Last year, when CVS called Ian Goldstein and told him that he owed $23,000 for medicine he takes for Crohn’s disease, he spiraled in despair. After a fruitless call with the pharmacy, Mr. Goldstein, a comedian and writer who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., went for a walk to clear his head and had to sit down.
“I went into a complete panic state,” Mr. Goldstein, 32, said. He had become used to wrangling with health care companies over billing mistakes and coverage ever since he was diagnosed with the condition as a teenager.
Still, the need for constant vigilance exhausts him. “There’s always some clerical error that blocks the whole thing up,” he said. Mr. Goldstein only managed to resolve the matter with CVS after months of calling the pharmacy three times a week.
This year, after he hit his insurance deductible, he decided to celebrate by throwing a party. On a sweltering Sunday in June, Mr. Goldstein and approximately 60 guests gathered at the Brooklyn Art Haus, a performance space in Williamsburg co-owned by a friend, for an evening of camaraderie and storytelling.
“Health care is such a problem, I just felt like celebrating that I’ll get to pay less money now,” he said.
For some people dealing with high health care costs, small wins, like meeting a deductible or paying off a medical bill, are sufficient reasons to party. Many Americans have inadequate health insurance coverage that has “led to delayed or forgone care, significant medical debt and worsening health problems,” according to a recent survey from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group that focuses on health care issues.
“Celebrations, even if they’re done in jest, can provide relief and a sense of community around something that can feel really heavy,” said Megan Ford, a financial therapist at the University of Georgia.
At his party, Mr. Goldstein sang a duet with a friend, Louie Aronowitz, 36, lampooning health care costs. Others talked about having to declare bankruptcy because of medical costs or arguing with insurers for more than a year over bills that should have been covered.
Wendy Maskin, 35, attended the party with her husband, Michael Maskin, 31. The couple have been friends with Mr. Goldstein for years and thought the celebration made “perfect sense.”
“I think everyone knows someone who has been affected by medical debt,” Ms. Maskin said. “We all want it to change. It’s nice to be here and laugh a little, but also to acknowledge that we’re in it together.”
Partygoers enjoyed cupcakes decorated with a screenshot of Mr. Goldstein’s patient portal rendered in edible ink and held onto raffle tickets for customized baseball caps.
At one point, people lined up to whack a cerulean piñata shaped like an Advil pill. Cheers erupted when it cracked open, spilling candy and medical supplies like cotton swabs and bandages.
Despite meeting his deductible, Mr. Goldstein continues to spend about $400 a month on payment plans for past treatments and worries about the next bowel obstruction that could upend his finances.
Insurance can feel like a jungle. “You could be an expert on health insurance and still have to read the fine print in incredible detail to understand exactly what’s covered, so it does become mind-boggling and difficult for the average person,” said Michael Sparer, a health policy professor at Columbia University. Opaque billing practices and schemes designed to maximize profits further muddy the waters.
“Years ago, if you had health insurance paid by your employer, you might have to pay a small copay when you went to the doctor, but you wouldn’t have a significant deductible,” said Dr. Sparer. But soaring medical costs over the past 15 years have pushed employers (and insurers) to shift the burden onto individuals by increasing deductibles across the board and promoting high-deductible plans.
A Reason to Rage
Sarah Baker, who lives in Brooklyn, had been on her parents’ health care plan until last November and described dealing with health insurance for the first time on her own as a “second coming of age” and “comically bad.”
Things like setting up a payment account on the New York State of Health website and figuring out which medications her plan would cover required jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Over several hourslong calls to sort out the mess, “I never talked to the same person more than once, and I had to fight for myself constantly,” Ms. Baker, 26, said.
By the time she met her $2,100 deductible in March, which reduced her average monthly medical costs to $700 from $1200, Ms. Baker was ready to let off some steam.
