Medicare Expert Reveals Secrets to Choosing the Right Plan

Tune in as our Medicare expert shares essential tips for selecting the right plan for your needs. Discover how to navigate the complexities of Medicare and secure optimal healthcare coverage. This family, friendly guide ensures you make informed decisions.

Christian Brindle is the founder of Everything Senior Insurance and a nationally recognized expert in the field. He has published multiple books about Medicare, helped countless people with their plans all over the country, and hosts the extremely popular "Everything Medicare Podcast!". Christian believes that understanding your choices is extremely important in making a good decision with your Medicare.

SIGNATURE ACOMPLISHMENTS:
✓ Founder of the Everything Senior Insurance
✓ Host of The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast..
✓ Published Author.
✓ Top 1% producer.
✓ Mentor to thousands of agents

CONTACT DETAILS:
Company: Everything Senior Insurance
Website: https://eseniorinsurance.com/
Email: [e-mail]

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@christianbrindle

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (01:42):
Welcome to just mind in my Business, and I'm excited
to bring to you today Christian Brendel, who is the
founder of Everything Seenior Insurance and a nationally recognize expert
in the film Christian has published multiple books about medicare,
help countless people with their plans all over the country,

(02:06):
and hosts the extremely popular Everything Medicare podcast. Christian believes
that understanding your choices is extremely important in making a
good decision with your medicare. He is also a father
and a loving husband. So welcome Christian. I am so

(02:27):
glad that you're here because I remember when I had
to do the Medicare thing and it was like walk
walk walk walk. It's a whole different terminology.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yes, yes, Well, first off, Ida, thank you for having
me on your show. I'm a fan of everything that
you're doing, and it's a pleasure to be here. And
you're you're you're so right.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
You know, you hit it right on the head.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
It is such a you know, differently language of sorts,
you know, when it comes to medicare.

Speaker 5 (03:03):
And all the terminologies they use, and you know, they did.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
They frankly, they just don't make it easy for people
that are becoming eligible for it, and it's extremely complex
and complicated, and I feel like, you know, my organization
does a very necessary service in providing clarity and kind
of translating really what things mean and what people need

(03:26):
to be thinking about when they're making plan selections. Yes.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Absolutely, because if you come from corporate America, it's like
apple and orange juice. Yeah, you know the terminology, and
it's really nobody to help you through it. I mean,
of course you get all of these calls doing enroament
time and it's still it's it's not it's just not explained. Well,

(03:56):
it's not explained. Well, so let's let go ahead and
jump right into it. I think they have what it's
ab CD plan all these lettuce for these different types
of plans. Can you talk about that?

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
So one thing that people typically at first will get
overwhelmed with when they first have to take a look
at medicare is all the different parts. Right, So with
medicare you have parts ab CD and understanding kind of
where all the parts fit is really where a lot

(04:36):
of the confusion ends up lying. But I feel like
what we've done over the years is we've really done
a good job, I feel like, of articulating it in
a way that is extremely easy to understand and digestible.
So if anybody that's listening to this might be approaching
the Medicare decision, or maybe you have a family member

(04:58):
or somebody else, it's a lot simpler when you really
when it's really broken down, then it might sound. It
sounds a lot more intimidating, I feel like than it
really needs to be. So with Medicare, it's true you
have all these different parts, but if everybody understood that
there's two parts of Medicare that come from the government.

(05:19):
You have Medicare Part A and you have Medicare Part B.
And the best way I can explain those from a
ten thousand point view is that they both work like
two pieces of a puzzle that fit together to give
a person medical coverage. They both cover different areas of
medical coverage, but when you put them together, you have
medical coverage. You know, hospital coverage, doctor's appointment surgeries, things

(05:44):
like that, And those are the only parts of Medicare
that come from the government. Everything else you ever hear
about comes from an insurance company, and so Medicare has
a lot of limitations of the coverage if that's all
somebody had, right so, on that medical coverage it gives you,
they give you about eighty percent coverage. They leave behind

