People who work in real-life emergency rooms have raved about how accurately the new drama The Pitt (Max) captures the dynamics and the medical details of their workplaces.

Here at An Arm and a Leg, we’ve been nerding out about how the show depicts the financial forces that shape the ER’s day-to-day problems like crowding, eternal wait times, and scary bills. 

For this episode, we got Dr. Alex Janke, an emergency medicine doctor and health policy researcher to nerd out with us. 

Here’s a transcript of this episode. 

Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

Of course we’d love for you to support this show.

People who work in real-life emergency rooms have raved about how accurately the new drama The Pitt (Max) captures the dynamics and the medical details of their workplaces.
Here at An Arm and a Leg, we&rsquo;ve been nerding out about how the show depicts the financial forces that shape the ER&rsquo;s day-to-day problems like crowding, eternal wait times, and scary bills.&nbsp;
For this episode, we got Dr. Alex Janke, an emergency medicine doctor and health policy researcher to nerd out with us.&nbsp;
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WEB-TRANSCRIPT_S13-Ep16_The-Pitt-.pdf">Here&rsquo;s a transcript of this episode</a>.&nbsp;
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/contact/">Send your stories and questions.</a> Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.
Of course we&rsquo;d love for you to <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/support/">support this show</a>.

An Arm and a Leg is a podcast about why health care costs so freaking much and what we can (maybe) do about it.

If you’ve ever been surprised by a medical bill, you’re in good company. But as our team of seasoned journalists has learned from years of reporting — you’re not always helpless. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ll offer you tools and big picture insights with plenty of humor and heart. 

An Arm and a Leg is co-produced with KFF Health News and distributed in partnership with KUOW.

You can support An Arm and a Leg by donating at armandalegshow.com/support/

Show Credits: Created, hosted, and produced by Dan Weissmann with senior producer Emily Pisacreta and engagement producer Claire Davenport, edited by Ellen Weiss. Audio wizard: Adam Raymonda. 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&nbsp;is a podcast about why health care costs so freaking much and what we can (maybe) do about it.
If you&rsquo;ve ever been surprised by a medical bill, you&rsquo;re in good company. But as our team of seasoned journalists has learned from years of reporting &mdash; you&rsquo;re not always helpless. We don&rsquo;t have all the answers, but we&rsquo;ll offer you tools and big picture insights with plenty of humor and heart.&nbsp;
An Arm and a Leg is co-produced with <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/">KFF Health News</a> and distributed in partnership with <a href="https://www.kuow.org/">KUOW</a>.
You can support An Arm and a Leg&nbsp;by donating at <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/support/">armandalegshow.com/support/</a>
<hr>
Show Credits:&nbsp;Created, hosted, and produced by Dan Weissmann with senior producer Emily Pisacreta and engagement producer Claire Davenport, edited by Ellen Weiss. Audio wizard: Adam Raymonda. 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

Why ‘The Pitt’ is our fave new drama

We’re bringing back a favorite episode from 2023 that raises a question as relevant as ever: What if we had a decent, publicly-funded health system, available to everybody, with or without insurance? 

We’ve got one, says Dr. Ricardo Nuila. It’s where he works.  

And it could be a model for the whole country. Yes, really. 

That’s the pitch he made in his 2023 book, The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine. It’s a love letter to Houston’s Ben Taub hospital, and an argument for bringing Ben Taub’s model, efficient, innovative, and cheap, to the rest of the country.

And if that seems unlikely in today’s political climate, well: Ben Taub’s wild origin story was plenty unlikely too. 

That story takes us to the 1960s, when Dutch novelist and playwright Jan de Hartog moved to Houston. He fell in love with the bustling, futuristic home of NASA and the Astrodome. 

But he also discovered the city’s dreadful underside: a neglected charity hospital where largely African-American patients are left to seek health care in unsanitary and unsafe, hellish, conditions. 

