Minnesota family bears burden of pricey US health insurance system Based on their joyful and calm demeanor, you would never know the Maccoux family faces hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical debt. They have always had health insurance and yet to care for one daughter suffering from a brain condition called hydrocephalus and another suffering from multiple sclerosis, between 1996 and 2014, the father, Dan, estimates their health costs were $277,152. Their dilemma illustrates some of the problems with the half-private, half-public healthcare system in the US that many Democratic presidential candidates have vowed to get rid of. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES