An Arm and a Leg

An Arm and a Leg
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An Arm and a Leg is 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 distributed in partnership with KUOW. You can support An Arm and a Leg by donating at armandalegshow.com/support/ Show Credits: Created, hosted, and produced by Dan Weissmann with senior producer Emily Pisacreta and engagement producer Claire Davenport, edited by Ellen Weiss. Audio wizard: Adam Raymonda. Music is by Dave Weiner and Blue Dot Sessions. Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations. Lynne Johnson is our operations manager.

  1. 6D AGO

    Some things that didn’t suck in 2025 (really)

    Hey, first!  If you value what we do, this is the best-ever time to support our work:  This month, every donation gets matched two-for-one.   We have SO much work ahead in 2026. Head to https://armandalegshow.com/support/ to donate — and get your money matched two-for-one. This statement might shock you: some actual good things happened in 2025. Or, at least things that did not totally suck.  Stuff like: new limits on the hoops insurance companies can make you jump through, and new protections from predatory debt collectors..   These are just a couple examples of what state governments have been up to this year – in red, blue, and purple states alike.  State governments can’t do it all, but across a couple of episodes, we’ll dive into a handful of meaningful wins, and learn how they came to pass.  Today’s episode takes us to Nebraska, where the state passed aggressive new restrictions on prior authorization.  And Virginia, where lawmakers banned wage garnishment for lots of medical debts. Here's a transcript of this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min

  2. OCT 23

    This health economist wants your medical bills

    Economist Vivian Ho has been researching the US health care system for four decades. These days she focuses on what she describes as the biggest burden on the average American: runaway hospital prices and rising health insurance premiums. (You know, Arm and a Leg stuff.)  And she’s developed a strategy for addressing high insurance premiums – one based on a real-life success story. So when she asked us to help her gather data for a new study, we were intrigued. We break down Vivian’s theory of change, and how sharing your medical bills with her team could help build a data arsenal for the fight ahead.  Want to share your documents with Vivian and her team?  You can find all details about how to send them here.   Here’s a transcript of this episode. Send your stories and questions! Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG. Of course we’d love for you to support this show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    20 min

  3. OCT 9 · BONUS

    We love this listener’s project — and your response

    A listener named Thomas Sanford wrote to us earlier this year, asking for help with a little DIY project. And it’s turned into the most encouraging thing we’ve seen all year. With input from the Arm and a Leg community — specifically folks who get our First Aid Kit newsletter — Thomas has drafted a one-page handout, packed with resources for anyone who needs help with medical bills. It’s ready for you to use, and he wants your help making it better.  You’ll hear all about Thomas’s story — he’s a medical resident, who started out just wanting something to hand to his own patients — in today’s mini-episode. And now you can get involved. Thomas’s current version is great — and there’s also tons of room to improve it, with your help. Print out the current version and pass it around: Download it right here. Make suggestions for the next version: Anybody can comment on this Google doc. Volunteer to pitch in: Got design skills? Editorial chops? Language skills, to translate it? Other ideas?  Here’s a sign-up form. And you can make your own adaptations! Thomas has registered it with a Creative Commons license.  This project has been incubating in our First Aid Kit newsletter. If you’re not subscribed, this is a great time to sign up.  Here’s a transcript of this episode.  Send your stories and questions! Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG. Of course we’d love for you to support this show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    11 min

  4. SEP 18

    Will we be able to afford insurance in 2026?

    For the first time, our senior producer, Emily, has to sign up for Obamacare. And it turns out, it’s one heck of a year to do that.  A recent headline from KFF Health News reads: “Insurers and customers brace for double whammy to Obamacare premiums.” We break down what those “whammies” might mean in dollars and cents for Emily and the millions of others signing up for Obamacare in 2026.   Plus, we cover what’s happening with ACA navigators – the people charged with helping you sign up for Obamacare, and what to expect in November when open enrollment kicks off.   Learn more about what’s coming in 2026 in our First Aid Kit newsletter.  Check out KFF’s Obamacare premium calculator.  Learn whether your state funds its own navigator program.  Read a transcript of this episode. Send your stories and questions! Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG. Of course we’d love for you to support this show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min

  5. AUG 28

    The Insurance Warrior battles a $61 billion company (from 2021)