De Hartog and a group of Quaker volunteers waged a campaign to change that, and eventually found an unlikely ally who brought it over the finish line. 

The People’s Hospital is a heck of a book. We might want to start a book group someday, just to talk about it. If you want to grab a copy, here’s a link. (Or: Audiobook, or ebook.)

Here's a transcript of this episode.

Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

And of course we’d love for you to support this show.

We&rsquo;re bringing back a favorite episode from 2023 that raises a question as relevant as ever: What if we had a decent, publicly-funded health system, available to everybody, with or without insurance?&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ve got one, says Dr. Ricardo Nuila. It&rsquo;s where he works.&nbsp;&nbsp;
And it could be a model for the whole country. Yes, really.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s the pitch he made in his 2023 book, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Peoples-Hospital/Ricardo-Nuila/9781501198045">The People&rsquo;s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine</a>. It&rsquo;s a love letter to Houston&rsquo;s Ben Taub hospital, and an argument for bringing Ben Taub&rsquo;s model, efficient, innovative, and cheap, to the rest of the country.
And if that seems unlikely in today&rsquo;s political climate, well: Ben Taub&rsquo;s wild origin story was plenty unlikely too.&nbsp;
That story takes us to the 1960s, when Dutch novelist and playwright Jan de Hartog moved to Houston. He fell in love with the bustling, futuristic home of NASA and the Astrodome.&nbsp;
But he also discovered the city&rsquo;s dreadful underside: a neglected charity hospital where largely African-American patients are left to seek health care in unsanitary and unsafe, hellish, conditions.&nbsp;
De Hartog and a group of Quaker volunteers waged a campaign to change that, and eventually found an unlikely ally who brought it over the finish line.&nbsp;
The People&rsquo;s Hospital is a heck of a book. We might want to start a book group someday, just to talk about it. If you want to grab a copy, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-people-s-hospital-hope-and-peril-in-american-medicine-ricardo-nuila/18667829?ean=9781501198045">here&rsquo;s a link</a>. (Or: <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Peoples-Hospital/Ricardo-Nuila/9781797151915">Audiobook</a>, or <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Peoples-Hospital/Ricardo-Nuila/9781501198069">ebook</a>.)
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/episode/the-peoples-hospital-2026/#transcript">Here's a transcript of this episode</a>.
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/contact/">Send your stories and questions.</a> Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.
And of course we&rsquo;d love for you to <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/match/">support this show</a>.

A Texas doctor’s love letter to ‘the People’s Hospital’ (from 2023)

Last May, just a few months into the second Trump Administration, changes to federal health programs were happening at a bewildering pace. We brought in KFF Heath News Chief Washington Correspondent Julie Rover to help give us — and you — a big picture look at what some changes would mean. 

A year-and-change later, we wanted to check back in. We talk about the “crumbling Jenga tower” of public health infrastructure, the fallout from cuts to Obamacare subsidies, and Medicaid, and what Julie sees happening in 2028 and beyond (including a whisper of hope.) 

Plus, we get an update on Julie’s growing t-shirt collection and a new series she’s starting on her health policy news podcast What the Health? 

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

Want to dive deeper into those state Medicaid cuts we talked about? Julie did a whole episode of What the Health? about them. Listen here. 

Want weekly updates from the team, including some of our most practical advice for dealing with the outrageous cost of health care? Sign up for our newsletter, First Aid Kit. 

Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

Of course we’d love for you to support this show.

