Americans can choose what they watch, what they eat, where they shop, and how they spend their money. Yet when it comes to their own health, they are expected to hand over thousands of dollars and accept whatever care the system makes available. This is one of the most expensive contradictions in modern American life, and it is time to challenge it.
Consider the financial arrangement facing an ordinary American family. According to KFF’s 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, workers contribute an average of $6,850 annually toward employer-sponsored family health insurance. Those with a general annual deductible face an average individual deductible of another $1,886.
That is a substantial financial commitment before an illness, an accident, or an unexpected diagnosis even enters the picture. Think about what that money represents: A mother deciding whether her child’s symptoms warrant another specialist appointment. A father trying to accommodate his daughter’s medical expenses alongside a mortgage.
Grandparents weigh the cost of treatment against the savings they have spent decades building. These are families paying into a system that can still leave them wondering whether they can afford to use it. I find the arrangement almost impossible to defend.
In healthcare, the premium is your admission fee, the deductible is another bill at the door, and the actual cost of treatment can still come as a surprise. How did an industry responsible for our most fundamental needs become so detached from the people financing it? The problem is bigger than rising costs.
It is the absence of meaningful consumer power. Healthcare has been packaged into an enormous, largely inflexible arrangement in which individuals pay for coverage determined by employers, insurers, and institutional agreements. The money comes out of their paychecks, yet they have limited influence over where it goes or which services best serve their families.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