    Hey first! We need your help: Financial help. Donations from listeners power this show, and we’ve got a goal: 100 people making their first-ever gift, this week.  If you haven’t chipped in before, this is a great time — just click here. OK, onwards… Sharing a favorite from our archive – with lessons that are as relevant as ever.  Laurie Todd calls herself The Insurance Warrior. She fights health insurance for a living. Her speciality: writing appeals when insurance companies deny high-stakes, high-dollar treatments. Her first victory was fighting to get coverage for her own life-saving cancer surgery – which we chronicled in an episode tracing her origin story.  Since then, she says she’s notched hundreds of other victories, and outlined her strategies in two books: Fight Your Health Insurer and Win and APPROVED: Win Your Insurance Appeal in 5 Days. In this episode, we go deep on one of Laurie’s early, super-instructive cases, that taught Laurie one of the weirder truths about health insurance in America: fighting your health insurance often means fighting… your employer.  And in this case, that employer was a $61 billion company.  Want more about winning insurance appeals? Here’s our starter pack. Here is a transcript of this episode.  Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min

  6. AUG 7

    A wild health insurance hustle

    When a New York couple purchased a health insurance plan from a telemarketer, everything sounded legit. Meds, doctors, tests?  All covered. But it didn't take long for them to realize they'd been “hustled” – ending up with bills for thousands of dollars, and leaving them no choice but to skip important medical care.  In their series “Health Care Hustlers,” Bloomberg reporters Zach Mider and Zeke Faux uncover the exact nature of the scheme – how this couple, as well as thousands of others, signed up for health plans by unknowingly agreeing to work “fake jobs.”   Zach and Zeke join us to unpack the many surprising layers to this business— involving a subculture of unscrupulous telemarketers, a TV-sitcom-writer-turned-investor who masterminded the idea, and the legal gray area that allows these plans to proliferate.  Reminder: If you need to sign up for health insurance, the place to go is healthcare.gov. (As we’ve warned before: Don’t even Google it.)  No matter what, shopping for insurance requires a ton of homework. We’ve got a guide for you in this Starter Pack. Here’s a transcript of this episode.  Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.Of course we’d love for you to support this show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    30 min

  7. JUL 18

    The great American drug shortage isn't an accident, it's artificial (from Organized Money)

    As a follow-up to our series The Prescription Drug Playbook — all about how you can get the meds you need at a price you can (maybe) afford — we’re stepping back to look at the big picture.  From the start of this podcast, we’ve been trying to answer a major question: Why do my meds cost so freaking much? And we’ve highlighted the profit-seeking games that insurance, pharma, and middlemen play all around us in more than a half dozen episodes.  But there’s one set of players on the field that we’ve never talked about: drug distributors, and how they play a role in another reason you may not be able to get your medicine: drug shortages.  This story comes from our friends at Organized Money, a podcast about monopolies, from writers and journalists David Dayen and Matt Stoller.  We think you’re going to like it.  In the meantime, check out the latest installment of our First Aid Kit newsletter for a rundown of our previous coverage of drug costs.  Here’s a transcript of this episode. Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG. Of course we’d love for you to support this show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    39 min

  8. JUN 30

    The Prescription Drug Playbook, Part Two

    In February, we asked you, our listeners, to share the tips, tricks, and tactics you’ve learned for getting the medicine you need at prices you can manage.  And of course some of you work in health care and have insider knowledge. Which we’re passing along in this second episode of The Prescription Drug Playbook. We’ll hear from a listener who works to help seniors find healthcare, a pharma sales rep, an employee benefits advisor, and a battle-worn hospital caseworker – all bringing something a little surprising, and possibly even life-saving to the table.  Of course—for all their advice, there is a BIG caveat: there is no one solution for everyone. This is a set of patches, workarounds, bandaids. We deserve SO much better. But in the meantime, maybe some of these tips can help.  Here’s a link to the Find a Health Center Tool that we told you about in the episode—it’s worth checking out! And here's the full drug-price song by producer Claire Davenport and some robots Find the whole Prescription Drug Playbook series – including our First Aid Kit newsletters — at armandalegshow.com/drugs Here’s a transcript of this episode.  Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG. Of course we’d love for you to support this show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min
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About

An Arm and a Leg is 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 distributed in partnership with KUOW. You can support An Arm and a Leg by donating at armandalegshow.com/support/ Show Credits: Created, hosted, and produced by Dan Weissmann with senior producer Emily Pisacreta and engagement producer Claire Davenport, edited by Ellen Weiss. Audio wizard: Adam Raymonda. Music is by Dave Weiner and Blue Dot Sessions. Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations. Lynne Johnson is our operations manager.

Information

  • Creator
    An Arm and a Leg
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2025
  • Episodes
    155
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 An Arm and a Leg
  • Show Website
    An Arm and a Leg

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