, with less than a percent — 0.9% — of its adult population experiencing a medical equipment shortage over the studied period. Ohio and Maine tied as runners-up at 1.3%.

Consequences of shortages: Negative health consequences and mental distress

As discussed, respondents reported that a lack of access to necessary medications and medical equipment led to negative consequences, both physical and mental. Again, the prevalence of these consequences varied by state.

Interestingly, although Maine didn't show up in the top 10 of any of the shortage-by-state lists analyzed above, the state reported the highest rate of physical ramifications due to a medically related shortage. In fact, 7.0% of Maine's population reported negative health consequences due to a shortage — or 34.4% of those reporting such an experience.

Utah tied Maine, with 7.0% of its citizens suffering shortage-related health consequences, and Missouri came in third, with 6.7% of its population suffering such consequences. (Utah experienced a higher rate of shortages than Missouri, per our analysis, including ranking ninth for over-the-counter medicine shortages. It's also worth noting that New Hampshire, which ranked in the top three for two shortages above, came in fourth for reported negative health consequences.)

States where people suffered health consequences because of shortages

Meanwhile, the states experiencing the lowest rates of negative physical ramifications are clustered in the Northeast, with New York and New Jersey in the lead. Only 2.4% of their total populations experienced detrimental health effects due to a medical shortage. Next was Pennsylvania, at 2.5%. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, given its overall lack of shortages, Hawaii was just outside the top three.)

Of course, aching bodies aren't usually independent of aching minds — and many more respondents reported mental distress as a result of a shortage, regardless of whether they were experiencing physical effects. In this case, Utah took the lead, with more than a tenth of the state's overall population experiencing shortage-related mental distress. This accounted for nearly half (49.2%) of its residents who reported experiencing a shortage.

Given its high ranking for the three main shortages, it's no shock that West Virginia was second, with 9.1% of its total population suffering mental distress as a result of a shortage. And Oklahoma, which came in third among states experiencing over-the-counter medicine shortages, came in third here, with 8.4% of its population reporting mental struggles.

States where people suffered mental distress because of shortages

Yet again, Hawaii enjoyed a leading spot, with a relatively low — though still worrying — 3.4% of its overall population reporting shortage-related mental health effects. (That still accounts for almost a third, or 29.6%, of the state's shortage-experiencing population.)

Rhode Island and Wisconsin were the second- and third-least affected, at 4.1% and 4.2%.

Going without medication or equipment because of shortages

When people don't have access to medications or medical equipment, they often must go without them — even if they're medically necessary. Unfortunately, this difficult circumstance is a reality for many Americans.

Delaware and Wyoming had the dubious distinction of ranking highest when it comes to adults having to forgo medically necessitated drugs or equipment due to a shortage: A whopping 12.9% of their populations went without. That equates to 62.7% and 57.1%, respectively, of their shortage-experiencing adults.

South Carolina came next, with 12.2% of the state population delaying or stopping the use of necessary medicine or equipment.

States where people went without medication and/or equipment because of shortages

Once again, the Aloha State enjoyed the lowest ranking — this time for those needing to forgo medically necessitated materials owed to a shortage. Though with 5.0% of the state's overall population needing to do so, the figures are still dire. North Dakota (5.9%) and California (6.2%) were next.

Impact of medicine or medical equipment shortages on consumers

As disturbing as the figures are, no statistic can convey the full emotional extent of such medical shortages on patients and their families. And according to ValuePenguin health insurance expert Divya Sangameshwar, the shortages themselves are just the beginning.

And, of course, there are financial costs to factor in as well. "Drug and medical device shortages often lead to higher costs, which can get passed down to consumers in the form of higher out-of-pocket costs and higher insurance premiums," Sangameshwar says. According to other data from ValuePenguin, 31% of Americans who pay for prescription drugs struggle to afford them, and 57% of Americans are actively worried about the future of health care, including, in many cases, the cost of health insurance.

Fortunately, other data shows that the out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs have fallen over the past decade, and the Medicare drug price negotiation program stands to lower the cost of some other common prescription drugs even more substantially if it goes through as planned.

Still, "shortages compromise the entire U.S. health care system, costing millions of dollars per year," Sangameshwar concludes — a problem that may add to American health care spending, which reached $4.5 trillion in 2022.