Soaring Insurance Deductibles and High Drug Prices Hit Sick Americans with a ‘Double Whammy’

Wendy Matney hesitated to tell her family not to call 911.

“It seemed almost selfish to say, ‘Please don’t call because we can’t afford this,’” said the 39-year-old home health aide, who has a form of epilepsy that causes frequent, sometimes violent, seizures.

Matney has been to the hospital enough, though, to know a trip means thousands of dollars in bills under the family’s high-deductible health plan. And she and her husband — struggling with more than $20,000 in medical debt — can afford no more.

Portside