WEBVTT - The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:13.600 And broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:15.560 George Washington Broadcast Center. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.200 Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:25.680 I'm strong, and and he I'm strong and Getty strong. 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.760 Stop and think overall about the social contract? 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:39.519 Can part of the. 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.760 Deal and how we've kept this this democracy's economy of 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.760 this country on a fairly steady path for more than 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.840 two hundred years has been that those at the top. 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.240 Pay a little more in taxes, are a little. 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.960 Less rich than they otherwise might be, and everybody else 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.880 at least gets chanced. And what happened when you turn 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:05.200 this into the billionaires run at all is they get 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.600 the opportunity to squeeze every last penny. Yeah, and look, 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.119 we'll say it over and over. Violence is never the answer. 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.040 This guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.080 of United Health. But you can only push people so 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.160 far and then they start to take Matterson. It's their 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:22.759 own hands. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:27.000 Yeah, none, no, no, no, no, no no no no 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:28.679 no no, I'm. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.600 Just doing the tomahawk chunk. How in the world does 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.880 she keep getting elected? Elizabeth Warren? So let's talk about 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.160 the murder of the healthcare CEO of the reaction to 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.640 us in all matters healthcare with Craig Gottwalls, Craig the 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.360 healthcare guru, attorney, law benefit consultant, Benefit or Revolution and 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.160 good longtime friend of the Ang Show. Craig, how are you, sir? 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.560 I'm great, gentlemen, Thank you much for having me on. 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.440 First of all, Joe and I went with humor around 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.320 the fact that she's a pretend Indian and glossed over 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:01.520 how outrageous that is what she just said. So much 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.440 wrong with that at every level anyway. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.120 Now, Craig, is you as a person who has emerged 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.919 in the world of benefits and health care and insurance 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.200 and that sort of thing, and a person of good conscience, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.160 et cetera, and a student of the media. What have 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:21.560 what's your reaction been to the murder and the ensuing discussion. 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:23.400 I know you've probably got a million things to say. 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.760 Yeah, I think the oversimplified reaction I would give is, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.320 you know, just the assumption that, like I just don't 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.119 even engage in the whole concept and the idea of 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.880 you know, it's appropriate to slaughter people in the streets 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.480 one individual because you don't like what a whole industry 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:45.840 is doing. I mean, obviously it's the most insane, ridiculous, murderous, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.640 horrific way you would ever address any issue. And so, 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.640 of course, I think I think, guys, I think a 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.400 lot of what you're seeing out there is sort of 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.120 like you've said in the past, you know, like you're 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.760 frustrated at something, you're angry at something, and part of 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.720 humor is the dark sort of stuff that you're not 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:03.680 willing to say out loud. And I think a lot 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:05.800 of what we're seeing online is probably that, you know, 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.799 just the irreverent attempts at humor. But I mean, obviously 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.520 this isn't the way to address the matter. I mean, 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.600 we've created this government corporate alliance in healthcare that is 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.840 just bullied the American people for really for sixty years, 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.480 but most intensely for thirty years, and so you just 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.640 have tremendous frustration out there, and a lot of people 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.040 just don't even really understand where they should channel their frustration. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.840 So a lot of the frustration channeling, if you will, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.040 is falling along party lines, like everything else in our world. 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.360 So some people blame the government, some people blame private 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:40.520 equity and large corporations, and I'm here to tell you 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.160 there's plenty of blame to go around. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.080 Yeah. The one thing that's frustrated is frustrated me. And 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.240 maybe you've heard us hammer on it, is that all 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.760 these people who howling about the greed of the healthcare companies, 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.240 the insurance companies and all, they never mentioned the unholy 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:59.080 nexus with governments and how Obamacare in particular just utterly 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.160 perverted the industry. