Health and Wellness Show 07-26-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
And now the Health and Wellness Show on one of
the three point five FM and five sixty AM WVOC.
Lots to talk about in the upcoming hour. We appreciate
you joining us this morning, and if you're just joining us,
my name is Gary David and thanks for being here.
Appreciate that. Coming up, we'll be talking to James Snell
and Aubrey Wood's the Gatekeeper and the loss of James Snell,
the process of hiring talking to a personal injury lawyer

(00:29):
like mister Snell. They'll be by to talk about that.
Jeff Howe from Health Markets, how health insurance has changed,
does it affect you or not as a result of
the one big beautiful bill just recently passed by Congress.
We'll discuss that. First up, we get two guys who
are here to sell you something you can't buy, and

(00:49):
that's peace of mind. Well think you sure to help
you get there? It's Matthew Terry and John Farley, preservation specialist.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Good morning morning, Gary, Hey, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well if you get a pro price tag on that,
I mean, my goodness, priceless, Yeah, right right, priceless. I say,
you're this is what you're selling.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
But really it is yeah, because here right, because you know,
you can talk numbers, you can talk everything all day long.
But and and you know, we have all we have
all kinds of you know, people from different walks of
life whom we work with, and they come in and
they come in from different angles, and uh, some people
have a lot of money and they think they have
a little and some people have a little money and

(01:24):
they think they have a lot of all of this
sort of thing. And and I guess you know, and
I've used this line before that there are two things
that we do, uh is we either disturb the comfortable
or comfort the disturbed. Right, And most of the time
it's the second. Most of the time it's the latter.
Most of the time it's hey, you're good, We're just
going to show you how to do this. And so,

(01:44):
you know, if you think about somebody's retirement, people live
a long time now, longer than before. And many people
say retiring at sixty go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I was gonna because I know you brought up a
statistic several months ago that just floored me, and that was,
if you had lived to be the age of sixty
five and you're married, then the chances of you making
it to someone there in their nineties or something. We're
very high, wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, it's more than forty percent, wow, in the current
in the current situation. Yeah, so you've got a plan
for you know, thirty years in many cases, right, So, Yeah,
but there's a lot, like you know, there's a lot
that can be done.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
You know, a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Will will do the kind of a traditional finance thing
where they'll say, okay, stocks, bonds, and I'll do this
thing called the Monte Carlo simulation, and you know, over
a statistically relevant amount of.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
You know, runs on.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
How would the market do you know, shuffling the returns
in the market if I couldn't. We don't know what
the future is. So the only way you can do
it is, okay, let's take the historical returns and we'll
throw them up in the air and we'll sequence them many,
you know, hundreds of thousands of times in a row.
And therefore, if the markets do similar to what they've
done in the past eighty five percent of the time,

(02:56):
I'm going to make it till with enough money, till
I'm ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Five fifteen percent. You're worried about those exactly?

Speaker 4 (03:02):
That's the issue.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, and there are other strategies that you can employ
that you can show like, you know, not that long ago,
and it happens all the time. But a woman came in,
she and her husband, and and she's like, okay, now.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
I'm ready to retire. Where am I?

Speaker 5 (03:17):
Well?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
The fortunate thing is we've been working together now for
about four years, five years I think, and we have
set up all of these things and and and we
had set all these things out, you know, and then
she's like, oh, now I see this is where my
income comes from, this is how I'm taking care of
long term care. This is okay, I'm good. And it
was just a weight off of her shoulders. That's really

(03:40):
I mean, it's as you say, it's priceless because you know, people,
you when you work and work and work, and you
got a paycheck coming in, you're you know, okay, I'm
in charge of this.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
This is what's happening, and I'm doing this.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, I keep showing up.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
I'll keep yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, So what it is, but when that day stops,
you need to know you need to have a plan
in place that gives you the peace of mind and say, okay,
I'm good and the plan will include, you know, like
I said, several of those things, including things like taxes
and where's your money allocated? And how does it work
for you? But it's all about peace of mind, it's
all about enjoyment for your retirement.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely, So help us get there, mister Terry. Absolutely, yeah,
let me ask you this is I mean, there's never
any such thing as starting too late. I don't get
or is there.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, you know, I know, you know, obviously the sooner
that someone comes to us, if we're able to identify
that they need to make a change, just how large
that change has to be. If they come to us
five or ten years before retirement, it's going to be
a lot smaller than if they wait until the year
before they retire. Right yea, Absolutely, you're at almost out

(04:45):
of runway, So obviously that turn that you have to
make it's going to have to be a lot sharper.
So for us, you know, ideally we recommend that people
come and see us five ten years before they retire.
That gives us enough time to really understand what your
goals are, to begin building the framework of what you're
looking to accomplish in retirement, and then we just start
implementing that financial plan. You know, we're all leading up

(05:08):
to that future retirement date. But once you get there again,
it's like John said, our goal is to for one,
bring you that peace of mind knowing that you have
a plan, but we also want to want you to
have that light bulb moment and the sense of we
are comprehensive planners.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Everyone always thinks when they go to work with the
financial advisor, they're only going to help you with investments,
stocks and bonds.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
That's it, and that is one piece of what we
help clients solve for is investments, but we also help
them with all other areas, you know, building out an
income plan. I'm not really sure how much people really
give that thought, but we're all going to be entitled
to social security at some point. Right, If you have
a pension, then you'll have a pension, but that those

