Storms, floods, and fires are ever more extreme.

And yet, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is fighting for its life.

I've never been a big fan of FEMA.

FEMA's a disaster.

FEMA's a dirty way.

People are waking up in droves to the FEMA camps.

Can the agency survive the stories that have been told about it?

And can we survive without FEMA?

American Emergency, the Movement to Kill FEMA, is a brand new series from WNYC's on the media.

Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.

Insurers are easing up on prior authorization.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrina Beneshore in New York. United Healthcare,

the nation's biggest insurer, announced that it's cutting back on its requirements for prior

authorization by 30%. Prior authorization is where your doctor orders a medical procedure or a test

or a drug, but you can't get it until your

insurance company approves it. From the insurer's perspective, it's a way to cut costs and

prevent people from getting expensive or unnecessary care. For doctors and patients, it has

been a source of massive frustration. United Health isn't the only one to cut back on the

requirement, though,

and other insurers have been doing this in the past year as well. Marketplaces, Samantha Fields,

has more. If you have a chronic health condition, you're probably quite familiar with prior

authorization. Amy Killalay at Georgetown's Center on Health Insurance Reforms has done a lot of

...