A national disgrace that the duopoly has no answer for. This at a time when the stock market is booming:

One-third of Americans are cutting back on everyday living expenses — even skipping meals — and stretching their prescription medications so they can afford health care, according to new polling from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.

About 82 million Americans across low-, middle- and high-income brackets say they are spending less on utilities, driving less to save on gas and taking other steps to afford health care, according to the research center. They also report borrowing money and cutting back on utilities to afford medical care, the study said.

Americans are struggling financially to make ends meet:

More Americans are collecting scrap metal, selling their clothes, skipping meals, and hunting for bargains to make ends meet.

The Fed’s “Beige Book” report published Wednesday suggested the economy is growing more “K-shaped.” The collection of anecdotal information from around the country collected in February showed wealthier households benefitting from a booming stock market while the rising cost of living squeezes people with lower and moderate incomes.

And Trump has made it worse:

In the first year of his second term, President Trump has actively made life less affordable for working people. Affordability has two sides—prices and pay. While public debate fixates on rising costs, the administration’s most serious harm has come from its policies that hold down wages and weaken workers’ bargaining power. The 47th president has pursued an agenda that undercuts incomes for all but the wealthiest households, slows job growth, and invites employer exploitation and abuse—including unprecedented attacks on federal workers’ collective bargaining rights that make him the biggest union buster in U.S. history. His policies have systematically stripped workers of leverage in the labor market, driving down pay and making it harder for working families to afford the basics.