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.480 Yes, it's funny you bring that up. I was thinking 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.400 of you know that the book that is cited. You know, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.560 he had words written on the bullets, and a lot 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.400 of people jumped on the book Delay Defend, excuse me, Delay, Deny, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.440 Defend by Jay Seinman was the book. That book was 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:20.000 written in twenty ten. So the reality is there, if 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:24.000 there ever was a time when large insurance companies were 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:30.279 financially economically motivated to deny claims systematically, that may have 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.040 existed prior to twenty ten. Now there's a whole other 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.720 economic argument that it's bad for the insurance industry if 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.960 claims don't grow. They want claims to grow because that's 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.960 how they charge more premium. But set that aside. If 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.039 you accept the fact that, okay, before twenty ten, they 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.000 wanted to deny claims right to keep more money. That 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.599 all changed with Obamacare because, as a reminder for your listeners, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.120 Obamacare coming in the law in March of twenty ten, 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.760 specifically said okay, now there's price controls. Now an insurance 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.719 company may only keep fifteen percent more than claims. So 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:04.200 what that means is when you add up all the 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.320 medical claims in a given year, the insurance company is 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.599 allowed to keep fifteen percent of that for its profit 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:13.799 and overhead. So everything flipped with Obamacare. The whole incentive 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.360 to keep costs down went away, and insurance companies very 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.000 quickly realized in twenty ten, oh my god, we need 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.040 claims to grow because that's the only way we can 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.240 charge more premium. So it's funny that a lot of 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.520 this is like you guys talk about when you hear 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.240 the mainstream media talk about radio, it's way more wrong 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.480 than it's right. Well, that's what's going on here is 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.159 everybody's talking about this book that was written in twenty 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.479 ten that spoke about a landscape that just doesn't even 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:39.240 exist anymore. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:40.360 Well, that's interesting. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.039 And then in his manifesto he talked about how we 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.320 have the worst life expectancy of any first world country 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.680 or whatever. And then I heard that broken down yesterday 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:55.240 on how there's a number of reasons why that's inaccurate. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.240 We count a life expectancy different than a lot of 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:03.320 people that put out their data or around childhood deaths 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.040 in the first year. We also are the only country 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.800 on the list where people drive a lot, and we 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.720 have a lot of deaths from automobiles, and then we 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.400 have a certain segment of society that's constantly shooting each other. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.839 If you take all those out, our life expectancy is. 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.200 Pretty good, and it's got nothing to do None of 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.240 those things have anything to do with health insurance. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.000 No, you're exactly right, Jack, and deathly sentinel has nothing 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.200 to do with the level of my deductibles, right, yeah, yeah, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:31.279 go ahead, Craig. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.440 Yeah, no, no, no, I was just going to say, and 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.200 then if there is I would just say, you know, 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.880 being inside of the healthcare industry and understanding all of 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.799 the various land mines in this world, if there's one 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.000 thing we have gotten incredibly good at as a society, 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.320 it's keeping people along who have acute conditions gunshot wounds, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.240 you know, heart attack, putting, stents in addressing strokes right away, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.560 or our healthcare system is amazing at addressing acute issues, 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.880 we're horrible at addressing chronic conditions. 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.440 Yeah, yeah, well I'd like to hear more about that. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.080 Maybe next segment. Can you give folks a three to 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.360 four minute whatever you think is appropriate little primer for 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:13.240 people are not hip to this, the relationship between government 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.320 paid healthcare services and what they paid doctors and hospitals 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.240 and stuff, and those of us with private insurance, and 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:22.520 how Congress has handled the whole thing. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:25.800 Yeah, so this this started all the way back in 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.480 the late nineties. It started It started with Clinton. Bush 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.360 could kick the can down the road. Obama kicked the 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.040 can down the road. Every president's guilty of this issue. 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.960 But what happened starting in the nineties was medical inflation, 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.160 like true inflation, what hospitals and doctors needed to treat 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.160 you was going up faster than Medicare and Medicaid, which 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.120 is you know, when we talk about government healthcare, it's 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.640 overwhelmingly Medicare and Medicaid. Inflation was going up faster than 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.760 Medicare and Medicaid could handle. So one of the ways 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.640 that the government we're talking Congress, right, we're talking our legislature. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.600 One of the ways they would pass these massive boondog 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.080 a law was to say, well, you know, the huge 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.160 part of our budget that's killing us as Medicare and Medicaid. