==== Front Innov Aging Innov Aging innovateage Innovation in Aging 2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 10.1093/geroni/igaa057.321 igaa057.321 Abstracts Session 2864 (Poster) Diverse Populations AcademicSubjects/SOC02600 Healthcare Affordability and Associated Concerns Among Older Adults in Florida Wiltshire Jacqueline Orban Barbara Conner Kyaien Colato Edlin Garcia Anderson Erica Carrion Iraida University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States 2020 16 12 2020 16 12 2020 4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”97 97 © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract Rising healthcare costs create significant financial burden for Americans and is a threat to the well-being of our growing, racially/ethnically diverse, older population. In a mixed method study, we assessed ability to afford care and ascertain concerns about healthcare cost in a racially diverse sample of Floridians ages ≥ 65. We surveyed 170 adults (40.4% White, 27.6% African Americans/Black and 31.8% Latino/Hispanic) and conducted three race-stratified focus groups (n=27). Most participants had Medicare coverage (97.1%) and 27% also had Medicaid. Approximately 11.6% of Whites had problems paying medical bills in the past 12 months versus 14.9% of African Americans/Blacks and 24.1% of Latino/Hispanics. Additionally, 13% of Whites, 19.2% of African Americans/Blacks and 20.4% of Hispanics reported not getting needed prescription drugs because they could not afford them. Approximately 45.7% either perceived that their doctor “never” takes into account costs for treatment or did not know whether costs were considered. Multiple regression analyses showed no statistically significant racial/ethnic differences in affordability problems. From the focus groups, healthcare cost concerns most frequently identified by participants were the high cost of prescriptions drug, rising co-pays and out of pocket expenses, and medical billing. Participants’ concerns about medical billing included understanding their bills, transparency in billing, timely posting of charges, and uncertainty about who to talk to about billing problems. Our findings suggest that routine discussions about healthcare costs with doctors or designated healthcare personnel should help ease financial burden and healthcare costs concerns among older adults.