(06:04):
twenty percent of medical expenses for the beneficiary to have
to pay, and there's no limit to that. It could
be twenty percent of anything. There's no maximum amount of
pocket or stop loss. In addition to that, Medicare doesn't
cover prescription drugs, dental vision, or hearing. So it's very
one dimensional coverage. And so what my job in my

(06:26):
company's job is when we work with a client, is
on helping them understand that when you get onto the
Medicare path, for the vast majority of people, probably ninety
nine percent, there's two different directions they can go. You
have a Medicare supplement direction and you have a Medicare
advantage direction. And our job is to really help people
understand which way is better for them. But everything you've

(06:50):
ever heard about Medicare related falls into one of those
two camps. And so if you can figure out which
one is better for you, that's ninety percent of the
battle right there. In my opinion, Wow, So what.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Is the difference between advantage and.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
What was the album on Medicare supplement.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, and Medicare is supplement because I've seen that, especially
when in my enrollment period time. So what's the difference.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, So you mentioned earlier, right, like employer plans and
Medicare plans are like apples and oranges. Well, the same
is true in my opinion with Medicare advantage and Medicare
supplement plans. They're very much like apples and oranges. They
are two different options that a Medicare beneficiary has, but
they both have their unique pros and cons to them.

(07:45):
So I'm a big believer that one is not better
than the other. It really depends on the needs of
the client that we're working with. But Medicare supplement, from
a very simplistic viewpoint, is a secondary insurance, right, So
one of I'd say maybe path a that you could go.
Medicare supplement is a secondary insurance. You pick it up

(08:07):
through a private insurance company, So think human at Blue Cross,
United Healthcare somebody like that, and they act as a
secondary to Medicare. So I mentioned earlier, Medicare provides you
with medical coverage, right, But at eighty percent, so the
supplement's job is to simply pay that twenty percent that

(08:27):
Medicare is not picking up. So when you have that,
you're double covered and you have the primary the secondary
between the two. In most cases you have very little,
if any, depending on the plan, medical out of pocket,
so you either have full medical coverage or close to
full medical coverage. I would say it's the best of

(08:48):
the best medical coverage that money can buy. But when
you pick up a Medicare supplement plan, it doesn't come
with prescription drug coverage, it doesn't come with dental. It
will only pay for things that Medicare is already paid
for first. So when you do that, you have to
pick up a separate prescription drug plan, a standalone. You
have to pick up a separate dental plan, a stand alone.

(09:10):
So when you go that way, you're having to pick
up three or more different plans to kind of complete
your coverage, and it's a little more confusing I think
for the average person that's used to one plan that
provides everything. The Medicare supplement plan, depending on where somebody's
at in the country, varies in cost. It a lot
of times will probably be between one hundred and two

(09:32):
hundred dollars a month depending on your state, so it's
a little bit more costly. The prescription plan usually costs something,
the dental plan usually costs something, so it could be
in some cases that you know, above and beyond anything
you pay for Medicare, which Medicare for most people has
a premium for Medicare Part B.

Speaker 5 (09:52):
It's usually one eighty five.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
So factoring Part B in and all your other plans,
you're probably looking and that somewhere between three to four
hundred dollars a month depending on your state for everything,
and you go that way. So it's a more expensive option,
but it's also the premium coverage. The pros of a
Medicare supplement to me are great medical coverage, you have
very little medical out of pocket, You don't have any

(10:17):
provider network like most insurances. You can go any provider
you want in the country, not just in your state
that accepts Medicare first nowadays ninety eight percent of providers
and medical providers except Medicare. Doesn't matter who your supplements through,
and so those are probably the pros of that. The
negative side of it is it's complex. You're dealing with

(10:39):
multiple plans. It's a little confusing that, you know, especially
for people that have had traditional insurance throughout their life,
and Medicare supplement plans go up in price as you
get older. They all do it. There's really no way
around it. So it's continuously getting more expensive, and changing
that plan from one to another later might be a
little difficult because you have to go through health questionnaires

(11:03):
to change your plan.

