It’s a touchy subject; it’s expensive; it affects all of us. It’s US healthcare. ‘An Arm and a Leg’ is unpacking it all
Welcome to “An Arm and a Leg,” winner of the Best Indie Podcast (sponsored by Tenderfoot TV) at the 2022 Ambies. This is a podcast about something that affects us all, whether we are rich or poor (well, more on this later), liberal or conservative, Team Edward or Team Jacob: healthcare. See, when Dan Weissman left his job in 2018, he and his wife had to have the talk. She ran her own one-woman business, so healthcare was Dan’s part of the deal in this marriage. So what happens when he leaves? Dan decided to make a podcast about this new, kind of scary journey he was on about healthcare and how the cost of it runs our lives in “An Arm and a Leg.”
You may recognize Dan Weissman from a number of other incredible podcasts like “99% Invisible,” “Planet Money,” “Marketplace,” and “Reveal.” “An Arm and a Leg” has released nearly 80 episodes since its release in November of 2018. Episodes are an approachable and quick 20 to 30 minutes, unlike privatized healthcare. This podcast certainly doesn’t need to be listened to in any specific order, but sometimes, episodes will reference back to things spoken about in earlier chapters.
Healthcare in America is wack, like totally out-of-control wack, and there’s so much about it that the average people don’t know. And Dan was one of them. Hence why he is allowing people to tag along on his journey to understand healthcare in the United States and hopefully, conquer it. “An Arm and a Leg” isn’t about the politics of healthcare – we hear enough about the Republicans versus the Democrats on these types of debates. We also hear a lot about the horror stories: people billed hundred of thousands of dollars by insurance companies. But Dan wants to hear the everyday stories: the unexpected $500 bill stories, the “does my insurance cover this?” stories, the unable to quit your horrible job stories.
In “An Arm and a Leg” he speaks with friends, family, acquaintances, and total strangers about their healthcare stories – from people who were billed $6500 only to be told that they had a kidney stone that would naturally pass, to a man who had a mini-heart attack but wouldn’t have gone to the hospital had it not been for his wife’s great health insurance.
Throughout this podcast, he speaks with experts about tips on picking the right health insurance, how to fight your health insurance bills, and how to skirt medical-bill traps. He tells us things many of us wouldn’t have known until right this second, like how hospitals in Maryland were legally suing patients over bills that should’ve been forgiven (until recently, when that was finally made illegal in 2021). Dan speaks with the woman who is taking on $61 billion companies for someone whose company really should’ve covered his life-saving surgery. Hear about the people who are trying to cash in on COVID-19 vaccines, why insulin is so expensive (hint, it’s greed!), and how COVID-19 (unsurprisingly) rocked health insurance.
Up against podcasts like “Aftershock” and “Earth Eclipsed,” “An Arm and a Leg” walked away with the Ambie for Best Indie Podcast. It’s an incredibly approachable look into the reproachable world of healthcare and insurance. Be sure to check out this newly awarded podcast anywhere you listen.
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