“An Arm and a Leg” is collecting stories for a new series about how Americans get the medicine they need when faced with sticker shock.
Prices for brand-name drugs in the U.S. are three times what the same drugs cost in other countries. And in a recent KFF survey, 3 in 10 adults reported not taking their medicine as prescribed at some point in the past year because of costs.
“An Arm and a Leg” is collecting stories from listeners about what they’ve done to get the drugs they need when facing sticker shock.
If you’ve ever faced difficult choices in order to afford your medicine, “An Arm and a Leg” would love to hear about it. If you’re interested in contributing, you can learn more and submit your stories using this form.
Dan Weissmann @danweissmann Host and producer of "An Arm and a Leg." Previously, Dan was a staff reporter for Marketplace and Chicago's WBEZ. His work also appears on All Things Considered, Marketplace, the BBC, 99 Percent Invisible, and Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting.Credits
Emily Pisacreta Producer Claire Davenport Producer Adam Raymonda Audio wizard Ellen Weiss Editor Click to open the Transcript Transcript: How Do You Deal With Wild Drug Prices?Note: “An Arm and a Leg” uses speech-recognition software to generate transcripts, which may contain errors. Please use the transcript as a tool but check the corresponding audio before quoting the podcast.
Dan: Hey there–
So, first: Whoa. There is a LOT going on. I’m recording this on January 30th. I’m not gonna try to summarize what the Trump administration has been doing so far on health care — because by the time you hear this, I have no idea what else might have happened.
Oh boy. We will definitely have a lot to talk about as this year goes on. And in the meantime, all the things we’ve been talking on this show … they are still happening.
So, we’ve got a project cooking, and I need your help with it. It’s about how freaking much we pay for medicine. And what we can maybe do about it.
This problem is something that hits a lot of us. A big recent survey asked: Have you skipped a medication in the last year because of cost? A quarter of people answered yes.
And we know that a ton of people spend all kinds of time and energy trying to make sure they don’t have to go without meds that cost more than they can afford, or go broke paying for them.
Looking for coupons, haggling endlessly with insurance, ordering drugs from online pharmacies — even pharmacies in other countries. And in some cases, undertaking all kinds of epic adventures.
One of the very first episodes of this show was about Laura Derrick, of Austin Texas. And how she turned her life upside down in 2011. She had just started a new drug.
A drug that may have saved her life. And then, almost immediately, two things happened. Thing one: Laura found out what that drug cost.
Laura Derrick: I was covered by insurance. So this is not what I paid, but the first bill was over $55,000.
Dan (talking to Laura): And this is for like a month supply
Laura: A month’s supply.
Dan (talking to Laura): And how much was your share of that?
Laura: Um, my share was about $20.
Dan: And then, thing two: her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Late-stage cancer. He needed intensive treatment, which meant he couldn’t work. Which meant, he was about to lose his insurance.
And this was before the Affordable Care Act was implemented. If you had a pre-existing condition, and you didn’t get insurance from your job, you basically couldn’t buy insurance.
So Laura Derrick needed a job. She knew people who were eager to hire her, but there was a catch.
Laura: My, my daughter’s last year of high school, my son’s last year of college. I left our family with my husband in cancer treatment because the only job they could offer was in Ohio.
And it offered us an insurance policy with a zero deductible that cost $20 a month for the whole family and covered everything we needed. But it meant I had to be gone for almost a year and a half.
Dan: That job, by the way, was with Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Laura was determined to win — so the ACA could get implemented, so that people, including her — and her family, could get insurance without going quite as far as she did.
But to say the least, having insurance does not mean having no problems. For some people, getting their meds — it may not mean taking a job far away from family — but fighting with insurance can become a very frustrating part-time job of its own.
When I talked with Lillian Karabaic, in 2022, she was grinding away: trying to avoid a crushing bill for Enbrel. That’s an expensive rheumatoid arthritis drug she’d been taking for years.
Lillian is a financial journalist, who teaches financial self-help to millennials. So, as you can imagine, she’s very organized.
And as we talked about the adventure she was on at that point, she pulled up the time-tracking software she uses:
Lillian Karabaic: Okay, so it has been nine hours and 32 minutes in the past two weeks that I have spent on healthcare admin, which is mostly being on phone calls.
