An Arm and a Leg host Dan Weissmann breaks down how two states passed laws aimed at protecting people from things like medical debt, insurance delays and denials, and corporate profiteering.
In Maine, lawmakers unanimously voted to remove medical debts from credit reports. While a nationwide court ruling has cast doubt on the new law’s future, a consumer rights attorney tells Weissmann why she remains optimistic.
And a law in Oregon aims to prevent corporations and private equity firms from gobbling up medical clinics, raising prices, and, sometimes, delivering worse care.
Plus, the team behind An Arm and a Leg has some good news of its own to share.
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Transcript: Some more things that didn’t suck in 2025
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Dan: Hey there–
It has been a long year, and yes, 2026 is shaping up to be a doozy.
As I record this, it’s looking like any hope that Congress will extend certain Obamacare subsidies for next year are looking like a long shot. Experts say millions of people could lose insurance coverage.
And– not to rub it in– but the federal government actually backtracked this year on another issue we’ve talked about here: Keeping medical debts off of people’s credit reports.
The Biden administration spent years crafting a rule to establish that protection.
The Trump administration has actually said recently: those protections are ILLEGAL.
But states have been enacting laws of their own this year … which means lots of people are still protected.
And this is where we pick up a series we started a few weeks ago — looking at things that DID NOT SUCK in 2025.
Cuz not only did some states fill in holes left by the f …