Sarah Macsalka has seen the stories about how expensive an emergency room visit can be, even for a minor complaint.So when her seven year-old son Cameron gashed his knee on a weekend morning in June, the ER was NOT where her family headed first

My Neighbor the Health-Care Ninja

1 Nov 21st, 2019 29m 52s

Meredith Balogh has spent years learning to navigate the financial side of the health-care system. She’s a type-one diabetic, she’s never had a lot of money, and for years she didn’t have health insurance.It hasn’t been easy, but she’s become a

Mom vs. Texas

3 1 Nov 14th, 2019 28m 53s

Stephanie Wittels Wachs has a daughter born with hearing loss, which is how she found out insurance didn't cover hearing aids for kids. Those start at $6,000 and only last a few years. Stephanie teamed up with a few other moms to change Texas l

The severe, weird recession... in health care. And what it means for our wallets

1 May 6th, 2020 18m 12s

You've probably noticed: The U.S. economy is crashing.Something you may not have noticed, that may sound really weird: Almost half of that economic devastation comes from just one sector.And that sector? It's health care.If that sounds complete

Health Care: The Musical

1 Nov 27th, 2019 22m 17s

It would sound a LOT like Explanation of Benefits, which is a musical revue that actually played in New York City in 2019.... so it would feature a parody of "Bills, Bills, Bills" — the 1999 Destiny's Child hit —rewritten for the age of GoFundM

A place where they do health care more cheaply and effectively. (And yes, it’s in the U.S.)

Jul 31st, 2019 22m 57s

For our Season 2 finale, time for some inspiration.For 30 years, James Gingerich has run a super-effective clinic in Indiana, delivering great results at low cost — to high-need, low-income patients.James Gingerich stands in front of shelves ho

Whoa, this medical device is spying on me. In my sleep. So my insurer can deny me coverage.

1 1 Jul 17th, 2019 16m 58s

That’s the rude awakening Eric Umansky got when he called the company that provided his CPAP machine — a device that helps him breathe at night.He got mad. And he got even, in a way: Eric is an editor at the non-profit newsroom ProPublica, and

The surprising history behind insulin’s absurd price (and some hopeful signs in the wild)

1 Jul 10th, 2019 26m 36s

The price of insulin is iconic — doubling, tripling, multiplying like crazy, for medicine Type 1 diabetics can’t live without.To understand it, we went back almost 100 years and dug up a story of sweaty Canadian researchers — swatting away flie

How much for an MRI? Well, that depends…

Jun 19th, 2019 22m

This week, we look at three MRIs with four different price tags, and an enormous range. Liz Salmi and a view of her brain. (Photo: Kaiser Health News)The first two price tags come from listener Liz Salmi, who has been living with brain cancer f

A “deal” on health insurance comes with troubling strings

Dec 19th, 2018 22m 3s

Bari Tessler is a little famous as a “financial therapist,” but even she gets rattled by the price of health care.Her story is complicated. And very relatable.Bari chose to use a Christian "health share" instead of regular insurance. It's cheap

Why Health Insurance Actually Sucks (Season One, episode 6)

Dec 5th, 2018 16m 32s

Turns out, insurance companies allow — even encourage — crazy price-gouging by hospitals. For example, the leg brace Blake needed was available for $150 on Amazon. But thanks to his insurance, he paid more than $500.Investigative reporter Jenny

So, Robin Hood’s got an approach to medical bills. (Season One, episode 5)

Nov 27th, 2018 15m 37s

The health-care system — especially the financial side — can feel like a Medieval torture device. So maybe it fits that workers from Renaissance fairs have come up with a work-around.In this episode I meet Robin Hood and a woman who has made mo

All the Marbles: One woman’s epic quest for health insurance (Season One, episode 2)

1 Nov 14th, 2018 19m 6s

Laura Derrick takes a drug that costs more than $500,000 a year.So when her family was going to lose their insurance, she made crazy sacrifices… and changed the course of history.Find Us OnlineWebsite: http://armandalegshow.comTwitter: http://t

