7 Eye-Popping Details From The TIME Cover Story On Health Care Costs

National Trust for Historic PreservationIn a new Time Magazine cover story, reporter Steven Brill writes a rather lengthy piece about the huge problem with health care costs in the United States.

The piece, titled "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," goes in-depth on the big problems facing hospitals, insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical industry — with patients often bearing the burden.

It's a $2.6 trillion problem, according to 2010 data from The Kaiser Family Foundation — a health expenditure increase ten-times the $256 billion spent in 1980.

There is plenty of blame to go around: Rising prescription drug costs, administrative costs, and changes in the nature of illness. And unlike other industries, new medical technologies have pushed costs up rather than down.