Dan Weissmann

People have already mentioned songs I like more (but hadn’t thought of), but I do have to plunk down for
“Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog, After the War”

Preventive care: what does (and very likely doesn't) count • An Arm And a Leg Hey there, A couple weeks ago, we made the case for getting your annual checkups early this year. Most of us think of these checkups as “preventive care”

Insurance is supposed to cover preventive care at no cost to you. So why will you sometimes end up with a bill anyway? In our First Aid Kit newsletter, we dig into this medical-bill minefield.

The “we won” video is a great watch.

“For a long time, I wanted to go back to normal… before cancer. … And there is no going back to normal. I feel like I have a new purpose in life, and that it to make sure this shit doesn’t happen [to others]”

🫡

www.instagram.com/reel/DTnozlb...

When Cigna denied Keaton Herzer’s potentially life-saving cancer surgery, he told Instagram— then posted a series of reels showing him on the phone trying to get somebody’s attention at Cigna.

So many calls, many from his hospital bed. (Eventually it worked)
1/

www.instagram.com/reel/DTguPny...

Too often, insurance companies offer only “ghost networks” for mental health: lists of therapists who don’t actually accept your plan.

Too rarely do they face real accountability, as @propublica.org‘s reporting makes clear.

Possibly too blue for your purposes, but can’t resist a plug for a Chicago classic: jagoff.

Stopped by the House hearing with health insurance CEOs, where both GOP and Dems have pressed the companies on their practices and profits.

Here's Rep. John Joyce (R-Pennsylvania) pushing UnitedHealthcare's CEO on its vertical integration — the acquisition of doctors, through its Optum arm.

Opinion | Five Americans on Going Broke Paying for Their Health Care

"We had a baby and we bought a house in 2024. We’ve always been responsible with money, and these were life decisions we made based on a sense of our income and bills. Spending nearly $1,000 more a month, that’s not something we factored in."
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/o...

Bookmarking these shocking-not-surprising numbers.
Holy crap.

Oh wow

A new york state required disclosure that using a credit card to pay a medical bill means that debt is no longer considered medical debt. This means you don't have certain federal and state protections around medical debt like prohibitions against wage garnishment and property liens.

Good reminder that the medical debt numbers you see don't include credit card debt taken on to pay a medical bill. The problem is worse than even the grim numbers presented suggest.

Support • An Arm And a Leg An Arm and a Leg is a scrappy, independent production. Your contributions go a long way to helping us make the show.

This kind of work will be more necessary than ever in 2026,

… and we could really use your help to keep it going, and growing.

We’re a tiny, independent media outlet with a big impact.

Please do pitch in with a donation. I promise we’ll put it to amazing use.

armandalegshow.com/support/

Our favorite project of 2025 levels up — and you can help • An Arm And a Leg Hey, first!  If you value what we do, we need your support to keep it going in 2026.  We have SO much work ahead, and we can’t do it without you.   Every

This has been my dream for An Arm and a Leg for years: to provide a nexus where folks can learn to help themselves *and each other* and spread that knowledge around.

That dream is starting to come true, thanks to so many people.

armandalegshow.com/episode/our-...

Helpers • An Arm And a Leg

And we’ve made a page for anyone who wants to:

* print, distribute, or adapt the print version
* pass around links to the mobile-friendly version
* help us keep improving the guide and the project.

armandalegshow.com/helpers/

Help Page • An Arm And a Leg

And now there are two new versions of Thomas’s medical-bill resource guide:

* A listener who’s a UX designer made a more-accessible PDF.

* We’ve made a mobile-friendly version, so patients can instantly access everything, wherever they are.

armandalegshow.com/help/

It's official: This is our favorite project of the year • An Arm And a Leg Remember Thomas Sanford, the fourth-year medical student who created a one-page resource for dealing with medical expenses? With help from some of you,

By fall, the resource guide was looking sharper. We shared the updated version

… and talked with the med student who’d been developing it, Thomas Sanford, on the podcast.

He’d published it w a Creative Commons license, so anyone could reproduce and adapt it.

armandalegshow.com/first-aid-ki...

The “one-stop shop” resource list 2.0 • An Arm And a Leg Avid “First Aid Kit” readers might remember that in the spring, we wrote about a med student named Thomas who wanted a one-page resource guide — and we

Our med-student friend took all that input, actually *made* a one-sheet resource guide, and started handing it to patients.

