Health and Wellness Show 09-06-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:27):
If you're just here today, good morning and welcome in.
Now we turn our attention to the Health and Wellness
Show here on one of three point five FM and
five sixty AM w VOC. And again, if you're just
joining us, my name is Gary David and I'm happy
to have you with us this morning. Coming up, we're
talking to Jeff Howell Health Markets had a conversation earlier
this year on the state of Medicare in twenty twenty five.
Now a few things may have changed, but it's good

(00:49):
to go back and take a listen to things that
that might be changing still, and we'll talk to him
about that. John Farley, Matthew Terry, the guys from Preservation
Specialists are gonna be by next half hour talking about
your retirement and uh, your peace of mind. We're gonna
spend some time and talk to uh my friend and
uh in yours. And that's kind of weird because you know, Jim,

(01:11):
Jim Snell is here, the loss of James Nell. You
know you could be your friend too, but you know
you tay, you got to hire a lawyer. That's we
don't want you to be in a position where you
got to I guess is what I'm saying, right, but
if you do, you know, this.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Is the guy I suggest. I'm like a mortician in
that regard, right, Not not quite that right, you know,
not quite to that point.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
But but but hey, you know that's the thing because
you you just never.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Know that's right, that's that's that's right. And you know
it's it's.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
You're minded your own business, you know, doing your own thing,
and and something happens, Yes, somebody has done something to you,
maybe you've unintentionally done something to somebody or whatever, and
you're gonna need some legal advice.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
And no, and and and you know, and and always
kind of like to to remind myself. You know, people
are involuntarily thrust into this world. You know, nobody nobody
wakes up and says, well, gosh, you know, I hope
today I you know, I get involved in some you know,

(02:21):
I get hurt in some accident or you know, just
some kind of tragedy, you know, travesty befalls my family.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Uh So, nobody picks this right right, right, And and
you've said before you yourself that you know most of
it when it comes to personal injury law. You know,
really it'd be most people wish I just wish it
never happened to begin with. You may get us, you know,
you'll get a settlement, you'll get some money and this

(02:49):
and that. But you know, most by most of your clients,
the general psic insas, I just wish it never happened.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, absolutely, And I'll also say this in in in
the world of personal injury, you know, you know you
see advertising, you know, from different law offices and lawyers. Gosh,
you're so much advertising.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh my goodness, crazy. And but you know, you see,
if you stop attorneys advertising and pharmaceutical advertising right now,
TV stations go out of business.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yes, right, yes, And I think this is actually I
think I think we might be the only country in
the world that has pharmaceutical companies advertised directly to consumers.
I'm not aware of any other. I think I think
I saw that because you know, it's not allowed, and

(03:37):
here it's it's like a I mean, it's significant, you know,
effort by the pharma school companies to notify consumers of
different drugs.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
But that's right, yeah, well, though there are those conspiracy
theories out there. That's also something else. It's to keep
you know, media from really looking hard at what they're
doing pharmaceutical companies. But that's a whole other conspiracy.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
That it's entirely possible. You know, you just you build
a protective mode of advertising dollars.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah right, and people you wouldn't realize it today if
you do, if you're a I guess maybe under what
thirty thirty five years old maybe something like that. There
was a time when advertising in our state for attorneys
wasn't allowed.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it wasn't. Actually it wasn't actually allowed anywhere. Oh okay,
and and then that when that changed. But it's been
it's been you know, Gosha, and you know, I can,
I can. I can deal with research on the on
the on the dates, and there's actually actually we'll have
to do a whole show on that because it's a really
interesting story behind the progression of how that became allowed

(04:47):
and how First Amendment, you know, protections for speech were
argued and used with the courts to allow not only
lawyers to advertise, but as part of that was I

(05:07):
think it was a really significant case involving I believe
it was a drug store to advertise pricing information and
with the whole show on it, but I remember the
kind of the court analysis was you have not only
a right to speak, but the public has a right

(05:28):
to hear. And but okay, going going on the topic
of advertising.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, let's talk about that. Move on.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
But I've got lawyer Hugh Rogers in my building. He's
been practicing since nineteen fifty three. He's yep, ninety four
and comes in every a right as sharp as ever.
But I've talked to him about that right and one
thing he just you know, kind of shared with me

(05:56):
that back when lawyers were not allowed by you know,
state bar regulation is to run ads. One way one
method that lawyers would kind of get their name out
was running for political office. Yeah, so you run for
office and then you get to go around and put
signs up, you know, you know John Smith, this, you know, whatever,

(06:18):
so people get named familiarity. Uh, And that was that
was the side benefits. The lawyers would sometimes run for office,
not necessarily because they wanted the office, but because they
wanted to be to put up, you know, five hundred
signs around town with the name on it. And but
I'm gonna go back saw the advertising. I just what
I was getting at is, you know, you see these

(06:39):
some of you see advertisements where they talk about you know,
these big numbers, you know, million dollars, five million, whatever,
and I g just one thing I just also think
about is when you have, you know, the really significant
injuries that result in those kind of payouts, the money

