Here’s what we’re listening to this month: An Arm and A Leg

By Jill Zorn

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Here at the foundation, we are always looking for new ways to inform ourselves and the public about health care – and an ever-growing list of podcasts is becoming a great way to learn.  So, we thought we would write a podcast of the month entry in our blog for 2020.

Our January entry is:  An Arm and A Leg.  The show, hosted by Dan Weissmann and co-produced by Kaiser Health News, focuses on health care costs.  It presents the stories of real people who have had run-ins with the health care system, and then uses those stories as a jumping off point to talk about both problems and solutions.  Often short, plain language interviews with experts are included, too.

Weissman has a knack for story-telling and the half hour show is always one part interesting, one part enraging and one part uplifting.  He’s also a bit irreverent, which makes for an entertaining listen.

So far, there have been 24 episodes, 3 “seasons” of 8 shows each.  The website includes a page for each episode, if you want to see photos of the some of the people who tell their stories or find links to resources discussed on the show.

I chose this episode as a great one to test-drive:   “How much for an MRI? Well, that depends….” This is one of several shows focused on the irrational way that health care prices are set in our country.  Some other favorites of mine include:

• “We thought we had adulted properly”, which tells a tale about new parents battling with their insurance company
• “A hospital sued thousands of patients. Then a reporter called them out”

Both of these stories have happy endings, but they could easily have gone the other way.

An Arm and A Leg can be heard on most podcast apps.  You can also listen to episodes on your PC.

Happy listening!