An Arm and a Leg

A show about the cost of health care that’s more entertaining, empowering, and occasionally useful than enraging, and terrifying and depressing. Reporter Dan Weissmann digs in to show how we got into this crazy mess and how we just might live through it. 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 GoFundMe.And it would have smart, funny musical numbers tracing the long, sad history of the U.S. health care industry.Welcome to our musical episode! And thank you to the young NYC troupe Heck No Techno for creating Explanation of Benefits.Our episode isn’t sung all the way through — it’s more like the PBS documentary on Hamilton than an actual musical of its own. But that is still. Pretty. Darn. Cool. AND: In keeping with our theme this season of self-defense against the cost of health care, Explanation of Benefits wraps with a set of short vignettes demonstrating ways patients can work to protect themselves from excessive charges.So we have included here an email-by-email breakdown of songwriter Emily Lowinger’s successful battle to fight off a surprise medical bill…. and we’ve set it off with music — timing and cues lovingly adjusted by our audio wizard, Adam — and it is a TREAT.Go enjoy. Have a great Thanksgiving!… and speaking of thanks: I recently spent a weekend afternoon sending thank-you cards to folks who support this show on Patreon. I’d love it if you became one: https://www.patreon.com/armandalegshow For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy