European survey finds energy costs are forcing households to skip healthcare and travel

Bills are changing household decisions

High energy and fuel costs are prompting households across ten European countries to abandon medical appointments, family visits and other important spending, according to a newly published survey reported by Euronews. The study covered 10,000 adults in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and the United Kingdom, offering a broad snapshot that extends beyond the European Union.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents described their circumstances as precarious, while 73% feared they would be unable to afford fuel. More than one in three said they had sacrificed major expenses such as food or healthcare during the previous year to manage energy or transport bills. Twenty-three percent reported skipping medical appointments because of rising costs.

The burden was uneven. Respondents in Greece, Italy and Portugal expressed the greatest anxiety about fuel expenses, while people in Moldova and Greece reported making sacrifices at rates as much as three times those in Germany and Britain. Holidays and long-distance family visits were among the first expenses reduced, and three in ten respondents said they had stopped driving to work even when alternatives took longer.

A structural affordability problem

Official European data provide an important counterpoint. The European Commission says the share of EU residents unable to keep their homes adequately warm fell to 8.8% in 2025, down from 9.2% in 2024 and a 10.6% peak in 2023. That improvement, however, measures one dimension of energy poverty and does not erase mobility costs, summer cooling needs or households' decisions to forgo other essentials.

The Commission's Energy Poverty Advisory Hub argues that affordability should be assessed through the interaction of income, housing quality, mobility, climate exposure, health and energy spending. That wider framework helps explain why a declining winter-heating indicator can coexist with survey evidence of cancelled care and reduced travel. Retail bills also remain sensitive to wholesale energy and oil-market shocks.

What matters next is whether governments treat these sacrifices as temporary responses or signs of persistent vulnerability. The policy tests include targeted bill assistance, home renovation, cheaper transport alternatives and safeguards against healthcare exclusion. Future editions of the survey will also show whether the current oil-price shock produces lasting behaviour changes or whether household pressure eases when fuel markets stabilise.