(07:01):
is it's still never worth it.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
There's agregious damage, doesn't.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Great just get you know, it's I mean even you know,
you know, you resolve a claim for somebody for you know,
in the millions, what they've been through, what they've lost.
I don't think I've ever had anybody on a significant
claim that has ever shared with me well you know, gosh,

(07:26):
I do it again.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Glad.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
It's so glad this happened, you know so. And that's
the thing. So it's a it's an you don't choose
to have it happen. You're thrust into this world. The
legal system can't, you know, help somebody travel back in
time prevent the wrong from happening. The only currency, I guess,

(07:49):
or the only only thing the legal system has is money,
and just the money is just even when it's fair,
it's never it's never worth it for somebody that's you know,
gone through a horrible accident and lost a family member
or something else.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
One more question about the advertising part of yes, why
do you not see advertisements for attorneys for anything other
than personal injury law?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
And you know there and I don't think you don't
see any advertising. I mean all kinds of practice areas,
you know, have websites and you know. But but yeah, okay,
So you know, when you think about the main practice

(08:43):
areas that consumers, I'm gonna call it just private people
hire lawyers for. Right, you obviously got personal injury. You
have criminal defense, family court like divorces, right, and custody cases,
a state planning or probate right.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
And you know, and I.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Guess, I guess just to some degree, some lesser degree.
You know, there's civil litigation. You know, people hire a
lawyer to help them because you know, they the contractor
didn't build the debt correctly or or something. Okay, And
really the thing is the when you look at what

(09:28):
the legal fees are that lawyers can charge for, you know,
get paid for different kind of cases, and then you
consider the number of those actual cases or clients they
could hope to get. I mean, the economics really don't
that makes sense, right, So I mean you think think

(09:49):
about what the potential legal fees can be. You know,
you know, like for example, my office accepts cases on
a contingency on the injury side, so people hire us
if it is a significant injury and it results in
you know, again, a significant amount of money still may
not be enough to make it worth the experience, but

(10:11):
you know, when it's you know, seven figures or something,
I mean, those fees I mean are also themselves significant.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
And so if a.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Lawyer or a law firm, if you can can get
a steady you know, number of those cases, you can
create a pretty good advertising budget to work with. And
so that I mean, the economics work.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, it makes sense, It makes sense.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
You know I did you know I started practicing in
two thousand and four. For the first several years, I
did everything, literally everything, and just you.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Took out the trash too, did you still do? Still do? Gosh?
You know what, I.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Bought a block of downtown I mean, I bought an
acre just abouttown Lexington. Yeah, you know some offices on
My main office is on Harmon Street across from the
Old Mill, and anybody going through Lexington, you know, right
across the old Mill, there's a traffic light, and I've
building set back a little for main street, and I've
got this kind of this green space out front.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Very nice.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Gosh, I got I've got those you know, we have
to go out and pick up trash. I was out
there the other day with one of those one of
those sticks that just squeezed the handle and you know
picking up so yeah, gots do that take out the trash.
Uh you know, Uh, I've got I've got you know,
restrooms in my office. And who do you think uh

(11:42):
staff comes to when somebody says the toilets broke? Oh yeah, yeah,
that's some that's the talks to the boss. Joy of
being a business owner, yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
And people people forget that though, Jim, you know, an
attorney is a business owner. I mean you've got to
be a bit you have to have a good business
head in order to be a successful firm. Yes, uh,
same as a as a doctor who's got to endless
now on coastin are all affiliate with these hospitals. But
still we we forget that it is it is a business.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
And you know, oh we got all the other business,
all the you know, and and and all the other things.
Any of their business has to deal with you know, employees, taxes,
uh you know, uh yeah, just advertising, I mean just
I mean the whole whole thing right now.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Your office, you do a lot of personal injury law,
but you also again you do criminal defense law as well.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
We do, we still do, Yes, we do a significant
number of criminal defense matters, an awful lot of the
U I defense, an awful lot of domestic violence defense.
And uh, you know, going at this, uh at modern

(12:55):
times with technology, the I'm gonna call it internet crimes
is becoming more and more significant where people you know,
get charged for you know, illegal pictures or you know
illegal just activities online. You know, you know Alan Wilson

(13:16):
at the Attorney General's office, you know, they think majority
of those cases around the state. So and yeah, and
I was gonna say one one thing's kind of and
doing this. I've been a couple of years now years
doing this program with you on the on the personal
injury side, right, I mean, there is.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
A lot of law.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
There's a lot of very technical kind of in the
weed stuff that you could talk about. But you know,
really people that are injured or are have cases, I mean, frankly,
I don't know how interested they are in talking about that,
you know, like a law student or somebody or other

(13:57):
lawyers can get really interested in getting in the weed.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
You know.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
This is why you see the typical messaging and the
advertising being you know, free consultations, no money up front,
and you know, and examples of of verdicts are sentiment awards,
you know, just kind of bullet points stuff, which of course,
you know, that's why I always mentioned on this program
free consultations and this and that I will tell on