When hospitals sue patients (part 1)

Dec 7th, 2023 28m 7s

Hey, it’s the BEST time to support this show with a donation. Thanks to NewsMatch, any gift you make, up to $1,000, will be doubled. It’s a great deal, and it will set us up to kick maximum butt in 2024. Here’s the link, go for it!We’ve been wo

The Medical-bill "Negotiation Lab"

1 Aug 18th, 2022 23m 58s

It’s often possible to negotiate medical bills. It sounds hard — and it can be — but what if we got it down to a science? Mapped out all the moves ahead of time? Jared Walker and his team at the nonprofit Dollar For are running a big experiment

One ER Doc’s Journey Through the Pandemic — and the Health Care System

1 Jul 7th, 2022 21m 14s

Thomas Fisher is an emergency room doc in Chicago. His book, The Emergency, is an up-close chronicle of the COVID pandemic’s first year in his South Side ER. It also zooms out to tell the story of his journey as a doctor: How his upbringing on

A legal strategy for erasing billions in medical debt— that works—from a 60-second video.

Feb 11th, 2021 26m 29s

Yep. This viral TikTok video's recipe for "crushing" medical bills is legally sound. And IRS filings from thousands of hospitals attest to $2.7 billion of crush-able debt from a single year— a number that experts say looks more like a floor tha

David v Goliath: How to beat a big hospital (using small claims court)

Oct 29th, 2020 22m 35s

In a classic—and hilarious—David vs. Goliath story, Jeffrey Fox takes on a huge hospital over an outrageous bill, and wins.He's a bit of an expert in using small claims court to get satisfaction, and he's got detailed instructions for all of us

Like a fire with no one to call: 'We've left no latent capacity in health care.'

Apr 22nd, 2020 17m 5s

Ryan Gamlin spent a decade working on the financial side of health care, before going to medical school. Now, as an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, he’s on the front lines fighting COVID-19, an experience he describes as “scary, in a way that

If I get COVID-19, what good will my insurance do me?

1 Apr 15th, 2020 32m 4s

Lots of people have insurance plans that only cover them with certain places —providers, certain hospitals.But: in a COVID pandemic surge, who knows if you'd end up one of those places? And if you end up someplace else... then what?That’s the q

This hospital sued thousands of patients — until a reporter called them out.

2 Dec 19th, 2019 23m 21s

They say the problem with relying on journalists to embarrass providers into caving on crazy bills is, there aren’t enough journalists to go around. Fair. But sometimes journalists can scale up.In Memphis, reporter Wendi Thomas found that the c

Can they freaking DO that?!?

1 Dec 12th, 2019 27m 39s

A woman got a bill from a medical testing lab she’s never heard of, for $35. Then, a follow-up bill said if she didn’t pay up right away, that price was going up — WAY up: to $1,287.Which raises a question that comes up a LOT with medical billi

An actor walks into a doctor’s office…

Jul 24th, 2019 17m 56s

Dr. Saul Weiner is a physician and researcher at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago. (Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin)Researcher Saul Weiner has been sending fake patients — actors, wired for sound — into real

Why are drug prices so random? Meet Mr. PBM

1 Jun 26th, 2019 18m 29s

I filled a prescription recently, and the drugstore said they wanted more than 700 bucks… for an old-line generic drug. My insurance ended up knocking that down, but it was WEIRD. And it meant a big homework assignment for me.Luckily, I got hel

How one drug got its $500,000 price tag. (With 99 Percent Invisible– Season One, episode 3)

Nov 14th, 2018 24m 31s

The answer involves a suburban housewife, a 1970s TV star, and a Las Vegas maker of popcorn and nacho cheese sauce. Also: Wall Street.Produced with our friends at 99 Percent Invisible.Many thanks to Abbey Meyers, Joshua Schein, and Nora Guthrie