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.080 So what they would say is, well, we're going to 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.760 start reducing what we pay on Medicare and Medicaid. We're 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.400 gonna we're going to you know, reduce the increase or 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.360 have no increase at all from Medicare and Medicaid, and 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.560 that's how we're going to fund whatever pet project we're 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.360 trying to fund in our district. And that started occurring 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.960 in the nineties and it just kept getting kicked down 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.520 the road all the way along to the point where 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.880 Medicare and Medicaid payments have not kept up with true 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:35.360 medical inflation. So what happens then is employer plans, what 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.440 we call corporate plans. If for the roughly the third 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.120 of us who are getting our healthcare at work, we 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.840 have to pay many times three, four, five, six times 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.640 what Medicare would pay for a certain claim to make 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.880 up for the fact that the large hospital chains want 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.439 a larger reimbursement for those medical claims. So there's been 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.280 this insidious cost shift, the wink in a nod between 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:02.240 Wall Street and K Street, the lobbyists, and of course 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.480 Congress that has said, look, we'll keep the Medicare reimbursements 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.520 artificially low at like one percent increase per year, and 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.079 then that gives you the green light insurance industry to 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.560 go ahead and charge seven, eight, nine, ten percent more 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.240 every year to the private marketplace to pay for this 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.240 health care, to the point now where you just have 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:23.160 this ridiculous, absurd situation where employers are paying three to 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.680 six times what they should be for healthcare because Medicare 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.600 didn't keep up with the actual cost increases. 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.920 And then Congress found a way to compel doctors and 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.280 hospitals to see Medicare and Medicaid patients even though they 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.520 were getting grossly underpaid for their services. 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.679 Well compels. There's still there's no compel there. You can 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.360 still actually find individual doctors that won't take Medicare and Medicaid. 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.640 But it's still incredibly rare because there's this well A, 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:53.800 it's the largest customer, the federal government is now the 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.920 largest customer of every healthcare system. So I'm not sure 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:57.880 there is a hospital out there that doesn't take Medicare 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.719 and Medicaid. There are individual doctors that don't, but it's 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.280 there's a there's a you can't live on the one 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.400 third that are paying private rates. You still have to 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:07.800 take that Medicare amount. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.280 That number that you just hit us with only a 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.439 third of us or having the like traditional kind of 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.280 we got our insurance through our company at work, only 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:16.720 a third of. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.800 Us, Well I should, yeah, I should be more specific 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.839 with that, Jackets. It's probably closer to forty percent. I'm 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.520 falling back on the statistic that we've talked about on 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:30.040 your show before, and that's the seventy percent of healthcare 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.320 is now paid for by the taxpayers. Because when you 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.400 when you add up Medicare and Medicaid VA, you know 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.520 all of the community care programs, and then you even 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.120 add up all of the federal and state workers, taxpayers 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.200 pay about seventy percent. So about thirty percent of healthcare 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.760 is paid for by private individuals, but probably more like 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.880 forty percent are actually getting their healthcare at work. But 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:52.840 you know, some of us work for cities and states 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.640 and governments, et cetera. It's always way more complicated than 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:55.880 you hear. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.920 Of course, of course, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:01.920 One of the things one of the things we hit on. Hold, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:03.120 I want to hit this Joe real quick, if you 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.960 don't mind, go ahead. Mentioned recently that we talked about 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.400 was in this and I pulled the stat because I 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:10.560 knew it blew your mind when we spoke about it privately. 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.000 It's about one hundred million Americans. Roughly thirty percent of 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.960 us are on a self funded health care plan, meaning 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.800 the person paying the claims behind the scene is your employer, 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.440 not the insurance company. They might be using United Healthcare 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:29.360 as an example to administer the claims, to actually process 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.160 the stuff, but the claims themselves. For roughly one third 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.600 of Americans, thirty percent is actually paid for by your employer. 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:37.160 Nobody knows. 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:38.240 I don't understand that. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.400 I didn't know that till you told me, right right. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:43.200 People don't understand it at all. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.760 So you did turned down it. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.640 Oftentimes it's your company that you work for hiding behind 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.040 with a healthcare company. 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:51.440 Exactly right. 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.160 And then how do you know, Well, if you work 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.559 for an employer that has more than one thousand employees, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.920 you're almost certainly on a self funded health plan. Because 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.000 people don't sure groups that large. Now, if you have 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.360 an employer that's between five hundred and one thousand employees, 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.079 it's probably fifty to fifty that you're on a self 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.400 funded health plan. When work for a small employer, it 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:10.920 is the insurance company. Anything under like two fifty, for sure, 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:12.560 it's the insurance company almost always. 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:13.960 You know, I'd love to. 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:15.839 Chat a little bit about solutions. Can we take a 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.679 quick break and come back and chat a little more? Craig, Absolutely, Yeah. 