October 2, 2025 • 44 mins
Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, visits with Cary Hall, nationally syndicated radio host and America’s Healthcare Advocate. Cary provides a thorough review of ACA-Obamacare, its history, the projected vs actual cost, and where it’s headed as well as alternatives to this health insurance plan. Then, Cary discusses the upcoming Medicare Annual Election Period. This is a lively discussion you don’t want to miss! #SeniorCare #SeniorCareLive #SeniorCareConsulting #SeniorLiving #KansasCitySeniorCare #SeniorCarePlacement #SeniorCareAdvisor #Franchise #SeniorCareFranchise #Medicare #ACA (800) 331-6445
www.SeniorCareLive.com
www.facebook.com/SeniorCareLive
www.linkedin.com/in/stevekuker
www.twitter.com/SeniorCareLive
www.SeniorCareConsulting.com
www.SeniorCareLive.com
www.facebook.com/SeniorCareLive
www.linkedin.com/in/stevekuker
www.twitter.com/SeniorCareLive
www.SeniorCareConsulting.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America's Senior Care Consultant,
Steve Kecker.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker.
You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. Just get ready, buckle up, hold on, because
we are going to have a fantastic program for you
here today with my friend and special guest in studio,
(00:44):
mister Carey Hall. You may know him as America's Healthcare Advocate,
is also a national health insurance expert. And Carrie, Welcome
back to Senior Care Live.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, I wish I was here to give you some
really good news today, but I'm not. Well.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We're going to cover We're going to look, we're gonna
cover all the bases. So we're going to talk about
a product that's really more for the caregivers, right, you know,
forty five to sixty five roughly, and then we're going
to get into some Medicare information later on in the program.
For our listeners who are retired with medicare. Bit First, Carrie,
let's jump into one of I know, one of your
(01:21):
favorite topics, the ACA Obamacare plan.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, so this year is going to be the most
monumental year for people that are on ACA that we've
seen since it was rolled out. We'll get into why
that is. But before we do that, I want to
show you a little something that I printed off the
other day. I want you to read this for the audience.
Right there on that sign they're carrying was this.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh okay, healthcare all right. So we have a couple
here and they're holding a large sign that says healthcare
is a human right.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well, first of all, that's incorrect that maybe you may
want that to be a human right, but it's not,
and it's certainly not in the Constitution of the United States.
But my point in bringing that up is the mindset
of folks that think that is the mindset that says
government healthcare is what we need. We need medicare for all,
we need government controlled here for Well, guess what, we
(02:13):
pretty much have it. Between ACA and Medicare and the VA,
the largest government run programs period, we pretty much have it.
So Now, what are the consequences of that, What are
the consequences of what happened when ACA Obamacare was passed,
and where are we today? Well, let's take a look.
So let's talk about what the premium increases. Is a
(02:34):
study that was done and with all the states and
what the increases are going to look like. Kansas thirty
point four to eight percent, Arizona twenty seven point three percent,
Alaska twenty percent, Kansas here we go, Missouri rather twenty
(02:54):
two point seven percent, and the list goes on. Okay,
if you're talking about Iowa, you're looking at fourteen percent.
If you're talking about Indiana, you're looking at twenty nine percent.
It's all over the board. The problem is these are
the largest increases we've seen with ACA since it was
rolled out. Why did that happen? And let me give
you some other specifics. It'll be interesting to see on
(03:16):
specific carriers. In Kansas, Celtic Insurance is going to put
through a forty percent increase forty percent, Medica is going
to put through a twenty nine point three percent increase,
and Oscar is going to put through a twenty one
percent increase. So now they have to get this approved
(03:36):
of the state to do it. But this is what's
coming down the pike. Here's the good news. Blue Cross
and Blue Shield of Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield
of Kansas City, their increases are nowhere near that. You're
looking at more like six or seven percent across the board.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
From that's a lot more reasonable.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
It's a lot more reasonable. But here's the thing. Blue
Cross and Blue Shield, those are not for profits. Local
plans are not Conglomo plans or not United Healthcare. They're
not ATNA, which, by the way, after fourteen years in
the marketplace, canceled one million policies in ACA this year
and one union. People are going to have to find
(04:13):
new insurance. And why do you think they did it?
Because they lost two billion dollars. And the reason for
that is because these programs are mandated by the government
in terms of what the carriers can offer and what
they cannot offer. In other words, they turned the carriers
into basic utility companies. They tell the carriers, you will
(04:33):
provide all of this coverage for people. And that's a
great idea, except that not everybody needs all of that coverage,
and the marketplace can't do what the marketplace does. So
you're strapped into a program. Well, the philosophy behind it
when it was passed was this, Steve, We're going to
build this program, and what we're going to do is
(04:54):
we're going to make the younger people pay these higher
premiums and then they'll subsidize the older people the top.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, they won't. I mean, anybody can see that. Maybe
about ten twenty one hundred miles away.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Would you tell a twenty five year old they're gonna
have to pay seven hundred dollars a month for a
health insurance program they're gonna take tell you to take
a flying leap and a rolling donut. Well they're not.
They're not going to do that. They're gonna go without.
They're gonna look at you and go, look, hey, I'm
twenty five. You know I never go to the doctor.
I'm healthy, I don't have I don't have a problem here.
Now you know, they may they may get a brain
(05:29):
tumor at twenty six, but they don't think that far
down the road. Yeah, So what's happened is those people
have migrated off these pants or they never signed up
in the first place, even though they were supposed to
require two by law and there goes your funding, and
so it is spiraled down.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Now.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Now, the second piece that has caused the problem is
that when we went through COVID and we we had
we had this new legislation come in, the American Prosperity Act.
I believe it was called if I'm not mistaken or
something along those lines. Well, well, we went from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred percent of the poverty level,
which is what this program was designed to do. It
(06:06):
was designed to help people. When President Obama and everybody
passed this thing, the idea was, we're going to help
the people at the bottom of the ladder. We're going
to get they can't afford the current health insurance policy,
so we're going to take care of that. We're going
to get rid of underwriting. No more underwriting. You can
come on this plan. I remember when Blue Cross put
the plans to I sat down with the chief operating
(06:27):
officer at Blue Cross at Kansas City. I said, what's
the first month look like? He said, we have eleven
heart transplants. Oh my gosh, eleven heart transplants. Okay, so
all this stuff had to be paid for, Well, who's
paying for it? That's where the problem came at. Yep, yep. Now,
to make the matter worse, we're going to make subsidies
four hundred percent. So people are going to get a
(06:47):
huge subsidy from the federal government so they can keep
their health insurance, all right, and it's going to be
paid for by the government. That was supposed to be
a temporary situation, Stephen, was the last time you saw
our government program become a temporary situation? Never?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Look, once they do it, it will never stop. No, and
that and that, and therein lies the problem, folks, that
it's never gonna stop. So here's what's happened. Between twenty
fourteen and twenty nineteen. Premiums increase ninety percent. All right,
that's where we're at, ninety ninety percent. Okay. Federal subseeds
for ACA now exceed one billion, one billion, excuse me,
(07:27):
one hundred billion annually, one hundred billion andly and here's
one you'll really enjoy. Okay. CBO estimated that ACA subsidies
would be four hundred and fifty billion over a ten
year period.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Let me let me guess they undershot that just a
little tiny bit.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
One point two trillion. Oh my, gosh, so something has
to change. Okay, one point two trillion? You love, don't
you love? CBO only three times as much? Yeah? Yeah,
so you know CBO projects a number that's ridiculous and
won't work. They now, now we're going to add bigger subseas, okay,
(08:04):
and we're gonna we're gonna strap the carriers in a
chair and say you will do this, and then when
it all turns to garbage, we're gonna turn around and
here's what's gonna happen. The general public because they don't
understand this stuff for what it is. We're going to
turn around and they're going to point the finger at
the boogeyman. And who's the boogeyman?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's the president?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
No, the insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Oh oh okay, okay, you.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Know when you can shoot Brian Thompson and cale in
In in broad daylight on the streets in New York
City because he's the CEO of United Healthcare, even though
even though the guy that shot him, Manngioni, didn't have
a United health Care policy, neither did his parents that
he never had one, he chose to shoot him and
kill him, okay, because we demonize these insurance companies. Well,
(08:49):
I hate to break this to everybody. The problem isn't
the insurance companies as much as it is the way
it's structured and the fact that the government is controlled.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, the government mandates it, so they're just implementing the
government is forcing them to implement.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And as a result of that, we are now, in
my humble opinion, in a death spiral, and you're going
to see it start even more this year. It's going
to accelerate because unfortunately, I don't think anybody's prepared for this.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, I'll tell you what I was with my firm,
Senior Care Consulting. I worked with a couple. They were
around upper fifty sixty. They flew in from Arizona. This
has been several years ago, before COVID eighteen nineteen maybe,
and they were and I helped them place their mother,
and we went through all of that. And during the
(09:35):
middle of our tours and everything, I remember she checked
her phone for some reason. I don't know if she
got a call. I don't remember the details. And she
gasped and I'm like, is everything okay? And she said,
our Abamacare premiums just went from three hundred a month
to fifteen hundred dollars a month, and she completely freaked
(09:58):
out on the spot and I'm like, how is that possible?
