First Aid Kit Archive • An Arm And a Leg

First Aid Kit

Our newsletter sums up and shares the practical lessons we’ve learned about surviving the health care system, financially.

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An old school but worthy directory of prescription drug resources

Especially for need-based assistance programs.

Avoiding Ripoffs

A checklist and a new (to us) tip

Getting your meds for less, part two: order of operations.

Avoiding Ripoffs

A tool for hunting down prescription discounts

Getting your meds for less, part one: going outside insurance.

A First Aid Kit reader organized a medical-debt clinic

And we got to go. Here's what we learned.

An Arm and a Leg’s Summer Reading List

Some of our favorite books about health care in America.

Avoiding Ripoffs

Medical-bill resources everyone should know about

Sourced from you, our readers!

More encouragement, via John Green

What I took away from his best-selling new book.

Yes, you can negotiate with bill collectors

Learn the right questions to ask and our best tips for settling up.

Two things to try before paying off medical debt

Don’t pay without checking these first.

Help us build a one-stop shop resource

Plus an exciting DIY project to help your neighbors.

How to stare down — and maybe scare off — a bill collector

What the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act” can do for you, pt. 1.

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For topic-specific deep dives and recommended reading, check out our Starter Packs or use the search bar below to explore our site.

More of our reporting

Starter Packs

Jumping off points: Our best episodes and our best answers to some big questions.

Explore our Starter Packs →

How do I shop for health insurance?

Picking a health insurance plan can be super confusing. Here's our best advice.

Help! I’m stuck with a gigantic medical bill.

Don't freak out. We've laid out tips to help you manage your medical bills.

The prescription drug playbook

The high cost of prescription meds in the US is a crisis: one in four adults say they’ve skipped taking a prescription in the past year because of cost.

Why are my meds so expensive?

Getting your meds shouldn’t feel like mission impossible. Here’s a hand-picked mix of our most practical tips, background stories, and real listener experiences—so you can save money, understand the system, and know you’re not alone.

Help! Insurance denied my claim.

Insurance denies lots of claims, and people give up. But the majority of people who appeal win. Here's the best of what we've published so far to help you.

See All Our Starter Packs

If you don't know where to start or are just getting to know us, we recommend you start here.

Podcast Episodes

Our show about why health care costs so freaking much, and what we can (maybe) do about it.

Explore the podcast →

September 18, 2025

Will we be able to afford insurance in 2026?

An Arm and a Leg's senior producer has to sign up for Obamacare. And it turns out, it’s one heck of a year to do that.

August 28, 2025

‘The Insurance Warrior’ battles a $61 billion company (from 2021)

Laurie Todd calls herself "The Insurance Warrior." Here's the story of one of her first big battles.

A wild health insurance hustle

They thought they were buying insurance. Instead, they got fake “jobs.”

The great American drug shortage isn’t an accident, it’s artificial (from Organized Money)

What's up with drug shortages? From the podcast Organized Money.

Robots sing: The Prescription Drug Playbook Song

You just gotta hear this.

See the Episode Archive

One of the most enraging, terrifying, depressing parts of American life made entertaining, empowering, and useful.