When Drew Calver was rushed to the hospital after a serious heart attack, the hospital assured him they would take his insurance. But later he got hit with a $108,951 bill. "They're going to give me another heart attack stressing over this bill," Calver, a school teacher, said.
After this story ran, the hospital ultimately slashed the bill to $332.29. Calver says it's a relief that his family no longer faces a six-figure bill and threatening letters from the hospital's debt collector. But he worries about other patients hit with big bills ."I don't feel any consumer should have to go through this," he says.
When you don't have enough insulin, your blood sugar gets so high that your blood becomes highly acidic, your cells dehydrate and your body stops functioning.
That is how Nicole Smith-Holt lost her son. He died three days before his payday because he couldn't afford his insulin.
The price of insulin in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2012 alone. That's put the life-saving hormone out of reach for some people with diabetes and made it a struggle for others, including the author of this story.
Humorist and writer Mara Altman’s latest book, Gross Anatomy: Dispatches from the Front (And Back), is a personal, darkly witty investigation into the human body -- especially women’s bodies. Altman explores pressing questions like, is PMS real? How come some people sweat so much? And who decided women shouldn't have body hair, anyway?
Read NPR's interview with Altman to hear how she reframes the shame she and the rest of us often feel about our physical selves.
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