And she said, we started at three hundred bucks yep,
and like in months, fifteen hundred dollars a month, she goes,
We're not going to be able to do that. I'll
tell you what. If you have questions for Carrie Hall,
you could go to his website. It is America's Healthcare
(10:19):
Advocate dot com. You could reach out through a form
an email. Contact information is on there. Reach out to
Carrie Hall if you have questions about this. We're going
to have a whole lot more coming up next, but first,
the Senior Care Live Question of the week you can
change your Medicare plan anytime throughout the year. Is that
statement true or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
We'll have more with Steve coming up next. A recent
Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City provided thirty
(11:06):
two million results. It's daunting to think that there are
over three hundred and fifty senior care communities to choose
from in the Kansas City metro and on average you'll
spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find a
place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming, that's
because it is. I invite you to reach out to
Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two thousand
(11:28):
and two. With our premium service, we do most of
the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We work for you.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
To learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting
dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. Now back to the Senior Care Live question
of the week. You can change your Medicare plan anytime
throughout the year. Is this a true or false and
the answer is.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
False?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
The answer is false, Carrie. Why is that statement false?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Well, because There is a Medicare open enrollment period for
Medicare advantage plans. It goes from October fifteenth through December seventh,
and that's it. So the problem is you cannot change
Medicare advantage. Once you're in a Medicare advantage plan, you're
locked down until the following year's open enrollment period. Now,
if you're in a Medicare supplement, you can change those anytime.
(12:57):
Here's the trick. If you're in it, and you got
in it you were sixty five like I did, it's
not underwritten. If you go to change and now you're
seventy two or seventy six like I am, and you
have developed a medical condition, it's going to be underwritten.
Your premiums are going to go up or they can
deny you.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, and you have to qualify it. It's not an
automatic Oh no.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
It's not. It's automatic in the first in that first
window right up front.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, but after that, and it's also automatic if you're
you know, let's say you're sixty eight and you're retiring,
and then it's automatic. You have an automatic option. But
other than that, no, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And let's let's get to some of this Medicare stuff
a little bit later on and continue some of this
information about the ACA, the Affordable Care Act. I don't
know who named that one, but that's a little misleading.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Carry somebody said that to me that they said they
should have called it the Unaffordable Character.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I think that's more accurate.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So you gave an example of the folks in Arizona.
Let me give you an example right here in the
Kansas City metro So another company that I own part
of is called to Take a Health or a TPA.
But we create our own plans, we take them to market,
and we vet them to make sure they meet all
the regulatory requirements. We have a plan called Gigcare. Now
it is not under the ACA Obamacare mandate. It is
(14:17):
run It is run through a program called ARISA with
the Department of Labor. So I'm going to give you
a comparison between a gigcare plan for the same benefits
as a as a plan run by one of the
major BUKA carriers, Blue Cross United Signat Okay, So we've
got a real estate broker in Leewood. He does very well,
(14:39):
probably knocks down two hundred and fifty three hundred thousand
a year or more. So he gets no subsidy. He's
fifty two years old, as a wife and one child.
What do you think his premieers are with no subsidy
five thousand dollars HSA. He doesn't have the policy that
you know, you go to the doctor and give them
your card and you pay nothing. He has a five
thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
HSA and he and this is just his plan.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
His plan, and it's on the ACA. Yeah, him, his
wife and his one child.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Well, I mean, I want to say something reasonable, but
I'm sure it's not.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Thirty one hundred dollars a month. No way, thirty one
hundred if you don't one here's the other problem. This
is why we're in a death spiral. People that are
not getting a subsidy are looking for alternatives. I don't
care if it's our plan, gigcare, it may be Christian
Meta share. There are a lot, they're a whole host
of other plans that are coming out now because this
(15:31):
this thing is breaking down. If you're not getting a subsidy,
then you're paying full boat. Well, when we go now,
when we go from four hundred percent of the poverty
level back to one hundred and fifty two hundred percent,
all those people that are getting those big fat subsidies,
that's going to stop. So I'm hearing from all the carriers.
I just to show this week with the folks in
(15:52):
Blue Cross the Kansas they expect to see thirty percent
of the people fall off the plants and lose covery,
Oh my god, because the subsidies aren't going to be
in place now. Some of the local carriers, like the
Blues of Kansas City, Blue Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, they're much
more sensitive to this, and they're not they're not doing
what United's doing, or what Senteen's doing, or what Oscar
(16:15):
is doing, or what Medica is doing, or what Celtic's doing,
because they're not for profit, okay, and they really try
very hard to service their people. So you're looking at
it increases, you know, between seven eight percent, maybe as
high as nine in some cases, but it's certainly not
what we're going to see from these other carriers. And
therein lies one of the issues. The local carriers who
(16:37):
don't have to serve a national market can do things
a little bit differently. And here's the other problem. Typically
what we've had now is reduce competition the subseas one
hundred billion dollars annually. That's what was projected. CBO blew that. Okay,
mandates and and drove prices up with limited networks. So
what is a limited network? Limited network means you got
(17:00):
a narrow network. So here I'll give an example.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's a problem there.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Well, there's a plan coming out in Kansas City this
year from Blue Cross of Kansas City. They got very creative.
It's a great idea. It's going to be the lowest
low cost ACA plan in the marketplace period. Okay, it's
going to have four hospitals, University Hospital, Downtown University Hospital,
and lease summit, Saint Joseph's caron Delay, and Saint Mary's.
(17:25):
Oh here's the really great part. It's going to include
spiral care. So now all of your primary care is covered,
no copaid, no deductible co insurance, that's behavioral health, prescription
meds through them, labs, X rays, all of it. They
figured out a way to do something to help people.
That's going to be since But they have eleven clinics
around Kansas City and they pioneered them ten years ago
(17:48):
and they've got over one hundred thousand people in these things.
So they found a solution. But if you're Blue Cross
of Kansas, or if you're SIGNA or if you're United,
you don't have a clinic program. So all that at
cost for those primary care docs is going through them, okay,
and they're paying the claims, and so.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
You're going to be limited. You're going to have a
very short list of providers you can choose from. And
if you're used to going to your family doctor who
knows you for the last twenty years, and he's not
he or she's if they're not on the list, you're
not going to them anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
No, you're not. And so the point is people are
going to have to sacrifice some part of what their
healthcare is in order to be able to afford I
think that that plan Blue Cross is going to offer's
going to be a huge hit because especially with these
what I just told you, with subsidies and these premire
increases going where they are. So I think they're going
to see a lot of people do it because they're
going to go, wait a minute, I spend eighty percent
(18:43):
of my medical issues are covered in primary care. Well,
the spiralcare program's a pretty dynamic program behave for So
there's a solution. But that's here. Yeah, that's not your cancas.
It's not in Nebraska, it's not in Iowa, it's not
in South Dakota, it's not Mississippi. You know, they don't
have those kinds of things. So what's happened with all
(19:03):
the government mandates and forcing this thing, forcing the carriers
to do that the way they want it done is
I'll give you an example. The only carrier that offers
coverage in one hundred and three counties in Kansas is
Blue Cross of Kansas. So what happens with with the
large carriers they come in, We're gonna cherry pick, We're
gonna do Wichita, Lawrence, okay, uh, Salina, and we're not
(19:27):
gonna touch Hayes, We're not gonna touch Scott City. We're
not gonna touch any of these places. You folks out.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
There, we're you're on you.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
You can buy our policy, but you're gonna drive an
hour or longer to get to a primary care doc.
So there there's the problem. So the carriers are like,
we're gonna narrow the network. We're gonna we're gonna narrow
access because we control access, we control costs, and we're
gonna we're gonna move, We're gonna we're people are gonna
come into these plans and they're gonna have to accept this.
(19:57):
What are the solutions? Are there solutions? Yes? There are? Okay,
The question is does Congress have the courage to do
the things that needs to do to change this? And
that remains to be seen. But there are some things
that are pretty obvious. If we had short term medical
plans back where they were before, when we come back
to the break, I'll explain this. You could drop the
cost like a rock. Butut, let me tell you what
(20:19):
happened when we come back to the break with the
short term medical plans.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
He is mister Carrie Hall. You may know him as
America's Healthcare Advocate National health insurance Expert. You can visit
him online at America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. Reach out
to care if you if you have a question, and
I'll tell you what we're going to go through some
of the solutions of this big giant mess.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Coming up next, you're listening to Senior Care Live on
the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare
Live dot com stick around. We'll have more with Steve
coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, President of Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so excited to announce that we are expanding nationwide
by awarding Senior care Consulting franchises. We help our clients
find the right senior care community, including assistant living, memory care,
long term care, and continuing care retirement communities. We are
(21:22):
not another run of the mill, free referral service. We're
very different. We offer replacement service with integrity. Owning a
senior care consulting franchise offers many benefits. Our market is
not affected by the economy. Operate from your home office
and enjoy work life balance. Pour your passion into a
business you can be proud of. For more information about
(21:45):
owning a senior care consulting franchise, call eight three three
seven two two three seven two six eight three three
seven two two three seven two six or visit Seniorcareconsulting
dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:09):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts of the program,
visit Seniorcare Live dot com or wherever you get your podcasts.
