I caught up with an old friend recently.

A few months ago, his child was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
They had health insurance.
The kind everyone says you’re supposed to have.
It still wasn’t enough.
Their emergency fund disappeared.
Retirement savings were drained.
They borrowed against their home just to keep up with the bills that kept arriving.
The hardest part wasn’t only watching their child go through treatment.
It was spending hours arguing over approvals, paperwork, and what the insurance company would or wouldn’t cover while their family was already living through the worst days of their lives.
They weren’t reckless with money.
They had stable jobs, avoided debt, and planned for the future.
One medical crisis erased years of financial progress.
Meanwhile, executives at some of the largest healthcare companies continue to earn compensation packages worth tens of millions of dollars.
It’s hard to look at stories like this and believe the system is working the way it should.