ObamaCare – Dennis Wolfe, Healthcare Specialist

 

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

 

Interview Transcript:

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Dennis Wolfe. Dennis is the author, the sixth solution, and he is an expert on healthcare. Dennis, welcome to today’s show.

Alan
Thanks for having me back on well hopefully get some good things going.

Alan
I glad to have you here because it’s concerning to me. You see this stuff in the news about the so called Obamacare, the Affordable Health Care Act. And this thing is completely running towards a train wreck.

Alan
It’s unraveling.

Alan
What? Yeah, give me give me some stuff of what why did they start this thing in the first place?

Alan
Well, it was my contention, way back in 2008, when he first ran for office, that I felt that if the Democrats were going to gain powers, they were they were going to put this thing right back through again, which we now know they did. And the goal I believe, then, and I believe now, and I will always believe was that it was never to create a national health care plan, but to create such havoc in 1/6 of our economy with government control, that they would create an economic meltdown in the society. And everybody thought that that was just a hilarious conclusion. Well, where are we today?

Alan
So what’s the final effect that Obamacare will lead to?

Alan
Well, there’s a couple of couple things, we’ll focus on the health side first. And that is that Obamacare right now is creating such chaos in the health insurance, which is the major funder of the cost protection aspect of acquiring and using the health care system, that eventually the health insurers are going to say, You know what, they’re just gonna throw their hands up, and they go, we’re done. And then the government stepped in and said, See, we told you, so they can’t do it. You know, what the government is going to do it for you more big government, that’s like throwing the guy that’s got two big cement shoes. That’s called big government that’s like, throw an anchor says here, we can help you and throw in a more big government. And that’s exactly what you’re gonna see. You know, the one thing that’s missing in all this, which is amazing to me is somehow we’ve lost sight of one simple word, competition. The insurance industry competes with every single carrier every day. So and they can’t keep the prices down. If you let the federal government take over the entire healthcare system as a single payer type plan, then the only thing they have to do is fund it. And they have no money to fund it. That’s rationing.

Alan
So what I don’t understand is the you know, you hear this out in the news media, that companies are continuing to drop off the food chain and saying, you know, we’re not going to, you know, continue to fund insurance for employees, we’ll just go with the national plan. But what what is it Congress that this is so bad? Why don’t they just step in and unfunded and say we made a mistake?

Alan
You know, that’s interesting, because there are people that I hate use that phrase, the talking heads, but you know, all the people out there in the news media, some people are saying that if the Republicans do not step forward as the controlling party in the House of Representatives, which is the controlling body for funding, the government, not the Senate, if they don’t step forward and defund Obamacare, then what use are they? And I don’t know the answer to that, because I can’t figure it out, either. Get rid of this thing. It’s a behemoth. It’s uncontrollable. Today, UPS today announced just this just this morning, prior to us coming into this talk, they announced that they were dropping their spouse coverage for all their 15,000 employees.

Alan
Wow, they continue to unravel.

Alan
This, this thing is getting to be a train wreck. Beyond and you know, I was in Montana on a radio show a couple years back. And I said that mark, Max Baucus had to be the dumbest person around, you know what they said they are you can’t call them that. Well, what do you call someone that pushes the law through and then as they’re leaving, because they need to get their credibility back in their home state, and they go, Well, this is a train wreck. Those are Max boxes, where it’s senator from Montana, not mine, you know, he knows.

Alan
And in so the Democrats are starting to college train wreck, the Congress, the corporate, the private industry, but we continue to fund itself.

Alan
There’s, there’s a reason and it’s difficult to share on the air, it’s difficult to share off the air, because it’s a conceptual thing that you’re dealing with. And that is a mentality of certain leaders in this country that have decided they’re just not going to bend.

Alan
You know, you’ve indicated that the Affordable Care Act will eventually you know, not treat everyone equally.

Alan
Well, we’re seeing that already.

Alan
Okay, so now that the first election when they put this through, they had exempted a lot of groups, and now they’re pulling the exemptions.

Alan
Isn’t that interesting? That is a an insightful comment, because that is exactly what I’ve been saying all along. This government has certain leaders that are inflexible, they will use anybody at any time to get what they want. Their goal is not to help the consumer.

Alan
So if it’s a difficult claim, and you know that they’re getting a W two and and seeing that you get, you know, If you’re overweight, is it is it 250,000? Now you gotta pay an additional point 9% to fund this sure what took and then? And then also on that the interest in dividends the 3%. Right? Yeah. So where’s all of our money going

Alan
Into a big hole? I mean, and then and then one quick final comment, the we talked to the Federal Reserve has just given $85 billion a month to the debt.