And Carrie I want to mention your radio show. It's fantastic.
You had a pretty good guest on a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I did it was you. It was a great show.
But at a response to that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So tell everyone about your show and where they can
hear it.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It's America's Healthcare Advocate. We're on about two hundred and
forty stations across the country. Here in the local metro
it's ninety five to seven, seven, ten and.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
In Saturday mornings at eight A and.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Eighth and in Wichita it is an Odyssey station KNSS
Radio news talk radio in witch Tas, Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
It is also on the tweak, isn't it in the.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Speak it's a lawns. It's in Salida. Can stream it, yeah,
you can go. So it's on sixteen podcast channels yea.
And then Dave Deesent all our shows of videotaped and
they're put up on our YouTube channel, which has got
over half a million views now. So we have a
lot of people that are interested in what we're saying
about healthcare, health insurance and all the other issues that
(23:18):
are out there.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So go to YouTube. Look, this is really really well done.
I'll tell you that Dave does a fantastic job. Of course,
Carrie is awesome, as he always has been for the
last what fifteen twenty years doing all of this. And
so go to YouTube and just do a search on
America's Healthcare Advocate. You'll see Kerry Hall come right up,
and there are a ton of videos. But these are super,
(23:39):
super well done, and you've got the subtitles and everything.
So check that out. Over half a million views. And
I just wanted to, I just want to promote your show.
Carry it's really.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Good, So I greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
So okay, so we talked about some of the we
talked about you described it as a death spiral. So
the aca Obama care plan was I think maybe set
out with good intention and then and then you had
you expanded to the number of people to qualify. You
counted on younger people to pay their premiums to help
(24:12):
float the boat, so to speak. There and then all
these things went wrong, okay, and it's and it's not
paying for itself and it is and they're losing everyone's
bleeding money and bailing out of this thing. So what solutions?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
So there are solutions. So first of all, and we
hope this is going to happen. We haven't seen it,
you know, we're hoping the Trump administration. So short term
plans were kind of a band aid solution, but they
were solution. We used them a lot when I had
Benefits by design before I sold my agency in Northwestern Mutual.
And what would happened is somebody could come on. They
were on the policy for your they were significantly less.
(24:45):
They could be a half of what an ACA plan was.
They didn't get any subsidies, but half. So it was
a short term plan. So like the Blue Cross Plan,
which was a great plan, it was a full benefits plan.
You got cancer, you didn't get kicked off, it didn't matter.
They were underwritten. You had to answer five quiest since
once you did that, you were on the plan. The
cost was significantly less. What happened when the Biden administration
(25:06):
came well, first Obama did this, and then and then
Trump reversed it, okay, and then and then Biden put
it back in place. So they were one year policies.
Guess what Obama did as one of the last things
they did with Kathleen Sibilius, the then h Health and
Human Services Secretary former Commissioner in state of Kansas. As
(25:26):
she walked out the door to turn out the lights.
She changed the policy to three months. So now you
can get a short term policy every three months, but
you got to go back and requalify be underwritten every
three months. It's a nightmare. What do you think they
did that, Steve, I'm not sure. So they could drive
people to ACA. We're back to this. We're going to
people on these plans, whether they like it or not.
(25:48):
That's what they did. Okay, other solutions so that if
that gets turned back on, that's going to help people
lead to the short term the other thing I would suggest,
and they're.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Good to change it, hopefully from the three months back
to the.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Back they're talking about going to three years. Oh okay,
if that happens, that would make a huge difference with people.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, I got, I got, yeah, yeah, but it's a
three month thing. I get. I understand that now because
they're forcing you away from the private market and they're
forcing you to this ACA of month care.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
So you're two months into your plan and now all
of a sudden you recognize you've got a brain tumor
or cancer or art condition. Well, you know you're not
going to renew. Now you've got to go over to
raise forces you because they'll take you with no underwriting.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
But your premium just jump to thirty one hundred dollars
a month, right, yep. Okay, there's a problem. So some
of the things you can do to make a difference.
Please take a look HSA plans. HSA with five thousand
dollars deductibles. I know it's high, some of them as
high as seven thousand dollars. But understand what you can
do if you first of all, you can put into
those accounts. I believe the number now is up to
(26:46):
forty eight hundred dollars a year per person, okay, and
that money is tax deductible going in. You can take
it out to pay your deductible to do whatever you
need to do, and it's tax free coming out. Also,
the money you keepmulate. So year one you don't use anything.
Now you got forty eight hundred dollars. Year two you
spend maybe one thousand dollars. Well you got now you
(27:08):
got you're one in a year two's money. Well, year three,
now you've got everything covered one hundred percent. If you
do have a major medical event, you're out of pocket
maxis seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
If you've got over thirteen thousand in your HSA, now
thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
See you can do the math. I never was any
good at math. The nuns tried but it didn't work.
But having said that, that's the point. You know, you
have to be smarter about what you're doing. I caution
people about doing things like Christian metashare, and all I'm
saying to you is this, it is not health insurance.
And when you get one of their policies, it says
(27:40):
right on the policy, this is not health insurance. Well
why is that a problem? If you have a claim
and you dispute it, there's no insurance commission to negotiate
that claim for you, or no Department of Insurance to
get involved or consumer department to get involved to help
you go back to the insurance carrier and try to
make them pay the claim. This is not a health
(28:00):
insurance plan. So if they make a decision not to
fund something in their crowdfunding program, which is what I
call it, okay, it's sifinitely not going to get paid.
So that's one of the problems some of these other
things out there that you see that may be solutions.
So if you here's another way to do this, so
you go buy direct primary care. You go to an
outside source. It sells. We got we've got high ve
(28:22):
and Exemplar Care coming into the Kansas City market. They
have one in Overland Park on one of the least summit.
I believe you could sign up for an individual basis
for eighty two dollars a month, just like it's very
similar to Spiracare, except there's no health insurance involved. It
is just primary care.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
It's a great program, is like a concierge care type.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Direct accept that they have. They have free standing clinics.
They do a great job. So here you can go
pay eighty bucks a month. Let's go back to that HSA.
What's the premium on the HSA versus the standard ACA.
So I've got four tricycle butters at home. Theoretically I don't, Okay,
And I got to have I've got to have like
my daughter who's it's got four children. She's at the
(29:01):
er the urgent care of the doctor every week. Yep,
four of them. They're under the age of nine. Yeah, okay.
If if the good news is she works at a
great law firm, they have great coverage. But if she
had to do that individually, she could go buy Exemplar Care,
put those four kids on there, get a high deductile
plan to cover major medical and she'd be home free. Yep. Okay,
So this is that those are some of the things
(29:24):
you have. You need to find a qualified broker agent
that will walk you through this and help you find
solutions to this because it's complicated.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Is the ACA? Is this thing just going to fizzle out?
I mean at some point, how how can we possibly
prompt this thing up? I mean, we don't have unlimited
resources here.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Well, there's a certain party of people in this country
that think we do well right exactly, but I don't
want to drag politics into this, but there's a certain
party you know, No, we don't. And the reason we're
in trouble is that, Okay, it all sounded good, and
we were shelling out four hundred percent of the poverty
level and people were paying ten dollars a month for
the health insurance. That's not realistic, Okay. So then of
(30:05):
course there's the other side of the aisle, which says, well,
let's just have government healthcare take over everything. Medicare for all. Well,
when we get into the next segment, we'll talk about
what Medicare for all would look like and where Medicare
is going at. Here's a little piece of information you
probably don't know. By twenty thirty four, Medicare will be broke, broke.
That's coming from the trustees at Medicare, not from me,
(30:26):
not from This is not a political argument. It's going
to be broken.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It's just a financial fact.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
It's a financial fact and it's the third rail of
politics that no politician wants to talk nobody.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
It's too hot of a potato. But we have to
do something about it otherwise we're screwed. I mean, we're
in horrible trouble.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Here, and those solutions are not rocket science. We can
talk about that, you know in the next segment. Yea yeah,
But back to this. It's in a death spiral because
young people are just going I'm not doing this. Oh. Now,
you see all of these new opportunities coming up where
these primary care direct care calls, the aircuit. There are
a lot of doctors doing conciera. Yep, there's multiple practices
(31:02):
here in Kansas City. So maybe you don't even have
a health which is not smart, but you don't even
buy a health insurance policy. You just use this. Well,
it's great unless you wind up going to the hospital.
You just had a surgery as one hundred and fifty grand. Yepkay,
my wife had a broken leg a number of years ago.
It was one hundred and fifty grand. So my advice
to people is look for alternatives. Find a broker that
(31:23):
knows these marketplaces and understands what to do. Wherever you
are in the country, you're listening to Steve Show all
over the country, find somebody that really understands is for
God's sake, don't go on healthcare dot gov. Yeah, that's
not your best source.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, and another issue with you know, young people will
help float the boat on HCA is you know you
could be on your parents health insurance until age twenty
six and so you know my kids, Yeah, I have
a twenty five year old, We have twenty three year
old triplets and they are it doesn't make sense to
kick them out of the nest on their health insurance.
