{"podcast":{"title":"Care Talk with Laura Packard: American Health Care Explained","slug":"care-talk-with-laura-packard-american-health-care-explained-6733935","podcast_index_feed_id":6733935,"rss_url":"https://feeds.redcircle.com/f4520de0-f5b9-4ba9-b510-a517553cf327","website_url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/care-talk-with-laura-packard","image_url":"https://media.redcircle.com/images/2025/3/6/21/1b20a5ec-5f79-4214-adfb-8342e70642bf_89-432b-ac37-0896c9280205_caretalk_podcast_art.jpg","author":"Laura Packard","episode_count":132,"summary":"American health care is broken. But that doesn't mean it needs to break you. With the help of some friends, we can make sense of it all and come out stronger. Join Laura Packard, cancer survivor and health care advocate, each week on Care Talk as she brings policy experts to answer your questions on Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, private insurance, and more. We help patients and families navigate America's health insurance and health care systems, and explain topics in-depth from how to fight medical bills to lowering the cost of healthcare in America. New episodes every Tuesday. CALL/TEXT IN YOUR QUESTIONS FOR FUTURE EPISODES ‪(202) 838-6837‬.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-16T22:17:30.277798+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/care-talk-with-laura-packard-american-health-care-explained-6733935"},"episode":{"title":"Don't Get Billed: Avoiding Surprise Medical Costs & Medical Debt w/ Patricia Kelmar, PIRG","slug":"don-t-get-billed-avoiding-surprise-medical-costs-medical-debt-w-patricia-kelmar-pirg","published_at":"2026-03-31T10:00:49+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/care-talk-with-laura-packard-american-health-care-explained-6733935/don-t-get-billed-avoiding-surprise-medical-costs-medical-debt-w-patricia-kelmar-pirg","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/care-talk-with-laura-packard-american-health-care-explained-6733935","url":"https://healthcarevoices.org/caretalk","audio_url":"https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/7b3b93e8-2ddb-4cb9-91e3-a98142707da6/stream.mp3","summary":"Every year, millions of Americans are blindsided by surprise medical bills and crushing debt - not because they did anything wrong, but because the system is designed to be confusing. Patricia Kelmar of PIRG explains your rights under the No Surprises Act, how surprise medical billing has changed, and what you can do about it in this #CareTalk episode with show host, cancer survivor, and health care advocate Laura Packard from Health Care Voices . Plus Louise Norris from healthinsurance.org and Rachel Madley from the Center for Health & Democracy answer your American health insurance and health care questions on Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, private insurance and more. This episode has more about proposed health care cuts to pay for the war in Iran, overview of 2026 open enrollment numbers for the Affordable Care Act, how to handle out of network medical bills, and the end of Medicare Advantage open enrollment. New episodes of Care Talk every Tuesday, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Text or call in your health insurance and health care questions in to (202) 838-6837 to get answers in future shows! Free or Low Cost Health Care Resources on our show page: https://healthcarevoices.org/caretalk","meta_description":"Every year, millions of Americans are blindsided by surprise medical bills and crushing debt - not because they did anything wrong, but because the system…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1913,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/care-talk-with-laura-packard-american-health-care-explained-6733935/episodes/don-t-get-billed-avoiding-surprise-medical-costs-medical-debt-w-patricia-kelmar-pirg/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/care-talk-with-laura-packard-american-health-care-explained-6733935/don-t-get-billed-avoiding-surprise-medical-costs-medical-debt-w-patricia-kelmar-pirg.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}