Speaker 5 (11:04):
You have to be.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Medically healthy enough to change, can't just change.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
Whenever you want.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
So that's your Medicare supplement side, whereas the advantage side
is different. Right, you're running your Medicare through an insurance company.
They're administering your benefits for the government. The government funds
them because they don't have to pay that eighty percent anymore.
Right on your medical bills, and you have a plan

(11:31):
that provides you with medical prescriptions, dental vision, hearing, all
in one plan very similarly to any work insurance you've had,
or any insurance you've had under sixty five. And it's
like your traditional insurance you can expect right, it has
networks of hospitals and doctors. You have to stay in
the network. The insurance company might have prior authorizations and

(11:53):
additional requirements to approve things. But most of the time
Medicare advantage plans either have a very low premium because
they're funded by the government, or they might have a
zero dollar premium altogether. Most areas will have a lot
of zero dollar premium options. So in that case, you're
paying the one to eighty five for Medicare Part B
and in some cases that's all. You're not paying anything

(12:13):
more than that. And I'd say the pros and cons
of advantage. The pro is it's much less expensive premium wise,
everything's in one plan. The negatives are you're restricted to
a network, you have to go through the insurance company
for everything, and also you do have more medical copays

(12:34):
that can be associated when you do use it right,
whereas with Medicare supplements you might not have that as much.
So there's more potential out of pocket for you to
be responsible for when you do use it. So that's
kind of the extremely simplistic viewpoint of the two options,
and they're just different. It depends on somebody's medical history,

(12:55):
their usage, what they prefer, what they like their plan
to look like, and also kind of what their budget
isn't what they can afford to spend on their plan.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, well, I'm glad you explained that so simple.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
I try it.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
I mean, because I have advantage because I'm like, I
need one payment, not all these other little buckets, but
from what from I'm with Etna, So they pretty much
covered quite a bit. And my husband was was I
had a terminal illness, and they they took care of

(13:30):
him really really well, you know in terms of you know,
extra things that we could do, you know, therapies and
things like that. So I was pretty satisfied with them.
But you know, the big questions that everybody want to
know is with the current administration, with all of the

(13:53):
changes coming down the pike. I know, you can't foresee
the future, but what's your fault?

Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah, no, it's it's a great question. And there's some
there's been some things that have already happened this year.
They can kind of give us a little bit of
a forecast of what we're going to see going forward. So,
you know, one thing I've learned over the years, I've
been doing this eleven years. This is my eleventh year
in the medicare space. I have gone through multiple different administrations.

(14:23):
You know, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, the Biden administration,
now the Trump administration again. And every every time there's
a change of power in the administrations, there's always fear
of them coming in and getting rid of Medicare, weakening Medicare,

(14:45):
and there's a lot of things that that can be
done administratively that impact Medicare. Some people know this, but
a lot don't. A big reason why the administration matters
so much when in terms of Medicare is they appoint
a position the President does in a position of the

(15:06):
CMS Administrator, and so that CMS administrator some people may
know because it's a very big name, is doctor Oz,
doctor memed Oz, and so he's been in that position
a couple of months now, give or take.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
And what we've.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
Seen so far on a very early basis from CMS
CMS for those of you that don't know the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services right, they oversee Medicare, Medicare
Advantage what the plans will look like. So for Advantage
plan members, one thing a lot of people may notice
if you're on Medicare and you're listening to this is

(15:44):
from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five, we saw
plans improve in some ways and we can in others.
And I'll explain what I mean by that in a
way that we probably haven't seen any in any year
that I've been doing this. Right, My company's licensed in
over forty five states. We work with people across the board,

(16:04):
so we see things kind of from a broad perspective.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
And one thing they introduced.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
In twenty twenty five was a two thousand dollars prescription
drug maximumount of pocket cap. This was legislation that was
passed by the Biden administration, but really passed through Congress.
There was more hands in it than just the Biden administration.
And this had to do with the Inflation Reduction Act.
And there's a lot in the Inflation Reduction Act about

(16:33):
prescription costs, but also Medicare prescription drug coverage. And previously
one of the big knocks on Medicare.