It's very inexpensive to have them on our insurance. And
(31:58):
then when they're then when they're twenty six, they can
go out and get their own But they're not signing
up for this one hundreds of dollars a month. They
will do something different that's much less expensive.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Your wife's policy, which you are all on, is with
Ku Medical Center. Yeah, I don't know what. Twenty thousand employees,
thirty thousand.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
It's big.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, it's huge. And that's a self funded plan managed
by Kyu. They set the parameters, they manage the plan.
It's not under AC, it's not under Obama. That's right,
that's right. His private health insurance. He is mister Carrey Hall,
America's Healthcare Advocate and national health insurance expert. Visit online
at America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. And coming up next,
(32:36):
we're going to get into medicare as we previously kind
of teased.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Don't go away, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot Com.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living independently
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care and
(33:14):
memory care options. How are you supposed to determine the
best place for you? Hello, I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you and
(33:37):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of family since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred. Nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Senior care
(33:59):
Caning dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care
Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question,
visit Senior Care Live dot com. Now back with my
(34:21):
friend his spasional guest in studio. He is America's healthcare Advocate,
mister Carrie Hall. It's also national health insurance Expert. If
you want more information you want to reach out to Carrie,
go to his website, America's Healthcare advocate dot com. Also
go to YouTube over half a million views of all
of his podcasts. They're super well done. And just go
(34:41):
to YouTube and just do a search on America's healthcare
Advocate Carrie health c A R Y H A L L.
You will find it and you will learn a lot.
I promise you that. So, Carrie, we talked about shifting
gears and just touching on medicare. We're approaching that that
annual election period October every year, October fifteenth December the seventh,
(35:01):
and that's when you have an opportunity to make some changes.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, and there's gonna be a lot of changes this year.
And again I'm gonna urge you, please don't call the
people on the television. Oh no, Joe Naviath doesn't know
up and down about medicare. No, neither does William Devayane
if he's not selling gold coins. Okay, so please don't
call them. What about JJ Dino that's another one, Okay, Yeah,
if you know, if they're above ground and taking nourishment,
(35:24):
they're gonna be doing medicare. Per my gosh, you find
a local broker that is certified to sell medicare that
you have to go through twenty one hours of training
every year to get recertified, plus another six or seven
hours with each carrier you sign up for. So it's
not an easy thing to do. But the agents and
brokers that do this are dedicated to what they do
(35:44):
and they can help you find something makes sense. But
let's talk about Medicare. Overall, by twenty thirty four, Medicare
Hospital Trust Fund won't be able to pay its own bills. Okay,
this is from the This is from the federal government.
This is not this is not the Wall Street Journal, okay,
you know, or or some other publication. This is from
the federal government. That is the projection. Okay, why is
(36:06):
that happening? Well, people are retiring and there are fewer
workers to support the people. In nineteen sixty six, you
had four point six workers for every retiree. Today you
have two point eight. Well we're upside down because of
the ab that's right, almost half the amount of the program.
So security and what's happened. We have more people in
Medicare now than we've ever had in Medicare because the boomers.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Ten thousand, I'm on two, I'm on back in. But yeah,
ten thousand a day retiring.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
So there are two factors. Here's the rest of it. Okay,
you have waste and fraud in medicare, fifty to sixty
billion dollars a year. Okay, fake billing, kickbacks to providers,
hospital over billing, let me give me. In twenty twenty two,
in Florida, a man was convicted of scamming medicare out
of sixty one million dollars. How the hell do you
(36:56):
do that?
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
That's that guy was a really smart guy. Yeah, okay,
he's a crook, but he was a really smart guy.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah. Well he must have got conned because you're reporting it, so.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Obviously he did. You know. The solution to this are
not rocket science. But as as as as Steve said
in the last segment, the politicians don't want to touch it. Okay, yeah,
so it just sits there. Infesters too is too hot
of a potato. But we have to do something.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
And by the way, in thirty four, I mean, god willing,
if I'm still here, I mean I'm going to be
depending on medicare, So will you so?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yeah? So so here here here's an example of you
know what would work to change medicare around if you
it's not rocket science. If you move the eligibility age
to sixty seven or sixty eight, okay, that would make
a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
You know, I think that's reasonable too.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah, and it is reasonable people are living longer. Except
so that would that would save a one hundred and
thirteen billion dollars over ten years, okay, and amount almost
nineteen billion in total savings. Okay, So it's remarkable. Like
I said, the solutions are not rocket science. But somebody
(38:06):
has to be willing, okay to make these things work.
And you also have to open up the marketplace a
little more than what we have Medicare advantage plans. Everybody
was against these, the politicians for the most part, especially
on the Democrats side. I remember debating Senator Claire mccaskell
of Missouri who railed against Medicare advantage because the insurance
(38:27):
comers are going to make a lot of money and
it's not going to work. Well, you got thirty eight
million people on those plans, and if you try to
get them off those plans, they'll be at the door.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah, if they're pitch for us.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yeah right, those plans work and people, but you know,
you're seeing you're seeing carriers pull out of the marketplaces
in some cases because here we go again with trying
to cover the cost provide the benefits. They are strictly regulated,
regulated far more than ACA is by CMS, and so
as a result of that, the carriers don't have much
(38:59):
room to manure, and so the marketplace is not acting
like it should. If the marketplace could act like it should,
like an ACA, for example, if carriers could sell across
state lines the same product, you could drop the costs
like a rock.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
But each state, because your volumes up correct.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
In each state. What winds up happening is they all
have there's different regulations in Kansas to the our misery, and
the carriers have to make all this work in every
one of these places if they want to offer plans.
This is why Edna pulled out of the marketplace on
the ACA. This is why blew Cross, the Cansas City
pulled out of the marketplace on medicare advantage because they
couldn't support the death spiral of the claims. This has
(39:38):
to change because it's not working. So when people say, well,
we need medicare for all, No, actually that's probably the
worst solution you could have.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well, if you say Medicare for all, I mean maybe
that's like, well, yeah, it works, it works for retired people,
why not for everyone? Well that leads me to think
that's like the VA for all. And I've heard way
too many stories that I know you.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Are and I'm in the Agent Orange program, and I
am no, thank you. I'm no fan of the VA.
I appreciate the work of the people over there, that
there are a lot of dedicated people there. But if
you're a vet, you know, you know what typically what
it's like the VA tried to get an appointment, trying
to get a specialist, trying to get a surgery, you know.
(40:22):
And here we go again with politics. So President Trump
puts in place a program where veterans don't have to
wait six months to get an appointment. They go out
and find a local provider. Do it?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Biden comes in off as he counsels the program. Okay,
and forcing everybody back to VA just like ACA. Okay,
just the same thing. Okay, You're being forced into a
program the government wants you in if you're a VET,
whether you want it or not, if you want that coverage,
and what of the best do they sign up? Because
they don't have to pay for it and they get
their prescription drugs and all the rest of it. So
(40:54):
you know, this is what I'm talking about, This kind
of management government management on health and simply isn't working.
And if you want to understand how bad it is,
take a look at Canada, take a look at the UK,
look at these other countries. Look at France, UK cannot
they keep funding and funding and funding their health system
(41:15):
and it's underwater. You have to wait six months to
even see a specialist. Try to get an MRI in Canada.
You know, they have a boat service, a ferry that
goes back and forth in Canada and Buffalo, New York.
You know what, because the largest MII, MEMRII clinics and
x RAC are in New York. Because if they have
to get it in Canada, they're going to wait ninety days,
(41:37):
one hundred and twenty days. Well, if you've got cancer,
you think you want to wait nine days to see
what's going to look for?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Well, heck no, that may be the difference between saving
your life with the surgery or not. And I was
in the hospital and they said, Steve, we found a
mass on your brain, and I had an MRI that
afternoon and in twenty four hours they said, it's not
a tumor, it's assist. We can deal with that. I
had brain surgery successfully and thank god, but I had
(42:02):
an MRI within hours, not six months. Within hours. There's
a difference.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
There's a big difference. Yeah, yeah, there's a big difference.
Changes are coming and they're not all good.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
All right. He is mister Carrie Hall, America's Healthcare Advocate
and national health insurance Expert. Visit him online at America's
Healthcare Advocate dot com. Also look him up on YouTube.
Check out his podcast. They are excellent and Carrie, thanks
for being here today. I always enjoy when I have
you on the show. Let's do this again soon.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
They've had a lot of fun. It's great to be on.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
You bet, you bet, all right. I'm Steve Keeker and
I wish you grace in peace. May God bless you
and your family on this day, and always join me
next week right here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
In our area?
Speaker 4 (42:56):
There are hundreds of thousands of people either receiving or
providing senior care and they need to know about you.
A unique and successful radio program called Senior Care Live
is the perfect opportunity to let your target audience know
about your amazing products and services. Senior Care Live is
currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors, and if
(43:17):
you're aligned with their mission, they want to talk to you.