(05:52):
are becoming less and less common.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Right, if you've got one of those, good for you.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Absolutely you must be a state employee or a federal employee.
Our companies are in essence not not really offering those anymore.
So what we're here to do is to say if
your social Security and if you have that pension. If
the amount of money that you're receiving on a monthly
basis is not projected to meet your living needs, meaning
the amount you're expected to spend on a monthly basis,

(06:18):
we want to help solve to say where are you
going to pull from? Right, And it's not only where
you're going to pull from, but how do we also
incorporate tax planning as a part of that.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
So how often do people here, for example, you said
you know an income plan for your time in years.
How often do people hear that and think, oh, you're
selling me an annuity?

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, you know that that it's it's the reality is
is that we're not here to sell you anything. Our
job is to simply say this is the problem that
we're looking to solve, and there's a number of different
ways of tools that we can use to solve this investment.
It could be annuities, but it can also be by
just saying that we're going to set this specific pot

(06:59):
of money over here, specifically for the reason of investing it,
not as aggressively, so we know that we're gonna pull
from it in the future, and we're going to allow
your other dollars to grow and receive the upside of
the market potentially, right, yep. So that is certainly one
way that we help clients. Another way that we're gonna
help outline a game plan as you are entering your

(07:20):
retirement and even going throughout your retirement is tax planning.
You know, tax planning is such a prudent part and
I would say underutilized peace that I would highly recommend
that everyone understands their tax situation a little bit better
because the reality is, I've never met anyone that enjoys

(07:41):
paying taxes.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
If there's any way that you can save yourself tax
dollars by just understanding and working with someone who understands
the tax code a lot better, I'm gonna say, sign
me up, right, And that's exactly what we do with
our clients every single day. We're looking to help them
create that tax plan. We're looking to save you from
not paying more taxes over the course of your lifetime.

(08:02):
Sometimes it may require you in order to maybe make
some shifts, maybe make some changes. You may intentionally say
let's pay a little bit more taxes today, but you're
going to be saving your future self dollars because if
tax rates go up again, those dollars that you pay
taxes on are not going to be affected.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
So John, how often do folks come in and sit
down with you? Uh and uh and have unrealistic goals?
And how do you deal with that? Do you find
that most people that come in with fairly realistic yess.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yes, most people who come to us, I mean listen,
most of the time, uh and and you know.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
I if you could, you.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Know, they've been they've been squeezing their hands, they've been
they've been saving. Most of the time, my job is, hey, listen,
we've got this much set aside to do these different
things in your retirement. Here's your fun money, go spend it.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So most of the time people
come in and it's that everyone that was that.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thirty eight special song was about all those years ago.
Usually don't go but I'll.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Go yeah, yeah exactly. But but no.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
But the deal is, once in a while people come
in and you show them the stuff that that can
be an uncomfortable discussion where you know you're just going
to say, hey, you need just to keep working. But
most of the time it's not that. So again, most
of the time people yeah, you know, there's some people

(09:27):
who've come in with very large chunks in their in
their nest egg, and they're really really worried about running
or running out of money. And you can you can
do the math with the me. We show them the
model that we use and say, hey, this is where
you're going to be in next year, the year, after
five years, ten or so on. You're completely fine. So
but that's most of the situations yet.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I don't I've ever asked you this question before, guys,
but I'm sure this happens if somebody comes in and says, yeah,
I want to know, I want the peace of mind,
okay that you're trying to help me find here, but
you know what, I want to keep working. You know, Now,
how does that change the dynamic of of of what

(10:09):
you're recommending to somebody who does want to keep working
for maybe as long as they can or into there.
We all know people that worked in wait in their
seventies eighties.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, well, well here's the thing. I mean, what I
would say is, and this is a it's a very
big thing.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
Gary. That's that's a really good topic.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Imagine you know, there are a lot of people who
come in who have been very important people in there.
You know, they were a professor, they were an insurance
whatever they were, or whatever they are, I I encourage
them to if you enjoy it and it's life giving
to you, keep doing it to the degree that you
want to do it. Absolutely, because you know, there's a

(10:51):
forget that I'm drawing a blank on the name of
the book, but this guy wrote an entire book about
the cliff of retirement where people come in and then
all of a sudden it's like, well, wait a minute,
you know, and and I was I you know, I
did this for my career, and when something went wrong,
they came to me and said, hey, how do we
fix this? And that that, you know, that was a
very important part of somebody's life because hey, I'm an

(11:16):
expert at this and I and I'm good at it
and I enjoy it and all. So absolutely, I'm I'm
encouraged people because I have seen the other I mean,
I've seen the well I'm retired and all right, I
cleaned out the garage fourth the time, and I've played
golf too many and now I can't fish anymore. So

(11:36):
I I definitely encourage people if there's a way, especially
and it's it's common in industry even where people will
will get hired back as a consultant for twenty hours
a week. Sure, yeah, you know, something like that. So yeah, no,
I definitely encourage that because it's it's good. It's good
all around. I mean, it's good, it's it's there are
several people for whom that's great. Now, there are other

