By Sam Whitehead and Renuka Rayasam with video by Hannah Norman and data visualizations by Lydia Zuraw
Bill McAdams, a 45-year-old travel nurse from Holiday, Florida, was uninsured last year when he experienced a stroke. He hadn’t been able to afford his agency’s health plan, which would have cost $3,600 monthly to cover him and his wife. The hospital that treated him sent him a bill for $93,000.
Janet Marx, 56, of Milford, Connecticut, has doubled up on insurance coverage through her husband’s employer and Medicare because she has lupus and fibromyalgia, disabling chronic conditions. Still the couple sold their home, the house where Marx grew up, to afford the costs of their medical care.
Sheila Robinson, 61, in District Heights, Maryland, has a $10,000 deductible on her Affordable Care Act plan, so she tries to negotiate cheaper self-pay options when she sees a doctor. She puts the $659 monthly premium on her credit card, even though she knows not paying the bill in full means she must pay interest.
“I am just afraid to even go to the doctor,” said Robinson, who has arthritis, a pinched nerve in her neck, and high blood pressure. “Every month, I am in the hole.”
This year, KFF Health News has chronicled how rising healthcare costs are upending the lives of Americans. Reporters have heard from more than 130 people across the U.S. who are trying to afford their premiums, copayments, prescriptions, and medical bills even as housing, energy, and food costs swell. People told us they are forgoing health insurance coverage, rationing their medications, cutting back on doctor visits, and putting off health procedures.
“We’re not talking about the uninsured or those who are low-income who are struggling now,” said Rebecca Kirch, executive vice president at the National Patient Advocate Foundation. “Now it’s become an all-of-us issue.”
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