Dan: What kicked off all those phone calls had been a rude awakening. Literally. From her phone.
Lillian: I just got all of a sudden a text message from my specialty pharmacy saying that I have a $3,000 co-pay. That’s not a text message that anybody wants to wake up to.
Dan: When we talked — two weeks and almost ten hours of phone calls after that text message — Lillian was … giving up on getting out of that three-thousand dollar copay. And getting to work on figuring out how to pay it.
Lillian: But I’m kind of delaying the inevitable at least long enough to apply for a credit card that has a decent point signup bonus. So at least I can get something out of this entire situation.
Dan: So, yes: We know how tough this can be. Has been. Is.
I have a feeling you may know a bit about this too. Like, you may not have gotten a text message saying you owe three thousand bucks.
But you definitely may have been in the situation of asking, “Holy crap, I’m supposed to pay THIS MUCH for my meds? What?”
— and THIS MUCH could be thousands of dollars, or hundreds of dollars, or 60 dollars. If it’s a lot to you, it’s a lot. And that’s why I want your help:
If you’ve been in that situation, what have you done? And what did you learn? Maybe you learned a strategy that actually worked for you. Maybe it was, “Man, I learned about a new way I’m getting screwed.”
However things went — however they’re going: What did you learn that you want other people to know? It doesn’t have to be a big secret. Just something you’d tell a friend about if they asked.
But I’m pretty sure there are strategies not enough people know enough about. I’m also pretty sure there are new ways we’re getting beat up.
And the more we learn about those, the more we can work together to do something about them. So I’m asking you to share all that with me.
By the way, I know that you may not be doing this for yourself, for your own meds. You may be doing this for a family member, or maybe you’re a health care worker trying to help a patient — or patients. Or an advocate or a social worker.
You’ve been working on this? You’ve been learning something the rest of us should know about? I wanna hear about it. I’d love it if you head over to https://armandalegshow.com/drugs/ — and tell me about it. You can keep it brief, or go long.
That’s https://armandalegshow.com/drugs/. We’ll have a link wherever you’re finding this, and you can just click that.
And if you HAVEN’T been on an adventure like this- – well, one: Good. I actually would love to hear about that too. I do not mind hearing good news about good people. Not everything has to be a nightmare.
And I would love it if you passed this request around. Because probably, somebody you know has a story we should hear about.
Please encourage them to bring that story right here. A story with a lesson or a question. Like, “Can they freaking DO that?!? Is there anything I can do about it? Is there anything SOMEBODY can do about that?”
Over the next month or two, we’ll dig into everything you bring us. We may call you for more details. And we’ll call some experts to get answers to some of your questions.
Then, this spring, we’ll start sharing what we learn. The place to bring it is https://armandalegshow.com/drugs/.
We’ll have a link wherever you’re listening. Along with a link to some resources you might find helpful. Thank you SO much!
Meanwhile, I’ll catch you in a few weeks with a new episode. Till then, take care of yourself.
This is An Arm and a Leg, a show about why health care costs so freaking much, and what we can maybe do about it.
An Arm and a Leg February 3, 2025 Season 13, Episode 2 p.5
An Arm and a Leg is produced by me, Dan Weissmann, with help from Emily Pisacreta and Claire Davenport — and edited by Ellen Weiss.
Adam Raymonda is our audio wizard. Our music is by Dave Weiner and Blue Dot Sessions. Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations. Lynne Johnson is our operations manager.
An Arm and a Leg is produced in partnership with KFF Health News. That’s a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism about health issues in America — and a core program at KFF: an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Zach Dyer is senior audio producer at KFF Health News. He’s the editorial liaison to this show. We are distributed by KUOW, Seattle’s NPR News Station.
And thanks to the Institute for Nonprofit News for serving as our fiscal sponsor.They allow us to accept tax-exempt donations. You can learn more about INN at INN.org.
Finally, thank you to everybody who supports this show financially. You can join in any time at armandalegshow.com/support/.
And thanks for listening.
“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KFF Health News and Public Road Productions.
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KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
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