Changes in Healthcare | Dennis Wolfe

Changes in Healthcare | Dennis Wolfe

Transcript:

Announcer 0:00
Welcome to American Dreams keys to success with your host Alan Olsen.

Alan 0:05
Welcome back. We’re here today with Dennis Wolf. Dennis is a healthcare consultant specialist and I want to talk about nationalized healthcare. Dennis, welcome to today’s show.

Dennis 0:16
Thanks for having me back on. It’s a pleasure to be.

Alan 0:18
So Dennis, what’s your thoughts on a nationalized health care program?

Dennis 0:23
I guess the best answer to give to that is why do we need to sell all types, all different types of cars? Let’s just sell one car. Everybody buy the same car in Russia? They did it it was called the ZIL. And in America, why don’t we get rid of every car manufacturer and just sell one car. nationalized health care is exactly that analogy. If we get rid of all of the insurance carriers, each one approaching the market from a different perspective. For example, one particular carrier specializes in really good negotiated deals with hospitals around the country. Another one has a great network of hospitals, medical Foundation, clinics, etc. And each one comes in with a different premium costs people can choose that’s competition, nationalized health care is one car. And ultimately, that’s going to break down because eventually, no one’s going to want that system when it does not deliver the care. That’s the problem with nationalized health care. Because you’re at the mercy of the government now designing a single insurance policy.

Alan 1:21
One thing that’s always bothered me is that the rule makers when they set this up, they exempted themselves from being subject to the rules. Sure. And it’s never really it never really is discussed in all these meetings. And you know, why Congress says that we don’t have to follow these rules. What are your

Dennis 1:42
theories, you’re raising an interesting issue, because it has been my contention that whenever a government moves towards the adoption of a nationalized health care delivery system, and a nationally funded as ie a single payer, that these systems are not designed to give care. They’re designed to limit care. So nesting, so naturally, if you limit care, and you’re the rule makers, as you use the phrase, then the last thing you want to do is limit your own care. So that’s why they don’t limit their own care. It’s that simple.

Alan 2:15
Do you feel that this Affordable Health Care Act will change the culture in terms of health care?

Dennis 2:23
Where we absolutely, I think you’re going to see, and let me back up what I said just a minute ago, and I said, You nationalized health care does not deliver more care, it limits care. So as a result of that, any type of nationalized health care system is not in the business of delivering care. It’s in the business of denying care, because and the reason for that is real simple. When you note when you have a single funding vehicle, such as a single payer nationalized health insurance plan, you’re limited by the ability to fund it solely by the amount of money that government can take in and deliver, well, if their limits are fine. If funds are limited, so that reversed, then ultimately, the way that you handle it is you have to then cut back on what you pay for, and that you’re going to see is that is the demise of the doctor groups, the private doctors, and with less doctors, the demand is still there, prices are gonna go up, but there’s no money, therefore care will be limited.

Alan 3:20
So last time you were on the show here. You said that government healthcare always fails. What Why do you feel that way?

Dennis 3:27
Well, the the reason it fails is because as Margaret Thatcher said, socialism works until you run out of other people’s money. And when you have only a finite pool of money to deliver the cost of funding of health care, and that pool becomes more limited. And you have people continuing to need care. And as we age, we need more care, then ultimately, through urine out and what President Obama did, and I still amazed that people are in denial over this, in cutting $716 billion out of the Medicare budget, he effectively eviscerated the care for seniors, and they’re starting to trickle by trickle down, they’re starting to find that out right now. So we’re gonna see more and more funding cuts. And that ultimately means the demise of the healthcare system, it’ll only be for the haves, not the have nots. Hence the earlier comment. The rule makers exempted themselves.

Alan 4:21
So what should we do today? If I’m sitting here, realizing that we’re on a different health care program? Should I take any precautionary measures are

Dennis 4:31
if I were the average citizen of this country, I would focus on doing everything I could to get as healthy as I could and become less dependent on the system. And by removing yourself from that grid, you have the potential to do the best you can to stay healthy, to do the best you can to get away from seeing doctors all the time.

Alan 4:50
I visit here today with Dennis warping healthcare consultant, we’ve been talking about the Affordable Health Care Act. Dennis, is there a place that we can go do you have a website or I do Learn more about this. Yeah,

Dennis 5:01
we are just about to go nationwide on it. We’ve been working on it for a long time. As well as the address is one 800 We care for you. And you can spell it any way you want. One 800 We care for you.com.

Alan 5:13
And what exactly will I find there?

