An Arm and a Leg

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.

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.

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.

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.

In surveys, one in four Americans report having to skip their medications due to cost. We asked our listeners: what strategies have you used when you’ve been hit with pharmacy sticker shock?  We heard from a ton of you – with stories, strategies and workarounds that surprised and encouraged us. None of them will work for everybody. This is a set of patches and bandaids for a broken system. But if there’s one that’ll work for you, we want to help you find it. So we’re bringing you the most-complete, best-organized set of patches we can.   In this episode — the first of two episodes — a dad named Bob tells us how he learned some hard-earned lessons.  When Bob’s teenage daughter Mary was diagnosed with epilepsy, it took her doctors years of trial and error to find the right treatment. It finally worked, Mary's seizures stopped — and then, when Bob's insurance changed, the price tag for Mary's meds went through the roof. What Bob did next represents one possible journey through the dizzying (and often exasperating) maze of potential workarounds for getting your medicine at a price you can afford.  We’ve started compiling lessons from Bob’s story and others in our First Aid Kit newsletter.  Our first installment features a price comparison spreadsheet… inspired by Bob (who we’d like to nominate for Dad of the Year).  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.

With news blasting from Washington like a firehose, it feels impossible to take it all in — to stay on top of all the changes the Trump administration has been trying to make.  But for health care, one person is probably closer to anyone than to understanding the full picture: KFF Heath News Chief Washington Correspondent Julie Rover.     In this episode, Julie helps us see that picture, by telling us two stories: The first concerns a teeny part of the health care system — an obscure federal agency, one of many that the Trump administration has taken a chainsaw to. The other is anything but obscure: Possible cuts to Medicaid —which Julie thinks Republicans will actually find very difficult to make. Plus, reporting from Julie’s KFF Health News colleague Arthur Allen. And a cameo from one of Julie’s beloved corgis. Check out Julie’s weekly health policy news podcast: What the Health?  Read more from Arthur Allen on cuts to AHRQ in KFF Health News: What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make the Nation’s Health Care Safer Trump HHS Eliminates Office That Sets Poverty Levels Tied to Benefits for at Least 80 Million People 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.

A few months ago, we got a note from a listener named Meagan, who wanted to thank us.  She said the stories she heard on this show had given her the advice and encouragement she needed to finally win a fight against a medical bill she didn’t owe — a battle she’d been waging for more than two years. As Meagan tells us, those two years were filled with wild twists and turns and a lot of disappointment. We hear what kept her motivated and encouraged despite all the setbacks – and after an insurance rep pointed her to a free legal resource — the tactic that finally led to a breakthrough.  Here’s a resource we mention — with a spoiler alert: It’s the sample cease-and-desist letter that a lawyer shared with Meagan.  We’ll break down the details — how a letter like this could work, in certain situations — in a future First Aid Kit newsletter. 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.