NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong and I'm joined today by Lillian

Kerwake from member station Oregon Public Broadcasting. Hi, I'm here to talk about something that is

very American as American as apple pie and baseball, health care churn. And just as fun.

Churn is the term for when people switch insurance plans. And it's particularly bad in the U.S.

And that's because of the segmented and sometimes chaotic way we approach health insurance.

Yep. One year you might get insurance through your parents, and then you turn 26, you get kicked off.

Maybe you get insurance through your job.

But if you drop down your hours at work, you might then lose insurance.

Good news.

You now qualify for Medicaid.

But the month after that, if you make $1 too much, poof, Medicaid is gone and you're

scrolling through marketplace plans like it's Tinder.

I am exhausted just thinking about this.

Every time I've switched jobs, you know, you have to look at the packets and choose a

new plan, and it's always really confusing all the names sound the same.

There's so much jargon. Yeah, and it's not just annoying. It's also expensive. Today on the show,

healthcare churn, why Americans switch plans so much and how that can cost a lot in money

and in health. We'll also meet a West Virginia mother who spent 20 years trying to get a

diagnosis in the middle of the churn cycle.

Her solution wasn't what you would expect.

So churn, not the delicious butter kind, but health care churn.

People churn a lot more in America.

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