Dennis 5:15
You have a glossary. So you can ask you have to register it’s free. If a glossary that you can look up different words understand different things. They have a page called laughter, which is learning to understand good health educational resources, which has links all over the country to health care facilities, so people know where care is rendered where they can get care anywhere around the country. And then there’s tracking to track claims and there’s we’re developing the advocate page. So it’s a comprehensive site.

Alan 5:40
Now you also want you also wrote a book six solution

Dennis 5:43
I did in 1991. It was published you saw this is coming down predicted it predicted it was inevitable. And if people asked me what what what I saw, it wasn’t what I saw, per se, politically, it’s just mathematics. When you have a monopolistic system of care, and you do not deal with the competition aspect of it or you’re not injected, you eventually create this disaster. Here we are.

Alan 6:06
Yanis began to take a quick break. We’ll be right back after this messages.

Dennis 6:11
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Alan 6:26
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Announcer 6:40
Apple pie baseball and now here’s all American LM

Alan 6:45
busy with Dennis work. He’s a healthcare consultant. And we’ve been talking about the Affordable Health Care Act as it goes into effect in the year 2018. Dennis, before the break, we’re talking about the intersection of these health care rules. And what was the main problem with our health care system before we brought in this? I’ll just call it Obamacare. I think he calls it that. Yeah. Obamacare and in which of these issues? Does the new system address?

Dennis 7:21
Well, let’s let’s go back to the first part of that question. What were the problems that existed before there is a constant problem that’s that is the in the delivery of health care. It’s a monopolistic system to doctors side by side, one doctor sees the other doctor pup and a brand new car. He asked how did you do that. And the first doctor says I just raised my per visit copay. The next doctor doesn’t go back and say I’m going to lower minds, I get more people he raises his to it’s an inverse supply and demand system of care. And you and I cannot open just as I cannot become a CPA without going through the proper designations and professional learning. I also cannot become a physician without proper designations and credentials. So I just can’t could open up a shingle next to a regular MD. So therefore, there’s a limited competition is a controlled competition, if you will, as a result, you have an inverse supply and demand prices are skyrocketing. Yeah. And when you have a skyrocketing price system, and then you have insurance companies doing all they can to contain that cost. The insurance companies by definition are gonna get the blame because they’re the ones that happened to raise their rates. So the system is breaking down, and you needed to throw away this system and revamp it. Obamacare came in and basically took a hammer sledge hammer and pounded down the system and made it worse.

Alan 8:39
So it was breaking down simply, it was going to its regulated and people wanted the

Dennis 8:45
well, it’s not so much that it was regulated, it was that it was a system whereby the costs are going to creep up out of control anyway, you have an you have a 1/5, or one six to the nation’s GDP growing at a geometric rate, if you look at the rule of 72. And the factors of how fast that particular portion of the economy is doubling in cost, versus an arithmetic increase in 85% of the rest of the economy, eventually, and is now happening, this whole country is all of this is about health care. And the proof of that we’re selling off businesses to other parts of the world for manufacturing. And now we’re focusing on is making medical devices and giving health care. So what I predicted in the early 90s, is now coming to pass with the geometric increase of 1/6 of our economy becoming all of our economy. So you had a built in problem now that the government’s got involved. It just went from a disaster to cataclysmic failure.

Alan 9:46
Do you foresee any new problems that Obamacare will create for the healthcare industry?

Dennis 9:51
It to one, well, three, one, overregulation and two because if you go back to the question I just the answer it As gave with the healthcare industry driving the dollars, the bill, the GDP, a whole new level of taxation. And I have said from the beginning of this legislation that this had nothing to do with health care. It had to do with a new way to lay it levy taxes on the growing economic base that healthcare is in this country. And so if you ask, Do I see foresee problems, eventually, we’re going to take away the ability people get care completely, because the taxes are so constrictive. And they’re being put onto people’s backs in multiple directions, one, medical device taxes, which are going to affect the very things you buy in a pharmacy supplies to, it’s going to affect premiums, premiums are not going to be affordable anymore, therefore, people aren’t going to be able to buy insurance. And the third factor that’s going to, I think, going to cripple it all is the government’s going to be going to go in and decide, well, since we have these controls in place, we’re going to restrict who gets care. So we can decide how to tax the whole system, just in general for whatever we want. And that’s what they’re doing now, with a new tax on insurance to pay for the people who don’t want to buy insurance or who can’t get insurance. It’s just a it, we’re watching an unfolding of a disaster that’s going to take down this country. And the reality

Alan 11:11
is this. As this unfolds, this tax is not laid on the rich, but it’s necessarily more on the lower tier.

