matter of fact, i'm soledad o'brien. you might think that having health insurance would protect you from medical debt, but new research shows that's not the

case for tens of millions of americans. it can happen to almost anybody. why? medical debt is such a persistent problem. and what's being done to help those who are carrying the burden and and a couple of weeks ago, i was just like every other 14 year old. but now he's working with a multibillion dollar company to develop an affordable cancer treatment. we have his story plus a philosophy that most americans don't agree with is starting to shape our laws. the christian nationalist government is completely unconstitutional. we explain what christian national ism is and why it has many, including christians, concerned those stories now on matter of fact. most americans have some form of health insurance. but even with that coverage, 4 in 10 have medical debt. a new analysis by kff shows people in the u.s. owe a collective $220 billion in

medical costs. that's billion with a b with most people owing between 2000 and $5000. but even if someone owes $1,000, the impact on finances and lives can be significant. cynthiaccox is a researcher at kff and worked on this report. it's so nice to have you. thank you. thanks for having me. of course. so let's start by talking about scope. how many people are we actually talking about and where would they be located in the country. so our survey shows that 4 in 10 americans say that they have medical debt for either themselves or someone in their family. what that adds up to is tens of millions of people and they really are located all over the country. this is such a pervasive issue that is not just happening for certain people or certain places. it can happen to almost anybody. when you say tens of millions of people, what is the estimate of how many total people we're talking about in total? we're talking about upwards to 100 million people. that is a massive number of people. it really is.

so i sit on the kff board and of course, obviously people on the board have nothing to do with the reporting that kff does. but we do get to hear the presentations that you guys pitch. and the thing that i thought was crazy, frankly, was that even people who have good insurance are having this problem. yeah, that's exactly right. i mean, there are certain groups who are going to be much more at risk of having medical debt, either they're low income or they're sick or disabled and therefore having a lot of medical bills rolling in. but even someone who has a good job and decent health insurance, they might have a deductible of several thousand dollars. and what that means is, if they have an unexpected medical event, like an emergency or some sort of hospital ization that was unexpected, then they could have to pay thousands of dollars right then and there, and a lot of people simply don't have that kind of money in liquid assets in their checking account to be able to pay it right now. and so even if you have, you know, maybe you have a decent job and a good income, live in a

nice house. if you don't have those liquid assets available, then you might not be able to pay the medical bill. and that's when people put it on their credit card. and it's interesting if you do, to build that medical debt to your credit card, it kind of moves off medical debt. it's actually really challenging to measure how much medical debt there is in this country. another thing that might happen is that someone pays for their medical bill, but then they can't afford to pay their mortgage or their rent or their car payment. so again, medical debt can easily be disguised as other kinds of debt. so that's why you really need to do these in-depth surveys is to drill down on what is the original cause of this debt. why are you really struggling with your finances right now? and that's where we see that medical debt is a huge problem for people. did you find that people were prioritizing medical debt, even more than a mortgage? rent, food? exactly. so people, especially if you're sick, you might feel like you need to pay that medical bill as

fast as possible because you're worried about being able to get future care. and so a lot of people will make incredible sacrifices to be able to afford their medical care. that might mean going without food or or clothing or other kinds of basic necessities, or trying to stretch your pennies as much as possible in that way. was there any example that you just thought was shocking of an impact that medical debt was having on someone's life? yeah, i mean, people who have medil debt are much, much more likely to be paying only the minimum balance on their credit card. so what that means is that medical debt is creating more debt. they're they're paying for their medical debt using high interest credit cards or other kinds of loans. and they're making the minimum payment so that means it's not just just the medical bill, but it's compounding and it's creating additional debt that that they're also struggling with. is there something that's being done strategically and in a big way to help people? some states are partnering with a group called wrap medical debt, and they're trying to, you know, find a way to buy off medical debt fropeople or

really from the hospital or from the collections agency to try to prevent that person from having medical debt. it is kind of a band-aid on the problem. so, you know, that might that certainly helps certain people. but then new people will incur medical debt tomorrow and they might not be helped. also, with the inflation reduction act tries to address prices to so the people with medicare are going to have lower prescription drug costs because the inflation reduction act one is going to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices. but two is going to lower the out-of-pocket costs for people who have really high drug costs. and so, you know, these these measures will certainly help. and they do try to address some of the underlying issues around costs and coverage. but of course, we're still left with with the fragmented and costly health care system. cynthiaccox from kff. thank you so much. thanks for having me. next on. matter of fact, paying for

college. it's extremely stressful for the families. how uncertainty over federal aid is impacting millions of students and their families, and and we value religious liberty. why this political science professor says the ability to exercise religion freely could be on the ballot this november. plus, what's your ethnic background? and the government needs your help as it collects more specific information about americans. your you're watching. matter of fact, america's number one nationally syndicated public affairs news magazine. nice to meet ya. one nationally syndicated public affairs news magazine. most americans believe there my name is david. i've been a pharmacist for 44 years. when i have customers come in and ask for something for memory, i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's safe and effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself and i know it works. and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me,

