Lots of people have insurance plans that only cover them with certain places —providers, certain hospitals.
But: in a COVID pandemic surge, who knows if you'd end up one of those places? And if you end up someplace else... then what?
That’s the question we got from a listener named Becky in Minnesota. She's got a Bronze plan — it only covers a limited "network" of providers— and she's got a $6,000+ deductible.
With officials talking about converting sports arenas into makeshift hospitals, Becky says: "If you call an ambulance, you may not even go to a hospital, right? Let alone a hospital that is quote-unquote in your network."
We put Becky's question to one of the country’s top health-insurance nerds: Sabrina Corlette, founder and co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
Not all the answers were comforting. But they weren't all grim either. And Becky turns out to have some good advice for us all.
And, per Sabrina Corlette's advice for anybody newly out of work — and suddenly without health insurance: Go apply for Medicaid.
As promised in the episode, here's a map showing which states have expanded Medicaid so that pretty much anybody who suddenly has very little income is eligible.
Please keep your questions and stories coming: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/
Or call (724) 276-6534 — that's (724) ARM N LEG
And as always, we'd love you to join us by supporting the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/armandalegshow
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is part two of our globe-spanning story about drugs, patents, and YouTube megastar John Green.
Quick recap: In our last episode, we learned how writer and YouTube star John Green …
This episode is special. When we heard that widely-beloved writer John Green was rallying his online community around a fight over drug prices — and apparently making a difference — we …
Hey there— our next story is gonna take a little more time to cook, but it is going to be SO worth it.
It involves John Green, author of The Fault in …
For a year and a half now, the No Surprises Act has protected patients from some of the most outrageous out-of-network medical bills. But Congress left something pretty crucial out of the …
If you’ve been told your insurance won’t cover your meds — or that you’re gonna have to pay an arm and a leg for them — you’ve met a PBM: a pharmacy …
A listener’s doctor wanted her credit card info up front — before her appointment. She wondered: Do I need to give it to them? We did too.
After all, who wants the risk of being overcharged …
You can listen to episodes right here on the website, or if you prefer, in a podcast app. Listening in an app makes it easier to keep track of what you’ve already heard, listen without using your data plan and many other conveniences.