Making it to the Olympics is a costly venture for American athletes. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports PARIS — Being an Olympic athlete in the U.S. is not only physically arduous, but financially costly. A recent report revealed 26.5 percent of high-performance American athletes earn less than $15,000 a year, according to “Passing the…
Navigating the health care system in the United States can often feel like being lost in a maze. What kind of doctor should I see? Who takes my insurance? What even is a co-pay, anyway? For that reason, Chris Hamby, an investigative reporter, has devoted much of his five-year career at The New York Times…
Insurance companies have long blamed private-equity-owned hospitals and physician groups for exorbitant billing that drives up health care costs. But a tool backed by private equity is helping insurers make billions of dollars and shift costs to patients. The tool, Data iSight, is the premier offering of a cost-containment firm called MultiPlan that has attracted…
To celebrate his wife’s birthday in 2022, Brian Azara, a mechanical engineer in New York City, booked a table for two at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Brooklyn. But when their son was suddenly hospitalized with severe asthma, Mr. Azara had to cancel the reservation. A few minutes later, he checked his credit card account and…
When Apple unveiled the Vision Pro virtual reality goggles last year at a technology conference, many in the audience gasped at the price: $3,500. That’s more than quadruple the cost of a new iPhone and 14 times the cost of a competing headset from Meta. The headset, which Apple has marketed as a computer, movie…
In June 2021, the insurance plan for North Carolina state employees was paying for 2,800 people to take weight-loss drugs. Last year, it paid for nearly 25,000. Medications like Wegovy cost the North Carolina State Health Plan $100 million last year, rising seemingly out of nowhere to represent 10 percent of its spending on prescription…