Speaker 5 (16:40):
Coverage was prescription coverage.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
You know, Medicare plans had something called the donut hole
where when you're you know, your utilization was too high
on prescription coverage, your cost would go up. You'd pay
a higher percentage than you wore the rest of the year, right,
And that was always a bit not knock on Medicare
prescription drug coverage. And for many years, basically from two

(17:04):
thousand and five to when Part D wasn't implemented, up
until really the last year or so, there has never
been a maximum out of pocket limit on prescription costs.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
It could be anything.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
So I would see clients that were paying, even on
the best plan, impossible, sometimes five to ten thousand dollars
in medication costs a year.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
And there were certain.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Things you could do right, you could maybe potentially order
prescriptions from Canada or you know, Canadian pharmacies.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
There's things you could do.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
You could, you know, kind of work with the Mart
Pharmaceutical company on assistance programs and things like that, but
there was limits to what you could do. So come
fast forward to now. Because of the Inflation Reduction Act,
starting January first of twenty twenty five, all plans were
required by law to have this two thousand dollars cap,

(17:57):
meaning the member cannot be responsible for they're out of
pocket of anything more than two thousand dollars in a
year on prescription costs. This saved a lot of people
that were paying a lot of medication costs a ton
of money on prescriptions, which is a positive. The negative
of that is the insurance companies had to start paying
a lot more than they've ever had to pay before.

(18:20):
So advantage blends are made up of a whole bunch
of different benefits, right as you've experienced with your plan.
And it's a makeup of medical coverage. It's a makeup
of networks and who you can go to the doctor,
who you can go to the hospital. It's a makeup
of dental benefits. It's a makeup of glasses benefits, hearing

(18:40):
aide benefits, gym membership programs, over the counter items where
you can order things that aren't prescriptions, but things like aspirin, ivyprofen,
fish oil, band aids, vitamins, toothpaste, all of this stuff.
It's a makeup of all of this in each plan,
and so of a vast majority of the plans in

(19:03):
the country, because they now in January had to pay
a lot more towards prescription drug costs than they did before.
We saw a vast, vast, vast majority of plans in
the country make cuts in other areas of their coverage.
It's a domino effect, right, one thing gets strengthened, something

(19:23):
else gets weakened. Right, There's there's funding polled from a
certain area, and every company and every plan decided differently
how they were going to do that.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
Some plans might.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Cut their dental benefit down. Some plans might have reduced
their provider network and cut ties with some hospitals. Some
plans might have increased their medical copase or their hospital copays.
So the effects were seen differently depending on the plan
and depending on the area. But it was seen in
the vast majority of plans.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
Okay, so what so what does that have to do
with going forward? Right? That's what we're seeing this year.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
To answer your question, there's a lot of optimism that
Medicare beneficiaries have had that maybe some of these benefits
might strengthen back up again while still having the prescription coverage. Now,
Medicare Advantage plans are all based off of funding they
get from the government. If the funding isn't there, it can't,

(20:23):
It is impossible.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Right.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
The last two years before this, CMS always builds in
something that's known as a cost of inflation and medical
care increase for plans. Each year, it's a percentage based
off of inflation and rising cost of medical care to
cover their bases and to make sure the carrier can

(20:46):
still afford to provide the care. The last two years,
it was in the two percent range of increase, which
in you know, probably just covered them for inflation if
that didn't provide a whole lot of wiggle room for
extra coverage and extra benefits. But come twenty twenty six,

(21:06):
one thing CMS has already announced is that they're going
up to over five percent increase for the insurance companies,
partially because they see what's happened in terms of the
domino effect of these cuts that have been made in
twenty twenty five, so that will range. I think the
number officially was an additional like twenty five billion dollars
in funding for the insurance companies. What I think that