They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations, physician groups, home
care providers, estate planning and older law practices, financial advisors,
insurance companies, real estate brokers, home health agencies, and other
providers serving the elderly and their caregivers. Senior Care Live
(43:38):
has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities, so call
now at nine one three nine four five twenty eight
hundred nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
or visit seniorcare live dot com seniorcare live dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Quid pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care community
if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:14):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible?
Of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest and without the quid pro quo
(44:38):
called nine one three, nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one three, nine four five twenty eight hundred Replacement
service with integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America's Senior Care Consultant,
Steve Kecker.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker.
You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. Just get ready, buckle up, hold on, because
we are going to have a fantastic program for you
here today with my friend and special guest in studio,
(00:44):
mister Carey Hall. You may know him as America's Healthcare Advocate,
is also a national health insurance expert. And Carrie, Welcome
back to Senior Care Live.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, I wish I was here to give you some
really good news today, but I'm not. Well.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We're going to cover We're going to look, we're gonna
cover all the bases. So we're going to talk about
a product that's really more for the caregivers, right, you know,
forty five to sixty five roughly, and then we're going
to get into some Medicare information later on in the program.
For our listeners who are retired with medicare. Bit First, Carrie,
let's jump into one of I know, one of your
(01:21):
favorite topics, the ACA Obamacare plan.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, so this year is going to be the most
monumental year for people that are on ACA that we've
seen since it was rolled out. We'll get into why
that is. But before we do that, I want to
show you a little something that I printed off the
other day. I want you to read this for the audience.
Right there on that sign they're carrying was this.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh okay, healthcare all right. So we have a couple
here and they're holding a large sign that says healthcare
is a human right.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well, first of all, that's incorrect that maybe you may
want that to be a human right, but it's not,
and it's certainly not in the Constitution of the United States.
But my point in bringing that up is the mindset
of folks that think that is the mindset that says
government healthcare is what we need. We need medicare for all,
we need government controlled here for Well, guess what, we
(02:13):
pretty much have it. Between ACA and Medicare and the VA,
the largest government run programs period, we pretty much have it.
So Now, what are the consequences of that, What are
the consequences of what happened when ACA Obamacare was passed,
and where are we today? Well, let's take a look.
So let's talk about what the premium increases. Is a
(02:34):
study that was done and with all the states and
what the increases are going to look like. Kansas thirty
point four to eight percent, Arizona twenty seven point three percent,
Alaska twenty percent, Kansas here we go, Missouri rather twenty
(02:54):
two point seven percent, and the list goes on. Okay,
if you're talking about Iowa, you're looking at fourteen percent.
If you're talking about Indiana, you're looking at twenty nine percent.
It's all over the board. The problem is these are
the largest increases we've seen with ACA since it was
rolled out. Why did that happen? And let me give
you some other specifics. It'll be interesting to see on
(03:16):
specific carriers. In Kansas, Celtic Insurance is going to put
through a forty percent increase forty percent, Medica is going
to put through a twenty nine point three percent increase,
and Oscar is going to put through a twenty one
percent increase. So now they have to get this approved
(03:36):
of the state to do it. But this is what's
coming down the pike. Here's the good news. Blue Cross
and Blue Shield of Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield
of Kansas City, their increases are nowhere near that. You're
looking at more like six or seven percent across the board.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
From that's a lot more reasonable.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
It's a lot more reasonable. But here's the thing. Blue
Cross and Blue Shield, those are not for profits. Local
plans are not Conglomo plans or not United Healthcare. They're
not ATNA, which, by the way, after fourteen years in
the marketplace, canceled one million policies in ACA this year
and one union. People are going to have to find
(04:13):
new insurance. And why do you think they did it?
Because they lost two billion dollars. And the reason for
that is because these programs are mandated by the government
in terms of what the carriers can offer and what
they cannot offer. In other words, they turned the carriers
into basic utility companies. They tell the carriers, you will
(04:33):
provide all of this coverage for people. And that's a
great idea, except that not everybody needs all of that coverage,
and the marketplace can't do what the marketplace does. So
you're strapped into a program. Well, the philosophy behind it
when it was passed was this, Steve, We're going to
build this program, and what we're going to do is
(04:54):
we're going to make the younger people pay these higher
premiums and then they'll subsidize the older people the top.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, they won't. I mean, anybody can see that. Maybe
about ten twenty one hundred miles away.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Would you tell a twenty five year old they're gonna
have to pay seven hundred dollars a month for a
health insurance program they're gonna take tell you to take
a flying leap and a rolling donut. Well they're not.
They're not going to do that. They're gonna go without.
They're gonna look at you and go, look, hey, I'm
twenty five. You know I never go to the doctor.
I'm healthy, I don't have I don't have a problem here.
Now you know, they may they may get a brain
(05:29):
tumor at twenty six, but they don't think that far
down the road. Yeah, So what's happened is those people
have migrated off these pants or they never signed up
in the first place, even though they were supposed to
require two by law and there goes your funding, and
so it is spiraled down.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Now.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Now, the second piece that has caused the problem is
that when we went through COVID and we we had
we had this new legislation come in, the American Prosperity Act.
I believe it was called if I'm not mistaken or
something along those lines. Well, well, we went from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred percent of the poverty level,
which is what this program was designed to do. It
(06:06):
was designed to help people. When President Obama and everybody
passed this thing, the idea was, we're going to help
the people at the bottom of the ladder. We're going
to get they can't afford the current health insurance policy,
so we're going to take care of that. We're going
to get rid of underwriting. No more underwriting. You can
come on this plan. I remember when Blue Cross put
the plans to I sat down with the chief operating
(06:27):
officer at Blue Cross at Kansas City. I said, what's
the first month look like? He said, we have eleven
heart transplants. Oh my gosh, eleven heart transplants. Okay, so
all this stuff had to be paid for, Well, who's
paying for it? That's where the problem came at. Yep, yep. Now,
to make the matter worse, we're going to make subsidies
four hundred percent. So people are going to get a
(06:47):
huge subsidy from the federal government so they can keep
their health insurance, all right, and it's going to be
paid for by the government. That was supposed to be
a temporary situation, Stephen, was the last time you saw
our government program become a temporary situation? Never?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Look, once they do it, it will never stop. No, and
that and that, and therein lies the problem, folks, that
it's never gonna stop. So here's what's happened. Between twenty
fourteen and twenty nineteen. Premiums increase ninety percent. All right,
that's where we're at, ninety ninety percent. Okay. Federal subseeds
for ACA now exceed one billion, one billion, excuse me,
(07:27):
one hundred billion annually, one hundred billion andly and here's
one you'll really enjoy. Okay. CBO estimated that ACA subsidies
would be four hundred and fifty billion over a ten
year period.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Let me let me guess they undershot that just a
little tiny bit.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
One point two trillion. Oh my, gosh, so something has
to change. Okay, one point two trillion? You love, don't
you love? CBO only three times as much? Yeah? Yeah,
so you know CBO projects a number that's ridiculous and
won't work. They now, now we're going to add bigger subseas, okay,
(08:04):
and we're gonna we're gonna strap the carriers in a
chair and say you will do this, and then when
it all turns to garbage, we're gonna turn around and
here's what's gonna happen. The general public because they don't
understand this stuff for what it is. We're going to
turn around and they're going to point the finger at
the boogeyman. And who's the boogeyman?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's the president?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
No, the insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Oh oh okay, okay, you.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Know when you can shoot Brian Thompson and cale in
In in broad daylight on the streets in New York
City because he's the CEO of United Healthcare, even though
even though the guy that shot him, Manngioni, didn't have
a United health Care policy, neither did his parents that
he never had one, he chose to shoot him and
kill him, okay, because we demonize these insurance companies. Well,
(08:49):
I hate to break this to everybody. The problem isn't
the insurance companies as much as it is the way
it's structured and the fact that the government is controlled.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, the government mandates it, so they're just implementing the
government is forcing them to implement.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And as a result of that, we are now, in
my humble opinion, in a death spiral, and you're going
to see it start even more this year. It's going
to accelerate because unfortunately, I don't think anybody's prepared for this.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, I'll tell you what I was with my firm,
Senior Care Consulting. I worked with a couple. They were
around upper fifty sixty. They flew in from Arizona. This
has been several years ago, before COVID eighteen nineteen maybe,
and they were and I helped them place their mother,
and we went through all of that. And during the
(09:35):
middle of our tours and everything, I remember she checked
her phone for some reason. I don't know if she
got a call. I don't remember the details. And she
gasped and I'm like, is everything okay? And she said,
our Abamacare premiums just went from three hundred a month
to fifteen hundred dollars a month, and she completely freaked
(09:58):
out on the spot and I'm like, how is that possible?
