“No one should have to be fighting cancer and insurance at the same time,” Tsoukalas, a West Lafayette, Indiana, resident who is now in law school. “It’s such a cruel system. We live in a country where people are truly kicked down when they are at their weakest and most vulnerable, both physically and emotionally.”
Some Americans feel they have no choice but to get the care their doctors recommend, even if their insurers deny it. That can result in massive bills. Roughly 41% of adults had debt caused by medical or dental bills, according to a 2022 KFF Health Care Debt Survey. A separate KFF analysis of 2021 Census data suggested that people owe at least $220 billion in medical debt.
After Melanie Duquette, 70, had extensive back surgery earlier this year, her doctor sent her to a rehab center to recover since it wasn’t safe for her to be home alone. But after six weeks, her insurer said it would not pay for any additional time, even though her medical team argued that she should remain. Duquette, who has worked as a registered nurse for nearly 50 years, told CNN she was afraid to leave because she still needed help getting out of bed and going to the bathroom and felt unsteady on her feet – so she stayed for several more weeks.
Now, Duquette is stuck with a $14,000 bill that she says she can never afford to pay and may have to declare bankruptcy. Adding to her anger: She paid several hundred dollars a month for the best insurance plan her employer offered so she’d have more comprehensive coverage.
“They deny people care while they’re making millions of dollars,” said Duquette, who lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.