Medical Bills Can Be Vexing and Perplexing. Here’s This Y...

What’s Happening

Okay so As the crowdsourced investigative series from KFF Health News approaches its eighth anniversary, “Bill of the Month” offers its top takeaways of 2025 to help patients manage, decipher, and even fight their medical bills.

BILL OF THE MONTH Medical Bills Can Be Vexing and Perplexing. Here’s This Year’s Best Advice for Patients. (we’re not making this up)

By Emmarie Huetteman Republish This Story A Texas boy’s second dose of the MMRV vaccine cost over $1,400.

The Details

A Pennsylvania woman’s long-acting birth control cost more than $14,000. Treatment for a Florida Medicaid enrollee’s heart attack cost nearly $78,000 — about as much as surgery for an uninsured Montana woman’s broken arm .

This story also ran on The Washington Post . It can be republished for free .

Why This Matters

In 2025, these patients were among the hundreds who asked KFF Health News to investigate their medical bills as part of its “ Bill of the Month ” series. Job-based and government-funded. So many people with different health insurance situations asked the same questions: Why do I owe so much?

Health experts are weighing in on what this means for people.

Key Takeaways

• And how am I going to afford it?
• Our nationwide team of health reporters has analyzed almost $7 million in medical charges, more than $350,000 of that this year.
• Email Sign-Up to KFF Health News free Morning Briefing.

The Bottom Line

Many new plans come with waiting periods , so it’s important to maintain continuous coverage until the new plan kicks in. One exception: If you lose your job-based coverage, you have 60 days to opt into a COBRA policy .

Sound off in the comments.