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.000 I got one more question too, man, Why has it 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:27.920 got to be so complicated? Or maybe being complicated is 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:28.360 the point? 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.880 Stay tuned the Armstrong and Getty show, yea or Jack 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:40.080 or Joe podcasts and our hot links, the Jack Armstrong 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:44.880 and Joe Getty, the Armstrong and Getty show les. 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.000 You know what's annoying me about this this kid who 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.000 killed this CEO is none of these news programs are 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.880 talking about the incredible lack of empathy from the general 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:06.760 public about this because of how these insurance companies treat 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.280 people when they are their most vulnerable. After we've all 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.360 given them our money every month and now we finally 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:15.559 need you, and all you do is deny us, and 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.319 then these and all of these things are taking the 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.120 pictures of their CEOs off their websites. You know, I 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.800 got to be honest with you, Okay, I love that 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.199 the CEOs are afraid right now. 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:28.120 You should be. 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.520 By and large, You're all a bunch of selfish, greedy pieces, 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.079 and a lot of you are mass murderers. 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:42.040 You just don't pull the trigger. Wow, that is that's 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.160 Bill Burr, the comedian. That's some French Revolution stuff right there. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.959 I mean, that is society completely coming apart. And I 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:50.880 don't want to get too off track on that, but 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:55.839 because of our healthcare guest we have here, expert Craig Gottwols, 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:57.480 I wanted to throw this out. I assume a lot 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.480 of people like Bill Burr and the people who are 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:04.040 cheering the death of the United Healthcare CEO are people 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.600 who want government healthcare. They want a complete government takeover 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.400 of health care and somehow believe that you won't have 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.760 any deny or delay if the government is running healthcare. 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.080 What's the history of government healthcare around the world. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.960 Well, as we've talked on your show before many times, 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.160 it's horrific, right, I mean, there's a reason why you know, 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.080 Canadians come here in droves when they have serious issues 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.760 because they can actually get care if they have money. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.040 Here you know, there's a free market. Well there's at 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.720 least the semblances of for free market and healthcare still 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.880 here in America. So you have rationing of health care 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.520 across the globe. Because anytime that you say, well, this 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.520 should be a human right now, there can be no 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:45.880 human right where I am dependent upon the labor of another. 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.720 That's not a thing right. So all healthcare has to 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.880 be rationed. It's either rationed by a waiting list Canada 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.280 or UK, or it's rationed by money. I mean, that's 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.440 just the reality of it all. What I would say, 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.480 the misplaced anger out there, it shouldn't be at the 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.120 specific insurers or whatever. It's the iron law bureaucracy at 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.400 play here, gentlemen. I mean, you have just the larger 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.280 these bureaucracies grow, whether they're public or private, they get 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:18.040 less personal and they become more dedicated to only fostering 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.840 their own survival. And that's exactly what we're seeing here 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.600 in healthcare. We're seeing the iron law bureaucracy at the 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.880 government level, the insurer level, and then of course them 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.040 working together to enrich themselves as much as they possibly can. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.400 It's horrific. But you don't fix that by randomly slaughtering 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:35.400 somebody in the streets. I mean, it's just insane. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.480 Can you do sixty seconds on what would be first 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.200 steps to improve it? If you are going to advise Trump, say. 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.600 Yeah, as you just mentioned before, I made a housing 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.720 difference in my career. My career is now housed somewhere 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.920 else as of March of this year, and I'm now 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.000 free to say even more than I did before. And 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.720 the reality is, as a guy who installs large insurance plans, 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:04.080 my best advice to everybody, individuals, employers, everybody buy as 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.600 little insurance as you can. Really interesting, yes, yes, because 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.080 you when you buy insurance, you're getting You're getting into 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.680 a negotiation and buying a product from private equity, Wall 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.640 Street and the government that has all been designed to 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.600 ensure that it makes the most money. Great, I get it, 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.240 we got to transfer risk for certain things. But if 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.080 you're buying insurance, you want the highest deductible you can get. 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:28.680 You want to self insure what you can because you're 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.360 never going to win in that transaction in the long run. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.400 That is fascinating. That is not what I did on 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.760 the most recent enrollment at the company. 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.480 No, and it's it's it's especially at your company, I know, 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:43.520 because you guys are housed at a large enough place. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.480 It's a self funded plan. I would again, I would 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.240 buy the highest deductible I can get, and I would 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.920 do the most I could myself. Now there's exceptance to that, right. 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.280 If you have a child with special needs, you know 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.000 you're going to spend a certain amount of a given year. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.400 Of course, buying the richer plan might be advancing. Yeah, 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.400 I know, I think you are too, Jack, But as 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.160 a general rule, I would just say to people, whether 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.439 you're buying home insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, whether you're 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.560 an employee buying interest by you, you're not going to 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:10.040 win in a transaction. 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.600 With Hey, Craig, I'm sorry to jump in. That's great stuff. 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.159 If people want more on benefits insurance, how can they 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:17.359 get a hold of you? Ten seconds? 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.320 Gott Walls dot substack dot com is probably the fastest 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:21.280 and easiest way to get me. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:23.760 And we'll have a link at Armstrong in getty dot 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:25.400 com as well, so you can find it easily. Craig, 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.440 got weals, Craig, Thanks a million. Great to talk to you, 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.000 much more to come. Hope you can stick. 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:35.640 Around Jack Armstrong and Joe The Armstrong and Getty Show, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.040 The Armstrong and Getty Show. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.199 I've just become aware of Scott Jennings because he has 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:50.000 been hiding from humanity on CNN. But I love the 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:51.960 cut of his GiB. I love his act. He's calm, 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:56.240 he smart, he's reasonable. I positive last hour that gen 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.480 X would save the world, and I realized that somewhat 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:00.680 self serving, as we are on the older end of 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.440 gen X, but gen X known for kind of a 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:05.840 cut the crap. Don't don't mess around with us, just 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.960 give us the straight scoop feel not terribly ideological. 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.320 I like you pitched us as not hippies, not uh 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.840 not not hippies on the one end, not needing coloring 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:19.840 books and puppies to deal with. 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.879 Bad news on the other end. Right, just for goodness sakes, 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.639 can we can we speak plainly to each other? Is 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.719 kind of sort of and I've always mocked a generation thing, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:32.080 but it's kind of sort of the feel of gen 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.840 X anyway. I love that with Scott Jennings, essentially, and 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.200 this is my rallying cry today and probably for a 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:42.320 long time. Cut the crap. Scott is saying, cut the crap. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.359 Obama deported lots and lots of people. You had nothing 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:51.399 to say, so cut the crap. It's crap right, all right, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.439 thank you, And then you know I've got all I've 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.879 got a million examples. You've got this stuff from the 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.919 University of California, Davis, which is advising the federal government 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.280 on how to be a woke ally for the Alphabet 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:07.280 Soup crew, and they have stuff like, instead of saying 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.040 someone was born a boy or a girl, try saying 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.960 they were as signed male at birth. These terms recognize 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.440 the difference between section gender and emphasize the way in 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.919 which section gender are not binary or immutable. They can 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.560 be chained. No, cut the crap. A man can't become 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.640 a woman because he takes hormones. You start ovulating, call 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.800 me back, all right, then I'll concede you're a woman. 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:36.760 Cut the crap. Thought this was brilliant from Gerard Baker. 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:38.679 I'm gonna hit you with some of it. He's an 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.680 opinion writer for mostly the Journal, but Jack jump in 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:48.000 anytime you want, obviously, and he talks about Trump's election 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.359 is a bit of an emperor's new clothes moment for 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.840 American maybe the rest of the West, to an overdue 0:19:55.400 --> 0:20:00.680 recognition and repudiation of the regime of oppressive insanity we've 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.240 been subjected to for a decade or more. I think 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.840 everybody's saying, yeah, man, well said, especially in Blue states, 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.240 And you know, I'm gonna issue a battle cry towards 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.000 the end of this. I understand you're working like, is 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.159 it gonna sound like that? It's a lot like that. 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:18.680 Yeah. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.080 Maybe maybe you're working at the infamous Uh you see 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.800 Davis or Berkeley in California and you're like, dude, I 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.080 would love to fight against this stuff. But but but, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.639 and so it's always with the caveat of uh, do 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.600 what you can. But I'll tell you this, I can 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.840 practically guarantee no matter where you work, you live, you 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.960 worship whatever, if you stand up to the crap and 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.000 you say cut the crap, you're going to see a 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:48.879 bunch of people, maybe a few, maybe a ton, are 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.520 going to say, yeah, what he said. They're just waiting 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.919 for someone to call the emperor on having no clothes. Anyway, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.720 did your our Baker's piece for a decade or more, 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.639 even when Republicans have been nominally in control, we've been 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:05.960 led by peddlers of a set of ideas that have 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.200