As medical health insurance premiums skyrocket in each employer-based plans and Inexpensive Care Act marketplaces, tens of millions face worse selections than ever throughout this open enrollment.
The group behind “An Arm and a Leg” examines their very own restricted choices, strolling by how they approached studying the wonderful print to weed out the worst selections — and doubtlessly save 1000’s of {dollars}.
Plus, KFF Well being Information senior correspondent Julie Appleby explains what may occur if Congress adjustments course and extends the improved premium tax credit for Obamacare enrollees which can be as a result of expire on the finish of the 12 months. And a listener wonders: Is paying for medical health insurance even price it at this level?
Dan Weissmann
Host and producer of “An Arm and a Leg.” Beforehand, Dan was a workers reporter for Market and Chicago’s WBEZ. His work additionally seems on All Issues Thought-about, Market, the BBC, 99 % Invisible, and Reveal, from the Heart for Investigative Reporting.
Credit
Emily Pisacreta
Producer
Claire Davenport
Producer
Adam Raymonda
Audio wizard
Ellen Weiss
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Transcript: How one can decide medical health insurance — within the worst 12 months ever
Notice: “An Arm and a Leg” makes use of speech-recognition software program to generate transcripts, which can comprise errors. Please use the transcript as a software however verify the corresponding audio earlier than quoting the podcast.
Dan internet hosting: Hey there. As we began writing up this episode, the U.S. authorities was beginning to re-open, after the longest shutdown ever. ?Eight Democratic Senators had made a deal.
Information anchor: However this deal has Democrats divided. It doesn’t embody an extension for Obamacare subsidies, which is what the occasion was holding out for.
Dan internet hosting: And other people have been pissed. Right here’s a pair examples from our social-media feeds…
TikTok person hunteralexanderpowell: eight Democrats caved and betrayed the American individuals tonight
TikTok person shaneechchi: The Democrats caved. The Democrats caved! What? I’ve tried to relax so many occasions to file this video, however Senate Democrats…
Dan internet hosting: These Democrats did extract one sliver of a concession: A promise from Republican Senate Majority Chief John Thune to schedule a vote on extending the subsidies for early December. Which plenty of individuals discovered… unsatisfying. Yet another from our feed right here. There’s some robust language on this one:
TikTok person 2rawtooreel: After 40 days of combating for our subsidies, we received a pinky promise. What a intestine punch. The eight Dems caved after which they fucked our households. And that’s the way in which all of them grew to become the bitch-ass bunch. The bitch-ass bunch.
Dan internet hosting: Yeah. Information studies just about all say: That vote will fail.
However even when they’re flawed, even when some sudden deal will get made, anticipate nightmares. Logistical nightmares. Tech nightmares. Julie Appleby is a reporter with our friends at KFF Well being Information.
She talked to people who run the Obamacare exchanges in a bunch of states and requested them: Hey, if Congress makes a deal, what occurs subsequent?
They have been like: Effectively, we’d need to take our web sites right down to plug within the new numbers.
Julie Appleby: And that would take possibly as much as every week.
Dan: Yeah, every week. Julie says that took her without warning.
Julie Appleby: I suppose I mistakenly assumed, naively assumed that, oh, it’d be fairly simple. Let’s simply, you understand, program these numbers in. It’d take a pair hours or no matter, however no, it’s not only a easy let’s throw a swap and alter all these things…
Dan internet hosting: And there’s a ticking clock: In order for you an Obamacare plan that begins masking you on January first, it’s important to enroll by… December 15. And once more, IF there’s a vote to do any of this, it’s not imagined to occur till December. Tick-tock…
So look: No person can predict the longer term, however when you’re Obamacare for 2026: Don’t rely on these additional subsidies being there.
In the meantime, premiums are going up — each for Obamacare plans and for employer-based insurance coverage.
We’re gonna spend the remainder of this episode : OK, now what? It’s the worst ever 12 months to decide on insurance coverage. What do you do? We’ll hear from a listener who wrote to us asking for recommendation, and we’ll take a look at what subsequent 12 months appears like for ourselves — for me and my colleague Emily Pisacreta.
