Across
- 2. Individuals have been living longer causing the significant increase in chronic and expensive to manage and treat illnesses. This causes insurers to charge more coverage because of all the needs. As of 2025–2026, a 65-year-old retiring individual can expect to spend approximately \(\$172,500\) on healthcare throughout retirement, with couples potentially facing costs up to \(\$345,000\) or much higher when including long-term care.
- 5. monthly fee to maintain active healthcare insurance regardless of if you use medical services, has been rising very high. The average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance are roughly \ (\$9,325\) for single coverage and \$26,993\) for family coverage. These have gone up by a 7-8% surge in annual healthcare spending.
- 8. the amount added to the cost price of goods or services to determine the final selling price, ensuring profit, hospitals in the U.S. have frequently been marking up medications and services often charging 3-4 times the Medicare- allowable rate making out-of-pocket costs raise causing individuals to go into debt.
- 10. Healthcare insurance is continuing to rise because of the lack of competition in hospitals. Hospitals have been merging together, allowing them to charge more for services because there is nowhere to go.
- 11. Hospitals and providers are facing increased pressure to pay higher wages to staff, increasing operating expenses.
- 13. Another word for the Affordable Care Act, Republicans like to call it that because it was associated with the president Obama, and suggested it was a “bad” law despite people agreed that the Act was important and helped many families
- 16. what percent of people still feel unprepared with savings
- 18. Individuals lacking public or private health insurance, this amount has skyrocketed with the amount of people putting their lives in risk because they don't have the money for insurance. People would skip out on doctor visits they needed just to not go into debt, causing major risks in people's health. (How does this impact healthcare and costs overall in the US)
- 19. a fixed out-of-pocket fee paid by patients at the time of service. This plays a role in the relationship between insures and patients encouraging responsible use of services; these are rising higher than ever right now too.
Down
- 1. who was the president who implemented COBRA, which is a U.S. federal law allowing employees and their families to temporarily keep employer-sponsored health coverage for 18–36 months after a "qualifying event"
- 2. handle the business side of healthcare. These costs have gone up because of all paperwork and office work involved in handling insurance and medical bills; this takes money and time causing premiums to go up to support these costs.
- 3. Healthcare inflation reached nearly $5.3 trillion in 2024, up from $1.4 trillion in 2000, now comprising roughly 18% of the GDP. It saw a 3.1 increase since March 2025 with medical costs rising 3.7% and commodities rising 0.3%. These increases have continued to keep rising, causing individuals to have burdens for healthcare insurance.
- 4. what president passed the health security act which aimed to achieve universal health care coverage for all U.S. citizens and legal residents.
- 6. Amount paid before insurance starts, this has been rising very high to lately, say your deductible is $2000 you must pay that out of pocket before your insurance will cover anything, making more people go in debt with having to pay the high deductible
- 7. Federal health insurance program to help primary people aged 60 or older
- 9. prescription drugs costs have continued to rise causing the cost of coverage for the drugs you need to rise. Since the prices have risen, it causes healthcare insurance to rise, trying to help insurers be able to cover the costs. As of January 2026, approximately 35.9 million children were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in the U.S.
- 12. this is the percentage you pay for your services until your annual out-of-pocket maximum is reached, after which the insurance pays 100% of covered services. This is rising, causing patients to have to pay more out-of-pocket costs for health care services.
- 14. Joint federal and state program to help low-income families with med costs
- 15. Children's Health Insurance Program, a federal-state partnership, provides low-cost health coverage to uninsured children and teens that incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low for private insurance. (STATS on CHIP)
- 17. cost not covered by insurance, this is continuing to rise everyday making financial burdens on individuals that can't pay for their health care that was not covered by their insurance