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In the month since the horrifying shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Americans have unleashed a torrent of anger against private health insurers, sharing desperate stories about insurance companies delaying and denying claims to improve profit margins.

If America is serious about addressing the crisis in health care, we must tackle a glaring problem: A large share of our health care dollars – both consumer premiums and government payments to health care companies – are funding corporate executives and Wall Street, rather than the affordable care and vital treatment patients need.

I’m a family physician and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and I see firsthand the financial toll that paying for health care takes on families. About half of U.S. adults say health care is hard to afford, and 1 in 4 have skipped or postponed getting health care they needed in the past year because of the cost, according to a 2024 survey by health policy nonprofit KFF.

Nearly 6 in 10 American adults reported problems with their health insurance in the prior 12 months, including denied claims – and nearly half were unable to resolve them, according to another KFF survey. Such hardships can spiral into significant psychological distress about the financial cost of health care.

Think about the elderly patient with diabetes who wonders if he can afford the copays for a new treatment. Or the new mother confronting steep medical bills after her cesarean section. Or parents worrying about paying for the high cost of their child’s chronic epilepsy care when they’re struggling to pay for groceries.

Jay FeinmanJan. 6, 2025

Health policy debates have long centered on the goal of expanding insurance coverage, but that alone isn’t enough to stem the financial burdens of health care. Each year, Americans with private insurance pay higher and higher premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. In the decade between 2013 and 2023, the average family........

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