There are people who’ve it worse than we do. Hundreds of thousands of individuals simply received’t have the ability to afford insurance coverage in any respect for subsequent 12 months. However our tales give a sketch, a little bit pattern — and a few classes and instruments that I hope will come in useful for anybody asking the identical questions we’re.
Like plenty of our tales — like our entire beat– there’s no joyful ending right here. This totally sucks.
We’re speaking about selecting the LEAST crappy possibility right here. Which, even when all of the choices are crap, is STILL WORTH DOING. As a result of some choices are a lot crappier than others. However finding out which of them means studying to learn some wonderful print. So let’s get to it.
That is An Arm and a Leg, a present about why well being care prices so freaking a lot, and what we will possibly do about it. I’m Dan Weissmann. I’m a reporter, and I like a problem. So the job we’ve chosen right here is to take some of the enraging, terrifying, miserable elements of American life, and convey you a present that’s entertaining, empowering, and helpful.
Let’s decide up the place we left off a few months in the past: With this present’s senior producer, Emily Pisacreta.
Dan internet hosting: Hey Emily.
Emily internet hosting: Hey Dan.
Dan internet hosting: So, let’s recap…
Emily internet hosting: Yeah, so earlier than… I had insurance coverage from one other part-time job. However that job ended over the summer time.
Dan internet hosting: And An Arm and a Leg has all the time been so tiny, I by no means considered budgeting for anyone else’s medical health insurance.
Emily internet hosting: So I needed to search for Obamacare. And I ended up getting assist from the best possible particular person: Elisabeth Benjamin. She’s Vice President of Well being Initiatives on the Group Service Society of New York.
Dan internet hosting: She has been one among our go-to sources for years– as a result of her fights to guard New Yorkers from medical debt are epic.
Emily internet hosting : And because it occurs, she’s additionally a navigator for Obamacare — she helps individuals select and enroll. She invited me over to have a look at my choices.
Elisabeth Benjamin: Okay, so prepared?…
Emily internet hosting: The excellent news: I certified for a subsidy.
The unhealthy information: That was gonna come to a screeching halt come January. She instructed we meet once more in November to have a look at my 2026 choices.
So, final week, we did– only a couple days after these Senate Democrats had folded on the improved subsidies.
Elisabeth Benjamin: It’s fairly clear that the improved premium tax credit are gonna sundown. Proper?
Emily: Yeah.
Elisabeth Benjamin: Yeah. Which is de facto horrible for sufferers.
Emily: Are you shocked or did you kind of see the writing on the wall?
Elisabeth Benjamin: I discover understanding Congress and the federal authorities and what they’re gonna do actually difficult. I’d’ve thought individuals would’ve needed to do one thing, but it surely’s, it’s arduous when individuals aren’t getting SNAP advantages and planes aren’t flying. And for me I’d’ve thought that they might’ve been in a position to provide you with a compromise, however they didn’t. So…
Emily: Yeah.
Elisabeth Benjamin: So, you understand, I don’t know. All proper. Lemme present you your factor.
Emily: You wanna share your display?
Elisabeth Benjamin: Okay. Um, so right here’s your account. Right here’s your eligibility. You recognize, that is what you’ve proper now. Your tax credit score is $385 a month. Your earnings, if it’s unchanged, means you may be eligible for no tax credit score subsequent 12 months.
Emily internet hosting: So we kinda knew this was coming. I make a little bit greater than 400 % of the federal poverty stage, which suggests I don’t qualify for that enhanced premium tax credit score anymore.
Elisabeth Benjamin: You’re being impacted by the expiration, like you’re going from. Spending no matter it was, 400, $400 a month to $800 a month.
Emily internet hosting: Really it’s going from $496 to $867. And all this for what’s known as a Silver Plan. You recognize, not platinum, not gold.
Elisabeth Benjamin: You’re not speaking about Cadillac protection right here. You will have a giant deductible.
Emily internet hosting: Yeah… that’s $2500 earlier than I can afford to see a health care provider in particular person. A physician who’s in-network. In an itty bitty community. I kinda puzzled what I’d get if I leveled up.
