Charity care — financial assistance that nonprofit hospitals are required to offer — is one of the most powerful tools we have to avoid medical debt. But for too many people, that help is hidden.

The journalists at the podcast Tradeoffs teamed up with our colleagues at KFF Health News to look at what happened when a new state law in Oregon brought charity care out of the shadows, forcing hospitals to auto-enroll people who qualify.

Check out the rest of Tradeoffs and KFF Health News’s series Hidden Help.

Here’s a transcript of this episode.

As always, please share your stories and questions.

To get our best advice and updates, sign up for the First Aid Kit newsletter.

And: Donations from listeners are our single biggest source of funding.

We’d love for you to pitch in today.

Support the show: https://armandalegshow.com/support/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By October 1, at least two million seniors will get alarming notices: Their health plans — which they got through Medicare Advantage, the version of Medicare run by private insurance companies — will disappear at the end of the year.

Many of them will be stuck without a lot of options. In some cases, no other companies in their area may offer Medicare Advantage plans to replace them.

Almost three million seniors got stuck in similar situations last year, and experts say the scenario will likely keep playing out for years to come.

For years, critics have warned that Medicare Advantage plans expose seniors to big risks: The insurance company can decline to cover meds and treatment. And when they do approve treatments, finding a provider who takes your plan can be a huge challenge.

Now, there’s a new and growing risk: Those plans could disappear, without a viable replacement.

In this episode, we take a close look at the fallout in one state: Minnesota, where the collapse of a major Medicare Advantage carrier last year led to “total chaos,” according to the director of the state’s Medicare assistance agency — and where everyday heroes stepped up to support one another.

Plus, we zoom out to look at how private health insurance companies have enmeshed themselves into Medicare as a whole, how that’s affecting the choices in front of us, and what we might do about it.

Looking for help with Medicare?

• Find your state’s SHIP chapter.
• Check out our previous episode on Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage.
• Read about Medicare pitfalls to avoid: Part One and Part Two

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.

Support the show: https://armandalegshow.com/support/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Employer-sponsored health insurance covers 165.6 million Americans. It’s the default. For lots of workers, it’s a key reason to accept a job offer, or to stay in a job.

But that system is slowly imploding. As premiums have grown explosively — the average employer plan now prices out at $27,000 for family coverage — businesses have passed more costs onto their workers.

And, as STAT News reporter Bob Herman wrote in July: America's Small Businesses are Giving Up on Health Insurance.

That story kicked off a series, Out of Pocket, Out of Reach, with a subtitle that says it all: “How America's Employer-Based Healthcare System Continues to Crumble in Slow Motion.”

Bob covers the business of health care for STAT News. His rigorous investigative journalism recently earned him the coveted title of “UnitedHealth’s least favorite reporter.”

He joins us to unpack how the skyrocketing cost of providing health insurance is affecting companies large and small.

And he talks with Dan about how the hidden nature of those costs obscures our understanding of just how much the larger health care system is squeezing out of us, eroding our wages and even our freedom to leave crappy jobs.

Here's a transcript of this episode.

Subscribe to 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.

Support the show: https://armandalegshow.com/support/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.