(21:29):
will cause is maybe slowly but surely, we start to
see some of these benefits start to strengthen again on
certain plans that have the budget to bring some of
those plans back. So for me, I think more funding
means that they believe in the program and that they're
optimistic going forward, and so I'm I'm very optimistic about

(21:52):
what we'll see in twenty twenty six. I do think
the inflation Reduction Act changes fundamentally change the way that
Medicare prescription drug coverage worked, and it had been that model,
that old model for fifty for almost for basically almost
twenty years. And so it will take a couple of

(22:13):
cycles and a couple of open enrollments before we kind
of get the smoke clearing on what plans structure will
actually look like long term. But I'm optimistic about what
we're seeing going forward.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
I think the.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Plans are the future for Medicare, and I think they're
strengthening every year. And Medicare advantage market share is almost
at sixty percent of people that are on Medicare, Medicare
supplement market share is only about twenty two to twenty
three percent, and the rest are people on employer plans and.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
Retirement plans things like that.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
So I think for people that are on Medicare advantage plans,
more funding means potentially more benefits for you in a
shortened layman's terms version.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Okay, well that's a p positive zone outlook for sure. Wow.
Christian Young mean, you definitely know your stuff, so if
people want to work with you because you know, the
baby boom winners are definitely entering the retirement arena. So
how do people connect with you?

Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah, so my company, as I mentioned earlier, were licensed
in over forty five states, and we have multiple agents
in our office that are fantastic or everybody as good
as me. And we have a very great support team
customer service team. Not only do we help you find
a plan, but we take care of you when you're
on the plan and service your policy long term. I

(23:35):
like to say we have lifetime customer.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Service for our clients.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
And so the best way to get a hold of
us is you can either check out our website e
Seniorinsurance dot com, or you're welcome to give us a
call at our home to office number is eight zero
one two five five five three four zero. That's eight
zero one two five five five three four zero, and

(24:00):
we can get we can get no cost, no obligation
consultations scheduled with one of our our licensed team members
and take a look at your situation and kind of
see what we might recommend.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
I definitely needed you earlier this year because it seems
like they call, Yeah this is do an enrollment period.
You get this flux of calls, but nobody really shows
up until after the fact and it's like, well, I
already did it. Where were you when I needed you?

Speaker 4 (24:37):
Right? Yeah, it's it's a real problem. It's a real problem.
And you know, in my world, in the insurance agent world,
there's a very high turnover rate of people that do this.
Only about five percent or so of people that do
this that get their license are doing it three years after.
That's a real statistic. There's a ninety five percent turnover rate.

(24:59):
So a lot of the people that you're talking to
have not been doing it very long. They're not very seasoned.
Not all the information is created equal. Not everybody's as
knowledgeable as you might want them to be when they're
advising you on your your healthcare decisions. And so it's
it's tough, it's tricky. We try to do our best
to put ourselves out there and make people aware of

(25:19):
what we do and you know, and everything like that.
But there's so many people getting onto medicare we we'd
love to be able to help them all, but it's
it's hard. It's hard, tens of millions of people.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
You know, Yeah, because I could have I definitely believe
that ninety five percent, because I haven't had the same
person no time. Yeah, like it's always a different person.
And I'm kind of like, unless I feel comfortable with you,
I like the same I like to work with the
same people. But it's sure almost impossible in the industry

(25:56):
for sure. Wow, this is amazing.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
It's become very call center dominated too. Like one thing
I like about our organization, Like with call centers, they're
meat grinders. You know, they'll bring people in as fast
as they're leaving, and so you just have that crazy
turnover with whoever your account manager is, whoever's representing you.
What I love about my company is even though we

