When thinking about the challenges facing the health care industry, we continue to encounter persistent complexity that patients experience when accessing their benefits coupled with an affordability crisis in our general economy.

Today's insurance models include complicated plan design terms and provisions that very few people understand. When given basic plan design terms, only 4% of plan participants can match the term to the definition. Not only is it difficult for individuals to understand health plans benefits, but they are also struggling financially, avoiding health care services altogether. The recent spike in revolving credit card debt has just crossed the trillion-dollar level in the United States for the first time (up by $250 billion in the last 24 months), which has resulted in maxed out credit lines for households. Families do not have the financial means to afford the high out of-pocket costs within their medical plans and they no longer have lines of credit to support them through an unexpected health care event.