Elisabeth Benjamin: So that you wanna do the most affordable gold or like a mid worth
Emily: Yeah. Let’s simply see what the most affordable golds seem like.
Elisabeth Benjamin: So the most affordable is 1100. $1,100. In order that’s so much.
Emily internet hosting: Yeah in order that was out of the query. And we checked out a barely cheaper silver plan, too. However the deductible was so much greater and the ER protection was pitiful.
Elisabeth Benjamin: Simply strolling into an emergency room in New York Metropolis is like $10,000. So that you’d be mainly paying your entire emergency room go to. Whereas proper now you’ve actual safety, you solely have $500…
Emily internet hosting: And anyway for all its holes, my present plan — like of those New York state market plans — does even have a giant benefit over each different medical health insurance plan I’ve ever had. Zero greenback copays for my absolute do or die stuff — my insulin and my steady glucose monitor.
Dan internet hosting: Yeah. That’s only one approach the place you reside actually issues.
Emily internet hosting: Yeah and I’m by no means leaving, I’m just like the worst sort of New York chauvinist. However the price of dwelling right here means this premium enhance is gonna actually damage. I’m gonna want one other job.
Dan internet hosting: Yeah, however I wanna maintain you on this one. And we’re engaged on a plan there. We’ll come again to it later.
Emily internet hosting: Mmhm.
Dan internet hosting: In the meantime, you’ve given us a snapshot of Obamacare.
Obamacare plans aren’t the one place the place prices are going up. In line with a survey of 1,700 companies, the speed hikes on employer plans are the largest in 15 years.
And you understand who’s on an employer plan? My household. My spouse and I each have small little companies, and we’ve been in a position to purchase small-group protection for ourselves that approach — which suggests we do get to select from plans that aren’t on the Obamacare trade.
So, right here’s a little bit heartwarming scene from my home — me exhibiting my spouse Devorah what our medical health insurance goes to value for subsequent 12 months.
Devo: All proper.
Dan: Ensure that we’re recording. Let’s see. Yep. Right here we go. Alright, so let me simply present you what I’ve been .
Devo: Alright.
Dan: And bear in mind that it tremendous sucks.
Devo: Alright.
Dan internet hosting: And right here’s what I confirmed her: Our insurance coverage plan goes up by 500 {dollars} a month in January. Six thousand {dollars} a 12 months.
Devo: I’m not allowed to say unhealthy phrases, proper?
Dan: You’re completely allowed to say, are you kidding me? Dangerous phrases are very acceptable.
Devo: Dangerous phrases are forming within the thought bubble over my head.
Dan: You possibly can say all of them you need
Devo: Okay. Fuck.
Dan internet hosting: Completely honest. The brand new complete for our plan is terrifying.. And — for causes I’ll get to — that plan nonetheless appears like our greatest possibility.
In the meantime, we’d heard from a listener — Jess lives in Indiana. She requested us to simply use her first identify, to guard her household’s privateness.
And she or he wrote to ask: Have you ever ever accomplished a present about whether or not having medical health insurance is even price it? A superbly comprehensible query. We talked in early November.
Jess: Does it ever make sense to simply, when you really feel comparatively wholesome, like if I take what I’m paying for a premium and put into the checking account is, does that make extra sense than simply giving over this enormous share of cash? It seems like there’s not a solution.
Dan internet hosting: In her case, it appeared like insurance coverage for her and her husband would go up a pair hundred bucks a month, for a similar crummy, bare-bones plan they have already got. That might nonetheless depart them on the hook for like 17 thousand {dollars} in medical payments.
Jess: Clearly I really feel actually fortunate that like we don’t work by the federal authorities or any variety of people who’re coping with far more this 12 months than we’re. However then on the finish of the day, it’s actually arduous to press the button, and join one thing that you just’re like, nicely, I do know I’m not gonna get nice care as a result of the one plan I selected like actually limits the quantity of docs I can go to.
Dan internet hosting: And she or he says that restricted listing of docs, it’s received plenty of turnover.