(14:24):
the criminal defense side, when when people have say a
DUI for example, which is one of the most you know,
a lot of the u I cases, unfortunately, people are
very interested in the law, in the legal process and
the procedures. Yes they are, and they and they really

(14:45):
they are very interested in in learning as much as
they can about all of it, right, So.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
You know, that's that's.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
That's when we talk about those topics, you know, like
for a d UI for example, you know, people are
really interested in exactly what the statute says. They're exactly
interested in how do you how do you how do
you what's the mechanism to get the copy of the
police officer's video recordings? They almost all of them now

(15:19):
have body cam footage, dash can footage. People do police
do frequently what are called field sobriety tests where they
look in people's eyes and have them walk a straight line.
How do those tests? How are they conducted? How are
they scored? And people are really interested in that minutia.
And I just obviously think it's interesting, you know, because

(15:40):
that's those are Again, there's just as much I'm gonna
call it legal technicalities on the injury side, but maybe
maye it's the fact that stuff's sill on TV. You know,
I mean, everybody's got experience from criminal system from television
shows and movies and.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
All that, right, and you're thinking, yeah, it's all gonna
go like that, bang bang bang bang bang, and and
it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
And I just, yeah, I don't know how many people
are interested in in, uh, you know, the the minutia
of how you resolve a medicare aline after you settle
a case.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
You know, I don't. But this is why there's no
personal injury law to defense attorney shows on network TV.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Right, And if they and if they do and if
and if they do, it's all about them having you know,
different you know, romances and scandals. Yeah, just you know,
all kinds of other dramatic events, you know, but yeah,
I just fall fall back.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
I just I'll say this.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
You know, we're we're criminal offenses is still very significant
for us. Same thing, it's free consultations, you know, kind
of kind of standard advice on the front end is
it's always recommending people are accused of a crime or
you're under you know, people are in an investigation, just
don't make any statements, don't talk, go see a lawyer,

(16:57):
and don't do anything until you know, uh well you
know a lawyer that you know, you're trusting, you know,
advises you what to do.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
You know, just you can't.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
You know, really, the odds of you improving that situation
about talking are vastly outweighed by the odds of digging
a hole deeper no matter what. So, same thing, people
arrested and.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
You're saying, you want to talk to a lawyers, know
some kind of admission of any.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Kind of guilt none, no, not a mission guilt, and
that that can't be used against you at all. And
the best thing the world people can do is just
when they find out they're under investigation or they've been
accused is just immediately go see a lawyer, and there's
so much help that can be obtained on the front end.
Early involvement by a lawyer can oftentimes be very critical

(17:46):
to getting the best outcome early intervention.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yes, all right, Jim. How to folks get a hold
of you regardless of their legal need? All right? Give
us a call.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Phone number is eight zero three three five nine three
three zero one, or they can visit us online at
Snell Law dot com. Three l's Snell Law dot com.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
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Speaker 1 (18:09):
Now let me ask you.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
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You inflation proof it.

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(18:46):
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Speaker 4 (19:06):
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(19:26):
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Speaker 1 (19:40):
So whether you're self employed or in a small.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
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(20:04):
insurance for you.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Hey, welcome back to the Health and Wellness Show on
one O three point five FM and five sixty AMWVOC
as we welcome in Jeff Howell, the owner of health
Market's over and Lexingdon, who joins us again this morning. Jeff,
good morning do you sir?

Speaker 5 (20:29):
Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Medicare in twenty twenty five. Okay, Well, we have a
lot of uncertainty, needless to say, a lot of volatility,
and a lot of things right now, there's a lot
going on, lots of balls up in the air, and
again with the Doge efforts and all going on, there's
been a lot of talk about how might this or
will this impact things like medicare and other benefits. So

(20:53):
I thought we maybe take a few minutes to take
a look at that this morning. What are you saying?
And by the way, we should remind people to Jeff,
that been a fair amount of time in d C
as a lobbyist for health insurance agencies and in for
folks on health insurance like Medicare.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Rightization called the National Association of Benefit Insurance Professionals, and
we go to d C every year in person and
talk to our South Carolina senators and congressman about how
we can keep prescription drug costs down for the seniors,

(21:31):
how we can keep health insurance prices load for small
business owners, very important topics for me. I'm very passionate
about all of those things. And then throughout the year
I keep up on a weekly basis on what's going
on in d C and what's going on in Columbia
and the state House issues affecting you know, health insurance

(21:54):
and Medicare.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Now, I'm just going to guess that in all your
years of doing this, there's probably not been as great
an amount of uncertainty as we as we have right now.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
Four store. I was in DC in February, and of
all my trips I've ever been to d C, there's
never been one where I felt like DC was more
unstable and more us did not know really, you know,
the Congressman and the staff of the Congressman, the senators
who we met with couldn't really give us any headway

