Category: Public Health

Dan Weissmann

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Health coverage generally does not cover dental work. But Susan Rice of Atlanta should have been the exception: She was hit by a speeding car, causing extensive damage to her own “grill.” She’s been fighting to get her oral surgery covered for 18 months and counting.

The “An Arm and a Leg” podcast connected Rice with University of South Carolina law professor Jacqueline Fox, who, when she was practicing law, fought insurers on behalf of patients. Fox said Rice has “done everything right.” Her insurer’s refusal to pay may be tied to a bigger problem in the Affordable Care Act marketplace … one that’s led to a class-action lawsuit. 

Here’s a transcript of this episode.

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KHN and Public Road Productions.

To keep

LUMPKIN, Ga. — En octubre, Yibran Ramirez-Cecena no le dijo al personal del Centro de Detención de Stewart que tenía tos y secreción nasal. Está detenido en la instalación del suroeste de Georgia desde mayo, y ocultó sus síntomas por temor a que lo pusieran en confinamiento solitario si daba positivo para covid-19.

“Honestamente, no quería pasar 10 días solo en una habitación, lo llaman el agujero”, dijo Ramírez-Cecena, quien espera que decidan si es deportado a México o puede permanecer en los Estados Unidos, en donde ha vivido por más de dos décadas.

Poco antes de que Ramírez-Cecena se enfermara, los funcionarios del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) de la instalación le negaron su solicitud de alta médica. Es VIH positivo, que según la lista de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades es una afección que puede aumentar el riesgo de enfermar

Dan Weissmann

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen.

In this year’s final episode, the editorial team behind the “An Arm and a Leg” podcast looks back on the stories from 2022 that hit close to home, including insulin pricing, surprise billing, and prenatal testing. Then, host Dan Weissmann shares updates on two court cases.

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KHN and Public Road Productions.

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Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on Acast. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Click here for a transcript of the episode.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House covid-19 response coordinator, is the guest for a wide-ranging interview on this week’s “What the Health?” podcast.

Jha, who is on leave from his “day job” as dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said he’s particularly worried about the nation making the transition from public health emergency status back to a more normal footing and routine — particularly for low-income and uninsured people who may not be able to get the kind of covid tests, treatments, and vaccines that have so far been free through federal subsidies.

Jha said the Biden administration is doing more than the public realizes to study

In 2022, readers shared more than 1,000 personal stories of medical billing problems, contributing one patient at a time to an ongoing portrait of the rippling financial consequences of becoming sick or injured in the United States.

Many of the submissions received during the fifth year of KHN-NPR’s “Bill of the Month” investigative series conveyed the same message: I want to tell my story so what happened to me won’t happen to anyone else.

The stories told this year illuminated some of the major financial decisions American patients are pressed to make in their most vulnerable moments. We met Peggy Dula of Illinois, whose experience illustrated the financial risk patients accept when they get into an ambulance, even one from a local fire department. Sean Deines of North Carolina, who received a $489,000 air ambulance bill, offered a case from before the new federal law took effect last January banning