‘An Arm and a Leg’: Host Dan Weissmann talks price transparency on ‘Axios Today’

As we settle into the new year, we have two small doses of good news.

First, a new federal rule could help cut through one health care issue. Host Dan Weissmann talked about the rule — which requires hospitals to make public the prices they negotiate with insurers — in a short conversation with his former public-radio colleague, Niala Boodhoo, for the daily-news podcast "Axios Today."

You'll find more detail on that rule in this story from reporter Celia Llopis-Jepsen, whose reporting about a $50,000 "air ambulance" ride formed the core of a recent episode about how consumers get squeezed by insurers on one side and providers on the other.

Later in the episode, a listener describes how he used what he learned from "An Arm and a Leg" to head off an insurance nightmare.

Here's a transcript for this episode.

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of Kaiser Health News and Public Road Productions.

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