Dennis 11:17
This is same way. This is actually a statement of the profound ignorance of the average American population. I didn’t say stupidity, just ignorance, people just don’t understand this. And when they finally grasp it, it’s going to be too late. The taxes on the middle class in this country are going to become so pervasive that everywhere they turn, here’s a new tax, here’s the new tax, what’s it for, it’s to pay for health care, okay, I can’t get health care. It’s not the point we got to pay for it. And that’s the disaster

Alan 11:45
and visiting here today with Dennis both on healthcare, consulting and the impact of Obamacare within this country. Nothing’s more important than spending time with your family. Winston Roca, Polson company with trusted advisors, the highly successful, our goal is to help you find the right strategy to protect your wealth for yourself, and those you love. Why do I feel like it just had an audit as trusted advisors, the highly successful we’ll make sure that you don’t lose your shirt

Announcer 12:22
apple pie baseball. And now here’s all American, Alan Olsen.

Alan 12:27
Welcome back. We’ve been talking today with Dennis work. He’s a healthcare consultant. And the topic has been the Affordable Health Care Act as this goes into effect on January 1 of 2013. So Dennis, how do you predict the healthcare industry will change over the next decade,

Dennis 12:46
or the healthcare or the health insurance industry? Yeah, let’s just take the health insurance or let’s start with the health insurance. The health insurance companies right now are already under strict controls with with their MLR, their minimum loss ratios. And the Department of Health and Human Services has already pretty much staked its ground and said these carriers have to live within certain limits. So what that means is you’re going to see rates climb because as these carriers pay out more in claims, they’ve got to raise the rate to keep within that 8020 minimum loss ratio, or 50, or 85th, or leave at 515 I believe it is for individuals, it’s irrelevant, it’s still a certain preset amount. But whatever that amount is the carriers are going to have to increase their rates. Ultimately, they’re going to reach the level of unaffordability. So that means people are going to say, well, we just can’t afford this anymore. And the government’s gonna say, well, we told you this was going to happen when in fact they’ve created the problem that’s going to create that’s going to lead to this unaffordability and limiting people’s access to health care insurance cost protection. So I would say within three to five years, you’ll pretty much see the disappearance of health insurance in this country, no matter what anybody says the biggest issue that’s going to be as to see how a Kaiser handles it, because they sell a prepaid health care plan. They’re a little bit different than regular insurance companies. So it’ll be fun to watch in a negative sense, if I may. With respect to the delivery system and healthcare, you’re going to see more and more hospitals being pressured. Because right now new rules are in place that hospitals cannot get rate reimbursed by Medicare, if they readmit a senior patient within 30 days of a previous discharge. So local hospitals all over are going to see their reimbursements cut by the federal government, but their obligation remains they must admit a person if they’re ill.

Alan 14:40
We review that rule again. So if if, if I’m released in the hospital, if you’re on Medicare back within 30 days, what happens?

Dennis 14:49
I don’t think people know this. And this is again, going back to the $716 billion that was cut from Medicare funding by Obama, no matter what anybody says that it’s not a matter of how publicans are Democrats. Obamacare did this. Yeah. And it’s a fact. And so what that means is hospitals are limited on their reimbursement. If they receive anything, when they readmit a patient who comes back for a second round, my mother was in and out of the hospital throughout almost half of 2000 elevens, some while bout from May till about September when she ultimately went to a home and then died. And she was in and out, and they wouldn’t have covered it because she was there before 30 days. So who pays for that? Well, local hospitals are gonna have to eat that cost because they’re had their Medicare contracted hospital. So they have to accept what Medicare adjudicates the claim to be processed the claim in the amount they’re going to allow. So if a hospital bill is $20,000, on the first admission, the patient is discharged and then is readmitted. And this time, the complications mean that the stays for another two weeks, you could see a bill of 50,000 or more. And Medicare says, Well, no, we’re not going to pay that. Well, who’s eating that cost?

Alan 15:59
You know, I want to turn this discussion out to the effect of the health care costs on the businesses. And, you know, recently in the news, there’s been several companies that have come out and said, Well, we’re gonna cut the average, however, workweek, so we don’t have to cover. But overall, where do you see this all going with the impact to businesses?