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should be a separation between church and state as was established in the bill of rights. but in recent years, christian nationalism has made big legal gains in the united states. that's the idea that american identity is linked to

christianity and that christianity should be written into our laws. a recent study found two thirds of americans are skeptical of or reject christian national ism. still, it's finding its way into the country's policies. our correspondent dina demetrius takes us to the birthplace of american democracy, philadelphia to explain, as soon as i get back in the oval office, i'll also immediately end the war on christians. it's a holy war, 40 years in the making on the political right. in our first four years, we appointed nearly 300 federal judges and three great supreme court justices. it's gained ground on the battlefield of the judiciary. we have have a religious movement in the united states that is feeling emboldened to not only exercise some political power, but to take political power and to control the government. professor marci hamilton is an

expert on the first amendment's establishment clause at the university of pennsylvania. she's a christian and author of god versus the gavel the establishment clause was supposed to create limitations on both church and the government, but in a way that would make them act in the interest of the public good and not undermine each other. but the concern of supreme court has eviscerated the separation of church and state. and, hamilton says rfra, the religious freedom restoration act of 1993, has given federal courts legal footing to rule in favor of religious arguments. it is a prescription to take your faith and say you have to accommodate me no matter what. in recent years, that religious accommodation was used by the supreme court, including in the landmark hobby lobby case. they're a conservative christian employer, won the right to remove contraception coverage

from his employees benefits. so when you combine this concept that your faith should control regardless of harm to others with the removal of the establishment clause barriers and you take those together, christian nationalism, obviously correctly sees an opening for themselves, that opening being taken now with a 900 page heritage foundation led playbook for a conservative presidency called project 2025. it's couched in theology and outlines methods for greater executive power, potentially replace passing 50,000 civil servants with policy loyalists through an executive order, reshape the doj and other agencies is how surprised are you? that's gotten this far? i'm not at all surprised. i've been blowing the whistle since 1997, but right now, the majority of believers in the united states don't believe what

this group believes. and so they need to stand up. they need to vote. they need to express their opinions and they need to understand that being opposed to christian nationalism is not anti-christian. or if a different religious entity wants to assert that power to write precisely. so if we open the door to christian nationalism, there's no reason to think that we then won't have battles for other faiths who want to control whether they want to control a city, a state, or the federal government. the impact of christian nationalist ideals is already being felt in people's lives. one recent example, the alabama supreme court ruled it illegal to destroy a frozen embryo, saying it is a human and upending ivf treatments. their chief justice, tom parker, used the bible for h legal opinion. that's where you get issues with christian nationalism, where you get issues with make america a christian nation again, when there's nothing biblically that calls for us to do that. this union of church and state

has created a spiritual chasm in church. his pastor, chris anton, was fired in 2023 for not condemning lgbtq youth in a christian reform church. and so whenever we make politics our priority, i think we are abandoning the kingdom of god for the kingdom of america. instead. and that that is a big issue, hamilton says her own faith has called her to advocate for what she says is the framers constitutional protections against religious tyranny. what has to happen is these believers over here have to stand up and say, it's my faith that informs me that you can't control me. i see no value in giving the high ground solely to one set of believers. that's what opens the door to christian nationalism. from the birthplace of the us constitution. i'm dina demetrius fromatter of fact. coming up, the high school

graduating class of 2024 is in a bind. why? many can't say yes yet to the colleges that have accepted them. and we have an update on this 14 year old scientist. he created a soap to treat skin cancer. well, now he's receiving a big honor alongside other inventors who are more than twice his age. honor alongside other inventors who are more than twice his age. hi school seniors across the it's time to get away and cache in,