(11:57):
people who have plenty of things that they've already lined
up in retirement that are going to keep them busy
and they're ready to walk and go, right, But it's
it's an individual you know. Uh, it's on a one
by one basis.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
You know, always think of the example of you know,
the Paul bear Bryant example. I mean, my goodness, Paul
bear Bryant retires from coach in Alabama. It's i know,
in the next day, but it seemed like it he's gone.
Yeah he dies. Yeah, I mean for some people, that's
that is their life.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
So anyway, but even if that's you, if you want
to keep working, why not still you know, maximize this other.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Part absolutely, yeah, because now in many cases, when you're
doing that, there are other things that that are probably
you know, maybe important to you. The grandkids, setting up,
you know, making sure that the grandkids' education might be
take care of, so things like that. Maybe there are
charities that are really important. Dear to your heart, you
want you want everything to be set up there in

(12:53):
all of this, you don't want to.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Pay more tax.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
That changes that though, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Right?

Speaker 5 (12:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, you still got that income coming in. So yeah,
now the tax planning is more important maybe than ever.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
You know, any anytime we talk about tax planning, I
always make sure I tie in a legacy piece to that,
meaning what sort of legacy are you looking to leave
to your heirs, your loved ones if no tax planning
is done. Oftentimes, if people come to us, they have
a ton of money that's within a traditional four to
one k And you know, if we run all of
our different models and we say, hey, good news, you're

(13:25):
going to be just fine. But at the age of
ninety five, if you were to pass away, you know,
maybe you're leaving behind a two hundred three hundred thousand
dollar tax bill to your loved ones. Right, people say, oh,
oh my goodness, is there anything I can do about that?
So then we say, well, of course, you know, We're
going to help you slowly. Let's pay some taxes today,
you know, opportunistically over the course of your lifetime. If

(13:47):
we work together, and now what the projections may say.
Instead of your loved ones having a two to three
hundred thousand dollars tax bill, maybe now they're only expected
or projected to fifteen twenty twenty five thousand dollars. That's
a lot easier appeal to swallow in that case.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
How of footes get ahold of you? Guys at Preservation
Specials Matthew.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, give us a call at aight O three none retire.
That's ATO three nine retire.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Be happy to talk to you all right, guys, see
you soon.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Thanks hearing.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Hi, this is John Farling. Now let me ask you,
is your retirement inflation proofed? Here's what I mean in retirement.
Chances are you're on a fixed income with variable expenses.
So how do you not run out of money when
the cost of just about everything continues to go up?

Speaker 4 (14:33):
You inflation proof it. Our team at.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
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Speaker 4 (14:58):
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Speaker 3 (14:59):
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Speaker 6 (15:08):
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Speaker 7 (15:15):
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(15:36):
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(15:58):
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Speaker 1 (18:00):
It's the Health and Wellness Show on one O three
point five FM and five sixty a m w VOC.
And good to have you with us on this Saturday morning,
so so good to have you joined us. We are
now going to sit down and spend some time with
Jim Snell from the law office of James Snell. Jim,
good morning to you, sir. Good morning, and Aubrey, who
is the gatekeeper at the offices, is with us as well.

(18:23):
I'll be good to see you again.

Speaker 8 (18:24):
Good morning, good to see you.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
So I guess we're gonna talk about the process here
today a little bit.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
Yeah, just yeah, just just you know, the the and again,
I know I've mentioned this before. I don't know how
many years have I been doing this program. Oh gosh,
thirty five forty years something like that seems no, well, yeah,
he seems like thirty five. I've been in a few
years now, thing, yeah, right, five six years? Yeah and
again what so, one thing I am aware of I've

(18:54):
been doing representing clients in you know, what's called personal injury,
but you know, work accidents, car accidents, gosh, even even
horrible situations where people are killed in accidents for over
twenty years now. And one one thing that I am

(19:15):
very consciously aware of is that a lot of people
that have have found themselves in one of these situations,
right which they never chose to be in, and it
just happened. You know, it's life.

Speaker 5 (19:30):
They are.

Speaker 6 (19:32):
Obviously there. Lawyers don't have the greatest reputation generally, You're
you're fantastic and no, but I mean just look at
a lot of times lawyers, I mean just have a
way of turning people off, whether or not you know,

(19:52):
somebody has had to deal with you know, them in
a in a professional context, like they had a family
court case or something and it's all awful, or or
they just have have known lawyers that just were just awful.
I don't know, but people can be kind of nervous
to reach out. They can be just kind of scared.

(20:13):
Other thing is and that's one of the reason I
did this program. There there are I don't even know
how many millions of dollars are spent in the in
the local market by by crazy average people, but lawyers advertising.
It's it can be very confusing. People just don't know
which way to turn.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Well, and you're sometimes you feel like they can't. That's
that sounds way too good to be true, And sometimes it.

