America's Annoyance Economy Is Growing

"On a Wednesday evening in mid-June, Ralph Coolman, a small-business owner and accomplished athlete, set out to run a 5K in Ventura, California. He quit after a mile, and spent the next few days afflicted by nausea, indigestion, and exhaustion. His wife, Erika, a nurse and an athlete herself, figured he had the flu. But on Saturday morning, Ralph began breathing rapidly. She rushed him to an urgent-care center, where a doctor put him on oxygen and sent him to the emergency room."

"Shortly after, Community Memorial Hospital told Erika his care would cost roughly $270,000. "We always had insurance-always," Erika told me. But when Ralph got sick, she was in the process of changing jobs. Erika initially did not opt to cover Ralph on the COBRA plan she was using as a stopgap, because he was going to purchase individual coverage. She later changed her mind and sent a check in to cover his premium."

"The insurer "ended up adding two months on for me" instead of adding her husband, she told me. "I didn't find out until it was too late." Ralph was uninsured when he died, thanks to the complexity of the American insurance system. That left his family on the hook for an enormous bill they couldn't begin to understand, thanks to the complexity of the American health-care system."

Ralph Coolman, a 62-year-old small-business owner and athlete, fell ill after attempting a 5K and developed nausea, indigestion, and exhaustion. He later began breathing rapidly, was taken to urgent care, placed on oxygen, transferred to an emergency room, and died of a heart attack four or five hours after arrival. Community Memorial Hospital estimated his care at roughly $270,000. Erika, his wife and a nurse, was changing jobs and failed to properly add him to COBRA; an insurer error extended her coverage instead of his. Ralph was uninsured at death, leaving the family to confront a massive bill and administrative burdens while grieving.

Read at The Atlantic