(22:25):
or any predictions. As you know, everything is day to
day there right now.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, yeah, it is that. Well, let's let's start here
that I guess, Jeff, as we rolled into twenty twenty five,
coming out of last year, were there big changes for
Medicare for the for the new year for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
Something that happened recently is that the Medicare advantage of course,
doctor Oz was just confirmed as head of CMS, and
one of the first things he did was he gave
a huge raise to Medicare advantage plans. Normally, you know,
every year, the federal government will give Medicare advantage plans

(23:07):
essentially a cost of living or inflation type raise you know,
two percent to where they give them money you know,
of course to divvy out benefits to there too of
course to the policy holders, right and then whatever whatever
they don't spend on policy holders they get to keep
themselves a profit.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
Well, this this year they did not get their rigor
two percent. They got over five percent. Okay, So that
sends a clear message. And we knew this's going into it,
you know, you know, during the election process, of course,
after you know, Trump with elected president, everything we had
heard is that Medicare advantage is going to be a

(23:49):
key priority for this administration. And doctor Oz has certainly
been on record that he is very much for Medicare advantage.
So Medicare is going to be strengthened under this administration.
It certainly was, you know, just follow the money, right,
and so with all the cunts that are going on,
if you get you know, over double increase what you

(24:13):
normally get. The administration telling you all you need to
know about how they feel about Medicare advantage. Definitely very
pro Medicare advantage, and.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
This should be comes as a prize. I guess Trump
is in favor of privatizing a lot of things, and
this basically I obviously the aim is is to make
it so much more advantageous for seniors to take care
of the advantage plans, to take advantage of the advantage plans,
that they move away from the more traditional stuff and
that maybe eventually goes away.

Speaker 5 (24:43):
That's exactly right. So I think that you know, every
person that signs up for a Medicare advantage plan is
coming off the Medicare books, right, And so essentially, when
a person signs up for a Blue Cross Blue Shield
of South Carolina Medicare advantage plan. There's you know, the
government saying blue Cross you know John Doe who just
turned sixty five and says a blue croth Medicare evanage land.

(25:05):
He is your responsibility. So the risk is now all yours.
And so I think that's, like you say, that's very
consistent with everything else that's going on. You know, the
federal government's telling a lot of employees, you know, take
this early retirement check and go on, go on your
way what you want to do, right, right, So very consistent.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Now parts in part B though at least this is
not affected by all this, right Or how does that work?
I mean, if you sign up for an advantage plan,
does does that that then that blue Cross blue shield
type provider cover A and B as well? Or how
does that shake out?

Speaker 5 (25:43):
No, that's a great question. So everyone has to go
get A and B first. So first you've got to
get square with the government and get your A and
B set up when you turn sixty five. And so
you know right now that for most Americans at the
one hundred and eighty five dollars a month, A is
three and B is one hundred and eighty five dollars

(26:03):
a month. Once you get your A and B set
up and you choose a Medicare advantage plan, a person
will continue to pay that one to eighty five to Medicare.
You can don't get out of that, right However, most
Medicare advantage plans as zero premiums. So whereas while and
this is where it could be confusing to a lot
of people, while you're still paying Medicare, Medicare no longer

(26:24):
is administering your Medicare. The Medicare advantage plan is that
last example, Blue Cross is the one that all doctors' offices, pharmacies,
gental visions, all the bills get set to blue Cross
and are processed by blue Cross. Medicare is out of
the picture altogether.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Well, that sounds like an advantage to begin with, right there,
Jeffcause the less you can have to deal with the
government or anything to better, I say, right, right, so
is now I'll say in this case an example of
using blue Cross as an example here, Now is the
government fording your weighty five year paying them to blue
Cross to handle all that, or is that still.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
Behind the scenes. Essentially, once once that person, let's say
that John Doe turned sixty five, he chooses blue Cross
Medicare advantage. Behind the scenes, Medicare sends blue Cross money.
Of course, you know I talked to earlier how they're
getting a pay raise five percent more. But they send
Blue Cross money, and then blue Cross takes that money
and they use it to pay all of John Doe's

(27:31):
medical claims and his dental bills and his vision, his eyeglasses,
things of that nature. And of course blue Cross or
any insurance companies hosting that there'll be something left over
for them once all these claims are paid for all
their clients. So that's essentially the business, the Medicare advantage.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Well, it must be working because all these companies are
still doing it, right, I mean you got to have
them to make this work.

Speaker 5 (27:53):
So yeah, and if you call the stock market at all,
all the stocks, you know I had Healthcare Man, and
that sign that they all got way up after that
announcement came up with that pay raise, so absolutely right, absolutely, Okay.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
So that's been the big change so far for twenty
twenty five. And one, I guess again no big surprise
with this an administration favoriting privatization of a lot of things,
and this is sartainly the best way to make this
happen when it comes to to Medicare coverage. But what else?
Get out your crystal ball here for us, mister Howell.
I mean, what other changes do you think we may

(28:29):
be seeing in twenty twenty five this year and beyond.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
That's the more difficult question is. But I do think
in general the trend is towards Medicare advantage in the
Medicare space. But I do not think Medicare supplements would
necessarily go anywhere. I think it will always be out
there as an option. We could see maybe the Medicare
supplement price is going up, and so that will give