Speaker 6 (20:34):
Is so yes, no, no, no, that's that that that no,
that's absolutely true. And it's and when you have something
that's really of really significant importance to your your family,
it it just can be kind of kind of nerve wracking,
you know. And all right, so I'm aware of that.
So all right, so so and and I've you know,

(20:57):
Aubrey here, I call her missus Woods who I just
called you, Yeah, miss missus mess what But no, So
one thing I've I've talked to talk to her, and
I think you've heard me kind of add nauseum is
just you know, when when people you know reach out

(21:20):
and actually reach out to the office, that's actually a
pretty big step and for a lot of people, I mean,
that's that's that's a big decision just to pick up
the phone and make that call. Sure, and and you know,
you know, you can do a lot, you know, reading
websites and and this and that, but at the end
of the day, if you've got to got a legal case,

(21:40):
like an injury case and you want to get help,
I mean, at some point you do got to pick
up the phone and call in office and just I'm
plug it right now. Yeah, yes, it's it's eight zero
three three five nine three three zero one and uh
and we do offer free consultations, right, so I'm talking
about that. But basically, when people call Aubrey here is

(22:03):
one of the ones that could could take that call initially,
and it's kind of her job to sorry that Missus
woodd and missus Woods It's it's her job a couple
of things to sort of be welcoming. Actually, how do
you what do you say?

Speaker 4 (22:20):
When he answered the phone, Welcome to.

Speaker 8 (22:21):
The law as a James Snow, my name is Aubrey.
How can I help you?

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Right there?

Speaker 6 (22:26):
You get well, get but but to be friendly and
and just listen, you know, you got to find out
you know when people are calling again, it's a big
step for them. I mean, what kind of information you
get when they call after that? Welcome? What, what kind
of you?

Speaker 1 (22:47):
What are you?

Speaker 6 (22:47):
What are you asking for? What are you listening for?

Speaker 8 (22:50):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is to kind of
gauge how the person on the other end of the
phone is feeling initially, and that's kind of how I
gauge which question I'm gonna ask first.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
That could be that could be scared, it could be mad, exacpprehensive.

Speaker 8 (23:04):
Exactly, So you kind of have to gauge the personality
and the person that you're speaking with. But initially I'll ask,
you know, what happened? What are we what are we
looking at? Are we looking at a slip and fall case,
a motor vehicle case or workers comp case? And then
the questions kind of gauge from there. So, for instance,
in a motor vehicle case, I'd say, you know, what happened,

(23:25):
where were you? Where the police called? Was there an
incident report? Just kind of getting basic information and then
gauging also if there were any serious injuries, if anybody
was taken to the hospital or broken bones, things like that,
to just kind of gauge the severity of the accident
as well and see if it's something that we're immediately

(23:48):
able to help with.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
So this this first phone call, this intake, So I
guess how much time you spend talking to the potential
client can can can vary, Yeah.

Speaker 8 (24:00):
It definitely varies. It definitely varies on the severity, on
how nervous we're anxious the person on the other end
of the phone is. I really try to calm their
nerves and make sure that I'm getting all the information
that I need. On average, I'd say it takes anywhere
from five to fifteen minutes to get an initial intake,

(24:20):
and then I'll schedule a consultation with the attorney.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
What's helpful for you in making that determination, because I
know Jim has told us before. I mean, there are
times when you know it's not in your best interest
to hire an attorney, Yeah, upfront about that.

Speaker 8 (24:37):
Yeah, So that's where those screening questions are really important, engaging,
you know, because if you just hit your head on
the window, for example, and you just have a headache
for a few days, it's probably not worth hiring an
attorney at that point because you're not going to have
medical bills, and we won't be able to necessarily help
you get the settlement amount that you might be looking for,

(24:58):
as opposed to like a broken bone or you had
to go to the hospital. There's going to be some
bills there that that person might not be able to
pay out of pocket.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
And that's that's important too, because often we think we
have to be grievously injured. But as you said, you
could break an arm exactly, and okay, you're going to
recover from that more than likely. I mean, I've done
that before myself. But you do you incur expenses now
exactly how you got medical bills to pay? And that's yeah,

(25:29):
that don't don't don't sleep on that.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 8 (25:32):
And the main thing is not to be afraid. It's
really more of a natural conversation than people think it is,
and it's really just us talking like we are now
and just getting basic information. And really we're not scary.
We're here to help you and that's our job.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
So so what what sort of information before somebody picks
up the phone.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
And calls eight zero three three five nine three three
zero one.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Thank you, mister announswer when they make that call, what
sort of information should you have in fun of you
before you reach out.

Speaker 8 (26:04):
Yeah, I mean really not much. Just have your situation.
You know what happened to you. If you did have
to go to the hospital, it's always helpful to know,
like where you went, if you know which doctors you saw,
that's always helpful down the line, you know, knowing what
kind of injuries that you have, whether that be like
if you broke your arm, if you know what part

(26:24):
of your arm, or if it was your wrist, or
if you're going to have to have a future surgery
down the line, just things like that so that we're
more prepared to know how to help them.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
All right, So five to maybe fifteen minutes on the
phone with Ms Woods, Yeah exactly, and then the next.

