- More than 100 million people are saddled with healthcare debt in the US. That includes about 40% of all adults, according to an investigation by Kaiser Health News and NPR. A new poll finds one quarter of American adults with healthcare debt owe more than $5,000. In partnership with Kaiser Health News, our Consumer Investigative Correspondent Anna Werner spoke with one family on the front lines of this debt crisis. Anna, good morning.

- Good morning, Nate. What we're talking about here is a healthcare system that forces massive numbers of people into debt, debt that ripples through their lives for years and has major consequences, as one Chicago family found.

Marcus and Ali Ward planned carefully before having children. He runs a nonprofit. She's a neonatal nurse practitioner. And they put their finances in order before getting pregnant.

- I think we thought we knew everything that could come down the pike.

- So it's like you are unprepared no matter how prepared you are.

ANNA WERNER: What they couldn't prepare for were twin boys born prematurely at just 30 weeks, both diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other issues. Milo would spend eight weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, Theo, four months. The costs quickly exhausted their insurance. Suddenly, they found themselves owing $80,000.

What went through your mind?

- It was a lot of panic, and it was a lot of, like, do we file for bankruptcy? Do we-- like, they can't repossess a child, so I guess I get to keep them.

[LAUGHTER]

- Right.

- Right.

- But what do I do now?

ANNA WERNER: Ali Ward says the stress blocked some of the joy surrounding the twins' birth.

- Instead of being able to be present in the experience of being a new mom and a new family, a lot of times it was, oh, my gosh, like, how are we going to make this work?

ANNA WERNER: The couple used all their savings, maxed out their credit cards, and wiped out their retirement accounts, and still it wasn't enough.

- And you still wound up with debt that you're still paying off.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Does that make you mad?

- Yeah. Yes. I think we were even madder about the fact that, like, what about people who don't have all the benefits that we had in this situation?

ANNA WERNER: Many are struggling. A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds, in the past five years, more than a half of US adults have gone into debt because of medical or dental bills. One in seven people with debt say they've been denied access to a hospital, doctor, or other provider because of unpaid bills, and about two thirds have put off care they or a family member need because of cost.

- Care just costs so much more in the United States than almost anywhere else in the world.

ANNA WERNER: Dr. Aaron Carroll is a health policy researcher.

What do you think is driving this medical debt crisis?

- I think it's a combination of the high price of health care in America coupled with the fact that, even with insurance, Americans still out of pocket have to pay a significant amount for health care.

- That worry never goes away. You know, you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

ANNA WERNER: Which is what happened to the Wards again in 2019. The couple had enrolled their then 7-year-old twins in physical, occupational, and speech therapy programs doctors said they needed to help with their cerebral palsy, but then they say their insurance company, which had been paying for the sessions, suddenly reversed course, sending them dozens of denial letters for past therapy sessions.

- The mail person, they actually knocked on the door. And they were like, these won't fit through your slot, so here you go. And they handed us a bundle of these letters.

- Yeah.

- The denial letters were for how much, roughly?

- About $40,000.

- Yeah, $40,000.

- $40,000.

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

- So here you go again.

- Right.

ANNA WERNER: This time, the Wards wound up suing their insurance company, and they won, cutting the new debt to just a few thousand dollars. But they're still paying on the original debt from the twins' birth, roughly $500 each month.

So how are you doing now financially?

- We're recovering, but we're still in a pretty drawn-out recovery from it.

- Yeah.

ANNA WERNER: On the bright side, Ali Ward says, they're a family.

- It seems like the part that really worked out for us is that, you know, our love for each other and our love for our kids.

- Well, the Wards say they're glad their twins are thriving thanks in part to those expensive therapies over the years, but they're worried about potential surprise bills in the future. How much medical debt Americans actually have in total is hard to know because so much isn't recorded, and much of it is put on credit cards. You won't be surprised to hear that. A 2019 Kaiser analysis estimated that collective medical debt totaled at least $195 billion. That's larger than the economy of Greece.

- Oh, man. We are failing each other in this country.

- I know.

- We are. You know, I would say you're going to need to talk to a therapist with these debts so large, but the mental health coverage is even worse than the medical health coverage.

- Yeah, and uncovered.

- Right. And people feel a lot of emotions, too, connected with it, guilt and shame and why can't they handle this themselves. And the truth is you cannot prepare for an unexpected medical expense of, hmm, a million dollars.

- Nor can you choose, right? You could arguably not go to college, put off the car, not buy the house, arguably, right? But you get sick, it's not a choice.

- Right.

- It just happens.

- Right, you need health care.

- Well said.

- We've got to be able to do better.

- Yeah.

- All righty. Anna, thank you.