Holiday Season Like No Other

An ongoing rise in health care costs is hitting American families particularly hard. Among families with children under 18 in their household who visited the hospital in the past two years, 70% faced significant out-of-pocket medical expenses beyond a copay or deductible during their most recent hospital visit. Of these, 64% said they spent $500 or more in out-of-pocket costs, up from 58% in 2019, and 45% of families said they spent $1,000 or more in out-of-pocket costs, up from 37% last year.