Marketplace - It's not just you — healthcare deductibles are ballooning

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Growing health insurance premiums, particularly for plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, have been in the headlines as cuts to Medicaid roll out nationwide. But healthcare deductibles are also growing — and with them, the group of Americans who have insurance but can’t afford to use it. Also in this episode: The hospitality industry adds jobs in May, a jeweler in California mines his own gold, and we recap the week’s economic headlines.Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

You know that thing where what normal people think is good news? Wall Street thinks is bad news? Yeah, that. From American public media. This is Marketplace. In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Risdahl. It is Friday today. This one is the 5th of June.

Good as always to have you along, everybody. 172,000 new jobs. 172,000 new jobs. Clearly. Everything's fine. Right? Right? That obviously is where we're going to start. Heather Long is the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. Kate Davidson is at Bloomberg. Hey, you two. Hi, Kai. Heather Long, I do believe I owe you an apology. Well, I will make it unreservedly here on live radio. Last time we had you on, I was skeptical about you saying the hiring recession is over. And I guess I was wrong. wrong, right? Hey, apology accepted. I'll take it.

And I'll just reiterate the same thing. The hiring recession is over, and that's good news. I know Wall Street didn't like it today, but I think if you live in the real economy, which is what you like to talk about, this is good news. In the past three months, we've averaged 188,000 jobs added a month. This is no longer just a health care job story. We see a big surge in hospitality jobs and restaurants, maybe all that World Cup hiring, I don't know. But, you know, local government, retail, transport and warehouse, construction, even a little manufacturing and professional services jobs. Another good sign I saw was the black unemployment rate falling to the lowest level in a year. That's really good news. You know, the one thing we got to admit that's the

Achilles heel is that wage growth, man. Wage growth is the slowest in five years. fall into 3.4 percent, obviously getting wiped out right now by inflation. You know, that's the Achilles heel for the economy. Kate Davidson, would you explain, please, why, what is objectively, for those of us in the real economy, good news, Wall Street was like, no, no, no, man, this is terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Yeah, so Wall Street immediately saw that what this probably means is that Fed officials who might have been worried that the labor market was weak and that the labor market needed support from lower interest rates, they don't really have a reason to be worried about that anymore. If the Fed, if there was any

possibility that the Fed might at some point later this year consider cutting rates again, as they had been late last year, the case for that seems to have pretty much evaporated. And what's more, we are now seeing rising inflation from the war in Iran. So markets see this, and I totally agree with Heather, like this is good news. companies are hiring, but investors who had hoped that they might get some more support from lower interest rates were disappointed that this now means, you know, if I could be looking at rate hikes if the inflation picture doesn't turn around. Heather Long, I know you hate my favorite game.

What is Kevin Warsh thinking in five words or less? So I'm not going to do that to you. But certainly the new Fed chair, because some of his colleagues now, Beth Hammock today out of Cleveland, and we're saying, you know what, the next move might have to be a rate increase. And that is an interesting position now for the new guy to be in. Yeah. Honestly, Kevin Morse, it would maybe be a victory for him if rates stay the same all year. But it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

You know, I think he's got a real credibility problem. He has to come out strong at this first meeting in June and come up with his line. Remember how Fed Chair Powell would always say, I will do whatever it takes. to get after inflation. Kevin Warsh has got to figure out his version of that ASAP or the bond market's going to eat him alive. Kate, let me ask you this. The other thing that Powell used to say all the time is it's data dependent. We want more data. We're going to go wherever the data leads us. What do you think members of the FOMC are going to be looking for now data-wise? Sure. So I think that if we stick with today's jobs report, I think one of the things that they're

looking at is the unemployment rate, right? So Beth Hammack said she still sees the labor market as roughly imbalance, which might sound kind of crazy given all the jobs that we're adding, which we just talked about. But really, I think what they mean is that the labor market is probably not contributing to higher inflation right now. So they'd want to keep an eye on that unemployment rate if it starts to go down in subsequent reports. That would be, it would add to their worries about inflation, right? But on inflation, and they'll get fresh consumer price data next week, they will be looking to see whether the price pressures that are stemming from energy are spreading into other

categories. Is this something that's becoming more entrenched and more persistent? That would be really worrisome, and they would feel more compelled to maybe act sooner to step in and head that off with higher rates. Heather, can I ask you about revisions? They were up sharply for the last couple of months. what do you take that to mean? I take it as another good sign.

