Hey there. I don't have to tell you, navigating the American health care system,

especially the financial side, can feel like getting trapped in a medieval torture device.

So it pretty much fit that the people who work at

Renaissance fairs have come up with a work around. This is an arm and a leg, a

podcast about the cost of health care. I'm Dan Weisman.

If you heard our first episode, you know that one of the things that pushed me to do this show

is that the minute I started talking to people about the idea of a show like this, they

started telling me some surprising stories. And this is one of those and it's my favorite. My oldest friend we grew up together he's been performing at

Renaissance fairs for more than 20 years and what I told him about this project

he was like oh yeah there's this thing we have I did a short

version of this story with NPR's Planet Money Team a few months ago and in this

episode we'll get a little deeper because there's more to the story. The Renfer people are doing two

things. One, they are pooling money to help each other out, but two, they are making

medical bills disappear, more than two million bucks over the last few years.

And we are going to meet the person who makes that happen, and she's going to teach us a few of

her tricks. About 35 miles east of Austin, Texas, I am standing in a kind of open air pub at the

Sherwood Forest Fair. Most people here are just like extras from Game of Thrones.

Have you gotten the chance to speak with Robin Hood yet?

Robin, come forward.

Robin Hood does that thing.

They all do at Renaissance fairs,

where they pretend to be amazed by modern technology,

...