Health Care Costs

Congress should crack down on Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors that sometimes deny patients vital medical care while overcharging the government billions of dollars every year, government watchdogs told a House panel Tuesday. Witnesses sharply criticized the fast-growing health plans at a hearing held by the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. […]

Ariane and Samantha Buck of Arizona have had their lives upended by $50,000 in medical debt. They rely on family to provide Christmas gifts for their three children. But Ariane Buck was still surprised when his doctor refused to see him because he owed a balance of less than $100 to the practice. “That’s just […]

Danilo Manimtim’s vision was cloudy and blurred — and it was growing worse. The 73-year-old retired orthopedic surgeon in Fresno, California, knew it was time for cataract surgery. “It’s like car tires wearing out because you drive on them so much,” he said. In December 2021, he went to the outpatient department of the local […]

KHN senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble examined how private equity hijacks health care, reporting on rural hospital closures in Missouri, on KBIA’s “All Things Considered” on June 23. Click here to hear Tribble on “All Things Considered” Read Tribble’s “Buy and Bust: When Private Equity Comes for Rural Hospitals” KHN senior Colorado correspondent Markian Hawryluk […]

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. So, you’re American, you have a lousy health insurance plan, you get cancer. You survive cancer. But can you survive your massive medical $$$ debt?https://t.co/e6Jzw9W4SR — Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 17, […]

Cindy Powers needed 19 surgeries over the course of five years for abdominal problems and life-threatening infections. “I knew of at least three times where she died on the operating table and they had to restart her heart,” her husband, Jim Powers, told investigative consumer correspondent Anna Werner on the CBS Evening News. Cindy’s illnesses […]

RALEIGH, N.C. — When Erin Williams-Reavis faced a $3,500 surgery bill, the hospital offered to let her pay in $300 monthly installments. It was too much, said Williams-Reavis, 44, who lives in Greensboro, about an hour west of the state capital. Her hours as a personal assistant had been cut, and she and her husband […]

California will cover doula services for low-income residents at more than twice the state’s initial proposed rate under a spending plan lawmakers passed last week. Some advocates welcomed the new benefit in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid health insurance program, as a step toward professionalizing this group of nonmedical birth workers. They say better pay may […]

KHN senior correspondent Noam N. Levey discussed America’s medical debt crisis on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on June 16. Click here to hear Levey on “Morning Edition” Read Levey’s “100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt” KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discussed whether the government is equipped to regulate the use of artificial […]

Marcus and Allyson Ward carefully planned their finances before having children — but they owed $80,000 after their twins were born prematurely. Years later, after exhausting savings and retirement accounts, they are still paying off that debt. The family is among 100 million people in America systematically pushed into medical debt, according to an investigation […]