How does a Band-Aid wind up costing so much money? Why are American health care prices so incredibly high?
Vox’s new podcast, the Impact, explores how policy affects real lives. This season, we’re focusing on healthcare, and we wanted to begin with one of thorniest questions in the American healthcare system: prices.
In this episode, we look at how the American decision not to regulate health care prices leads to $629 Band Aids and $3,170 fees just for visiting the emergency room.
We talk to doctors who think these prices are totally justified – and a health economist who doesn’t buy it. And we take a trip to the drug store to find out how much a Band-Aid should really cost.
Email us your feedback to impact@vox.com.
40 Acres: Reaching reconciliation
40 Acres: The old Jim Crow
40 Acres: $14 trillion and no mules
40 Acres: The original promise
The Toll
Where the US already has a border wall
Free tuition is not enough
Family Dollar(s)
Saving Private Health Care
How Taiwan got Medicare-for-All
Green New Germany
After conviction, a second chance
How to stop an epidemic
The Impact of 2020
New season, new host
Denmark’s paternity leave problem
The incredible shrinking city
Leaving Baltimore behind
What schools look like when we fund them fairly
Food fight!
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Today, Explained
Re/Code Decode
The Gray Area with Sean Illing
The Vergecast
The Weeds