Those Were the Days: When Health Insurance Actually Made Sense

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Before Obamacare, there was a smarter, simpler solution—high-deductible plans paired with health savings accounts. In this nostalgic episode, the host recalls how Markowski Investments once helped clients save thousands through catastrophic coverage that rewarded personal responsibility and smart spending. From Bush-era reforms to the Obamacare overhaul that “blew it all up,” this segment revisits a time when health insurance was about protection, not politics.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Those were the days, yes, back in the day. I'm
not kidding. We here at Markowski Investments, Watchdog on Wallstreet Joses.
Obviously before podcasts, we actually basically provided health insurance plans.
We not just just managed money for our clients. But

(00:37):
there was a period of time started during George W.
Bush administration when Rick Santorum a push forward high deductible
health insurance plans, catastrophic plans coupled with health savings accounts. Again,
was not any sort of profit center for us here

(00:59):
in the un United States by any stretch, But we
did it because it was the right thing to do
for our clients. It saved our clients a fortune, a fortune.
It was the best, in my opinion, domestic policy initiative
during the entire Bush term because again he bailed on

(01:21):
Social Security reform. So yeah, we used to actually go out.
I did countless shows, countless shows explaining it to people
because it was it was a difficult thing to do
because people just got used to paying their health insurance.
And I got my health in and I just got
my copay, and you know, prices were, you know, creeping up.

(01:41):
This was I'm like, this is a thousand times better
you're going to pay. Buy real insurance. You're going to
be a catastrophic insurance in case bad stuff happens. I
would do the routine on the program from Chris Rock
talking about insurance. Insurance is supposed to be something you
buy that you hope you never have to use. You
don't want to use your auto insurance. You most certainly

(02:03):
don't want to use your life insurance because you're dead.
You don't want to use it. The same thing should
hold true for your health insurance. If something bad happens,
well then you have it. If not, what they had
was okay, you had a health savings account, still have
them where you put the money in there and it

(02:24):
would come off your top line like an IRA still does,
and you would utilize that money to pay for those
things incidentals. Over the course, you got a cold, okay,
one of those people, they've got to go to the
doctor every single time you're sick. You know, you'd use
that money all the time. Me I just suck it
up anyway, neither here nor there. This saved my clients

(02:46):
a fortune. Again, it was difficult thing to get people
to understand because they were thinking one way. Well, Bush
on his way out, Obama in the door, we get Obamacare.
He blew the whole thing up. I want to go
back in time to write around that period the average
family health insurance premium in the United States. This is

(03:07):
two thous I'm gonna go back to two thousand and three. Now,
I'll go back to two thousand and one, seven thousand bucks,
two thousand and three, more nine thousand, Now we're at
you know, twenty seven thousand, continually gone up. But the
thing was, even though those periods of time from two
thousand and one all the way up to Obamacare, as

(03:27):
the price went up, the catastrophic plans didn't. This was
the average health insurance premium average. I wanted the entire car.
I wanted employers all across the country to adapt the
high deductible insurance. But again it's difficult to sell because
people don't understand it. They didn't want to deal with it,
they didn't want to have to keep track with all

(03:49):
these things. I'm like, what are you talking about? This
could save your fortune, and I said, this just could
give you a raise. If your employer adapts this, guess what,
they don't have to spend as much on your insurance
for you. They can pay you that money. And certain
employers did. Again, very difficult thing when it comes to money.

(04:09):
People have a very difficult time getting their arms around
things that there is an actual cost, overall cost of
employing someone, and part of that cost is the insurance costs.
If they're offering benefits, that's pay if you think about it.
And now if they can get that down, then they
can actually your take home can actually increase. But again

(04:37):
Obama blew it up. And again we still get the
fools going on TV yelling and screaming, the sky is
going to fall, the world's gonna end. Got to canned
out more Obama Care subsidies, extended subsidies. People are going
to lose their insurance. Now you know that the insurance

(04:59):
companies are going to lose profits. That's basically what's going
to happen. Watchdog on Wall Street dot com