Speaker 6 (26:40):
Step yeah yeah, and then and I say part of
the couple of things. And it's not a quiz, so
people call it they're not they're not getting quiz. I mean,
it's just it's conversational and you know people you know
they you know the information. This is all stuff that people,
I mean most people would know. And if you know

(27:01):
and obviously if you don't know the name of some doctor,
what I mean, that's that's that's actually not that significant.
But I mean kind of what we're what we're looking
for is to verify that there is a potential case, right,
you know, we're you know that this is some things again,

(27:22):
you know, you know the general public halls, right, anybody's
worked with the general public knows, you know, as lawyer
Hugh Rogers in their building, he's ninety four. Yeah, he
talks about the great American public. You know, every now
and then somebody will call because they gotten a wreck
in the nineteen seventies, you know, really just something you know,
people but but but you know, look, we got to

(27:43):
make we got to verify this is something that happened,
you know, in South Carolina. You know, if they got
in the wreck and maybe another state or somewhere else,
you know, we wouldn't be.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
At a help.

Speaker 6 (27:57):
Obviously, it's got to be within you know, there's typically
if there's a statute of limitations, it's got to be
recent enough that we're still able to get what we
need done within the statute.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
What is that statute limitation? I only asked this because
let's say someone could have been in an accident years
ago and just now recently something's popped up. They got
to a doctor and said, oh, yeah, this is a
complication of X that happened ten years ago. I mean
you're out of luck.

Speaker 6 (28:28):
Well, okay, yeah, it's a big question. But I will
tell you for most things like car accidents, it's three years.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Three years.

Speaker 6 (28:39):
If it involves a government entity as being the yet
fault party, it could be two years.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Alway, isn't that cozy?

Speaker 6 (28:48):
Workers compensation cases generally have a two year time period
of file the claim. Doesn't mean the case has to
be finished, It just means it's got to be submitted
within that time period, right, And I'll tell you, you
don't what you're getting. And I think your question is
actually pretty pretty interesting when you get into a situation

(29:11):
where you maybe don't know you have a claim until
like years and years later.

Speaker 9 (29:15):
Right.

Speaker 6 (29:16):
You don't really see that in personal injury because you
know you had a car wreck, right. I mean, so,
so the fact that you don't know all your damages
at that time, you do know there was that occurrence,
so that that generally would start that clock running. But
there is something called the discovery rule where the statute

(29:36):
may not actually start running, and people should have reasonable
notice of the claim. And you know, and just by
way of example, you might see that more likely in
like a construction defect case where everything looks good on
the outside and maybe you live in the house for
three years before you find that the insulation really is
cotton candy, you know. I mean so that what you're

(30:00):
describing actually is something the law deals with, because.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I think if you could have been in an accident
and several years later you didn't you felt like the
problems when you may develop back issues and you may
go to a doctor and orthopedis they may say you
ever been in a car wreck?

Speaker 6 (30:15):
Yeah, but but the issue is, you know you were
in the car wreck, right, So I think for most
intents and purposes, that's when the clock should start running.
And again I'm gonna say this, I'm just talking generally.
Anybody that things should have a plane, reach out to
a lawyer, get actual legal advice.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
We're just talking on the radio. But that clock starts.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
Running when you know you have a claim, okay, and yeah,
and if you and and that's here's the other thing.
One of the things I've talked about before is people
rushing to settle, and sometimes insurance conanies will reach out
very soon after an accident, and even try to get
people to settle their cases over the phone, not even
writing before they've even gotten all their medical bills, before

(30:57):
they finish their medical treatments. And if you are you know,
even if you don't know you're gonna have to have
that surgery or you don't have your final diagnosis, you
know legally you can settle your case. So that's why
I always encourage people to take their time, make sure
they know what their injuries are, know what their treatments

(31:18):
are going to be, before they make any decisions as
far as settlement. So kind of the job is is
screening to make sure the wreck happened close enough in
time within the statue that we've got, you know, it's
we've got time to do our job. Happened in South
Carolina where we're licensed to practice, that the that there was,

(31:43):
whatever the story is, it's something where the injuries was caused,
you know, through an employment situation or the negligence of
a corporation or company or another individual, and there actually
were were injuries because you know, some people do you
know the people some people do call and you know

(32:03):
they say, well, somebody ran a red light and they
came six inches from me, but they didn't hit me,
but they could have killed me, could have they they
could have killed me. And then look, those people are concerned.
It was a scary situation for them. They and they
don't know what to do, so they reach out and
I mean, part of our job is to listen, uh understand,
and then if you know, if we're not able to help,

(32:25):
you know, just.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
And can that be determined? Miss Woods, in that initial
phone call, I mean typically happened, but you would just say,
you know, we don't really have a case here.

Speaker 8 (32:35):
Yeah, yeah, and I have I have informed people that before,
and I just say it nicely, and I say, you know,
in this case, it might not be worth hiring an attorney,
you know, because there were the lack of injuries. So
we can't really submit any bills to the insurance company
and we're not going to get the settlement that you're
looking for.

Speaker 6 (32:53):
And I'm going to pick up on this just very briefly.
If it's anything that is clearly we we help on.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
You know.

Speaker 7 (33:02):
Obviously the hunt for quality insurance is more important than ever.
Probably Howell and the team at Help, you know, he
lending that perfect plan is easier to call because Medicare insurance.
Let the experts guide you toward ease of mine, got
healthier future who couldn't use that nowadays for direction and
get to do all anything working for you. They make

(33:23):
the cost, compare the plans and prices, and find you
the insurance sort of.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
All their help is that no constitution.

