For Neal Shah, the breaking point came during his wife's cancer treatment.

He remembers being overwhelmed, surrounded by stacks of hospital bills, denial notices and insurance statements. When he and his wife tallied everything -- from monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs to uncovered treatments -- they realized the shocking truth that over the years, they might have been better off paying entirely out of pocket than carrying health insurance at all.

At first, Shah chalked all of the bills and denials up to bad luck.

"Then, I went down a rabbit hole of research, of just trying to figure out what is going on with health insurance?" he told CNET. "Why are there so many denials of claims? How many people is it impacting? And then I just got obsessive about it." Zooey Liao/CNET

That

See Full Page