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Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

1. Routine Care, Unforgettable Bills When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie's father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson with extending his life by at least eight years.

Because Stephanie and her husband had recently started their own small technology business, they were unable to buy comprehensive health insurance. For $469 a month, or about 20% of their income, they had been able to get only a policy that covered just $2,000 per day of any hospital costs. "We don't take that kind of discount insurance," said the woman at MD Anderson when Stephanie called to make an appointment for Sean.

Stephanie was then told by a billing clerk that the estimated cost of Sean's visit - just to be examined for six days so a treatment plan could be devised - would be $48,900, due in advance. Stephanie got her mother to write her a check. "You do anything you can in a situation like that," she says. The Recchis flew to Houston, leaving Stephanie's mother to care for their two teenage children. Read More 

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Voluntary benefits expected to gain popularity

As the market is preparing for the health care exchange system in 2014, voluntary benefits are expected to play a larger role, says Andrea Meyer, benefit manager of WorkSmart Systems Inc., a professional employer organization in Indianapolis. Even under health care reform, medical insurance is projected to continue with its high deductibles, and voluntary benefits complement these plans.

Among the most valued voluntary benefits by employees are life insurance, short- and long-term disability, critical illness, health savings accounts and flexible savings accounts, Meyer says. These voluntary benefits are especially valued because they provide a sense of financial protection as employees are increasingly responsible for a larger share of their health care costs. Read More