I mean, generally, people always get a little skeptical of these revisions. You know, are they fixing the numbers? But the reality is they're getting more information in. They survey 121,000 different businesses across the country. And in the first, you know, people only have about 15 days to respond by the first deadline. Only about 60% of businesses respond versus two or something. three months later, they've got 90% or more of businesses responding. And so if things are being revised higher as they're getting more information in, that's a sign that there is some broad-based

improvement going on, which is very different than the last two years. Most of the revisions were down in 2024 and 2025. Just to be clear, because I saw some of this on the socials today, and it's important to be emphatic about this. No matter what the president of the United States says, these numbers are still the gold standard and nothing is being manipulated to make them look bad. That's an important point. Kate Davidson, last question to you, and it goes like this, to bring up the specter of Jay Powell one more time. He also has said, and lots of other Fed officials have said this as well, that they're going to look through the current inflation spike because of energy prices. Do you think that is still a credible approach, given what we've seen the last couple of weeks with both PCE and CPA?

So I think that the window is probably closing, right? The question was always okay. They can look through it but for how long. And we've definitely heard from some of them increasingly in recent weeks that they want to start to see some improvement. It's pretty clear. So I think, you know, the next couple reports on inflation are going to be really important. I don't think that any sort of rate hike is on the table for the meeting that's happening in the middle of June coming up shortly. But looking to the end of July, they're going to get a lot of inflation. data before then. And it does, it does feel like unless something is resolved with the conflict in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz reopens, it's getting harder for them to stay where they are. There's going to be a bigger case building for considering rate hikes. Yeah. All right, I lied. Heather, you get the last question, and I want to, as I do when you come on, you've got 45 seconds-ish to answer this one. What's a tidbit from all that data you have at Navy Federal from consumers and how they're spending money? What's your favorite little tidbit of the day? The one that makes me pretty nervous is starting to see some signs of pullback, not a lot, but particularly things, a little bit of pullback in home improvement. Okay, that's discretionary, but also in health care. And, you know, you just worry, what's happening to maybe lower income folks. Are they not going to the doctor? That's scary in the short and the long term.

Heather Long, at Navy Federal Credit Union, Kate Davidson of Bloomberg on this Friday afternoon. Thanks you too. Thanks, Guy. Thanks, Kai. Wall Street today, I do not get to pick, but I will bet you real money. It's going to be the Wawa's. We will have the details when we do the numbers. Health insurance is to be very, very kind, confusing, at best, opaque at worst. You got your premiums, you got your co-page, you got your deductibles, you got your in-network, you got your out-of-network. I could go on, but I won't.

The bottom line is that this year, as almost every year, health insurance has gotten more expensive, especially for people using the Affordable Care Act. And there's been a lot of focus on how much premiums have jumped, but deductibles, what you have to pay before insurance starts paying, that's been going up too. Marketplace of Samantha Fields has our story. When Jake Calderon started buying his own health insurance, he mostly wanted to keep his monthly premium low. I was a long distance runner. I go to the gym a lot. I'd never thought that, hey, you're going to be straddled with major health concerns. Calderon is 32 and works at a small accounting firm in Indianapolis that gives employees a stipend

to buy their own ACA insurance. He picked one of the cheapest plans he could find with a premium of less than $300 a month in 2020, $4.25 a month now. I've never really once thought about the deductible because I've never expected to have to use it all. He was more excited that the plan included a free gym membership than he was concerned about the nearly $8,000 deductible. Until this winter, when he slipped on some ice and hurt his back. My motto's always to avoid going to emergency services because I don't want to have to pay.

But about 10 days later, Calderin started losing feeling in his legs, so he finally went to the ER. An MRI showed he had a herniated disc crushing his nerves. In the middle of that night, I got the herniated disc remove, and I've been recovering since. He'll now have to do the thing he was trying to avoid by waiting to go to the doctor, pay his entire deductible, which has risen to nearly $11,000. When the ACA was being signed, the big conversation was, do you or do you not have insurance? Just yes or no? Lindsay Allen is a health economist at Northwestern University. However, we have not been paying a lot of attention to what's been happening within that Yes, I Am insured category over the past couple of decades. which is that a growing number of people, about 25% are underinsured.

That means you have insurance, but the cost barrier is still too high for you to be able to actually use your insurance as intended. This year, the average deductible for an ACA plan is nearly $4,000 a person, a thousand $1,000 more than it was last year, according to health policy nonprofit KFF. That's the amount you have to pay out of pocket before your insurance starts coming. covering anything beyond preventive care. Sarah Collins at the Commonwealth Fund says the average ACA deductible is so much higher this year because when Congress let the enhanced subsidies expire, about 25% of people switch to plans

with lower monthly premiums. So it means that people are trying to save money up front by lowering their premium cost and enrolling in plans that will have much higher deductibles. And then feeling like they can't afford to actually use their insurance. We really need to have a hard conversation about the role of deductibles and health benefits. Deductibles were originally intended to discourage people from getting lots of expensive unnecessary tests and procedures and incentivize them to shop around. But what we've found over time is that they've not only failed to encourage shopping,