(28:55):
more of incentive for people to go to Medicare advantage. Obviously,
you know a Medicare supplement is tried and true. You
know a person is on Medicare. Medicare is primary, it
pays eighty percent. They purchased a Medicare supplement, It pays
the other twenty percent minus a deductible. At one time deductile.
This year, that deduct was only two hundred and fifty

(29:16):
seven dollars on Part B. So that's not much risk, right,
Your whole calendar year, your whole risk is only two
hundred and fifty seven dollars.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
That's bad.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
It's a pretty solid plan. And your network is Medicare.
You know, any doctor hospital it takes Medicare in the country,
that's your network. So Medicare supplements, I don't think we'll
go anywhere, but we may see some price increases, not
only at the beginning and when person a person's turning
sixty five, but also every year a person gets older,
a Medicare supplement goes up in price. Normally we see

(29:48):
that at four six percent. We could see those percentages
maybe go up to eight to ten or twelve to
fifteen percent every year to where a person could unfortunately
be priced out of a Medicare supplement down the road.
I say unfortunate, I mean they would switch to Medicare advantage.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. But if that person
likes their Medicare supplement and that's what they prefer to have,

(30:11):
but it becomes cost prohibitive and they have to go
to Medicare advantage, then you know they would certainly have
to make that adjustment.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Right and again a lot of people ask the question,
we'll dog on if you know this, you know advantage
plan is going to give me all this free stuff
and I don't have to pay out a pocket for it.
Why would I not do that? Right?

Speaker 5 (30:33):
I mean, there are certainly a lot of good things
about Medicare advantage plans, but there's also some disadvantages. I mean,
we saw in late December how at nine LECXA Medical
Center got into a fight after the annual and roma
and certainly everyone who had a Atnicarb certainly became worried
that they couldn't go to the electa medical center doctors

(30:53):
or hospitals or you know, you know in twenty twenty
five and so a lot of people had to make
a change from over to a Blue Cross or United
health Care or whoever. You know, someone that elects the
medical center was in network with. Those are problems you
don't have with the Medicare supplement because Medicare is primary.

(31:14):
So Medicare advantage does come with a lot of great perks. However,
sometimes you have these network issues that could be frustrating.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yeah, so can we construct here in the last four
or five minutes, we have left here, uh the perfect
candidate for either of these plans. Who is the perfect
candidate to stick with the traditional Medicare and Medicare supplement plan.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
Jeff, that's a great question. Yeah, everything different, and so
they're really it's hard to really fit, you know, one
person qualification into one or one or the other. For example,
you would say, okay, someone who has a lot of money,
they might want to go Medicare Sophare because they can
afford the premiums. But however, you can look at you

(31:57):
can flip that, look at it the other way. Someone
who has a lot of money in a bank, they
can afford the nine thousand out of pocket if you're
a Medicare advantage, so they'll instead go with the zero premium.
So and you flip it the other way, Well, maybe
someone who does is very limited an income, maybe they
should go Medicare advantage because zero premium. However, someone limited

(32:18):
income may not have that nine thousand dollars out of
pocket in the bank, get hit with and they would
prefer the Medicare supplement. So income was I see it
both ways. Now, if you talk healthwise, someone who maybe
is undergoing chemotherapy or kidney dialysis, I think certainly someone
like that they can afford a Medicare supplement, they should

(32:39):
go with the Medicare supplement. So I think that that's
part of the easiest way to answer that question is
the Medicare supplement is probably best for someone in that
circumstance and they can afford it.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
And then that's because your your deductibles are capped tw
hundred and fifty seven bucks a year, right.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
No therapy, and you know that you're in fifty seven
dollars your worst case scenario for the year, then it
makes financial sense to certainly go with the Medicare supplement.
Round you would say someone in perfect health, Medicare advantage
makes perfect sense. However, as we all know, perfect health
is good today, gone tomorrow. It's just hard to count on.

(33:20):
And so, but you know, Medicare Advantage has a max
amount of pocket like any health plan anyone's ever been
on with their company or whether it's through the marketplace,
on the individual plan, and so whether that's six thousand
and eight thousand and nine thousand, whatever, the max amount
of pocket is on these various plans, that is your

(33:41):
worst case scenario. And the statistics shows that less than
one percent of people hit their max amount of pocket
on a Medicare Advantage plan.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
Do you have hol health Markets over in election and
how to folks reach you into and get your free help.
By the way, it's free, right right.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
My services are free. I sit down and look at
your doctors, look at your prescriptions and make sure you're
in the right plan for you at the right price.
Office is right outside the fly Deck restaurant in Lexington.
My phone number tech stor call is A zero three
six seven eight eight one two one as eight oho
three six seven eight eighty one twenty one.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
All right, Jeff, always great information. Appreciate it so much.
Have yourself a good weekend, my friend.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
You do, Gary, Thank you.