Speaker 10 (33:31):
They worked with sexual relations business companies to keep the
insurance you're looking for. So whether you're discovered somebody individual
or seeking the family and you were doing this and
all these years later called Jeff how all the time
six seven eight to one more.

Speaker 7 (33:52):
Dot com that's eight o three six seven eight eight
found a special dot com and let.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
That insurance a little bit different than the class.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Morning. This is Larry Harris class. I'm a certified spector.
We can help you test ten minutes per sample, one
sample inside, one sample outside.

Speaker 6 (34:17):
Anybody can do it.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
You know.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
In the morning we'll have the lab report and that
reached out.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Then we can discuss you. Protocols may not take clean
the air and arm huntry, particularly if you have work
able to help Nez and this be because of mole,
please that air and do lost. The fee is dollars
per sample and we can get the lab report back

(34:44):
the same day, so you know if you have any
airborne issues in your home. This is Larry Harris with
Classic Systems eight O three six two six two seven
four eight eight O three six two six two seven
four eight.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
And we're back on the Health and Wellness Show. Thanks
for tuning in this morning and joining us here on
one O three point five FM at five sixty AMW
and VOC as we catch up now with Jeff Howell
from Health Markets over in Lexington. We had a lot
to talk about this morning. Jeff, how are you, my friend?

Speaker 10 (35:18):
I'm well Gary.

Speaker 9 (35:19):
How are you today?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Doing good? Math, doing good? The Big Beautiful Bill. We
haven't sat down and talked about the effects when it
comes to health insurance of that, so that's something I
know we certainly want to talk about.

Speaker 9 (35:31):
This morning, right absolutely, So I will say that the
implications of the Big Beautiful Bill effects South Carolinians less
and other states because a lot of states expanded medicaid,
which South Karina did not. So all of the states
expanded medicaid. And you look at there's a chart that

(35:54):
we use called intential the poverty level chart. Right, so
one hundred percent percent privory level. Four hundred percent means
you're four times privy level. That's the chart we use
essentially every day when I sit down with someone to
see if they're eligible for a subsidy on the marketplace,
meaning will the federal government pay money towards your health

(36:15):
insurance when you're on healthcare dot go to get an
individual health pin right. Well, a lot of states expanded
the Medicaid eligibility instead of being under one hundred percent
is a health Carolina to up to one hundred and
thirty eight percent. So that means that if you're you know,

(36:36):
if you make zero dollars or one hundred and thirty
eight percent of the poverty line, and in real numbers,
for a person who is in a single tax household,
that means they're making somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty
one thousand dollars. So if you make twenty one thousand
dollars or less than in other states, you automatically got Medicaid.

(37:00):
That's it, no questions asked, right, cut and dried, right,
And the more people in your family, that number goes up.
For a family of four that was forty four thousand
et cetera. So those people have expanded medicaid or essent,
we're going to lose that medicaid unless they can meet
the work requirements that are in the bill, and some

(37:22):
people just shrank. We can't meet those work requirements for
various reasons.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
But if you're able body of a certain age, then
working or volunteering a certain number of hours a week
is the stipulation.

Speaker 9 (37:34):
Right, correct? Correct? So you know these you know these
organizations think tanks in Washington, they estimate that seven to
eight million people were going to we are going to
lose their health coverage of two thousand and twenty six
and so that may or may not be true, but
that's that's what they say, right. But I do say

(37:56):
in South Carolina we're not as effected because we never
it's out trying to average standard medicaid, right, So we
just we just continue on as we continue on, meaning
that if you don't meet the hunt the minimum requirement
and for a single person that's fifteen thousand, sixty for
a family of four at thirty one thousand, two hundred,
if you don't make that minimum amount or you can't

(38:17):
predict your we'll make that minimum amount in twenty twenty six,
then you would go to Medicaid and then you would
you know, if you qualify, you know, then you qualify
and you meet those work requirements and so you know,
life continues on now the work requirement or something added on, certainly.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
But.

Speaker 9 (38:35):
No one above one hundred percent in South Carolina who
was not getting Medicaid being kicked off of the other stakes.
So that's the difference.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Okay, good Now for folks on the well it's calling
for Obamacare. Any changes there to talk about, Jeff, I know,
because we had you know, there was there's been talked
for a while now about the those you know, those
stipends that that could change.

Speaker 9 (39:05):
That's true, so there will be changes. So this year
we have the same open enrollment schedule, which is November
first to January fifteenth. However, next year, starting November one
of twenty twenty six, the enrollment period is slated to
be shortened. So instead of November one to January fifteenth,

(39:26):
it's gonna be November one to December fifteenth. They're shortened
by one nut.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Is there a reason for that that we're aware of,
I mean, just efficiencyero philosophy change.