Jess: So like, we’ve been by what number of docs previously 5 years? Then I do know that if something unhealthy does truly occur, I nonetheless gotta provide you with like $17,000 to love pay these payments, on prime of the whole lot else. So typically I’m simply questioning like the place, like with a system that doesn’t make any sense, the place’s the road the place for… I simply really feel like lots of people are gonna be fascinated about this, this 12 months. Like, what? I’m gonna maintain the cash, I’m gonna put it within the financial institution and with individuals shedding their jobs and stuff too, like possibly it’s time to simply bulk up your financial savings. I don’t know.
Dan internet hosting: Jess and her husband run a small enterprise. It hasn’t been a fantastic 12 months, and subsequent 12 months could possibly be sort of dicey. Alternatively, her dad survived a serious bout with most cancers earlier this 12 months. That have had already been noodging her towards urgent the button: paying the additional for insurance coverage. After which a little bit after she wrote to me.
Jess: I used to be like visiting dad, this fall, So it had been lengthy sufficient that he truly received the like ex– like I believe it’s in all probability the reason of advantages or no matter…
Dan internet hosting: Yep, rationalization of advantages: That’s the insurance coverage paperwork that reveals the overall chargesfor all that most cancers remedy, and what the insurance coverage firm paid.
Jess: And he’s like, do you wanna know the way a lot that value? it was one million {dollars}. And I used to be like, okay, I suppose I’m getting medical health insurance once more this 12 months.
Dan: Oh my God. Wow.
Dan internet hosting: She and her husband *can* discover the additional couple hundred {dollars} a month. And they’ll. Nevertheless it nonetheless feels unresolved.
Jess: I actually love, like actually making an attempt to know an issue I’m making an attempt to unravel and ensuring I’ve like, I really feel like that’s the, that’s the arduous factor with that is that like yearly I’m like, have I considered the whole lot?
Have I thought of all of the parameters? Have I I accomplished the suitable analysis?
And simply sort of feeling like by yourself with it, despite the fact that, you understand, everybody’s going by the identical factor.
Dan: For positive. For positive.
Jess: It sucks.
Dan internet hosting: Right here’s what’s coming subsequent:
We’re gonna come again to Emily’s story– and mine. There’s a POSSIBLE less-sucky possibility for Emily — it’s gonna take some doing — and in each case:
We’re wanting intently on the choices we DO have. Going by all that paperwork shouldn’t be enjoyable, however the particulars we discovered buried there are gonna make a HUGE distinction
We knew the place to search out them as a result of we’ve been doing this — wanting on the puzzle of buying medical health insurance — for lots of years now.
We’ll stroll you thru a few of what we did, and recap a few of what we’ve realized over all this time.
That’s coming proper up.
This episode of An Arm and a Leg is produced in partnership with KFF Well being Information — that’s a nonprofit newsroom masking well being points in America. These people are unbelievable journalists — their work wins every kind of awards, yearly. We’re honored to work with them.
Let’s return to my home for starters. As it’s possible you’ll recall, our plan for subsequent 12 months is gonna value about 500 {dollars} extra each month. That’s 6 thousand {dollars} for the 12 months.
And Devorah and I have been processing.
Devo: I imply…
Dan: It’s so much.
Devo: That’s some huge cash.
Dan: It’s some huge cash.
Devo: And that’s similar to further cash. Like we’re already hemorrhaging cash on medical health insurance, like earlier than it goes up $6,000.
Dan: Proper? Proper. We’re already paying so much. We’re already paying so much, and so we’re including $6,000 to that and…
Devo: Can I’ve a distinct timeline?
Dan: Yeah, we’d all like that. Proper now there are options. Um, they’re not nice.
Devo: Okay.
Dan internet hosting: Our dealer had despatched us a pair different plans to have a look at. And so they have been rather less: As a substitute of 2600 {dollars} a month,
Dan: …They take it right down to about 2300.
Devo: Okay.
Dan: However by paying $300 much less, we pay extra for issues like workplace visits, which we use a good quantity of, um, to see therapists and stuff like that.