Alan
Hey, Dennis, we need to take a quick break. I’m basing here today with Dennis Wolfe, we’ve been talking about Obamacare and the effect that is beginning they have on the private sector that is yours and my health plan. And we’re trying to pull this thing apart and see what what makes sense. But we need to take a quick break. And we’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and busy here today with Dennis Wolf, you’ve been talking about Obamacare, this new medical plan that’s hitting across the nation in quickly unraveling, Dennis, you know, and you’ve done radio, you’ve written books, you’ve been that you’re the evangelist on this program. But from day one, you said it doesn’t work. Well, now that we’ve gone as far as we’ve gone, you know, it’s becoming apparent. You know, a lot of people are starting to realize that doesn’t work. But let’s let’s, let’s let’s talk about the middle class. What specifically does this mean to them?

Alan
Well, one is affordability, let’s let’s call the act for what it was proper name is Gay, the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act. So that affordable word is right there smack in the middle. And this plan is anything but affordable. So what it’s going to do to the middle class is it’s working in two different directions at the same time. It’s like the two walls in the like Star Wars, everybody remembers Star Wars where they’re about to get crushed. And it’s a classic scene in the movie. Well, that’s what’s happening to the middle class, on one side is a wall pushing with reducing their hours at work, reducing their income, to the point where they’re barely able to pay for the things they need the food, the shelter, gas, etc, etc. On the other side is the wall of healthcare, which is now 1/6 through 1/5, arguably, in some cases of our nation’s economy and getting more so because of the need for health care. There’s so many more people that was pushing on this side with how do we cover the cost. And with the federal government initially saying you have to buy this insurance. And they are already getting squeezed over here. But the number of hours being cut because of Obamacare, and the fact that the mandates are in place, they’re forcing individuals to buy individual insurance, because the company says we’re gonna cut your hours, so that you can’t, we don’t have to provide you with benefits. So they forced me to go over here. But this was moving because of what’s happening over here.

Alan
Let’s review this. So they say it applies to the employers with 50 or less employees.

Alan
It will eventually apply to everybody.

Alan
Okay. And then what about the hour because you hear about the national food chains in a cutting hours.

Alan
They’re cutting hours because they have to provide benefits to full time employees. That’s the mandate.

Alan
Okay, so what is the full time employee 40, well, 30 hours, 30 hours a week. So cutting the 29 and a half hours.

Alan
So if I’m an employee making, let’s just say I’m making $700 a week, or if that let’s make it $1,000 a week, and 40 hours, and I’m cut to 30 hours, I’ve just cut my income 25%. So now I’ve taken my 4000 a month, forget the math is 4000 a month, and I’ve cut it to 3000 a month. So I have less money and I don’t have medical insurance. But over here, the wall this wall over here Obamacare is saying well, you have to have medical insurance, therefore you have to buy it. And the people that are gonna buy it from are these exchanges, which are not fully set up or functioning. And the subsidies that are being given are going to run out because that’s tax money coming from the tax base. Yeah. So eventually the middle class is going to be squeezed to zero.

Alan
What type of person supports Obamacare?

Alan
You know, I’m gonna get a lot of flack for saying this. Yeah, a fool.

Alan
Are there are a lot of fools out there?

Alan
We have at least 51% of this population because they elected this man President again, has to be a fool. How do you put someone back in office? Who is pushing who is putting something like this on the table this destroying our economy?

Alan
So this really isn’t about health care at all?

Alan
As I have said from day one, this has never been about healthcare. This has been about how do you control a population and destroy it at the same time? Wow. And I and I get yelled at all the time for this.

Alan
Yeah, it’s amazing that if that’s the case, and it still continues to we need funded. You know, it seems like Congress needs to get it clear the Republicans. You know, I think a woman I heard last week Obama was complaining about the Republican party standing in the way of Obama.

Alan
I know. And, you know, my comment to that is, his line was, well, what why do we need to have the Republicans haven’t put forth a plan? My comment is, why do they need to we don’t need a plan, the private market was helping.

Alan
Well, hey, Dennis, we need to take a quick break. This is all good learning about how bad this is, as it continues. But But I want to come back I want to talk about specific about the mandates with what’s going to happen in 2015. You know, and why is the employer mandate has been delayed, okay. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and visiting here today with Dennis Wolfe. Dennis is the author of the six solution, the national plan for health care, and also an expert on the Obamacare pack is appearing on several national radio shows, and well versed in this national health care disaster. Hey, Dennis, tell me why has the employee mandate been delayed? Oh, first of all, let’s talk about what the mandate is for Obamacare.