but they've acted as an affordability barrier to all care. Deductibles have been rising for the same reason premiums have. Healthcare is getting more expensive, and it's not. insurers want us to share the cost. But that is feeling increasingly untenable for people like Jake Caldron in Indianapolis. I don't know how people can afford this. After his back surgery this spring, he's now on a plan with the hospital to pay $216 a month for the next four years. That's how long it'll take to meet his $11,000 deductible. I thought I was doing pretty well for myself. And now I'm in such a money crunch. I'm utilizing credit just for normal expenses, and I just don't see a bright

future where I'm able to afford the lifestyle I was living and continue to make these payments. Especially if his insurance premium and deductible go up again next year, which he's expecting they will. I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace. Coming up. Took myself up to Pyrou Creek and found my my first flakes of gold there. Old-time gold mining in the modern age. But first, sure, why not? Let's do the numbers.

As I said, the wah-was, it is. Dow Industrial's down 695 points, 1 to 4-10%. Finished at 50,000 to 866. The NASDAQ nose-dived at 1,121.212 points, 4.2%, 25,709. Ouch. The S&P 500, 200 points. The downside, two and six-tenths percent, 73 and 83. For the five days going by, the Dow sank three-tenths percent.

NASDAQ off 4.7 percent, the S&P 500, down two and six-tenths of one percent. So part of that was rates worries, as Kate was telling us. Part of it was AI. Chipstocks in particular took a beating today. Micron Technologies down 13.2 percent. Intel, down 11 and three-tenths percent. Even in Vidaa, down six and two-tenths percent on the day. Talked about hospitality hiring a little bit more of that coming up from Elizabeth Trowall in about, I don't know, a minute and a half, two minutes. Marriott, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, by the by, increased 1 and 9 tenths of 1%. Darden restaurants, Olive Garden and Longhorst Steakhouse, right?

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, should you be curious, up two and four tenths of one percent today. Bonds down, yield on the 10-year T-note, 4.54%. You're listening to Marketplace. This is Marketplace. I'm Kai Risdal. 172,000 new jobs in May as we set up at the top of the program. Of that 70,000 of them were in leisure and hospitality, as Heather pointed out. And it stands to reason, I think, summer travel seasons basically here.

The World Cup starts next week. Restaurants and hotels and bars are going to be busy. Marketplace is Elizabeth Troval looked into hospitality hiring. Anxious consumers may be opting out of certain splurges this summer. But Chad Moutre with the National Restaurants Association, says even so. They love going out to eat, and we've seen that prioritization. I think that really speaks to why restaurants have done so well when it has come to hiring,

even in the midst of all of this economic uncertainty. He says some of the made jobs bump could be from the upcoming travel season and the World Cup, which is coming to cities like Houston, where Abby Byron Betelow runs Truth Barbecue. We are big partners in NRG Stadium. So we've been staffing up for FIFA, so we've had to hire. It takes us, you know, 12 to 16 people to run a FIFA game effectively. But not all are staffing up. I don't have any idea what's going to happen.

Tracy Vott with H-Town Restaurant Group has restaurants across Houston. We talk about it almost daily and it's just confusing. It's very hard to predict what's going to happen because some folks are saying that the hotels aren't fully booked. She says sales could roar at certain times. And crickets other times. Right now, she's not staffing up. Same goes for Dina Sampson, who runs Italian eatery Roso Blue in downtown Los Angeles, even though she's partnering with FIFA to do a pizza party event. Hopefully, all the people coming to town will make us busier. But I'm definitely not hiring. I know, you know, a lot of my friends are not hiring. She says the

event is coming after a slower year for restaurants there. Downtown took a big hit last year with everything that was going on with ice and the riots downtown. Even if they're not staffing up, she says restaurant owners like her are hopeful. The World Cup will provide a much-needed boost. I'm Elizabeth Trowall for Marketplace. I went out to Santa Monica last week to visit a small business. No signs on the Gold Place. that honestly felt a little bit like stepping back in time.

Hi, I'm Kai. Nice to see you. How are you, Rebecca? Good to see you. Ooh, it smells old-timey in here. And that's not an insult, by the way. I'm sorry. We are, Kyle.

We are old-timey in here. Rebecca Bracken introduced us to her father, Todd, owner and master jeweler of Bracken jewelers. He had on a tweed vest, gold-framed glasses. He was standing behind a glass case with jewelry and a bunch of other shiny stuff sitting on green velvet. He learned the jewelry trade, he said, from his father back in Decatur, Illinois. I decided that maybe I did want to go in the jewelry business.

After years of thinking, I did not want to do that. As Alkins do when they were going to get that shop, right. He came out of here, eventually, California, to work at the Gemological Institute of America. Making certificates and grading diamonds. And within a few years after that, I decided to open my own store in Santa Monica. We're here not so much for the diamonds and the jewels. We're here for the gold, which is probably not a phrase I had a say in a jewelry style. Sorry.