(26:21):
do a lot of business telephonically, because you know, we're
in Utah, we're not going to physically be with somebody
that's in Texas, say, or Florida or Idaho or whatever
that might be.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
But we're not a call center.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
We are a brick and mortar office, you know, we
are a real you know office.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
And even though we.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Are nationwide, we have a tight knit team, you know,
internally here in the office, we have a team of
about ten to fifteen, you know, And so it's are
you're usually dealing with the same person, if not just
maybe one of two or three different people you know,
every time, and you're not dealing with a new personal
all the time.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
And we pride ourselves on that.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay, well that's good to know because people like to
especially seniors, you know, we like to work with people
that we get used to and then we don't feel
like Marnin no need folks, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yes, I definitely do. I definitely do, and you know,
I think it's understandable, you know, and nowadays it's become
rare that you feel a personal touch when you do
business with anybody. It's just become a rare thing. And
so you know, we we understand that you don't get

(27:40):
it in most areas of your life, but we want
you to get it when you when you deal with us.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
That's awesome. So again, how do people connect with you?

Speaker 5 (27:49):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (27:49):
So, uh, they're probably the two best ways is you
can either visit our website that's e Seniorinsurance dot com
and you can check out some information there. You can
find contact information for us there, or you're welcome to
just give our office a call if you'd so like
to do so at eight zero one two five five
five three four zero eight zero one two five, five, five,

(28:12):
three four zero. Those would be the best ways.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
So let's talk jump into your podcast a little bit.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
Sure, so I think.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's host of the seventh Bigges.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Or you have two yes.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
So we have an agent facing podcast and then we
have a Medicare consumer podcast. So one thing that we
also do with our organization is we mentor and train
other agents around the country and kind of help them
duplicate the success that we've had and how we work
with our customers and clients and how they can do
the same thing in where they're located. So the other

(28:51):
thing that's nice is if let's say you're in a
state and you want to work with somebody locally to you.
It won't be the case every time, but we might
have an agent that we partner with that works with
our organization in your area that we can hook you
up with if you'd rather work with somebody in person
than over the phone. So there's about six hundred agents

(29:13):
that we work with in that capacity across the country.
And so that podcast is kind of going over just
things we're doing internally, marketing, things we're doing, you know,
retention things that we're doing, how we get information out,
how we stay organized, how we hire people, just kind
of helping them have the tools to really put their

(29:34):
business together in the right way. And then the Everything
Medicare podcasts. Excuse me, it's hard to believe, but we
just got to, I believe, the eight year mark of
that podcast, and it's it's been. It's definitely it's the
first podcast that I ever did, and it's all about

(29:58):
understanding your Medicare options. And if you kind of liked
what you heard on this show today, there's a lot
of that same type of talk and education on it.
It's all about just understanding what does Medicare cover, what's
the pros and cons of different plans? And it does
and it and it goes deeper into the weeds and
a lot of these things. And when I first started

(30:20):
putting it together, you know, our company was office was
much smaller as well at the time, and you know,
I remember thinking to myself, I'm like, nobody's going to
listen to this, nobody, And I'm like podcast about Medicare, Like,
you know, might as well listen to a podcast about
watching paint dry, you know, and the bubbles and you know,

(30:42):
the you know whatever. But to my surprise, people did
listen to it. Not only did they listen to what
they loved it, and so we did been doing it
for eight years and to this day it is still
We actually had somebody call in yesterday, I want to say,
and they asked chat GPT, what are the best medicare podcasts?

(31:06):
It recommended ours, and that's how they heard about us,
and they called in to our office.

Speaker 5 (31:11):
And that to me, I was like, Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
But yeah, the Everything Medicare podcast. You can find it
on any podcast platform that you might want to listen.
Apple Podcasts, certainly, Google podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, It's all.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
Over the place.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
It's on like twenty different websites and platforms. So yeah,
I'm you know, we're getting close to a decade of
doing it and it's been so much fun to do.
And I hear from people all the time that the
podcast really helped them take a lot of confusion out
of making those decisions, and I love to hear that.
That's always a lot of fun for me to hear.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yes, absolutely, because that's a scary time for a lot
of people, you know, making that transition from corporate insurance
to quote unquote government and showing so sure I mean
to me, the government always say to make it more
harder than it needs to be agreed, they have burbage

(32:12):
is not use it friendly. It's like what the heck am.