Dennis 16:21
Well, I’m going to backtrack 20 plus years, and then go back to I believe it was section 79, under Section 89. Now, the now the number actually escapes me, but it was a legislation that was put in place by Ted Kennedy pushed it out there. The federal government passed, it was signed into law. And it was all about making sure you you completed tests, you know, discrimination tests, similar to pension plans to make sure they’re not top heavy plans for the high the highly paid execs. So these were tests that were put into place. And every time you got a result, it created a problem with another one needed to do another test. The law became so cumbersome with tests to make sure everybody was treated fairly with respect to health care, and other benefits, the cost and everything economic benefit, that the law was ultimately repealed section 89. That’s what it was section 89. It was ultimately repealed. And I think we’re going to find ourselves in that situation. This law is folding back on itself with so many pieces of red tape, that it’s so convoluted, no one can find the maze out. No one can use the maze to find a way out of this. And eventually businesses are going to have to answer it by becoming more restrictive on what they do. And they’re going to have to rebel and say, we’re not doing this. Who’s enforcing this? Oh, that’s an interesting question. The IRS, of course, hired 1000s of new agents received millions of dollars in new funding. And then the first thing they did is said, Well, we’re not going to enforce it if you don’t buy health insurance. But that’s in the law, millions or billions. Think it was probably closer to hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars. And this is all money that’s coming off the top where’s the money coming from? We are now using the good faith of the federal government to borrow money to keep the country operating. And we’re getting closer to this ridiculous I hate this term fiscal cliff. It’s not coming at the end of this year. It’s coming through the form of what’s going on with Obamacare. And can the federal putting the backs on the back of the federal government, the whole cost of health care healthcare system is going to implode? Wow. And that remember, in a prior part of our conversation, it represents 1/6 of the economy that’s growing to become pervasive as the economy in this country.

Alan 18:32
So really, what what this is turning out to be is that the hugest smoke and mirror games for a large tax assessment against?

Dennis 18:40
Absolutely I have said over and over, I’ve said it earlier in this show, I am on record, I will take a lie detector test. This law has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with how to raise taxes in a confiscatory manner on the middle class, that’s that they cannot get out of it, they’ve got to pay it. And that is that that’s the real aberration in this program, that and people are going to see it, they’re going to go what’s going on here, but it’s too late. I really don’t see a way out unless this thing is either repealed. Now, what’s interesting is there’s a case right now working its way back up to the Supreme Court. And that case is a case that the court will be five to two, with Roberts voting to strike down the laws unconstitutional. So it’s coming.

Alan 19:24
So how do you protect yourself against it? If you’re a business owner,

Dennis 19:29
as a business owner right now, I would I think you definitely have to provide health insurance to employees there, the the instability in the market is huge. People want to know they have coverage. Business owners should see it as an opportunity for now. And then and that way, they’re not the bad guys, because in a couple three years, they’re going to say, hey, no longer affordable, and that way they’re happy.

Alan 19:49
So then it says a person contact you for more information, one 800

Dennis 19:53
We care for you.com It’s my website. It’s healthcare claims consulting. It’s 100. We care for you.com is free read gesture and they can email if that site contact us and help us so with the website grow around the country, so it’s one 800 We care for you. Yes. And you can spell for is FLR the letter the number four while you the letter you you can forget the one doesn’t matter what uh, how do we care for you 100 We care for you

Alan 20:18
Dennis thank you for joining today’s show. Welcome. Happy to be here. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Announcer 20:24
You’re listening to American Dreams with Alan Olsen on AM 12 20k d o w

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About Dennis Wolfe

Dennis Wolfe began his insurance career in 1976 and quickly gravitated to the rapidly developing small group benefits market. Almost immediately he wrote the benefit plan for a large interstate restaurant chain. From there he wrote the benefits for a Fortune 500 company. That followed with a total revamping of a major international law firm which broke the precedent for how all independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield state affiliates do business across state lines. In 1986, Dennis wrote his book on true health care cost-delivery reform. Published in 1991 it is entitled, “The Sick Solution – A Prescription for National Health”. His book foretold of the exact problems that exist today in the health care cost-delivery reform.

Dennis has an impressive background of community commitment – winning a national award in 1976 for creating the concept of what we now know today as community health fairs, serving five years as President of the USO of Northern California, having the rare distinction of a Supreme Court decision in CA when he sued a local city and won.

His most recent venture is Healthcare Claims Consulting, LLC, a website designed to help consumers understanding the complexity of the healthcare cost-delivery system. Dennis can be contacted at www.1800wecare4you.com