“It was the beginning of spring, no one was up to anything, and I needed a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
“It was a fun assortment of people coming and going,” said Mitzi Zitler, 26, who went to college with Ms. Baker and attended her party in April. Tinsel strewed on houseplants and a banner from a local dollar store reading “My First Communion” added to the irreverent mood. Ms. Baker mixed Shirley Temples and put out a big pot of beans alongside chips and salsa.
But the conversations were the real draw. Health care is “a big, scary topic, and people don’t talk about it that much,” Ms. Zitler said. “Or at least not as openly and with a dark humor like Sarah does.” Case in point: Ms. Baker sent out her party invite using Partiful, an event-invitation service popular among Gen Z, with an expletive about her deductible and saying it was time to “rage.”
Nathan Astle, a financial therapist in Kansas City, Mo., sees celebrations like deductible parties as a healthy response to this uncertainty. “Humans are meaning-making creatures, so these parties could help us cope with something that feels largely out of our control,” he said.
Smaller Celebrations
The day Jessamyn Stanley paid off a $10,000 medical debt, she posted on Instagram in search of connection. She said she felt compelled to share her experience, citing the stigma often associated with debt.
In a celebratory 90-second video, Ms. Stanley described how an emergency room visit for a scooter accident created a financial obligation that took her five years to settle. Looking intently at the camera, she concluded with a direct message to anyone who might be similarly struggling: “I see you, and I feel you, and it will one day be over.”
The “spiritually frustrating” travail conjured up unpleasant memories for Ms. Stanley, 36, a founder of The Underbelly, a virtual yoga studio. Her mother, who has congestive heart failure, was in and out of the hospital throughout Ms. Stanley’s childhood.“I grew up in a family where we were constantly hounded by debt collectors,” she said.
Ms. Stanley also treated herself to a cheeseburger — a rare indulgence — and rerouted the monthly $178 payments she had been making to a high-yield savings account. “The debt limited my life and prevented me from doing other things,” she said. “Now I can really work towards my goals.”
For Marta Olmos, medical costs exceed other expenses like car insurance and student loans, and curtail financial goals such as saving for a house. She felt immense relief when she met her $3,000 out-of-pocket maximum early in 2023 with an emergency appendectomy.
“It was like a burden being lifted because I knew I wouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket for the rest of the year,” Ms. Olmos, 28, said.
Ms. Olmos remembered treating herself to a nice dinner out with her boyfriend and high-end personal care items purchased with funds from her flexible spending account. But the true celebration was taking care of long-neglected issues.
“I was like, now I feel totally chill just going and getting an M.R.I.,” Ms. Olmos said. She ended up having shoulder surgery as well and then physical therapy sessions to rehabilitate.
Benjamin Schmidt, a gastroenterologist in St. Louis, Mo., often sees a deductible-driven stampede in November and December. “We always have people begging us to get them in after they’ve waited to meet their deductible, which is unfortunate because a lot of times these procedures aren’t truly elective,” he said.
Dr. Schmidt, 33, opts for a high-deductible plan because it’s tied to a health savings account, a tax-free account akin to a 401(k) for future health expenses. “But it’s sort of gambling on yourself” that you won’t have significant health needs right now, he said. And for many, the choice is less about tax savings and more about affordability. High-deductible plans typically have lower premiums than other options — just keep your fingers crossed that you don’t get sick.
These nuances require the average person to act as an insurance expert, a financial whiz and a prognosticator, making a complex system even more confusing. In response, Dr. Schmidt has begun making videos that run the gamut from a tongue-in-cheek skit on deductibles to debunking scam colon cleanses, which he posts on Instagram and TikTok.
The week after Mr. Goldstein’s deductible bash in Brooklyn, he was still riding the high that had gripped him that day. He has been receiving appreciative texts from friends who attended, thanking him for sparking much-needed discussions.
“I’d really love to go around and just get people to do parties like this and talk about this stuff,” Mr. Goldstein said. “Because the things that have helped me in the worst moments — and it sounds really cliché — is knowing, hey, someone else has gone through this, or someone else is dealing with these issues with insurance.”
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