Hey there! Today's episode starts with a question from a listener named Tom Carches. He writes,

My son will turn 26 this month and will no longer be eligible to be on our health insurance policy.

He's a student and currently has no income. I can hardly believe I am saying this, but

until he has a job, wouldn't he be better off not having insurance and applying for charity care?

So charity care also called financial assistance. This is when a hospital

forgives your bill or part of it because you definitely cannot pay it. All non-profit hospitals

are legally required to have some kind of charity care policy, and Tom said all the hospitals

around him are non-profits. And so, I mean, I can hardly believe I am saying this, but Tom's

question seemed worth engaging with, because it's basically, if you don't have money and you don't

have a job, what's your best shot at getting health care? And I thought this could be a good

opportunity to do something I have dreamed of this show doing from the beginning. An audio

advice column like, you know, Savage Love or Dear Sugar or, you know, Car Talk. So, I brought

Tom together with a friendly, super knowledgeable nerd who I figured could address his question.

It was super fun and I learned a lot and there were some curveballs. You ready?

This is an arm and a leg show about why health care costs so freaking much and what we can maybe

do about it. I'm Dan Weissman. I'm a reporter and I like the challenge. So, our job on this show

is to take one of the most raging, terrifying, depressing parts of American life and bring you

something entertaining, empowering, and useful. And we're going to start with the conversation

where I brought together our listener wrote in and the nerd I thought could answer his question best.

Thank you both so much for joining me. Can I ask you each to introduce yourself? Tom,

can I ask you to go first? My name is Tom Carches. I live in Karrion, North Carolina.

And what else you want to know? Let's start there at Karrion. How about you?

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