And she said, we started at three hundred bucks yep,
and like in months, fifteen hundred dollars a month, she goes,
We're not going to be able to do that. I'll
tell you what. If you have questions for Carrie Hall,
you could go to his website. It is America's Healthcare
(10:19):
Advocate dot com. You could reach out through a form
an email. Contact information is on there. Reach out to
Carrie Hall if you have questions about this. We're going
to have a whole lot more coming up next, but first,
the Senior Care Live Question of the week you can
change your Medicare plan anytime throughout the year. Is that
statement true or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
We'll have more with Steve coming up next. A recent
Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City provided thirty
(11:06):
two million results. It's daunting to think that there are
over three hundred and fifty senior care communities to choose
from in the Kansas City metro and on average you'll
spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find a
place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming, that's
because it is. I invite you to reach out to
Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two thousand
(11:28):
and two. With our premium service, we do most of
the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We work for you.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
To learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting
dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. Now back to the Senior Care Live question
of the week. You can change your Medicare plan anytime
throughout the year. Is this a true or false and
the answer is.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
False?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
The answer is false, Carrie. Why is that statement false?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Well, because There is a Medicare open enrollment period for
Medicare advantage plans. It goes from October fifteenth through December seventh,
and that's it. So the problem is you cannot change
Medicare advantage. Once you're in a Medicare advantage plan, you're
locked down until the following year's open enrollment period. Now,
if you're in a Medicare supplement, you can change those anytime.
(12:57):
Here's the trick. If you're in it, and you got
in it you were sixty five like I did, it's
not underwritten. If you go to change and now you're
seventy two or seventy six like I am, and you
have developed a medical condition, it's going to be underwritten.
Your premiums are going to go up or they can
deny you.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, and you have to qualify it. It's not an
automatic Oh no.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
It's not. It's automatic in the first in that first
window right up front.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, but after that, and it's also automatic if you're
you know, let's say you're sixty eight and you're retiring,
and then it's automatic. You have an automatic option. But
other than that, no, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
And let's let's get to some of this Medicare stuff
a little bit later on and continue some of this
information about the ACA, the Affordable Care Act. I don't
know who named that one, but that's a little misleading.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Carry somebody said that to me that they said they
should have called it the Unaffordable Character.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I think that's more accurate.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So you gave an example of the folks in Arizona.
Let me give you an example right here in the
Kansas City metro So another company that I own part
of is called to Take a Health or a TPA.
But we create our own plans, we take them to market,
and we vet them to make sure they meet all
the regulatory requirements. We have a plan called Gigcare. Now
it is not under the ACA Obamacare mandate. It is
(14:17):
run It is run through a program called ARISA with
the Department of Labor. So I'm going to give you
a comparison between a gigcare plan for the same benefits
as a as a plan run by one of the
major BUKA carriers, Blue Cross United Signat Okay, So we've
got a real estate broker in Leewood. He does very well,
(14:39):
probably knocks down two hundred and fifty three hundred thousand
a year or more. So he gets no subsidy. He's
fifty two years old, as a wife and one child.
What do you think his premieers are with no subsidy
five thousand dollars HSA. He doesn't have the policy that
you know, you go to the doctor and give them
your card and you pay nothing. He has a five
thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
HSA and he and this is just his plan.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
His plan, and it's on the ACA. Yeah, him, his
wife and his one child.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Well, I mean, I want to say something reasonable, but
I'm sure it's not.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Thirty one hundred dollars a month. No way, thirty one
hundred if you don't one here's the other problem. This
is why we're in a death spiral. People that are
not getting a subsidy are looking for alternatives. I don't
care if it's our plan, gigcare, it may be Christian
Meta share. There are a lot, they're a whole host
of other plans that are coming out now because this
(15:31):
this thing is breaking down. If you're not getting a subsidy,
then you're paying full boat. Well, when we go now,
when we go from four hundred percent of the poverty
level back to one hundred and fifty two hundred percent,
all those people that are getting those big fat subsidies,
that's going to stop. So I'm hearing from all the carriers.
I just to show this week with the folks in
(15:52):
Blue Cross the Kansas they expect to see thirty percent
of the people fall off the plants and lose covery,
Oh my god, because the subsidies aren't going to be
in place now. Some of the local carriers, like the
Blues of Kansas City, Blue Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, they're much
more sensitive to this, and they're not they're not doing
what United's doing, or what Senteen's doing, or what Oscar
(16:15):
is doing, or what Medica is doing, or what Celtic's doing,
because they're not for profit, okay, and they really try
very hard to service their people. So you're looking at
it increases, you know, between seven eight percent, maybe as
high as nine in some cases, but it's certainly not
what we're going to see from these other carriers. And
therein lies one of the issues. The local carriers who
(16:37):
don't have to serve a national market can do things
a little bit differently. And here's the other problem. Typically
what we've had now is reduce competition the subseas one
hundred billion dollars annually. That's what was projected. CBO blew that. Okay,
mandates and and drove prices up with limited networks. So
what is a limited network? Limited network means you got
(17:00):
a narrow network. So here I'll give an example.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's a problem there.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Well, there's a plan coming out in Kansas City this
year from Blue Cross of Kansas City. They got very creative.
It's a great idea. It's going to be the lowest
low cost ACA plan in the marketplace period. Okay, it's
going to have four hospitals, University Hospital, Downtown University Hospital,
and lease summit, Saint Joseph's caron Delay, and Saint Mary's.
(17:25):
Oh here's the really great part. It's going to include
spiral care. So now all of your primary care is covered,
no copaid, no deductible co insurance, that's behavioral health, prescription
meds through them, labs, X rays, all of it. They
figured out a way to do something to help people.
That's going to be since But they have eleven clinics
around Kansas City and they pioneered them ten years ago
(17:48):
and they've got over one hundred thousand people in these things.
So they found a solution. But if you're Blue Cross
of Kansas, or if you're SIGNA or if you're United,
you don't have a clinic program. So all that at
cost for those primary care docs is going through them, okay,
and they're paying the claims, and so.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
You're going to be limited. You're going to have a
very short list of providers you can choose from. And
if you're used to going to your family doctor who
knows you for the last twenty years, and he's not
he or she's if they're not on the list, you're
not going to them anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
No, you're not. And so the point is people are
going to have to sacrifice some part of what their
healthcare is in order to be able to afford I
think that that plan Blue Cross is going to offer's
going to be a huge hit because especially with these
what I just told you, with subsidies and these premire
increases going where they are. So I think they're going
to see a lot of people do it because they're
going to go, wait a minute, I spend eighty percent
(18:43):
of my medical issues are covered in primary care. Well,
the spiralcare program's a pretty dynamic program behave for So
there's a solution. But that's here. Yeah, that's not your cancas.
It's not in Nebraska, it's not in Iowa, it's not
in South Dakota, it's not Mississippi. You know, they don't
have those kinds of things. So what's happened with all
(19:03):
the government mandates and forcing this thing, forcing the carriers
to do that the way they want it done is
I'll give you an example. The only carrier that offers
coverage in one hundred and three counties in Kansas is
Blue Cross of Kansas. So what happens with with the
large carriers they come in, We're gonna cherry pick, We're
gonna do Wichita, Lawrence, okay, uh, Salina, and we're not
(19:27):
gonna touch Hayes, We're not gonna touch Scott City. We're
not gonna touch any of these places. You folks out.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
There, we're you're on you.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
You can buy our policy, but you're gonna drive an
hour or longer to get to a primary care doc.
So there there's the problem. So the carriers are like,
we're gonna narrow the network. We're gonna we're gonna narrow
access because we control access, we control costs, and we're
gonna we're gonna move, We're gonna we're people are gonna
come into these plans and they're gonna have to accept this.
(19:57):
What are the solutions? Are there solutions? Yes? There are? Okay,
The question is does Congress have the courage to do
the things that needs to do to change this? And
that remains to be seen. But there are some things
that are pretty obvious. If we had short term medical
plans back where they were before, when we come back
to the break, I'll explain this. You could drop the
cost like a rock. Butut, let me tell you what
(20:19):
happened when we come back to the break with the
short term medical plans.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
He is mister Carrie Hall. You may know him as
America's Healthcare Advocate National health insurance Expert. You can visit
him online at America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. Reach out
to care if you if you have a question, and
I'll tell you what we're going to go through some
of the solutions of this big giant mess.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Coming up next, you're listening to Senior Care Live on
the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare
Live dot com stick around. We'll have more with Steve
coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, President of Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so excited to announce that we are expanding nationwide
by awarding Senior care Consulting franchises. We help our clients
find the right senior care community, including assistant living, memory care,
long term care, and continuing care retirement communities. We are
(21:22):
not another run of the mill, free referral service. We're
very different. We offer replacement service with integrity. Owning a
senior care consulting franchise offers many benefits. Our market is
not affected by the economy. Operate from your home office
and enjoy work life balance. Pour your passion into a
business you can be proud of. For more information about
(21:45):
owning a senior care consulting franchise, call eight three three
seven two two three seven two six eight three three
seven two two three seven two six or visit Seniorcareconsulting
dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:09):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts of the program,
visit Seniorcare Live dot com or wherever you get your podcasts.
And Carrie I want to mention your radio show. It's fantastic.
You had a pretty good guest on a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I did it was you. It was a great show.