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(35:19):
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Speaker 1 (36:29):
We're back on the Health and Wellness Show on one
O three point five FM and five sixty AM WVOC
and wrapping a show up this morning with Matthew Terry
and John Farley from Preservation Specialists. Gentlemen, Good morning, morning, Gary, Hey,
good morning, hey y all. Buying that gold at Costco
last year?

Speaker 7 (36:45):
I wish I did.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Right. The news this week that that that one ounce
gold bar that uh I think it was going for
like twenty five hundred dollars at Costco last year is
now worth about thirty five hundred dollars, right right, Yeah,
that's good, that's good buying. Yeah, let good by it. Right,
I missed out on that one dog got it? Uh
the news of the week yesterday. Yeah, we and we

(37:09):
kind of expected this. And John, you've told this story
before about yeah, you gotta beat the radical conventions. And
the joke is is that the economists make us look good. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
because the economist SurfAid by the by by whoever it is,
dal Jones missed that one badly. They were thinking seventy

(37:29):
five thousand jobs created. It was twenty two thousand. Yea, yeah,
twenty two Okay. So on the surface, that looks like
that's horrible news, but there's this really weird dynamic between
job creation and interest rates.

Speaker 7 (37:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
So the Feds meet again this month, right, yeah, a
couple of weeks, a few weeks. So does this actually
raise the prospect that they're going to cut rates because
of the weak labor market?

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I think back to your point. You know, there are
people bet on everything, right I basic, Yeah, yeah, oh
I know, I know, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
So in this case, I think the odds are up
now to eighty percent at the expectation is that they're
going to drop it by a quarter of a percent.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
So yeah, to answer your question.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Is that that weird dynamic is we got bad news?
That's right, we didn't. We didn't hardly add any jobs.
Oh but that's good those because that off is going
to cut the interest rate.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
It's yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
It's it's really weird stuff, isn't it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
So, I mean it it would appear that that the
interest rates are are starting to will that it would
appear again, right, Yes, that that this would be the
first and usually people would continue to expect that to
that trend to continue. So you know what does that
mean for us? Uh? That means you can borrow money cheaper,

(38:56):
you know. So so that's a you know, if you're
buying a house or a car or stuff like that,
that that money will be less expensive because you have
lower interest rates.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
So that's good. But but yeah, there is.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
A flip side to that because you know, you also
want an economy where people are working, you know, so
you know where does that go?

Speaker 1 (39:19):
It's quite up sure, the AI economy.

Speaker 7 (39:21):
And yet yeah, it's right, yes, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
So yeah, that's a whole nother story right there.

Speaker 7 (39:26):
Yeah, I'm not sure we have enough time to go
down that route.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, by the time we finished, it'll be here. Yeah.
But so how the markets react to this kind of news?
Y'all are telling me? During the break? It was a
Wall Street Journal, Yeah, ran a piece I guess earlier
this week about I mean, let's face it, I mean,
market performance has been stellar, yes, yeah, but like everything else,

(39:54):
you know, I mean, yeah, is it is it real?
Or is it? You know?

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Ed Slot used the a couple of nights ago.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, how'd that go? I'm sorry, most.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Fine, No, no, he was.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
He was good.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
And you know it's a lot as that slot, right,
you know, he gets up there and he tells a
couple of jokes, some funny you know, a lot of
dad jokes in there. But he's a dad, you know.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
So.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
But but he used the term casino for referencing what
his you know what, what some people are saying about
the fact that the markets, you know, they cannot or
historically they have never kept going up and up and up.
And so what he's saying is the Wall Street Journal.
He referenced that article as well, and he said, hey,

(40:36):
you know, these guys are saying that the market just
keeps going up and up and up, and there's a
you know, you get to the point where and I
happened to be living in the Silicon Valley during the
dot com bust. That was a sobering event. I was
living in an apartment. I was just coming out of
grad school. And the guy next to the family next

(40:57):
to us in the apartment, this guy was a not
somebody you meet offen, a font person like he literally
that was his specialty. Fonts for Adobe. Right, it was
the interest. You got a restaurant with this guy and
he take the menu and he bring it up right
to his eye and he'd be like, oh, what's that?

Speaker 1 (41:12):
What's that? Anyway? Is there a college degree in fonts?

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Yes, he had a master's degree in fonts.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
That was the thing.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
That's California.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
He got his degree in New York and then he
got hired by Adobe in California.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
But here's the thing, here's the thing.

