Health insurance doesn't always protect you from medical debt

Kimberly Adams (0:01)

Health insurance doesn't necessarily protect you from medical debt and the people behind the oil prices.

From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. You can still rack up medical debt even if you have health insurance. A new survey from the Commonwealth Fund found almost one in three working age adults with private insurance are working to pay off medical bills. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Ginzer has more.

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (0:28)

57-year-old Jennifer Bukowski has been fighting terminal brain cancer for seven years. She has insurance through her husband's job, but figures she still has about $8,000 in medical debt.

Kimberly Adams (0:40)

And then we just try to pay the best that we can.

SPEAKER_3 (0:44)

And it's just a snowball.

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (0:45)

And that's just how we live.

Bukowski's situation isn't unique, according to the Commonwealth Fund survey. It included around 4,100 adults with private insurance, nearly half of those who had medical debt owed $2,000 or more. Sarah Collins is a co-author of the report.

Sarah Collins (1:04)

They are shocked by the fact that they still owe quite a bit of money to the provider, despite the fact that they've been paying premiums regularly for their insurance coverage.

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (1:14)

The Commonwealth Fund report says hospital visits were the biggest drivers of medical debt. Collins says they're not just talking about emergencies.

Sarah Collins (1:23)

Two in five people with medical debt said it was related to an ongoing or chronic health problem.

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (1:28)

Like cancer, Bukowski says they've taken around $120,000 out of their savings to pay for her care. But not everyone has a cash cushion. More than a third of the privately insured Americans the Commonwealth Fund surveyed wouldn't be able to pay an unexpected medical bill of $1,000 within 30 days.

I'm Nancy Marshall Gensler for Marketplace.

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Kimberly Adams (2:38)

You hear about oil prices and gas prices almost daily now. Since the US's war with Iran has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a route that used to carry a fifth of the world's oil.

But the impact on oil prices is just part of the story. The strikes on tankers and the mines in the Strait are a dangerous reality of daily life for the crews on those ships. Jillian Ambrose is an energy correspondent at The Guardian and she's been in touch with some of those workers. Jillian, thanks for joining us.

Jillian Ambrose (3:08)

Pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Kimberly Adams (3:09)

When we hear about ships being stuck in the Strait of Hormuz or tankers being fired on by US or Iranian forces, who are the people actually on these ships?

Jillian Ambrose (3:20)

These are seafarers who are trained to do a job on the vessels that they crew, and they are not crucially people with combat experience. They're not trained to be in military situations, and yet, thanks to this war, they have been, and it's been an incredibly difficult and psychologically challenging place for thousands. What we know is that at peak, around 20,000 seafarers were trapped in the Gulf, and at the moment, there are still thousands there that have been stuck in the Gulf since February.

Kimberly Adams (3:58)

Can you talk more about the danger that these crews are facing, basically trying to get oil out to the world and other cargo, because we hear sort of in the abstract about the strikes on tankers. But what does that really mean? Are these ships being sunk? Are they being disabled? Are seafarers being killed?

Jillian Ambrose (4:19)

This is a war, effectively, where energy supplies have become weaponized. And we've seen oil tankers emerge as key targets for strikes as a result. We know that at least 17 seafarers have died since hostilities began, and the majority of these have been following Iranian strikes.

I think, more than that, there's the constant threat that you could be struck at any point. And there have been stories that we've heard from the seafarers where they might be within eyesight, eyeline of a tanker which has been struck, and they'll hear the radio calls for help, and they'll be able to see the flames. And bearing witness to those casualties as well, I think has been the sort of key concern.