But at a response to that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So tell everyone about your show and where they can
hear it.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It's America's Healthcare Advocate. We're on about two hundred and
forty stations across the country. Here in the local metro
it's ninety five to seven, seven, ten and.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
In Saturday mornings at eight A and.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Eighth and in Wichita it is an Odyssey station KNSS
Radio news talk radio in witch Tas, Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
It is also on the tweak, isn't it in the.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Speak it's a lawns. It's in Salida. Can stream it, yeah,
you can go. So it's on sixteen podcast channels yea.
And then Dave Deesent all our shows of videotaped and
they're put up on our YouTube channel, which has got
over half a million views now. So we have a
lot of people that are interested in what we're saying
about healthcare, health insurance and all the other issues that
(23:18):
are out there.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So go to YouTube. Look, this is really really well done.
I'll tell you that Dave does a fantastic job. Of course,
Carrie is awesome, as he always has been for the
last what fifteen twenty years doing all of this. And
so go to YouTube and just do a search on
America's Healthcare Advocate. You'll see Kerry Hall come right up,
and there are a ton of videos. But these are super,
(23:39):
super well done, and you've got the subtitles and everything.
So check that out. Over half a million views. And
I just wanted to, I just want to promote your show.
Carry it's really.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Good, So I greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
So okay, so we talked about some of the we
talked about you described it as a death spiral. So
the aca Obama care plan was I think maybe set
out with good intention and then and then you had
you expanded to the number of people to qualify. You
counted on younger people to pay their premiums to help
(24:12):
float the boat, so to speak. There and then all
these things went wrong, okay, and it's and it's not
paying for itself and it is and they're losing everyone's
bleeding money and bailing out of this thing. So what solutions?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
So there are solutions. So first of all, and we
hope this is going to happen. We haven't seen it,
you know, we're hoping the Trump administration. So short term
plans were kind of a band aid solution, but they
were solution. We used them a lot when I had
Benefits by design before I sold my agency in Northwestern Mutual.
And what would happened is somebody could come on. They
were on the policy for your they were significantly less.
(24:45):
They could be a half of what an ACA plan was.
They didn't get any subsidies, but half. So it was
a short term plan. So like the Blue Cross Plan,
which was a great plan, it was a full benefits plan.
You got cancer, you didn't get kicked off, it didn't matter.
They were underwritten. You had to answer five quiest since
once you did that, you were on the plan. The
cost was significantly less. What happened when the Biden administration
(25:06):
came well, first Obama did this, and then and then
Trump reversed it, okay, and then and then Biden put
it back in place. So they were one year policies.
Guess what Obama did as one of the last things
they did with Kathleen Sibilius, the then h Health and
Human Services Secretary former Commissioner in state of Kansas. As
(25:26):
she walked out the door to turn out the lights.
She changed the policy to three months. So now you
can get a short term policy every three months, but
you got to go back and requalify be underwritten every
three months. It's a nightmare. What do you think they
did that, Steve, I'm not sure. So they could drive
people to ACA. We're back to this. We're going to
people on these plans, whether they like it or not.
(25:48):
That's what they did. Okay, other solutions so that if
that gets turned back on, that's going to help people
lead to the short term the other thing I would suggest,
and they're.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Good to change it, hopefully from the three months back
to the.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Back they're talking about going to three years. Oh okay,
if that happens, that would make a huge difference with people.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, I got, I got, yeah, yeah, but it's a
three month thing. I get. I understand that now because
they're forcing you away from the private market and they're
forcing you to this ACA of month care.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
So you're two months into your plan and now all
of a sudden you recognize you've got a brain tumor
or cancer or art condition. Well, you know you're not
going to renew. Now you've got to go over to
raise forces you because they'll take you with no underwriting.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
But your premium just jump to thirty one hundred dollars
a month, right, yep. Okay, there's a problem. So some
of the things you can do to make a difference.
Please take a look HSA plans. HSA with five thousand
dollars deductibles. I know it's high, some of them as
high as seven thousand dollars. But understand what you can
do if you first of all, you can put into
those accounts. I believe the number now is up to
(26:46):
forty eight hundred dollars a year per person, okay, and
that money is tax deductible going in. You can take
it out to pay your deductible to do whatever you
need to do, and it's tax free coming out. Also,
the money you keepmulate. So year one you don't use anything.
Now you got forty eight hundred dollars. Year two you
spend maybe one thousand dollars. Well you got now you
(27:08):
got you're one in a year two's money. Well, year three,
now you've got everything covered one hundred percent. If you
do have a major medical event, you're out of pocket
maxis seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
If you've got over thirteen thousand in your HSA, now
thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
See you can do the math. I never was any
good at math. The nuns tried but it didn't work.
But having said that, that's the point. You know, you
have to be smarter about what you're doing. I caution
people about doing things like Christian metashare, and all I'm
saying to you is this, it is not health insurance.
And when you get one of their policies, it says
(27:40):
right on the policy, this is not health insurance. Well
why is that a problem? If you have a claim
and you dispute it, there's no insurance commission to negotiate
that claim for you, or no Department of Insurance to
get involved or consumer department to get involved to help
you go back to the insurance carrier and try to
make them pay the claim. This is not a health
(28:00):
insurance plan. So if they make a decision not to
fund something in their crowdfunding program, which is what I
call it, okay, it's sifinitely not going to get paid.
So that's one of the problems some of these other
things out there that you see that may be solutions.
So if you here's another way to do this, so
you go buy direct primary care. You go to an
outside source. It sells. We got we've got high ve
(28:22):
and Exemplar Care coming into the Kansas City market. They
have one in Overland Park on one of the least summit.
I believe you could sign up for an individual basis
for eighty two dollars a month, just like it's very
similar to Spiracare, except there's no health insurance involved. It
is just primary care.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
It's a great program, is like a concierge care type.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Direct accept that they have. They have free standing clinics.
They do a great job. So here you can go
pay eighty bucks a month. Let's go back to that HSA.
What's the premium on the HSA versus the standard ACA.
So I've got four tricycle butters at home. Theoretically I don't, Okay,
And I got to have I've got to have like
my daughter who's it's got four children. She's at the
(29:01):
er the urgent care of the doctor every week. Yep,
four of them. They're under the age of nine. Yeah, okay.
If if the good news is she works at a
great law firm, they have great coverage. But if she
had to do that individually, she could go buy Exemplar Care,
put those four kids on there, get a high deductile
plan to cover major medical and she'd be home free. Yep. Okay,
So this is that those are some of the things
(29:24):
you have. You need to find a qualified broker agent
that will walk you through this and help you find
solutions to this because it's complicated.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Is the ACA? Is this thing just going to fizzle out?
I mean at some point, how how can we possibly
prompt this thing up? I mean, we don't have unlimited
resources here.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Well, there's a certain party of people in this country
that think we do well right exactly, but I don't
want to drag politics into this, but there's a certain
party you know, No, we don't. And the reason we're
in trouble is that, Okay, it all sounded good, and
we were shelling out four hundred percent of the poverty
level and people were paying ten dollars a month for
the health insurance. That's not realistic, Okay. So then of
(30:05):
course there's the other side of the aisle, which says, well,
let's just have government healthcare take over everything. Medicare for all. Well,
when we get into the next segment, we'll talk about
what Medicare for all would look like and where Medicare
is going at. Here's a little piece of information you
probably don't know. By twenty thirty four, Medicare will be broke, broke.
That's coming from the trustees at Medicare, not from me,
(30:26):
not from This is not a political argument. It's going
to be broken.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It's just a financial fact.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
It's a financial fact and it's the third rail of
politics that no politician wants to talk nobody.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
It's too hot of a potato. But we have to
do something about it otherwise we're screwed. I mean, we're
in horrible trouble.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Here, and those solutions are not rocket science. We can
talk about that, you know in the next segment. Yea yeah,
But back to this. It's in a death spiral because
young people are just going I'm not doing this. Oh. Now,
you see all of these new opportunities coming up where
these primary care direct care calls, the aircuit. There are
a lot of doctors doing conciera. Yep, there's multiple practices
(31:02):
here in Kansas City. So maybe you don't even have
a health which is not smart, but you don't even
buy a health insurance policy. You just use this. Well,
it's great unless you wind up going to the hospital.
You just had a surgery as one hundred and fifty grand. Yepkay,
my wife had a broken leg a number of years ago.
It was one hundred and fifty grand. So my advice
to people is look for alternatives. Find a broker that
(31:23):
knows these marketplaces and understands what to do. Wherever you
are in the country, you're listening to Steve Show all
over the country, find somebody that really understands is for
God's sake, don't go on healthcare dot gov. Yeah, that's
not your best source.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, and another issue with you know, young people will
help float the boat on HCA is you know you
could be on your parents health insurance until age twenty
six and so you know my kids, Yeah, I have
a twenty five year old, We have twenty three year
old triplets and they are it doesn't make sense to
kick them out of the nest on their health insurance.
It's very inexpensive to have them on our insurance. And
(31:58):
then when they're then when they're twenty six, they can
go out and get their own But they're not signing
up for this one hundreds of dollars a month. They
will do something different that's much less expensive.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Your wife's policy, which you are all on, is with
Ku Medical Center. Yeah, I don't know what. Twenty thousand employees,
thirty thousand.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
It's big.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, it's huge. And that's a self funded plan managed
by Kyu. They set the parameters, they manage the plan.