Sorry. That just occurred to me. Gold can, of course, be turned into jewelry, like the rings in Todd Bracken's studio. But it's also one of the original safe haven assets in times of economic uncertainty, like, say, now, regular people buy it, sophisticated investors buy it, companies, even countries. Just this week, the European Central Bank said there's more gold in foreign reserve, around the world, then there are U.S. Treasury bonds. That's part of what makes Todd Bracken's raw materials more expensive.

Turns out, though, he's not just a user of gold. He is also a miner of it. That's a lot of gold. Did you pull all this out of the dirt? This, yes. Oh, my God, it's really heavy. He says, like a moron. Of course it's heavy. What came first? The gold mine or the jewelry store? The jewelry store came first.

You decided you need some raw materials? Is that what happened? No, not exactly. To make a very long story short, Todd read an article about somebody panning for gold up in the Angeles National Forest. That date was around 1979 when there were major things happening in the world economy, and because of that gold price was skyrocketing. So all jeweler's attention was on gold. 1979, the era of double-digit inflation and 18% interest rates, which, as it happens, push the price of gold. up as well. And so my first weekend free, I went down to the busy bee hardware on Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica and bought a gold pan and took myself up to Piru Creek and found my first

flakes of gold there on my very first try. And you were hooked. And I was hooked. After years of panning and prospecting as a hobbyist, Todd went and bought an old gold mine and he got it up and running again, too. When you use gold that you've gotten out of your own mind, Do you get like a price break? Do you have to pay for the gold? Do you get out of your own mind? It's very expensive to go out of the ground. You owe the mine.

It's not just laying around on the surface that anybody can walk around and pick up. You have to go through a huge amount of labor. You almost call it dirt farming. You're digging up dirt. You're passing it through machinery or devices. And in our case, we use only ground. gravity and water. Right.

There must come times when it's not economically feasible for you to pull gold out of the ground, right? I don't know what it is today. You probably checked this morning the first thing you got up. What's the price of gold there? It's around $4,450 this morning, down $1,000 from a few months ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have gold as your capital stock for this business, right?

Do you buy gold like for you? I do. My savings is mostly. in gold, saving in gold will afford you the chance to outrun inflation. One hopes? Well, let's look at history. This is 5,000 years of history. Okay.

And if you go back 100, 200 years, one ounce of gold would buy you a very fine suit of clothes. Today, about the same. I mean, a very fine suit. That's pretty nice suit for, you know. Give inflation a little bit of time. Over the past couple of years, the high price of gold. gold has drawn a whole new generation of prospectors into the mix. There are even gold influencers now on social media. We've talked about that on this show. It's part of how Todd's daughter Rebecca,

the third generation of brackens in the jewelry trade, you work for your dad, right? I do for the last three years. Has been trying to get attention for this old school business, posting about it on TikTok and Instagram. Do you have a gold painting with your dad? I have. Yep. Is that for you like it is for him, or is it just a thing you do? You know, I haven't had the opportunity yet to get in the river with kind of the whole scuba equipment set up, but definitely have memories of being out there with the gold pan and him and with my grandpa as well. Todd, after you finish putting all that gold back in the safe, what would your dad make of the next generation working on this stuff?

Oh, he would be absolutely thrilled and giddy with happiness. Todd, thanks a lot. You're welcome. Rebecca, thank you. Thank you. This final note on the way out today, do what you will with this one. Idle musings of the president of the United States or a turn farther into the state capitalism that has marked the second Trump administration. The president said today he would like to get a piece of the big artificial intelligence companies once they go public.

And here I quote, there's something very interesting about it, the president said, where it almost becomes a partnership. The American people can benefit from the success of AI. and by doing that, they're going to like it better. End of quote right there. And to be clear and fair about this, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have said versions of the same thing. Our theme music was composed by B.J. Leatherman.

Marketplace's executive producer is Nancy Fargolly. Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer, Neil Scarborough, the vice president and general manager. I'm Kyle. I'll have yourselves a great weekend, everybody. We will see you back here on Monday, all right? This is 8 p.m. It's almost time for the World Cup. And as we're cheering on our favorite teams and hopefully watching them win,

I know at least some of us are wondering, why do athletes get paid so much money? This week on Million Bazillion, Bridget and I learn how scouting works, how teams decide what to pay their star athletes, and why those are important factors in making games fun to watch. Leagues or team owners have an interest in making sure that all the teams have somewhat equal talent because it makes it way more fun when you don't know in advance which team will win. We call that uncertainty of outcome. And the way that players are paid is one way

that league rules can improve competitive balance. Listen to Million Bazillion on your favorite podcast app.