This story idea actually came up when someone who is very temporarily uninsured was asking me,

hey, where should I get tested? And I was saying, okay, well, here's how I think about it and here's where I would go.

And then I realized like, oh, maybe I should share this advice with not just my

uninsured friend. That's New York Times reporter Sarah Cliff talking about her

recent story how to avoid a surprise bill for your coronavirus test.

I read it, tweeted about it, and realized like,

oh, maybe I should share this advice

with not just whoever happens to see my random tweet.

So, welcome to a bonus episode of an arm and a leg, a podcast about the cost of health

care. My name is Dan Weissman. I'm a reporter and I like a challenge. So my job here is to take

one of the most enraging, terrifying, depressing issues in American life,

but you know, just one of them, and bring you a show that's entertaining, empowering, and useful.

And I think we've got you here.

I ask Sarah Cliff to help walk us through

what she's been learning because she ought to know.

So Sarah Cliff, thank you so much for joining me. You are covering health care and the

coronavirus pandemic at the New York Times and you're what you're doing now is like

a sequel to a project you did when you were at

Vox where you ask people to send you emergency room bills to get a sense of like

what goes on why are they so wildly high in so many cases and what actually happens.

We got more than a thousand bills there.

We talked about that a couple years ago.

...