\n\tDan Weissmann<\/span><\/p>\n

Can\u2019t see the audio player?\u00a0Click here to listen.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Click here for a transcript of the episode.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On a Sunday afternoon in August, health services researcher Stacie Dusetzina was sitting alone in her office at Vanderbilt University,\u00a0 watching C-SPAN and crying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Senate was voting on the Inflation Reduction Act, which among other things is designed to ensure that people on Medicare pay less for expensive drugs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big deal. Lots of seniors pay $10,000 a year or more for drugs or do without lifesaving treatment; once the new law kicks in, it sets an out-of-pocket limit of $2,000 a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dusetzina and her colleagues have spent years making the case for this change, documenting the ways current policies leave people in the lurch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pharmaceutical industry fought this change tooth and nail \u2014 for decades. Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KHN, takes listeners on a journey back to the late 1980s, when Congress learned the cost of messing with Big Pharma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Arm and a Leg\u201d is a co-production of KHN and Public Road Productions.<\/p>\n

To keep in touch with \u201cAn Arm and a Leg,\u201d\u00a0 subscribe to the newsletter<\/a>. You can also\u00a0follow the show on\u00a0 Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0 Twitter<\/a>. And if you\u2019ve got stories to tell about the health care system, the producers\u00a0 would love to hear from you<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To hear all KHN podcasts,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

And subscribe to \u201cAn Arm and a Leg\u201d on Spotify<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Stitcher<\/a>,\u00a0 Pocket Casts<\/a>,\u00a0or\u00a0wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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