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PODCAST

An Arm and a Leg

An Arm and a Leg

An Arm and a Legis a podcast about why health care costs so freaking much and what we can (maybe) do about it. If you’ve ever been surprised by a medical bill, you’re in good company. But as our team of seasoned journalists has learned from years of reporting — you’re not always helpless. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ll offer you tools and big picture insights with plenty of humor and heart. An Arm and a Leg is co-produced with KFF Health News and

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

2:28

Sick Note: Dan has COVID. (He's fine, but ...)

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/04/07

Hey there — I got COVID a little before we were scheduled to tape this week's episode. Whoops! I'm fine now, but kinda tired. Just to be on the safe side — some people stay tired for a while — let's give me two weeks before we come back with a full episode.Meanwhile, I'll share this: I think one reason I got better quick was, I was able to get anti-viral meds. (Paxlovid, in my case.) And I mention this because: There's a new variant going around, BA.2, which looks like it's going to bring on a new

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19:04

Fighting for the Right to Help

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/03/24

It’s illegal to advise someone who’s being sued for medical debt, unless you're a lawyer. Yep, really. Even in its most basic form (like helping people fill out a checklist) it’s considered the “unlicensed practice of law.” And it’s a crime. As in, you could go to jail.So some New Yorkers are suing to get that changed.The non-profit Upsolve wants to help people represent themselves in court when they’re being sued over debt. Their plan is to train people like pastors, social workers, and librarians

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26:12

Swimming with sharks

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/03/10

Pharma and insurance companies play devious, clever games, competing for dollars. They’re sharks! It’d be fun to track, but they’re eating us alive.If anyone could beat the sharks at this game, we’d pickLillian Karabaic, who runs the personal finance show/community calledOh My Dollar!— and is SUPER on-top-of her stuff.But Lillian recently got socked with an unexpected $3,000 charge— and expects to lose her very-organized fight against it.Understanding how Lillian got here — how pretty much any of us

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24:54

Introducing: Half Vaxxed

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/02/24

Last year we brought you the story — part caper, part tragedy — of how Philadelphia tried to hand off its COVID vaccination program to a wannabe tech bro right out of college. We built on the work of reporter Nina Feldman and her colleagues at WHYY. Now, they've laid out the entire thing in a podcast of their own, called Half Vaxxed. It’s terrific. Funny in places, horrifying in others, and full of lessons. We'll be back in a few weeks to start the next batch of Arm and a Leg episodes. Meanwhile, we

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41:13

Introducing: Last Day

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/02/10

Stephanie Wittels Wachs has made the show about a topic that's actually too enraging, terrifying, and depressing for An Arm and a Leg: the opioid crisis. And it's as entertaining, empowering and useful as we could ever want. It's called Last Day. Here's episode 1. (In case you need convincing that it's entertaining, we'll tell you: In this episode, she interviews comedians Sarah Silverman and Aziz Ansari at length.)Part of what makes Last Day so good is that Stephanie is a great storyteller — as

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18:00

Meet your new rights under the No Surprises Act

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/01/27

The No Surprises Act — a new law that protects us from some outrageous out-of-network hospital bills — takes effect this month. That's great news, but (and there’s always a but) there are some important caveats to know about.Like, for instance: these protections only apply to care you get in a hospital. Then there’s the deceptively-named Surprise Billing Protection form they might ask you to sign. And there’s more.We break down what you need to know about your rights under this new law, what traps

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23:13

2022 update: How to avoid a big bill for your COVID...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2022/01/13

COVID testing—the kind they send to a lab— is supposed to be free in the U.S. But it’s never been quite that simple. We’re revisiting our sadly-still-relevant interview with Sarah Kliff from the New York Times, who joined us in November 2020 to share what she learned from reading hundreds of COVID testing bills.Her advice? Avoid the ER, do some research ahead of time, and ask if they’re going to do any other tests (which may not be covered 100%).We summed up some of her advice in a recent First Aid

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15:02

Our Year in Review, with members of the Arm and a Leg...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/12/30

An Arm and a Leg wraps up a big year, and some of the team takes a moment to reflect. Consulting Managing Producer Daisy Rosario, Editor Marian Wang, and Associate Producer Emily Pisacreta join host Dan Weissmann in a conversation on why we make the show and what we look forward to doing in 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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20:45

Why rapid COVID tests are so freaking expensive

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/12/20

Who’s making a buck: rapid test edition. Rapid, at-home COVID tests are pretty much essential if you want to see friends and family this holiday season, and stay safe.But they’re freaking expensive and can be hard to find. What the heck happened?When ProPublica reporter Eric Umansky went looking for COVID tests recently, he came back empty handed. He and fellow reporter Lydia DePillis investigated, tracing the US’s rapid testing problem all the way back to the FDA and other government agencies.Plus,

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19:01

Fighting with health insurance is easy (for...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/12/09

Health insurance is like some medieval horror, says law professor Jackie Fox.But, funny thing: She also says insurance fights are easy. For her. She’s been helping people win them for 30 years.Jackie Fox has a lot to teach us. And class is in session.Here’s a transcript of the episode.Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or call 724 ARM-N-LEGAnd of course we’d love for you to support this show.This month, every dollar you donate is DOUBLED, thanks to NewsMatch and the

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24:52

How to avoid the crappiest health insurance.