It's not under AC, it's not under Obama. That's right,
that's right. His private health insurance. He is mister Carrey Hall,
America's Healthcare Advocate and national health insurance expert. Visit online
at America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. And coming up next,
(32:36):
we're going to get into medicare as we previously kind
of teased.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Don't go away, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot Com.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living independently
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care and
(33:14):
memory care options. How are you supposed to determine the
best place for you? Hello, I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you and
(33:37):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of family since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred. Nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Senior care
(33:59):
Caning dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care
Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question,
visit Senior Care Live dot com. Now back with my
(34:21):
friend his spasional guest in studio. He is America's healthcare Advocate,
mister Carrie Hall. It's also national health insurance Expert. If
you want more information you want to reach out to Carrie,
go to his website, America's Healthcare advocate dot com. Also
go to YouTube over half a million views of all
of his podcasts. They're super well done. And just go
(34:41):
to YouTube and just do a search on America's healthcare
Advocate Carrie health c A R Y H A L L.
You will find it and you will learn a lot.
I promise you that. So, Carrie, we talked about shifting
gears and just touching on medicare. We're approaching that that
annual election period October every year, October fifteenth December the seventh,
(35:01):
and that's when you have an opportunity to make some changes.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, and there's gonna be a lot of changes this year.
And again I'm gonna urge you, please don't call the
people on the television. Oh no, Joe Naviath doesn't know
up and down about medicare. No, neither does William Devayane
if he's not selling gold coins. Okay, so please don't
call them. What about JJ Dino that's another one, Okay, Yeah,
if you know, if they're above ground and taking nourishment,
(35:24):
they're gonna be doing medicare. Per my gosh, you find
a local broker that is certified to sell medicare that
you have to go through twenty one hours of training
every year to get recertified, plus another six or seven
hours with each carrier you sign up for. So it's
not an easy thing to do. But the agents and
brokers that do this are dedicated to what they do
(35:44):
and they can help you find something makes sense. But
let's talk about Medicare. Overall, by twenty thirty four, Medicare
Hospital Trust Fund won't be able to pay its own bills. Okay,
this is from the This is from the federal government.
This is not this is not the Wall Street Journal, okay,
you know, or or some other publication. This is from
the federal government. That is the projection. Okay, why is
(36:06):
that happening? Well, people are retiring and there are fewer
workers to support the people. In nineteen sixty six, you
had four point six workers for every retiree. Today you
have two point eight. Well we're upside down because of
the ab that's right, almost half the amount of the program.
So security and what's happened. We have more people in
Medicare now than we've ever had in Medicare because the boomers.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Ten thousand, I'm on two, I'm on back in. But yeah,
ten thousand a day retiring.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
So there are two factors. Here's the rest of it. Okay,
you have waste and fraud in medicare, fifty to sixty
billion dollars a year. Okay, fake billing, kickbacks to providers,
hospital over billing, let me give me. In twenty twenty two,
in Florida, a man was convicted of scamming medicare out
of sixty one million dollars. How the hell do you
(36:56):
do that?
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
That's that guy was a really smart guy. Yeah, okay,
he's a crook, but he was a really smart guy.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah. Well he must have got conned because you're reporting it, so.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Obviously he did. You know. The solution to this are
not rocket science. But as as as as Steve said
in the last segment, the politicians don't want to touch it. Okay, yeah,
so it just sits there. Infesters too is too hot
of a potato. But we have to do something.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
And by the way, in thirty four, I mean, god willing,
if I'm still here, I mean I'm going to be
depending on medicare, So will you so?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yeah? So so here here here's an example of you
know what would work to change medicare around if you
it's not rocket science. If you move the eligibility age
to sixty seven or sixty eight, okay, that would make
a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
You know, I think that's reasonable too.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah, and it is reasonable people are living longer. Except
so that would that would save a one hundred and
thirteen billion dollars over ten years, okay, and amount almost
nineteen billion in total savings. Okay, So it's remarkable. Like
I said, the solutions are not rocket science. But somebody
(38:06):
has to be willing, okay to make these things work.
And you also have to open up the marketplace a
little more than what we have Medicare advantage plans. Everybody
was against these, the politicians for the most part, especially
on the Democrats side. I remember debating Senator Claire mccaskell
of Missouri who railed against Medicare advantage because the insurance
(38:27):
comers are going to make a lot of money and
it's not going to work. Well, you got thirty eight
million people on those plans, and if you try to
get them off those plans, they'll be at the door.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah, if they're pitch for us.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yeah right, those plans work and people, but you know,
you're seeing you're seeing carriers pull out of the marketplaces
in some cases because here we go again with trying
to cover the cost provide the benefits. They are strictly regulated,
regulated far more than ACA is by CMS, and so
as a result of that, the carriers don't have much
(38:59):
room to manure, and so the marketplace is not acting
like it should. If the marketplace could act like it should,
like an ACA, for example, if carriers could sell across
state lines the same product, you could drop the costs
like a rock.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
But each state, because your volumes up correct.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
In each state. What winds up happening is they all
have there's different regulations in Kansas to the our misery, and
the carriers have to make all this work in every
one of these places if they want to offer plans.
This is why Edna pulled out of the marketplace on
the ACA. This is why blew Cross, the Cansas City
pulled out of the marketplace on medicare advantage because they
couldn't support the death spiral of the claims. This has
(39:38):
to change because it's not working. So when people say, well,
we need medicare for all, No, actually that's probably the
worst solution you could have.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well, if you say Medicare for all, I mean maybe
that's like, well, yeah, it works, it works for retired people,
why not for everyone? Well that leads me to think
that's like the VA for all. And I've heard way
too many stories that I know you.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Are and I'm in the Agent Orange program, and I
am no, thank you. I'm no fan of the VA.
I appreciate the work of the people over there, that
there are a lot of dedicated people there. But if
you're a vet, you know, you know what typically what
it's like the VA tried to get an appointment, trying
to get a specialist, trying to get a surgery, you know.
(40:22):
And here we go again with politics. So President Trump
puts in place a program where veterans don't have to
wait six months to get an appointment. They go out
and find a local provider. Do it?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Biden comes in off as he counsels the program. Okay,
and forcing everybody back to VA just like ACA. Okay,
just the same thing. Okay, You're being forced into a
program the government wants you in if you're a VET,
whether you want it or not, if you want that coverage,
and what of the best do they sign up? Because
they don't have to pay for it and they get
their prescription drugs and all the rest of it. So
(40:54):
you know, this is what I'm talking about, This kind
of management government management on health and simply isn't working.
And if you want to understand how bad it is,
take a look at Canada, take a look at the UK,
look at these other countries. Look at France, UK cannot
they keep funding and funding and funding their health system
(41:15):
and it's underwater. You have to wait six months to
even see a specialist. Try to get an MRI in Canada.
You know, they have a boat service, a ferry that
goes back and forth in Canada and Buffalo, New York.
You know what, because the largest MII, MEMRII clinics and
x RAC are in New York. Because if they have
to get it in Canada, they're going to wait ninety days,
(41:37):
one hundred and twenty days. Well, if you've got cancer,
you think you want to wait nine days to see
what's going to look for?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Well, heck no, that may be the difference between saving
your life with the surgery or not. And I was
in the hospital and they said, Steve, we found a
mass on your brain, and I had an MRI that
afternoon and in twenty four hours they said, it's not
a tumor, it's assist. We can deal with that. I
had brain surgery successfully and thank god, but I had
(42:02):
an MRI within hours, not six months. Within hours. There's
a difference.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
There's a big difference. Yeah, yeah, there's a big difference.
Changes are coming and they're not all good.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
All right. He is mister Carrie Hall, America's Healthcare Advocate
and national health insurance Expert. Visit him online at America's
Healthcare Advocate dot com. Also look him up on YouTube.
Check out his podcast. They are excellent and Carrie, thanks
for being here today. I always enjoy when I have
you on the show. Let's do this again soon.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
They've had a lot of fun. It's great to be on.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
You bet, you bet, all right. I'm Steve Keeker and
I wish you grace in peace. May God bless you
and your family on this day, and always join me
next week right here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
In our area?
Speaker 4 (42:56):
There are hundreds of thousands of people either receiving or
providing senior care and they need to know about you.
A unique and successful radio program called Senior Care Live
is the perfect opportunity to let your target audience know
about your amazing products and services. Senior Care Live is
currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors, and if
(43:17):
you're aligned with their mission, they want to talk to you.
They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations, physician groups, home
care providers, estate planning and older law practices, financial advisors,
insurance companies, real estate brokers, home health agencies, and other
providers serving the elderly and their caregivers. Senior Care Live
(43:38):
has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities, so call
now at nine one three nine four five twenty eight
hundred nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
or visit seniorcare live dot com seniorcare live dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Quid pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care community
if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:14):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible?
Of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest and without the quid pro quo
(44:38):
called nine one three, nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one three, nine four five twenty eight hundred Replacement
service with integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.