Dan internet hosting: I imply, look: ?You suppose I may make a present like this with out some severe help for my psychological well being?
One purpose we’re these super-expensive plans is: our therapists settle for them. The co-pays to see them for the “less-expensive” plans have been a lot greater — it ate up all of the financial savings. I had an entire little spreadsheet.
And I hoped Devorah can be like, “Wow, you’re so good at math!” However she was these totals for the complete 12 months and doing her personal math.
We’ve received a child who’ll be making use of to varsity subsequent 12 months, and Devorah’s been utilizing a software known as the “web worth calculator” — appears at a bunch of things, and offers an estimate of what we’d in all probability pay after any monetary help.
Devorah was mentally evaluating what she’d seen there to what my spreadsheet mentioned we’d be paying for well being care subsequent 12 months.
Devo: Are you aware that this appears precisely like what the web worth calculator says we’d pay for school in a 12 months? No, I’m severe.
Dan: I do know you’re severe.
Devo: I’m like writing the web worth calculator with our earnings and it’s popping out with like virtually the precise quantity you’re saying we may pay on healthcare.
Dan: Sure, that’s proper. And that is…
Devo: that’s insane.
Dan: And this, proper. Effectively, and that is, the massive quantity to have a look at subsequent is deductible. And that’s the place issues get very completely different.
Dan internet hosting: Particularly as a result of all of those plans — the “cheaper” ones and our present one–had a characteristic I’d by no means seen earlier than: *household* deductibles. A sort of security valve the place if one particular person’s bills passes a sure level, insurance coverage kicks in for the entire household.
On the quote-unquote “cheaper” plans, these household deductibles have been 5 thousand, even ten thousand {dollars} extra.
I imply, I hope we don’t find yourself in that sort of territory. The deductibles on our present plan are already within the 1000’s of {dollars}. But when we ever received there, I’d positive wish to cease the bleeding 5 thousand {dollars} sooner.
Devo: I sort of am leaning in the direction of
Dan: Yeah. Protecting what we have now.
Devo: Protecting what we have now.
Dan: Proper? Yeah. It’s bizarre as a result of I’m like, wow, however that’s
Devo: $6,000 extra a 12 months. Okay. Okay. I’m gonna go take some deep breaths now.
Dan: Yeah,
Devo: I don’t prefer it.
Dan: No, me both. Sorry. Thanks for becoming a member of me with this. I’m sorry. Tremendous sucks.
Dan internet hosting: It does — and 6 thousand {dollars} is a LOT of cash for us. Nevertheless it seems, these “different” plans don’t save us any cash, and so they depart us doubtlessly on the hook for 1000’s and 1000’s of {dollars} extra.
So I’m taking this as a win. And it’s the lesson: If there’s ANY solution to look past the month-to-month premium, you gotta do it.
Learn the wonderful print! Should you’ve received ongoing well being care stuff — or stuff you’re GONNA do subsequent 12 months, like, I dunno, have a child? — worth it out for any plan you’re contemplating.
Study the silly vocabulary: Deductible. Out of pocket max. This time round, I truly realized a brand new one: FAMILY deductible.
After which we get again to Emily’s case. Which truly has a happier aspect to it. Particularly after we learn some wonderful print.
Emily, we left you with Elisabeth Benjamin. She had a few choices for you.
Emily internet hosting: Yeah. I may both re-enroll in what I’ve now for 867 {dollars} a month. Or get a plan with a barely cheaper premium with even crummier protection. It doesn’t matter what, I’m paying a approach larger share of my earnings on medical health insurance.
Dan internet hosting: Yeah, since you’d lose the subsidy you’ve now. However my man Kurt, my insurance coverage dealer,
Emily internet hosting: Kurt!
Dan internet hosting: He says there’s one other approach: If I can deliver you on at 30 hours every week — versus now you’re at 20 hours — then Blue Cross of Illinois would think about you a full-time worker, eligible for ben efits with An Arm and a Leg. And.. you, know, I’m engaged on it…
Emily internet hosting: I do know. I do know you might be.