Speaker 5 (41:26):
It was.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
It was nineteen ninety nine and he bought a wicked
expensive car. I mean it was north of one hundred
thousand bucks. So we're living in you know, apartments that
are costing us, you know, fifteen to eighteen hundred dollars
a month, and everybody's like what the and his buddies
were like, you are an idiot, And he said, well,
I guess we'll see a year later his car was
worth much more than his buddy's stock.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Oh wow, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Because and also there was all this So so there
was this and I remember when I was out there,
I remember, you know, they'd have these these initial public
offering parties where they had these eyes from cirque solet
that would take an hour to climb down a rope
from the ceiling and all this crazy and nobody was
making any money. It was all funny money. It was
all you know, expected, expected, expected, and it was kind

(42:10):
of like, and who knows where this AI think goes.
But there certainly aren't similarities between Hey, if you have
AI in your name, we're going to fund you. You know,
we're just gonna throw money at you. Right, So, you know,
Slot was suggesting that, hey, we don't know the future,
and it's true, we don't, but by many measures, the
market is pretty high, and if you have money in

(42:32):
the market, it might be a time to take some
chips off the table and diversify, especially if you're getting closed.
You know, if you're thirty, fine, right, But if you're
you know, fifty fifty five, fifty five and you're thinking, okay,
I'm going to retire in the next you know, five whatever,
it's a transition time. And if you're older than that,
certainly it would be the time to do that. Just

(42:54):
there are other places.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Why did he look at me when he said that, No, Gary,
I don't know if yet it's a good question, but
but but you know, the point is is that.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
You know, if, if, if something were to happen. I mean, listen,
we don't know what the future is, but it seems
likely that the courts will eventually come down with a
ruling on whether the tariffs are legal or not, and
how will that affect the market, and on and on
and on.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Uh and you.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
Know, there's a lot of unknown But what we do
know is the market is really high right now.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Sometimes and not always the case, but many times the
case is the best predictor of the future is to
look at the past.

Speaker 7 (43:34):
Yeah, I mean absolutely, to look for similarities to see,
you know, what could that potentially tell us. I wish
it could give us a crystal ball to say we
know exactly what would happen in the future. But you know,
some of the best traders that you hear about and
and even if you want to use John's example of

(43:54):
what mister ed Slot spoke about, you know, you go
to casino, you start winning, right, you want to make
sure you take some chips off the table, right, you
want to cash in, make sure you at least leave
with something in the event that something goes wrong. It's
the same way with trading. I mean, over the last
five years, the market is up almost one hundred percent. Again,
over the last five years, it is almost double. We

(44:16):
have been in one of the most long standing bull market,
meaning up trending markets that we've seen in practically a
very long time. And the thing is is now's an
excellent time to really take a hard look at your
portfolio to rebalance that as necessary. That's one of the
biggest things. You know, people as they've been saving for years,

(44:38):
they have their investment allocation that's in stocks, which is
for growth, and we've certainly seen growth. They also have
a position for conservativeness, which typically has either been in
cash or that's been in bonds. Well, given the amount
of growth that we've seen, you've just naturally, unless you've
rebalanced your portfolio, you were out of sync. Your portfolio

(44:58):
is not constructed the way that it's would be. So
that's what I'm encouraging you all that's listening to really
take a hard look at either your four one ks
or your I RaSE to really look at how those
are invested and if there's time to make a change.
You never want to make a change at the very bottom.
You want to make a change at the top, and
that's what we're just encouraging you to do. Take a

(45:18):
hard look, sit down, talk to one of us. We'd
be more than happy to help do.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
I keep seeing red flags about the bond market.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yeah, so the issue with the bond market is, you know,
again we don't know what the future holds. But the
whole thing is, if I mean, the bottom line is this,
there was a time in our history when the when
the interest rates that were set set by the federal
government did not impact the bond market, and what ultimately

(45:49):
ended up happening was the hyperinflation that we got in
you know Carter's administration, right, it was, it was the
whole thing got Normally, what happens is if the FED
lowers rates, then the bond market follows in terms of
you know that the tenure the ten year bonds, US
government bonds also say okay, well we're gonna pull. Well
if they don't, if those things become unconnected, disconnected, then

(46:14):
then we that's problematic because they need Now you now,
the Fed doesn't have levers to pull to make things happen.
And so what's happened in this case is people are
saying with the US debt. I don't know is the
U see see, we have been the cornerstone currency and
cornerstone safe haven for investors worldwide for decades.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Right.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
If something, if people are worried, they say, Okay, we're
gonna go to the US government bonds because we know
they're gonna pay well with the they're saying maybe not anymore,
right and and that and so that now, if that's
the case, then whatever the FED does with interest rates
may not track appropriately with the want with with with

(47:00):
the U S bond rates, you know, so yes, anyway,
the bottom line is are we becoming more risky?

Speaker 1 (47:08):
And and that's the question.

Speaker 7 (47:11):
And at the end of the day, what a bond
is is simply an iou right're you're buying a bond
ready to catch those things in?

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Really I all know about that.

Speaker 7 (47:21):
But but you know the reality is is we want
to make sure that whenever it is time to cash
those in gary that uh, the US government Uncle Sam
can pay us. Right then we want to make sure
that we can get back our initial investment and obviously
the promise of interest over time, that is the part
that we're I guess you would say other investors, meaning
other nations are starting to lose faith in.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
So, you know, for for so many people, people who
may have been putting aside for decades for retirement, still
when they when they think of that, and what they
their behavior has been all these years is stocks, bonds,
stocks bonds. Uh. And now you're saying, okay, are we
on a were on a bubble here? You know, is
this thing about to you know, turn south on us? Here?

