My Neighbor the Health-Care Ninja

Meredith Balogh has spent years learning to navigate the financial side of the health-care system. She’s a type-one diabetic, she’s never had a lot of money, and for years she didn’t have health insurance.

It hasn’t been easy, but she’s become a master.

“There’s only three things that you’re fighting,” she says. “Problems with competence, problems with greed and problems with maliciousness. And luckily most things are incompetence.”

She has saved herself and her family many thousands of dollars, and made a habit , even a hobby , out of helping others: Fellow diabetics, co-workers, and strangers on the Internet.

She’s a health-care ninja. And she happens to be my neighbor.

Also: We apply some ninja-level skills here at home

Last season, you might remember we looked at how medical devices like CPAP machines spy on you for your insurance company.

And you might remember that was actually getting a CPAP machine while reporting that story. (I snore super-loud, and it turns out I have sleep apnea.)

It looked like it would be an EXPENSIVE problem.

But guess what? My amazing spouse (and this show’s chief investor) applied some Meredith-type skills to save us a big chunk of that expense. You’ll hear all about it at the end of this episode.

It’s kind of romantic.