Dan internet hosting: Yeah so, towards that finish, Kurt has despatched me a few plans that you could possibly enroll in. And like even when you needed to pay the entire premium, they’re lower than these New York plans. One’s like 600, the opposite is about six-ninety.
However the query is: Does that basically prevent cash? It is determined by what they cowl. I dug up the spreadsheet Kurt had despatched me.? And we checked out it collectively on Zoom final week.
… I’ll put it within the chat.
Emily: Okay
Dan: so the primary quantity is, let’s simply look
Emily: Wait I’m placing I gotta put Zoom on, uh, 200% right here.
Dan: Yeah, yeah. You for positive.
Emily: …cuz they’re little. Okay, okay.
Dan: So. This quantity actually pops out at me, what’s the total deductible? It appears to say $850 deductible.
Emily: Mm-hmm Mm-hmm .
Dan: Sounds fairly good. Sounds a little bit like, is {that a} typo?
Emily internet hosting: OK- decrease premium, decrease deductible. What about my copays? Bear in mind – my New York market choices have zero greenback copays for insulin and diabetes provides.
Dan: This is able to be one the place we want, need to do some extra digging to determine what your out OFP pocket can be.Let me see what I can discover out. Lemme see what I can…
Emily: Yeah I imply like the recommendation that we have been giving individuals like— contact your HR division. It’s like, Dan are you the HR division?
Dan: I’m, I’m. So I’m like, yeah, let’s do that. Let me, that is gonna take a
Emily: Yeah yeah.
Dan internet hosting: Actually, it took ceaselessly. We spent one other twenty minutes on that decision, making an attempt to get data from my Blue Cross web site, after which from Google. Which ended up sending us to Fb group discussions and Reddit threads.
Emily, you took a while on her personal– OK plenty of time– you known as your insurance coverage, and your pharmacy, and I neglect who else– and finally, together with your unbelievable Google expertise, you discovered the doc we wanted: The 2026 formulary for Illinois Blue Cross plans.
Emily internet hosting: Sure, the formulary. That’s an insurance coverage firm’s listing of ALL THE DRUGS they cowl– and what you’d pay for each. Should you’re a First Help Package publication subscriber, you understand we simply wrote about them final week. Okay, so we began off searching for my steady glucose monitor provides.
At first, it appeared like: They have been gonna be sort of costly. $60 a month. However there have been little letters off to the aspect– one was CW, which appeared to face for “value waived.” We hit Management-F…
Dan: Okay. In order that’s right here. It says, uh, value waived – CW –Medicines marked with a CW within the protection necessities and limits column are mandated within the state of Illinois to have $0 member value.
Emily: Hey.
Dan: Yeah, proper. Yeah.
Emily internet hosting: Subsequent… we appeared up my insulins.And I do have a copay there – $85 a month, which is sadly fairly regular. And so this plan was nonetheless wanting like a winner. Due to that decrease deductible. After which — after we did yet another spherical of due diligence — we discovered — it was even higher than we initially thought.
Dan internet hosting: Yeah, we downloaded one other set of paperwork. Each plan has a doc known as the Abstract of Advantages and Protection, so we grabbed these. With the New York plans, these paperwork confirmed: you would need to pay out that entire deductible earlier than seeing a health care provider. Then we checked out that very same doc for this Illinois plan. And located THIS:
Dan: Should you go to a healthcare supplier’s workplace, main care to deal with an harm or sickness, deductible doesn’t apply.
Emily: Hell yeah.
Dan: Yeah. Whew. All proper. That looks like an excellent deal.
Emily: Yeah. Yep. Precisely.
Dan: All proper, cool. That is glorious. Okay. So I believe what we’ve discovered by our sleuthing, your sleuthing is, yeah, this can be a higher deal and it’s all within the wonderful, it’s all within the wonderful print.
Emily: It’s, yeah.
Dan: Yeah. Alright. All proper. Effectively that is good. I really feel like we’re like, now all you gotta do is elevate cash to deliver you on for the additional hours and you understand, however like we’ve accomplished the arduous half.
Emily: Yeah, yeah, precisely. Precisely. We’ve deciphered, um, insurance coverage lingo…
Dan: Oh my God.