Speaker 9 (39:35):
So you have one administration. Of course we're going to
go out you mentor obamacare. So that's that's original you know,
nomenclature for it. So the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare started
with the Obama administration, right, And so their goal in
the administration was getting many people on healthcare do I

(39:57):
go of as possible? Right, That's that was their baby. Okay. Well,
then we had a new administration come in or a
publican administration, and of course, you know, in the first
two years, the attempt was to completely overturn obolicare right,
there were one one John McCain thumbs down vote away
from completely getting rid of it, right. So when that

(40:21):
didn't work, the plot was, okay, well, let's try to
get as few people on the healthcare dot go as possible.
Let's make the rules so that it's very restrictive in nature,
and let's see if we could send more people to
other insurance policies on the private market. Well, then but
the Democrats come back in the office, right, and it

(40:45):
goes back the other way, and so essentially the open
enrollment of expanded, and essentially you know, rules were put
into place such as, well, let's get as many people
on healthcare I go as possible. And one example of
that is a person can sign up year round for

(41:06):
coverage if they're under one hundred fifty percent of the
pottery level. So in South Carolina there between one hundred
and fifty percent. Now only can you sign up during
the open enrollment no. Number one to January fifteenth. You
can sign up January sixteenth October thirty one if you're
under that income level. So that was something new that's
a Biden administration put into place. That's going away with

(41:29):
this new law. So going back to the old rules
where you can sign up during op enrollment, or if
you have a special reason outside of open enrollment, you
can kind up. And those are reasons such as getting married,
having a baby, you just moved to the state of
South Carolina, you just you lost your group health insurance

(41:49):
at your job that you just lost, so you lost Medicaid,
and you qualify on the income chart now you know,
above one hundred percent. So all those reasons now are
still valid. But a person has to have essentially that
form in their hand. So let's say you lost your

(42:10):
group health insurance and then the company or the insurance
company sends you a letters you know saying, hey, you've
lost your group health insurance. You can now let cobra
that letter. You know, you assential need to bring that
letter to my office or have it to me within
thirty days and when I sign you up, whereas with
a Biden administration, you know, we would only kind up

(42:32):
people who had legitimate loss of group health insurance. But
really no documentation was hardly ever asked for. So it's
really just a philosophy change. One being expansive being the
Democratic administrations and now being restricted with the Republican administration.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Philosophical differences, right, yes, exactly, and we just roll with
the punters, you know, that's all we can do as
far as the money that right now, because I know
we had talked about this earlier in the year that
we didn't know what would happen when it came to
the and I keep getting the word stipend. That's not
the right word to use for it. I know, subsidy,

(43:12):
thank you, subsidy sure, because there might be some changes
when it came to that.

Speaker 9 (43:19):
So that's that's sure. That's kind of still an unknown.
But I think if we can read the tea leaves,
I do not think these expanded subsees are going to
be continued. You know, that was not a big beautiful
bill that's not been codified in any way other than
no one's made a move to keep it. So essentially,

(43:40):
what I'm talking about in COVID, the Place and Reduction
Act expandeds of these. So I've been talking about the
subties being on the chart between four hundred percent of
the poverty line, and so in real dollars for a
single taxpayer, single filer, that's between fifteen thousand and right

(44:01):
at let's just call it sixty thousand for easy mass,
between fifteen thousand and sixty so that's one hundred and
four hundred percent. The COVID laws during the bad administration
expanded that to really out about seven hundred and fifty percent.
I mean it's you know, a person now depend upon

(44:23):
it's age base. It goes up as you get older.
You can get more subsidies if you make more money
and get subsidies. But let's say a sixty year old
person will probably make around one hundred and twenty thousand,
you know, and get a subsidy under the expanding COVID laws.
So they expired. They sunset COVID laws on December thirty one,

(44:46):
twenty twenty fives.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
So I mean, I guess it's it's probably pretty safe
to say with regardless of well, no, it's at the
end of this year, so we don't have another election
until until next November in twenty twenty six, so and
that probably.

Speaker 9 (45:05):
Yeah, yeah, the House is in recess till September, now,
I believe. So I don't think. I don't think it's
going to happen. I don't think that the House and
the Senate and the White House is going to agree
on expanding these subjects past the end of the year.
So that means we'll go back to the old chart
between the one hundred and four hundred percent, right the

(45:26):
fifteen thousand to sixty. So if someone falls on that
chart income wise in twenty twenty six, and they will
still get a subsidy. Now with the philosophy change as
we talked about, the crackdown on that number is more

(45:47):
income proof, right, more more documentation, So a person can't
just will and nearly say I'm going to make twenty five.
Thus then there has to be there has to be
some beefs behind that number, you know, So why do
you say twenty five thousand, Right, what do you have
a tax document from twenty twenty four to show us
that number? Do you have a paste to show us

(46:07):
that number? You know, where are you getting that number from?

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Right?

Speaker 9 (46:10):
So whereas in the Democratic administration there there's a lot
less of that.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Well, I'm just curious how that works for somebody who's
you know, you know, freelancing or the gig economy worker
or what have you, who's no idea what I get?
You based it on historical data?

Speaker 9 (46:26):
Not too It's tough, you know, of course, you know
the past couple of years tax returns twenty twenty four
and twenty three. You know what's your what's your line
eleven adjusted gross income or tax full income? You know
that's that's a good place to start and so use
and then of course what you made in twenty twenty five,
because open a rollments towards the end of the year, righte, No,

(46:48):
remember one January fifteenth, So you kind of know what
you did in twenty twenty five, and you may have
some receipts to show what money you've made in twenty five,
And you use all those factors to make an educated
guest on twenty twenty six. Now, once you get the
sub to D and you know your health insurance is
reduced in twenty twenty six, at some point around April

(47:11):
fifteenth to twenty twenty seven, you're gonna file your twenty
twenty six taxes, right, and then whatever your line eleven
And that's a great income says. Let's say you said
twenty five thousand way back when you met with me
in November of twenty five, right, predicting your twenty twenty
sixth income. You file your taxes for twenty twenty six.

