Your free Podsite trial has expired, but you still have time to upgrade!

Claim your custom domain name todayClaim your domain

“Your Money or Your Life”: Dr. Luke Messac’s book on the history of medical debt

26 minutes

In 2019, Dr. Luke Messac was a medical resident who found himself spending his day off in a courthouse archive. He’d heard about hospitals suing their own patients over unpaid medical bills. He wanted to know if the hospitals he worked in were doing the same. They were. 


Trained as a historian, Messac then set out to trace the history of this phenomenon, and the story of medical debt in the U.S.


His new book, Your Money or Your Life is the result of that research. 


Luke Messac sat down with us for a chat about how he got interested in medical debt, how medical debt became the massive problem it is today, and what he thinks people who work in health care can do to start to fix it.


ALSO: Hey, it’s the BEST time to support this show with a donation. Thanks to NewsMatch, any gift you make, up to $1,000, will be doubled. It’s a great deal, and it will set us up to kick maximum butt in 2024.

Here’s the link, go for it!


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More episodes from An Arm and a Leg

To get health insurance, this couple made a movie

Last fall, actor-writers Ellen Haun and Dru Johnston were hustling to get their health insurance sorted out for 2023. To qualify for insurance through the actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, Ellen …

Paging Dr. Glaucomflecken: Presenting “The Nocturnists - Conversations: Will & Kristin Flanary (The Glaucomfleckens)”

First: an update on our recent two-parter with the writer John Green, about the global, decades-long fight to make an important tuberculosis drug …

John Green vs. Johnson & Johnson (part 2)

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 …

John Green vs. Johnson & Johnson (part 1)

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 …

How to Get a Surprise Bill on Your Way to the Hospital

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 …

How you can listen to this podcast

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.

Recommended apps
Start listening to Mom vs. Texas
28:53
Start listening to Mom vs. Texas
28:53