Emily: …and now we simply need to move a hat round, so.
Dan: Let’s do it.
Dan internet hosting: So, OK, we have now modeled some stuff for you right here:
If there’s medical stuff you understand you’re gonna want: Look past the month-to-month premium.
Have a look at that Abstract of Advantages and Protection. Search for the drug formulary. Learn the wonderful print. Use Management-F. Make calls.
And we have now a ton of sources that will help you maintain the entire thing straight: We’ve lined these things earlier than, in depth, in our First Help Package publication, and on the podcast — and we’ve collected the most-important, most-useful stuff, and arranged it right into a Starter Pack on our web site.You’ll discover a hyperlink wherever you’re listening to this.
And look: there are individuals for whom NONE of this will get you to one thing workable. The spikes in medical health insurance premiums, and the decrease subsidies, they imply lots of people are simply caught.
The parents at NPR talked with a lady final week who’s in the midst of most cancers remedy. Her medical health insurance is scheduled to leap from 300 some {dollars} a month to love 12 hundred {dollars}. Which she completely can’t afford.
There might be individuals seeking to reap the benefits of this entire crunch: Pitching junk insurance coverage and different “bargains” that don’t truly cowl sufficient.
And there might be lots of people going through payments they simply can’t pay. Medical debt — and aggressive debt collections — all of that’s gonna hit much more individuals.
Which, actually, is why it’s so essential for us to maintain doing this work. Collectively. So many individuals are going to be in a lot want within the coming 12 months — years.
The whole lot we will study combating unfair payments, making use of for monetary help, avoiding ripoffs, and HELPING EACH OTHER. We’ve gotta maintain spreading it round.
And to do all of that: We’d like your help. For instance: sure I need Emily to have extra hours so she will have insurance coverage, however I would like extra of her time as a result of we’ve received a lot work to do.
So yeah, we’d like your assist.
And that is the ABSOLUTE finest time to assist us. By means of the top of the 12 months, the NewsMatch marketing campaign from the Institute for Nonprofit Information is matching donations of as much as a thousand {dollars}.
And when you’re catching this in November, nicely: By means of the top of the month, due to a particular matching fund from the Jonathan Logan Household Basis, these donations are DOUBLE-matched.
You give us 100 {dollars}, and in November, it will get changed into 300 {dollars}.
And many you’ve been benefiting from this chance in the previous few weeks. It’s superb.
And a few of you’ve been including notes. Kimberly from Texas wrote: “Thanks for all of your arduous work! I really feel surrounded by help figuring out you, your (tiny) group, and all of your listeners are on the market, caring a lot.”
Kimberly, thank YOU a lot.
OK: The place to go is arm and a leg present dot com, slash help.
Arm and a leg present dot com, slash, help.
We’ll have a hyperlink wherever you’re listening. The whole lot you give will get matched. Let’s do that now.
Thanks SO a lot. Arm and a Leg present dot com, slash, help.
We’ll be again with one other episode quickly. Until then, handle your self.
This episode of An Arm and a Leg was produced by Emily Pisacreta and me, Dan Weissmann, with assist from Claire Davenport — and edited by Ellen Weiss.
Adam Raymonda is our audio wizard.
Our music is by Dave Weiner and Blue Dot Classes.
Claire Davenport is our engagement producer.
Sarah Ballema is our Operations Supervisor. Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations.
An Arm and a Leg is produced in partnership with KFF Well being Information. That’s a nationwide newsroom producing in-depth journalism about well being points in America and a core program at KFF, an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism.
Zach Dyer is senior audio producer at KFF Well being Information. He’s editorial liaison to this present.
An Arm and a Leg is distributed by KUOW, Seattle’s NPR information station.
And because of the Institute for Nonprofit Information for serving as our fiscal sponsor.
They permit us to simply accept tax-exempt donations. You possibly can be taught extra about INN at INN.org.
Lastly, thanks to all people who helps this present financially.
You possibly can take part any time at arm and a leg present, dot com, slash: help.
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“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KFF Well being Information and Public Street Productions.
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