***This content was written for Revolution Health & Wellness Clinic for marketing purposes only.***
Against the Grain with Dr. Chad Edwards | Oklahoma City Prolotherapy| Podcast 8 – Part 2
Chad Edwards: That’s right.
Brian Wilkes: What they don’t know is they can have a direct doctor relationship where they pay that doctor a nominal fee, whether it be every month or every visit, without high premiums.
Chad Edwards: Right. I think that kind of model, what we call a direct care model, which is actually covered under the Affordable Care Act. There is legislation in there that provides for direct primary care, and really encourages people to go that route. I think it’s brilliant for a number of reasons. The first one is when you look at … I remember one time I got a car, called for insurance, and really any time you get insurance on a car, they’re going to ask you, “Okay, well, what deductible do you want?”
I’m going to say, “Well, how much does it cost?” Because I look at the cost. Whatever that deductible is, I’m going to set it aside in my savings, so it’s 500 bucks, I’m going to make sure there’s $500 in there earmarked that if something happens to that car, I can pull that out and that way the maximum I’m is $500 but it’s already set aside, but if it costs me $1,000 over whatever period of time, to have a $500 deductible, well, I would rather raise it and have $1,000 deductible instead of a 500, because it’s cheaper on my monthly premium.
Brian Wilkes: Absolutely.
Chad Edwards: The lower you get the insurance, the more likely it is that you’re going to dip into that policy and pull out, so your premiums have to go up to compensate. It makes sense. They used to use, used to, regular interest, not post-ObamaCare insurance, uses actuarial tables, to determine how much you’re going to pay for your insurance. You’re a 32 year old guy that has no medical problems and they’re going to look at the tables and they’re going to say, “What is the likelihood …”
Brian Wilkes: The law of averages.
Chad Edwards: Yeah, exactly.
Brian Wilkes: Yeah, and so our listeners know, that’s how all insurance works.
Chad Edwards: That’s right. That’s all insurance except for ObamaCare insurance. They used to do this. They used to use actuarial tables, and then if someone had some kind of cardiovascular disease, they’d have a heart attack, their insurance is going to be more expensive because based on those actuarial tables, your cost is going to go up. With the Affordable Care Act, they basically said, “The insurance company can no longer charge more for one person than for another person.”
Brian Wilkes: Right.
Chad Edwards: They have to charge everybody the same. They completely abandoned actuarial tables. Dave Ramsey did a fantastic job of just running the numbers, independent to politics.
Brian Wilkes: Right. Pure numbers. I’ve done it, and they don’t run.
Chad Edwards: Right. Exactly. Independent to politics. Doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you sit on, doesn’t really matter if you’re for or against …
Brian Wilkes: It’s called math.
Chad Edwards: Exactly. It is a scientific fact.
Brian Wilkes: That’s right. I got the button.
Voiceover: That is a scientific fact.
Brian Wilkes: Love it. We’re trying to use that button more.
Chad Edwards: Yeah. We’re going to wear it out.
Brian Wilkes: Yeah.
Chad Edwards: He did a fantastic job of running the numbers, and the idea was that the Affordable Care Act was going to be more affordable insurance across the board.
Brian Wilkes: Hence the name. Hence the name.
Chad Edwards: Exactly, but what has happened, and I have seen this on a daily basis, is that insurance has become more and more unaffordable and people are looking for alternative solutions more and more, because their insurance premiums have gone up and up. When you have that person that’s 32 and has some kind of either genetic condition, they’ve got … One of my patients has … He had what’s called an IGA nephropathy that resulted in his kidneys failing and he’s on dialysis.
Well, that is a horrifically expensive disease, and it consumes a lot of resources and it takes a lot of money, so that guy, his healthcare is going to be much more expensive than an otherwise healthy 32 year old guy. Normally insurance would charge more for one than for the other. Well, they said that you can’t charge more anymore, and also you can’t not cover someone. You have to accept them in, so now you’re diluting out the healthy pool. There’s not as many in the … That’s just how insurance works and you know that better than I do. What has to happen is if they can’t charge one person more than the other, then they just have to charge more for everybody.
Brian Wilkes: Yeah.
Chad Edwards: That’s what I see every day.
Brian Wilkes: Well, I don’t think you and I … You fought for your country. You’re a veteran. I think you love your country. We’re not out to bash government or our country. As they say, it’s the worst system in the world besides all the other ones.
Chad Edwards: Right.
Brian Wilkes: Right? I don’t think that’s what it’s about, but here’s what I will say. Let’s do a HIPAA compliance story.
Chad Edwards: HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Brian Wilkes: Here’s what I’ll say. I know we’ve got a case here, Chad, that you want to cover, but let’s take my case for a second because I’m a business owner. For me it’s about numbers. It’s not about being Republican or Democrat when you’re running a business.
Chad Edwards: I get it. Right.
Brian Wilkes: Let’s relate this to the average person. The average income in the US, the dual family income is $51,000 a year, $51,939, again, according to Google. Somebody’s going to check my facts, so I’m going to be right.
Chad Edwards: It must be right.
Brian Wilkes: Like somebody at the census bureau is going, “That’s not right.”
Chad Edwards: Right.
Brian Wilkes: Like 10,000 off. Forget you. Call in. The number is 1-800 We Don’t Care. It’s probably right to some degree, so if you’re an average income of $51,000 and we could talk about the really wealthy, we could talk about the really poor, but for that group, let’s just run the numbers here for a second. I’ll use myself, okay, so middle class folks. If you’re middle class, you have a couple options. Let’s talk kind of a little bit about the health savings account that I think you’re kind of touching on, that I have. What I do with my health savings account, and this is affordable for a person in this category, the middle income person, is I view first off, and we talked about it earlier, insurance as catastrophic.
