Some things that didn’t suck in 2025 (really)

An Arm and a Leg

Society & Culture, Medicine, Health, Health & Fitness, Documentary

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hey, first! If you value what we do, this is the best-ever time to support our work: This month, every donation gets matched two-for-one.

We have SO much work ahead in 2026. Head to https://armandalegshow.com/support/ to donate — and get your money matched two-for-one.

This statement might shock you: some actual good things happened in 2025. Or, at least things that did not totally suck.

Stuff like: new limits on the hoops insurance companies can make you jump through, and new protections from predatory debt collectors..

These are just a couple examples of what state governments have been up to this year – in red, blue, and purple states alike.

State governments can’t do it all, but across a couple of episodes, we’ll dive into a handful of meaningful wins, and learn how they came to pass.

Today’s episode takes us to Nebraska, where the state passed aggressive new restrictions on prior authorization.

And Virginia, where lawmakers banned wage garnishment for lots of medical debts.

Here's a transcript of this episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, before we start, real quick, this show exists because listeners like you support it.
0:05.9	Our single biggest income source, your donations.
0:09.0	And now is the perfect time for you to give because thanks to NewsMatch from the Institute for Nonprofit News, anything you give this November gets matched two for one.
0:19.1	You give $100. They turn it into $300. It's amazing. You give a hundred bucks, they turn it into three hundred
0:21.7	dollars. It's amazing. You can make that happen at arm and the leg show.com slash support.
0:27.7	Thank you so much. Okay, here's the show. Hey there. You don't need me to tell you.
0:33.1	2025 has been a lot. I mean, just with health care, as I record this, the U.S. government has
0:40.9	been shut down for more than a month over whether to extend health insurance subsidies that
0:47.6	more than 20 million people rely on. I mean, if Congress resolves this tomorrow, and I'm not holding my breath, it's still
0:56.1	going to be a huge mess, and I could definitely go on. But I'm not going to do that. Instead, I've been
1:06.4	spending my time these last few weeks looking at what's happened this year that didn't suck and what
1:11.5	we can learn from that. And it turns out at the state level, there's a lot to look at.
1:18.7	All over the country, state governments took action this year to make things suck a little less
1:24.5	on things like medical debt and health insurance and the price of drugs.
1:29.6	And it happened dozens of times this year in a lot of states.
1:34.2	New tonight, new Nebraska legislation will make it easier for patients to access health care.
1:39.6	We're on your side tonight as a new law aimed at protecting main consumers from the impacts of medical debt goes into effect.
1:46.3	Most Virginians are only one medical crisis away from bankruptcy, according to advocates.
1:51.9	That's why the General Assembly passed a bill to create some protections for people facing medical debt.
1:57.1	And I've been talking with people who helped get these new non-sucky laws passed this year,
2:03.0	in red states, blue states, and purple states. And I cannot wait to start introducing you to
2:09.7	some of these folks and share what I've been learning about what they got done and maybe most
	...

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