He sent it to us for critique. We shared with readers— and posted a sign-up form so folks could volunteer to help buff it up.

armandalegshow.com/first-aid-ki...

Medical-bill resources everyone should know about • An Arm And a Leg Hi there — A couple of weeks ago, we shared a note we got from a med student named Thomas asking us if we had a one-page guide that he could share with

Readers sent in some great resources, including a couple websites that— as it happened — people in our community had built as part of their jobs (one for the federal govt, the other from the nonprofit PIRG).

We were stoked to share them.

armandalegshow.com/first-aid-ki...

Help us build a one-stop shop resource • An Arm And a Leg Plus an exciting DIY project to help your neighbors

Last spring, a Brooklyn med student wrote in:

He’d been giving patients cards with links to info on financial assistance (via @dollarfor.bsky.social, which he’d learned about from us).

He wondered if we had something more robust— and we asked readers for ideas.

armandalegshow.com/first-aid-ki...

Our favorite 2025 project levels up • An Arm And a Leg Hey there — Today’s podcast episode represents the culmination of a big year's work by the whole Arm and a Leg team — and of a lot of years' work by

It’s been a remarkable year for the @armandalegshow.bsky.social team, and my favorite 2025 project is also the one I’m most stoked for in 2026.

It’s a collaboration with our readers and listeners. It will help a LOT of folks.

And you can get involved.

armandalegshow.com/first-aid-ki...

A middle-class family’s only option: A $43,000 health insurance premium Consumers are left with few options and crushing prices as insurers offering Affordable Care Act plans pull out of some regions.

Read it (gift link) and weep
wapo.st/4amcTzk

This scary calculator is SUPER relevant to anybody looking at Obamacare for 2026

... and plays a big role in @armandalegshow.bsky.social's brand-new episode.

It's personal — and full of info that you, or someone you care about, probably need too.

armandalegshow.com/episode/insu...

An Arm and A Leg • Why health care costs so much and what to do Want to fight the awful cost of health care — like outrageous medical bills, health insurance denials, shady debt collectors? Check out our reporting.

Awesome list (and great adds in the comments)!
Adding a plug for my tiny, audience-supported @armandalegshow.bsky.social
armandalegshow.com

As Congress fights over government funding and Dems demand an extension of ACA Market place subsidies, new CBO estimates say permanently extending them would mean 3.8 million more people get insurance, while premiums would be 7.6% LOWER on average through 2035.
www.cbo.gov/system/files...

Team Trump’s Answer to Ballooning Obamacare Premiums: Less Generous Coverage - KFF Health News Tens of millions of people face sticker shock enrolling in Affordable Care Act insurance for 2026. To save money, the Trump administration wants them to consider less generous coverage.

Tens of millions of people face sticker shock enrolling in Affordable Care Act insurance for 2026. To save money, the Trump administration wants them to consider less generous coverage.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

FCC’s Final Rule on Consent Kills One-to-One Consent Requirement - insideARM The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has finalized its rule under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), addressing prior express consent requirements for sellers to send advertisements a...

I think this means the FCC just wiped out whatever protection we might've had from spam calls/texts. 😕

(Can someone who's a lawyer PLEASE tell me I've got this wrong? I'd really like to be wrong.)
www.insidearm.com/news/0009418...

I Have Dental Insurance. Why Do I Pay So Much for Care?

"Is dental insurance a scam?" asks NYT.

“It’s hard not to say yes,” a dentist responds. “I don’t think it’s looking out for the patient’s best interest.”

Gift link

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/w...

Help! Do I have to pay for the hospital’s $47,000 mistake? • An Arm And a Leg Hey there — I get a lot of questions from An Arm and a Leg listeners. Sometimes I write back with advice. So: Why not share? Welcome to an experiment: Our

In our first-ever “First Aid Kit” advice column, @danweissmann.bsky.social responds to a listener whose hospital was late in filing an insurance claim. Read it here: armandalegshow.com/first-aid-ki...

Also: yes— thank you so much for chiming in here!

So, any other jabs I’ve been meaning to get — Shingrix dose 2 for me, a final meningitis booster for my kid— might be prudent to grab before 9/18?