(48:04):
We get loaded in the sense good places because I've
been here in US for a while now and we
keep going scheps going up, cage goings like the energizer bunny.
So what are these other investments when you talk about diversification.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Well, one of the big ones is and again Ed
Slott was talking about this the other night. He said,
what every you know, everybody's situation is unique, he said,
But what you probably, as you're saying, Gary, which you
probably don't want to do in retirement, is to sit
there and say, you know what, my entire investment, all
of my money is in stocks and bonds because those
can be up and down. And if you end up

(48:41):
taking money out of a stock, especially a stocks portfolio,
when it's either one, if you take money out of anything.
When it's down, you're you're losing, right, It's it's you.
You can't make that back up if you're in retirement
because you're not working, right, So there are other ways
to do this. One of the things that this that
that was a strategy that he discussed last night.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
He said, look it.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
He described his mother who when her husband, his dad passed,
and she said, he said, she took the money and
she bought. Now, this was her strategy. She bought five
different dinnuities, so she knew that every month there was
a check coming in from five different places and she
didn't have to worry, you know. So that is One

(49:23):
strategy is to set yourself up with certain guaranteed income.
So the idea, the whole idea is in retirement. Now again,
you never want to put everything in any basket, but
one strategy is to say, hey, I want to make
sure that I have a certain amount of guaranteed income
coming in no matter what. So if I have a pension, great,
but if I don't, we want to set that up
to make sure that you're there. That's one strategy. Another
strategy is into things that are asset back that create dividends.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Right.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
So you know, people typically bonds, they create dividends, but
most bonds are not asset backed. They're just a promise.
So if you know, home Depot issues a bond, there's
nothing to there's no collateral behind that, nothing except that
if home Depot defaults on it, they're gonna have a
tough time getting more money in the future. But that
the idea is. So there are very good investments. We've

(50:08):
talked about this before, but there are certain types of
investments that have collateral backing them. One easy example for
people to see is a diversified group of professionally managed
commercial real estate. We're not talking about malls, but we're
talking about other types of things like you know, industrial
warehouses that the e commerce folks use, like the targets
and the Walmarts and the Amazon's right, those are hard assets.

(50:31):
Those people pay their rents. The rents is the dividend
that you use to to to make your income.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
And you drive down to Charleston, yeahs and see these
things popping up every stinking war Yeah absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
Well it's uh, you know, I guess I say you
get load of the sins of complacency because you keep
looking at your portfolio, Well this is going pretty good,
and then we don't we don't want to know. Do
you want to jump off of winter? Right? No, it's

(50:57):
so tempting to just stick with what you're doing because
you know, you don't want to take money out of
it and go. It is still going up, so you know.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
But this is the thing though, Gary, this is and
we ask this all the time other people, because again,
what we're trying to do with people is this, We're
trying to give you a peace of mind. We're trying
to have you say, okay, listen. So the question that
I always ask, we always ask, is this, Okay, I
want you to now imagine that a year from now
the market is up ten percent and you missed it. Okay,
what about a year from now and the market is

(51:25):
down percent, down ten percent and you had the chance
to get out? What makes you feel better or worse?
And that's that's a personal thing. But most people are
more averse to the down than the up, especially as
you a as you get you know, you're in your
fifty sixty seventies, You're like, well, I you know, I'd
rather hang on to what I got.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yeah, So yeah, good point. Yeah, well, I'm not worried
because I mean I bought a powerball ticket.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
The thing about the power ball thing is I was
thinking the other day we're having this discussion, was this
because the thing is worth about a billion, right, and your.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Chances well close to golden it on two billings oas.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Well, chance of winning are one and two hundred ninety
three million. If you buy every possible combination of numbers
and spend two hundred ninety three million, you're just arbitraging.
The problem is if somebody else wins, now your host. Yeah, yeah,
that's the thing. Yeah anyway, yeah, so my goodness.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Oh well, I'm of the mind that it doesn't matter
how he tickets you buy, So I just buy one?
Yeah what they heck?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Yeah, but it's their one in two hundred ninety three million.
That means there were two hundred ninety three million combination.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Right see see. But here's my diversification strategy. I also
bought a ticket for last night's Make a Million drawing. Nice,
Yet three hundred million dollars, what the heck?

Speaker 7 (52:38):
I think any money you're gonna be happy with, right exactly? Hey,
win's a win is a win' that's all right.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Well okay, so let's face it, you're not going to
win the power ball tonight. Talk to these guys, John Barley,
Matthew Jery preservation specialists, how to best reach out.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
It's eight oh three nine. Retire at oh three nine,
retire and again it's all about peace of mind. It's
about okay, when it's time to retire, you want to
enjoy it and you want to have the confidence to
go have fun.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
There you go, guys. Always good to see you and
we'll talk again in a couple of weeks. Thanks Gary,
Thanks Garry. The lawyers and staff at the Law Office
of James Snell are there to help those with injuries
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(53:44):
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Speaker 2 (53:51):
Contact me at Snell law dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
That's three l's spell law dot com.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
The Law Office of James Snell since two thousand and
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