How do people get into medical debt in the first place? Sometimes it can happen when a business reorganization turns employees with benefits into contractors with no benefits. Or maybe you live in one of the 12 states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act?

To find out, we spoke to Venus Lockett, a financial services professional who lives near Atlanta. Learn what happened when Venus’s health took a bad turn while she was uninsured, and nearly $31,000 in medical bills came rolling in.

Does it really make sense to have a healthcare system with no caps on patient costs? And can anyone honestly say that employer-sponsored coverage is “best” when the business sector is often in flux, whether from recession or pandemic?