—Tina N. Campbell | Scribed in Light
How are Americans supposed to survive this?
Let me be straight with you. I have never heard people scream louder about their insurance costs than they are right now. It feels like every other day someone opens their renewal letter, sees their premium, and has a full-body spiritual event. And honestly, who can blame them.
Health insurance in America has become cutthroat. Ruthless. A system that demands more money every year while giving less protection, more loopholes, more denials, and more financial anxiety.
And here is the maddening part. In many areas, the government requires you to carry health insurance. You are expected to purchase something that is becoming increasingly unaffordable, unavoidable, and unmanageable. It is the definition of a no-win situation.
So let’s break this down. Let’s talk about why insurance has become the monster it is, what is happening underneath it all, and how ordinary people are supposed to survive it. Because right now families, the elderly, young adults starting out, and anyone with chronic conditions are being squeezed beyond reason.
The Cutthroat Shift in American Insurance
Insurance used to be annoying. Now it is predatory.
People everywhere are facing:
- Premiums that double or triple overnight
- Plans stripped of coverage
- Deductibles pushed higher every year
- Networks shrinking
- Medications denied
- Referrals denied
- Surgeries delayed
- Surprise bills arriving months after the fact
And even when you do everything right, you end up fighting with customer service over a claim coded wrong by someone you will never meet.
The truth is simple. People with insurance often feel as unprotected as people without it.
Is It Illegal to Go Without Insurance
Federally, the mandate penalty was removed. But several states brought it back. If you live in California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Washington DC, you can face penalties if you go uninsured.
Even in states without penalties, the system quietly punishes anyone who tries to skip insurance. You lose access to affordable prescriptions, specialists, preventive care, and catastrophic protection. The system is designed to keep you inside it, whether you can afford it or not.
How Are Families Expected to Afford This
Let’s talk real numbers for a moment.
A premium of two thousand to three thousand dollars per month means a family is paying twenty four to thirty six thousand dollars per year before even stepping into a doctor’s office.
- That does not include deductibles.
- That does not include the cost of prescriptions.
- That does not include co-pays, co-insurance, labs, imaging, specialists, emergency visits, or hospital stays.
Families are breaking under this weight.
Seniors on fixed incomes are drowning.
Young adults can barely afford rent, let alone premiums that behave like a second mortgage.
There is nothing reasonable about this. Nothing humane. And nothing sustainable.
How We Got Here
This mess did not happen overnight. It is the result of several forces all hitting at once.
Privatized, profit-driven healthcare
The entire system runs on profit incentives, not patient well-being.
Government mandates with no cost protections
We were told to carry insurance, but no one capped what companies could charge.
Administrative bloat
Billing departments have grown into multi-billion dollar empires. Paperwork alone commands an enormous percentage of all healthcare spending.
High drug prices
The United States pays the highest prescription drug prices in the world. Companies can charge whatever they choose.
Negotiating loopholes and monopolies
Large hospital systems set the market price for entire regions. Insurance companies follow their lead.
The subsidy cliff
A tiny increase in income can wipe out all tax credits instantly. There is no gradual phase-out.
The rise in chronic illness
Chronic disease is expensive. Insurers raise premiums to compensate. The cycle repeats.
But here’s the part no one wants to say out loud:
Much of modern “nutrition” is engineered, not grown. It’s marketed as healthy while quietly driving inflammation through the roof. And inflammation left untreated turns into autoimmune issues. Autoimmune issues left untreated turn into disease
- Instead of treating the root, our healthcare system meets every symptom with another prescription.
- A pill to quiet the flare-up.
- A pill to counter the side effect from the first pill.
- A pill to manage the complications that come from both.
It’s a loop.
A profitable one.
Every step pulls people deeper into a system that manages illness instead of reversing it—
locking us in even further, while padding their already-inflated wallets.
What makes it worse is this:
So much of what’s approved and sold as “nutrition” in America is anything but. Our shelves are packed with ultra-processed foods loaded with additives, preservatives, artificial colors, and cheap inflammatory oils—ingredients that pass regulatory checkpoints but do nothing for actual health.
The result?
Chronic low-grade inflammation has become the baseline for millions of people.
Inflammation becomes autoimmune issues.
Autoimmune issues become chronic disease.
And chronic disease becomes another reason premiums skyrocket every single year.
It’s not that the system is protecting our health.
It’s that the system is protecting its rules—and its profits—while the rest of us pay the price.
So What Can People Actually Do
There are options. Not perfect ones, but real ones.
Some families can lower costs by adjusting income categories to regain tax credits.
Some can switch to bronze or catastrophic plans.
Some use direct primary care for daily medical needs and a minimalist plan for emergencies.
Some join medical cost-sharing communities.
Some use off-exchange plans.
Some rely on high-deductible plans with a health savings account.
No one explains these options clearly, but they exist. If you want this explained without the insurance jargon circus, check back tomorrow. I’m breaking each option down in a full Part Two.
From My Heart to Yours
If you are staring at rising premiums with no idea how to handle it, you are not alone. This system is failing the very people it was supposed to protect.
No one should have to choose between medical care and electricity.
No elderly person should have to ration insulin.
No young adult should be priced out of simply taking care of their body.
This is bigger than frustration. It is grief for a system that has forgotten compassion.
But we are here. We are awake to what is happening. And we can outsmart it, out-plan it, and advocate for ourselves with clarity and strength.
A gentle nudge from me to you, with all the honesty and all the care:
You are not wrong for feeling overwhelmed.
You are living inside a system that was not built with you in mind.
But together, we can navigate it — one smart choice, one step, one breath at a time.
— Tina N. Campbell | Scribed in Light
Scribed In Light 
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