Speaker 5 (32:17):
I talking about? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yep, And and it's true, you know, like the government
is is great at what I call taking something and
communicating it in gobbly goop. Yes, So even if you
know the concepts that I've shared on this show today,
we're broken down in English. Hopefully that's always my intention anyway.

(32:45):
But they can communicate the exact same things in Medicare
booklets and Medicare's website and everything like that, and it's
communicated in a way to where it almost seems like
a different language. And that is the government for you, though.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
That is how they.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
Communicate things, and it's over complicated, and a lot of
times it's passed through multiple layers of lawyers and attorneys
to make sure they're covering bases and wording things correctly,
and oftentimes it just leads to confuse more than anything else.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yes, yes, and people shouldn't be confused when it comes
to information to meet information should be crystal clear a
two year old configure though, Yes, because you're dealing with
people at different levels, you know, I mean, keep it

(33:33):
simple people, does it keep it simple? Keep it stupid?

Speaker 5 (33:36):
Yep, yep, kiss right, kiss.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yes, yes, that's right. That's back in the day. Talk Well, Kristine,
we have got to do this again because this is
really really have been very, very informative. I wish I
had known you when I was first getting star because

(34:01):
it was a nightmare, you know, dealing with the process,
even though it was somebody to help me. But like
you say, I don't think they were as seasoned as
somebody that probably really have been around a while and
things like that. Yeah, so it was a bit crazy.

(34:24):
But tell me quickly about your book. I see you're
published author.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Yes, yeah, there are several books that I've put out now,
you know, there's some that I've put out for agents,
you know, so we almost have like two sides of
our company now, books where I'll mentor agents and kind
of teach them really how to do things the right way,
you know, for their clients, because it is a for
if it's confusing for people on medicare, it's also extremely

(34:54):
confusing and overwhelming for agents when they first start doing it,
you know, and they they just don't want to make
a mistake or mess up somebody's coverage, and so there's
a lot of fear and anxiety with that. And so
there's some books I put out for agents, But on
the Medicare side of things, there's a couple of books
I put out about Medicare. One in particular, I believe

(35:16):
it's called Medicare Guidance, Picking the Plan for You. It's
I published it almost ten years ago. We've updated it
multiple times over the years to be more current versions of.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
It because as things have changed.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
But it's it's a very short, easy read. It's designed
to take you through, step by step what you need
to know about Medicare, kind of like we've done on
this show today. Right there, it'll walk you through original Medicare,
it'll walk you through Medicare supplement plans and what you
should look for, and it should walk you through Medicare
advantage plans and what you should look for. And that

(35:52):
book it's kind of amazing to me. It has sold
over five thousand copies on Amazon. It's been very pops
and so that that's the first book I ever put out,
and we've updated it a lot over the years and
it's one I'm it's probably the one I'm the most
proud of because I think it's impacted the most people.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Yes, yeah, So how do people get the book?

Speaker 5 (36:14):
They could just go on Amazon. That's probably going to
be the easiest way.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
You can either type in my name, Christian Brindle, or
you can type in Medicare Guidance Christian Brindle or Medicare Guidance.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
It should pop right up.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
It's a red and blue book with a Medicare card
on it. It's very very hard to miss.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Alrighty, Christian, thank you so much for this wealth of
information you just shared. Audience. I know you it's going
to really if you wasn't. If you're listening to this,
please reach out to Christian if you have any questions.
Although he explained this very very well, but you know,

(36:55):
when you're going through it, questions always come up.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Of course.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Thank you so much, Christian, and thank you audience for
tuning in. Appreciate you, Thank.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
You for having me. Ida is a pleasure and I'm
happy to do it anytime.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Absolutely, thank you. Thank you to our guests and you
our values audience.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Let's stop you by. We truly appreciate you. Many Blessings
to you and yours