Here are five things to know:
1. The survey, completed by the NYT, the Commonwealth Fund and Boston-based Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found 36 percent of those surveyed emptied or nearly ran through their savings while ill. Only Americans who had been hospitalized two times in the past two years and visited at least three physicians were included in the survey.
2. The NYT reported about 40 million people fall into this population of Americans who use the healthcare system the most.
3. Inability to pay for basic necessities was a problem for 21 percent of respondents with health insurance. Of those respondents with insurance, 29 percent had bills in collection. For another 13 percent of those same respondents, borrowing money was the only way to pay for care.
4. Notably, more than two-thirds of survey respondents reported never talking about how much their care would cost with a physician.
5. “Health insurance provided some protection against such outcomes — those in the survey who were uninsured were even more likely to face mounting bills and debts — but the insurance was generally not enough,” according to the NYT.
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