U.S. Health Care System Creates a World of Debt

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We're launching our first newsletter with two big investigative series that examine medical debt and how private equity firms are devastating rural hospitals ― Diagnosis: Debt and Patients For Profit.

100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt?

There are more than 100 million people in America ― including 41% of adults ― beset by a health care system that is systematically pushing patients into debt on a mass scale, an investigation by KHN and NPR shows.

Click here to see portraits of Americans from all over the country that are stuck in a collective health care debt crisis. Follow the series hashtag #DiagnosisDebt on Twitter for more.

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Buy and Bust: When Private Equity Comes for Rural Hospitals

Troubled rural hospitals across the country are easy targets for private equity firms and serial entrepreneurs — putting aging and vulnerable communities at the mercy of corporate revenue seekers.

In Missouri, the startup Noble Health Corp. said technology issues had forced it to stop admitting patients at two rural Missouri hospitals it had only recently acquired.

Kayla Schudel, a nurse, said she and colleagues at the hospital — with 40 beds and five clinics — typically saw 24 to 50 emergency room cases a day, treating patients from the surrounding 1,000-plus acre farms and tiny no-stoplight towns.

A week later, there were no patients. Noble had locked the doors. Read the story and follow the series hashtag #PatientsForProfit on Twitter for more.

We'll be updating these series with new profiles and stories from Americans thrown into unnecessary hardships caused by a health system that doesn't serve them. Do you have a story about medical debt? We want to hear from you. Tell us your story, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop on these new shocking investigations.

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