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whether they'll get the financial aid they need. that's because of several glitches in the federal financial aid program or fafsa. this all started last year when the entire fafsa system was overhauled. the goal was to make it shorter the website was supposed to launch in october, didn't go live till december, then it went dark. by the second week of january, it was up and running, but with several issues. families were locked out of the form and some students born in the year 2000 couldn't even submit. a few weeks later, the department of education announced that colleges and universities wouldn't receive the aid applications till mid march. that's because the initial form didn't account for inflation, leaving nearly $2 billion on the table. instead of going towards students education, there. then this past week, some colleges received the wrong information about nearly a million students finances. on top of it all, 2 million applications still have not been processed. financial aid expert mark

kantrowitz describes what's happening to families most students cannot afford to enroll in college without some form of financial aid that can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and so they are put in a position where they have to decide, do i accept this offer of admission before i know how much the other colleges are going to offer? or do i skip this college and wait for the other colleges college and universities usually want students to make a decision to enroll and pay a deposit by may 1st. many schools, but not all, have already pushed back that date ahead on matter of fact, this high schooler is on a mission to save lives. my bar of soap is completely novel, he tells us how it could help people with cancer. plus, how diverse is america? the effort underway to get a more accurate answer to stay up to date with matter of fact, sign up for our newsletter at matteroffacttv.

welcome back to matter of fact,

the national inventors hall of fame has a new exhibit. it features the work of a former 18 year old. his name is heman bekele. the teen from virginia invented a soap that could treat skin cancer. our producer, tamika cody, met up with the high school freshman and brings us his story in his own words. hi, my name is heman bekele. i'm 14 years old and i just recently won the 3 a.m. young scientist challenge for creating a bar of soap that can help treat skin cancer from a very young age. growing up in ethiopia, i always saw people who were getting hit by the hot sun, and when they did end up getting diseases such as skin cancer, the prices were truly either inequitable or inaccessible to so many people. the average price of skin cancer treatment globally is almost $40,000, and that's an outrageous price and a number that i hope to fix slowly

through products like these, which find a more innovative and different way to go about treating skin cancers like basal cell skin carcinoma, which are normally super expensive to fight against. so the main reason why i chose to even do this was just to find a more affordable and accessible route to treating the same type of diseases. the product that i worked on developing is this product called scts, and that stands for skin cancer treating soap. it's pretty much this compound based bar of soap that's charged with different cancer fighting chemicals. the main agent is this toll like receptor called imidazole quinolines, which can help fight against skin cancers. and it has shown really great results in the past. and it's working really well with my bar of soap right now. the original entry video that i created, that video was a two minute quick pitch melanoma is a variant of skin cancer, where the pigment producing cells, and that was before i was given all the resources that i was provided with by the three young scientist challenge. so i ended up actually going back to the drawing board after that initial video and completely changed my initial recipe. that video had things like a 30,

20, 50 ratio of salicylic acid, glycolic acids, and tretinoin, and that completely changed when i started to actually speak with professionals and speak with my three mentors, and realize that not only was there a more effective cure, but then at the same time, there was also a cheaper cure. and you can actually see that as well. with my entry video where i said that one bar of soap costs $0.50 or $10 for a pack of 20, and now my bar of soap actually cost $8.50 for a pack of 20. this soap is definitely not ready for the market yet, but that does move on to my next point, which is the five year plan for scts by 2028. i actually hope to turn this passion project into a nonprofit and actually start improving lives and seeing actual change in this world. but kelly says that in five years, he's also hoping to get fda certification so that human trials and clinical testing of his soap can begin. still ahead on. matter of fact, how a change to the federal forms you fill out

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decades, how the government asks about your race and ethnicity is changing. we're talking about the series of questions you have to answer on federal forms. it'll start to look something like this under newly announced guidelines, there will be just one question about ethnicity and race, and two new choices are being added hispanic or latino and middle eastern or north african. there will also be more options to describe your ethnicity like nigerian, jamaican, cuban. the goal is to have a more accurate picture of ameri's diverse city, which is important since this data helps with everything from determining voting maps to guiding policy decisions and research. but it's not without issue. there are concerns that by limiting it to just one question, the afro-latino community won't be properly represented because people won't know that they can pick from

multiple options. they'll just pick one or the other. and there are concerns that the new middle eastern or north african option isn't inclusive enough. still, federal agencies must implement the changes by 2029, and that means they'll be place for the next us census in 2030. it should be interesting to see those results. that's it for this edition of matter of fact, i'm soledad o'brien. i'll see you back here next week to watch more stories like this. anytime, head to matteroffacttv.

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