Some lost their homes. Some emptied their retirement accounts. Some struggled to feed and clothe their families. Medical debt now touches more than 100 million people in America, as the U.S. health care system pushes patients into debt on a mass scale. Jamar Coach; Eamon Queeney; Laura Buckman for KHN and NPR hide caption
Jon Miller sits in his bedroom with his dog, Carlos, whom he received as a present for successfully completing cancer treatment a decade ago. Miller sustained severe brain damage, and requires the help of home health aides to continue living in his home. Natalie Krebs/Side Effects Public Media hide caption
Claudia and Jesús Fierro of Yuma, Ariz., review their medical bills. They pay $1,000 a month for health insurance yet still owed more than $7,000 after two episodes of care at the local hospital. Lisa Hornak for Kaiser Health News hide caption
Suzanne and Jim Rybak, inside the craft room where their son, Jameson, would encourage Suzanne to make colorful beach bags, received a $4,928 medical bill months after it was supposedly resolved. By Gavin McIntyre/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Mary Daniel took a dishwasher job at her husband's Florida memory care facility to see him during the initial coronavirus lockdown. She has been fighting for visitation rights ever since. Tiffany Manning for NPR hide caption
Close friends Joshua Paredes, Michael Walujo and John LeBlanc are working together to set up a crisis help line for nurses following the suicide of their friend Michael Odell in January. Rachel Bujalski for NPR hide caption
RaDonda Vaught and her attorney, Peter Strianse, listen as verdicts are read at her trial in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, March 25. The jury found Vaught, a former nurse, guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult in the death of a patient to whom she accidentally gave the wrong medication. Nicole Hester/The Tennessean/AP hide caption
RaDonda Vaught, a former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse charged in the death of a patient, listens to opening statements during her trial in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, March 22. Stephanie Amador/AP hide caption
Nurse's aide Patricia Johnson has worked for the Ambassador Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on the north side of Chicago for nearly 24 years. The pandemic has been grueling on her and her colleagues. "The hardest part is watching people die alone without their families," says Johnson, who now sometimes works double shifts due to staff shortages. Jennifer Swanson/NPR hide caption
Nurse Tami Hampson and Dr. Vinay Shah with DispatchHealth arrive at the Wiese family's apartment for a medical visit on January 3, 2022. Katie Davis-Young hide caption
Nurse Sara Dean of Mount Juliet, Tenn., attends her daughter Harper's gymnastics practice. Dean spent nearly two years travelling the country as a nurse, gaining a much higher salary than she could at home. Blake Farmer/WPLN News hide caption
Hospital staff at Gritman Medical Center in the northern Idaho city of Moscow were unable to find Katie Ripley an open ICU bed at a larger hospital as her condition deteriorated. Don & Melinda Crawford/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images hide caption
Dhaval Bhatt plays Monopoly with his children, Hridaya (left) and Martand, at their home in St. Peters, Missouri. Martand's mother took him to a children's hospital in April after he burned his hand, and the bill for the emergency room visit was more than $1,000 — even though the child was never seen by a doctor. Whitney Curtis for Kaiser Health News hide caption