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/11/24

We kick off with a wild ride: How one journalist almost got roped into a scam.While hunting for a new insurance plan, Mitra Kaboli got an offer that seemed too good to be true—but seemed to be coming from her current insurer. Mitra was skeptical, and it turns out, she had every reason to be. Dania Palanker from Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms unpacks this sketchy scheme, and gives us the key to avoiding it: When you're searching for health insurance... skip Google

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24:19

The Insurance Warrior takes on a $61B Company

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/11/11

When Mattew Lientz needed surgery to save his life, his insurance wouldn’t cover it. Enter: Laurie Todd, the Insurance Warrior. Her first task: Figuring out who Matthew was really fighting, and how big the battle really was.Together, Matthew, his wife Diane, and Laurie made the case for Matthew’s life. Fourteen years later, the speeches they gave in a conference room full of insurance executives are a masterclass in winning insurance appeals — and living to tell the tale.The battle also illustrates

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23:45

Meet the Insurance Warrior

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/11/01

In 2005, Laurie Todd needed surgery to save her life. Her insurance company had no intention of paying for it. She went to war, and won. She's been helping other do the same ever since. Now, she's sharing her secrets with us.Psst: This month, when you support this show, every dollar you donate is DOUBLED, thanks to NewsMatch and the Institute for Nonprofit News.Holy cow.Here's the link.Also:Here’s a transcript for the episode.Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or

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19:39

We spend 12 million hours a week on the phone with...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/10/14

Yup. A Stanford professor measured it. So… we should probably learn how they actually make money, understand their incentives. Here’s one clue: A lot of the time, providing insurance isn’t their real job. In this episode, we unpack what that means, and we start exploring how to put that knowledge to work.Here’s a transcript for this episode: https://armandalegshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/12-Million-Hours-An-Arm-and-a-Leg-Transcript-S6-Ep05-12.pdfSend your stories and questions:

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26:54

Wait, that was legal until now?!?

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/09/30

Hospitals in Maryland were suing patients over bills that should’ve been forgiven.It wasn’t illegal. Until now. How a coalition changed that. This year.Plus, our friends at Dollar For build their bill-crushing army, one Zoom training at a time.Need help applying for charity care for you or a loved one? We compiled a list of five helpful tips.Here's the transcript for this episode.Send your stories and questions:https://armandalegshow.com/contact/or call 724 ARM-N-LEGAnd of course we'd love for you

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25:41

"We just kept right on pushing"

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/09/16

Manny Lanza died because he didn't have insurance. His parents fought back, with help from New York’s favorite tabloid. After years of work by advocates and organizers, laws suddenly changed. Here’s how.Here's a transcript for this episode.Send your stories and questions:https://armandalegshow.com/contact/or call 724 ARM-N-LEGAnd of course we'd love for you to support this show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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26:02

The wild backstory of a tiny but crucial Obamacare...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/09/02

How one Republican senator made sure the ACA required non-profit hospitals to act more like charities—and less like loan sharks—before voting against the whole thing.The national requirement to offer charity care emerged from the Obama White House’s failed courtship of GOP Senator Chuck Grassley. We hear how that failed courtship almost tanked the ACA— and how the battle over the ACA “broke America”—from former Obama adviser David Axelrod, longtime reporter Julie Rovner and a top Grassley aide.This

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23:18

A legendary lawyer sued hospitals for price-gouging...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/08/19

The lawyer was Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, the lawyer who beat Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Later, he launched a series of ill-fated national lawsuits aimed at getting non-profit hospitals to quit price-gouging low-income patients, and chasing them hard for payment. It... didn't go as well as the tobacco lawsuit, by a long shot. Scruggs did help start something that ended up making real change.For instance: We’ve been following the work of Jared Walker, who went super-viral on TikTok, spreading the word

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2:36

We’re back! Starting Aug 19. And we’ve got some...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/08/05

We’ve been on a hiatus for a minute, and we are SO excited about what we’re coming back with.These are stories we’ve been collecting for months—some of them for more than a year—and they’re big.One of them turns out to be about how change actually happens. Which for a show about the cost of health care—one that promises (and we do) to be entertaining, empowering, and useful—change is important.And, as horrible as things are right now, we’ve been learning: some things used to be worse.For instance,

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10:48

Badass volunteers help Jared level up, in the fight...

An Arm and a Leg ·

2021/07/15

An update on Jared Walker, whose viral TikTok described a little-known (and effective) method to “crush” many hospital bills, and offered to help folks deploy it. Since then, he's been responding to thousands of requests for help—and building a system to respond more effectively, thanks to a small army of whip-smart volunteers.Jared’s non-profit,Dollar For, has got that system up and running. So: If anyone you know has a hospital bill they can’t pay, the system can quickly tell them if they might

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162 results

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