Hospital costs are rising far faster than inflation and drowning Americans in debt

Stricken with severe abdominal pain, Randy Slaughter spent three days at a nonprofit hospital in College Station, Texas, in April 2024. But doctors couldn't determine the cause and sent him home, Slaughter said, advising him to change his diet.

His stomach issue gradually went away, but the financial pain from his visit to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center lingered.