Last May, just a few months into the second Trump Administration, changes to federal health programs were happening at a bewildering pace. We brought in&nbsp;KFF Heath News Chief Washington Correspondent Julie Rover to help give us &mdash; and you &mdash;<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/episode/2025-so-far-in-perspective/">&nbsp;a big picture look at what some changes would mean</a>.&nbsp;
A year-and-change later, we wanted to check back in. We talk about the &ldquo;crumbling Jenga tower&rdquo; of public health infrastructure, the fallout from cuts to Obamacare subsidies, and Medicaid, and what Julie sees happening in 2028 and beyond (including a whisper of hope.)&nbsp;
Plus, we get an update on Julie&rsquo;s growing t-shirt collection and a new series she&rsquo;s starting on her health policy news podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/podcast-series/what-the-health/">What the Health?</a>&nbsp;
You can <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/episode/julie-rovner-veteran-dc-reporter/#transcript">read a transcript of this episode here</a>.&nbsp;
Want to dive deeper into those state Medicaid cuts we talked about? Julie did a whole episode of&nbsp;What the Health? about them. <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/podcast/what-the-health-455-medicaid-cuts-state-budgets-confirmation-hearings-july-16-2026/">Listen here.&nbsp;</a>
Want weekly updates from the team, including some of our most practical advice for dealing with the outrageous cost of health care? Sign up for our newsletter, <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/first-aid-kit/">First Aid Kit</a>.&nbsp;
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/contact/">Send your stories and questions.</a> Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.
Of course we&rsquo;d love for you to<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/support/"> support this show</a>.

 Julie Rovner is worried: Checking in with a veteran DC reporter.

After her husband L was hospitalized for a severe mental health crisis, Teressa barely had a moment to breathe before the health insurance denials started coming in, burying their family in medical debt.

But Teressa’s a fighter, and an organized one at that — ready to endure months of back and forth until she stumbled on a "secret door" to reversing her husband’s insurance denials: the external review. 

In this episode of Paper Trail, a podcast from the investigative journalists at ProPublica, health care reporter Duaa Eldeib and host Jessica Lussenhop follow Teressa's journey to discovering this powerful and little-known tool — and putting it to work.

Could an external review help you? Check out ProPublica’s write-up, which includes the types of denials eligible for this kind of appeal. 

And for more stories about appealing health insurance denials, you can check out our Starter Pack, which features episodes like this one about writing a killer appeal letter.  

Here's a transcript of this episode. 

Want weekly updates from the team, including some of our most practical advice for dealing with the outrageous cost of health care? Sign up for our newsletter, First Aid Kit. 

Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

Of course we’d love for you to support this show.

After her husband L was hospitalized for a severe mental health crisis, Teressa barely had a moment to breathe before the health insurance denials started coming in, burying their family in medical debt.
But Teressa&rsquo;s a fighter, and an organized one at that &mdash; ready to endure months of back and forth until she stumbled on a "secret door" to reversing her husband&rsquo;s insurance denials: the external review.&nbsp;
In this episode of <a href="https://www.propublica.org/series/paper-trail">Paper Trail</a>, a podcast from the investigative journalists at ProPublica, health care reporter Duaa Eldeib and host Jessica Lussenhop follow Teressa's journey to discovering this powerful and little-known tool &mdash; and putting it to work.
Could an external review help you? Check out ProPublica&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurance-denial-external-review">write-up</a>, which includes the types of denials eligible for this kind of appeal.&nbsp;
And for more stories about appealing health insurance denials, you can check out our <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/starter-pack/insurance-denied-my-claim-how-do-i-appeal/">Starter Pack</a>, which features episodes like <a href="https://armandalegshow.com/episode/want-to-write-a-killer-letter-to-insurance-meet-jeannine/">this one</a> about writing a killer appeal letter.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/episode/how-to-fight-a-denial-propublica/#transcript">Here's a transcript of this episode</a>.&nbsp;
Want weekly updates from the team, including some of our most practical advice for dealing with the outrageous cost of health care? Sign up for our newsletter,&nbsp;<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/first-aid-kit/">First Aid Kit</a>.&nbsp;
<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/contact/">Send your stories and questions.</a> Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.
Of course we&rsquo;d love for you to<a href="https://armandalegshow.com/support/"> support this show</a>.

Why ‘The Pitt’ is our fave new drama

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