For many Americans, 2018 was the year that health care reached a breaking point.
Insurance was still too expensive to buy. It didn't cover nearly enough. And as the country's politics festered, the government once again failed to solve the insurance conundrum, even as a large majority of Americans who flocked to voting booths said health care was their top concern.
Bloomberg reporters spent much of the year talking to people who had weighed the health benefits against the financial burden of purchasing insurance. Most decided to risk it, betting that going without made more sense than paying for coverage.
Bloomberg started following a dozen families: people who were trying to work, raise children and pay for a house or college. When others were invited to share their stories about going uninsured, an overwhelming number did — more than 5,000.
In Virginia, the Jordan family sank into bankruptcy because of unexpected medical expenses, even though they had insurance.
The Maldonados, in Texas, were forced to choose which members of their family to keep on insurance policies as costs ratcheted ever higher.
Others tried to find creative solutions, like the patchwork of alternatives to traditional coverage that the Bergevin family in Boise, Idaho, assembled. A nurse in South Carolina buys insurance every other year, getting screenings and care in even years and rolling the dice in odd years.
Many of the more than 100 people who were interviewed over the year had incomes of $100,000 or more. These were comfortable families, from the outside. Yet when they opened their books, it became clear how much they had to stretch to afford health care.