One in five Americans are in collections for medical debt. 

Two-thirds of all bankruptcies in the US are tied to medical debt and too often a health crisis leads to a financial crisis. Healthcare is the biggest issue for many in the 2020 election, and no matter where you stand politically, one thing both sides can agree on, the system is broken. That's why all season will focus on ways you at home won't have to choose between money versus medicine. 

We all went into medicine to help people. I mean, we're all united by a sense of compassion at every level in health care, even administrators, people work in insurance nurses. But right now, what's happening with price gouging in medicine and let's call a spade a spade. It is price gouging people when they're most vulnerable when they're sick and they come to us for help. 

That is eroding the great public trust in our profession and people trust us to put a knife to their skin within a second of meeting us or tell us secrets they wouldn't tell their spouse of 30 years within a second because you're the doctor and that great public trust now is getting threatened by these money games of price gouging. And the thing is we doctors don't even know what's happening with our billing processes. Sometimes we've lost control and when we find out when we and our research team tell the doctors they're appalled and they're angry. And I think that outrage is healthy and I think it's important for people watching to understand that. 

When we say money versus medicine I do want to try to separate a little bit here. The business side of medicine. 

Doctors lost control a long time ago and doctors were largely unaware of whatever bill ends up showing up in the mail. I don't really have anything to do with it and so there is a disconnect and sometimes for us doctors. We don't realize how broken the system is until we become patients. And I know for myself a number of years ago when I ended up having surgery and I still am getting bills with literally no explanation for what they are and they keep coming. You're like. What is this? We all we there.

One of the biggest problems I think we're going get to it in more depth is that going into your surgery, no one told you what all of these steps are going to cost. You had no idea. It's only now later these bills still keep coming. You hand no, you're luck enough to have insurance. You give someone your insurance card at the front desk and then you know, you get a bunch of tests. You in the back of your mind are wondering what is this going to cost and the thing is no one knows. And whether you're in the system or not, that's just the reality. And then there's just this surprise that comes your way at some point in the future. 

And it's usually a really bad surprise and that's where we're at in our healthcare system. 

There is a Better Way