(47:32):
Instead of making twenty five thousands, you guess you made
fifty thousands may double, right, And so the federal government's
going to come back and say, okay, you had a
zero premium all twenty twenty six, which that was great,
you enjoyed that. However, you should have paid four hundred
dollars a month because if you guessed fifty thousand correctly, right,

(47:55):
instead of twenty five, you would have paid four hundred
a month for your health insurance. And on zen, well
you see this, we're going We're going to pop your neck.
Is forty eight hundred dollars four hundred times twelve.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
This happened to one of my sons this past year
because he was working in a job where they didn't
offer coverage, and he was on the open markets and
he was getting you know, a subsidy of some sort.
It wasn't zero. But and then he took he got
a new job halfway through the year, making considerably more
money and also getting group coverage to his employer. And yeah,

(48:28):
well in tax it they go back, correct me if
I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure it was the case. They
go back and say, well, yeah, you should have been
paying all twelve months of the year, not just the
six months you weren't on it.

Speaker 9 (48:38):
Well, the subsidies giving or only for the months they
had it. However, the whole year of income was taken
into account. Yeah, federation, right.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Didn't matter if we're making that didn't come the first
six months.

Speaker 9 (48:53):
But the corectrat right, his whole income for the whole
year is taken to considerate. But they but the only
popping for the penony for the month that he had it.
So but still, I mean, there's that example. Gary. There's
examples of a person who's single the first few months
of the year, then they get married. Then they say

(49:15):
even they get married later in the year, I'll say October, November, December,
and then when they file their tactics in the year
they filed joint and when they were single, they weren't
making very much, but maybe they married a married a doctor.
Let's say I've had this situe, I've had this exact example,
and you have to pay the whole thing back, right,
so for the for all the month they had up

(49:38):
until they were married and got on their spouse and
group coverage.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
But then married doctors. They're not worried about.

Speaker 9 (49:44):
It now, right, that's right, that's right. But we believe
everyone everyone's worried about paying back.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
That's not fun.

Speaker 9 (49:54):
But yeah, so yeah, it's hard to predict. So the
main point, it's hard to predict in November or twenty
five what your taxes are going to say in April
twenty seven. Right, But that's the that's the that's the
exercise we have to do when we're sitting down and
trying to make it work.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
We talked medicaid, we talked to open marketplaces. I mean,
there were no changes for medicare as a result of
this bill, were there not yet? Not yet?

Speaker 9 (50:24):
So medicare you know, politicians don't like to mess with Medicare.
It's not good for their business. So there's really not
you know, one thing. One thing, one trend that I've
seen from Washington is Congress is waking up to the
idea that some Medicare advantage companies. They they had a

(50:47):
lot of these denials and pre authorizations. Of course, AI
is a big part of this, almost on an automatic basis, right,
so they had it all automated to where if a
person for if a person's sharper in it with certain
symptoms or certain situations like let's say maybe a back surgery. Right,
so a doctor recommends a back surgery, but the AI

(51:12):
system didn't pick up all the check marks that should
have been checked. For example, do they go through physical therapy,
do they get all their they get three epiediral steroids. Right,
then the back surgery is automatically denied, not taken into
account that this particular person may be in a unique
situation where all those things would just make their back worse.

(51:32):
And they and this doctor, they're neurosurgeon, thinks they need
back surgery immediately to fix you know, and this and
this person is unique. And so Congress really trying to
clamp down on that and say okay, let's let's let's
let's let's stop these automatic denials. Let's let's get let's
get patients care they need and let's you know, and

(51:55):
I think that's that's a great trend that I think,
that's just I think that is a feelosophical change that
I think is going to be very good for my
clients and for patients.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Good to hear, all right, for all of your health
insurance needs, Jeff, you can help folks make the proper decisions,
give them the advice and still doesn't cost them anything.

Speaker 9 (52:18):
Right, I am free of charge, so the prices I
have for health insurance exactly the same that someone did
on their own. But I can let people know the
way of the land here in the Midlands, and I
know which plans work with which doctors, and I can
help them navigate the process so they don't get caught
with a plan their doctor doesn't take. Absolutely great, How do.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
You folks get a hold of your health markets, my friend?

Speaker 9 (52:44):
Yes, they can text or call me at eight zero
three six seven eight eight one two one at eight
oh three six seven eight eighty one twenty one and
my office is right beside the Plightbeck Restaurant and Letington
and my website and my name www. Jeff Howell Jeff
HWL dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
I agree, Jeff, Thanks so much, Bambull talk soon, Thank you, Garry.
The lawyers and staff at the Law Office of James
Snell are there to help those with injuries and workers'
compensation claims, car accidents on the job and other accidents
resulting in injuries. They want to help everyone resolve their
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(53:24):
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(53:45):
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with off. This is in Lexington and Columbia,