Dennis
I’m going to very simple here, the mandate simply is what it says it’s a mandate that all employers must provide health insurance. And in fact, all everyone has to have health insurance, or some kind of health care cost protection, let’s just make it real simple. It was originally supposed to take place January 1 2014, that exchanges that are being set up now, which are not completely ready to go are going to affect individuals. And then the employers, we’re going to be started January 1 2014. And then President Obama all by himself said, you know, I’m just not going to follow the law, as the President and the chief executive officer whose sole constitutional duty is is to execute the law, as it’s written has said, I’m going to ignore that and delay it for a year. Really, one has to ask oneself why? And the answer is really simple. Because we have an election coming up, Republican. That’s exactly right. And again, as I said before, this law was never about health care if it’s so important than why don’t you have a mandate right now?

Alan
If the Republicans lose a house, there’s nothing holding back.

Alan
You’ll have two years of uninterrupted power. Yeah. And, and it’s scary, it would be scary, because right now they’re holding him in check. And yet if he can delay this mandate, and the question is, well, is that what’s wrong with it, then? And the answer is real simple, because it cannot be done, is going to create chaos, beyond chaos. And I know this from 1989, when section 89 was introduced, passed by the Democrat controlled Congress, House and Senate, signed by President George HW Bush, and then subsequently within the same year, that Congress repealed it, because it was in more unworkable. And it was it was a it was just really unbelievably tedious. Bureaucratic mazes of paperwork for companies.

Alan
Let’s talk about how health care laws and you know, how does this How does this raise our out of pocket maximums?

Dennis
Well that’s another issue now well, they’ve already come to the realization that they can’t deliver the cost of the insurance at affordable.

Alan
But don’t we yet in the healthcare arena right now, aren’t we paying a lot of money into the private sector to drag pharmacy?

Dennis
Yeah, we are. And everything you see now is gonna double or triple under Obamacare. And the proof is that in order for them to bring this to an affordable cost, to make these exchanges look attractive, they’ve had to raise the out of pocket maximum out of pocket benefit to a levels that are way above what private insurance right now is offering. And the only way they can do that is because the insurance companies say we can’t deliver a product that’s gonna ensure that for that price.

Alan
So when we look at our health care, you know, recently I have a friend is over in Canada and in And in the same apartment complex there was a guy from the US suddenly became sick. Well, they said, rather than send it to the medical clinic in Canada, they shipped it back to the US. The the the group that he was working with the employer or the insurance, they didn’t want him to go through the the Canadian healthcare system. Pharmacy is much better.

Dennis
Yeah, the Yes. Okay. The The interesting thing is, he would have probably been fine, depending on the severity of his illness, because the Canadian system would have loved it, because they built the United States. People don’t know this.

Alan
Yeah, but but I think the point that they brought out is, first of all, it was the delay, oh, and getting into the appointment. And then the second is the quality of health care, they felt the US was better.

Dennis
US is better. In fact, it’s so much better, that in 1992, when I met personally with a provincial health plan manager of the Nova Scotia region, she informed me that the reason their plan functions so well up there is because at the end of the year, when they run out of money, they send all their people over the United States across the border for their health care. And then when their new year’s budget kicks in, they get the bills come in, they pay the bills back. So we have what we’re actually exporting healthcare to Canada right now.

Alan
We have one of the best health care systems in the world right now. Yes, we got this, this thing about the Affordable Health Care Act, which basically, in short, is socialized medicine exactly, is designed really to take the system down.

Dennis
Exactly. That’s exactly the point. Because if you can, if you can take away all the financial incentives, we don’t have time to go into everything here. But just look at this device tax. It’s a 2% tax. And people think, well, that’s not so bad, except that it’s on the gross dollars in sales for these companies that make medical devices. And some of them only have three 4% profit and bottom line tax, taxable after their net taxable income. So if you take away 2%, at the top, you’ve literally destroyed their taxable income based where does the retained earnings go? They’ll even get any retained earnings to reinvest.

Alan
There’s, you made the comment before you said this law will bring about a complete economic meltdown. What do you mean by that?

Dennis
Well, I just started to cover part of it right there. If you have companies that are not investing in taking care of creating new devices, or different things to help people, then that markets gonna go away. So when people need a new device, it’s not there. So this device tax is really a regressive tax to destroy the modernization that continue modernization of the technology, in our healthcare delivery system. When you have a system that ultimately leads to the government takeover of health care, you have rationing. I have been to England so many times, I’ve lost count, and every single time, the first thing I turn on, when I turn on the TV, the first thing I hear is the new corruption discovered in the NHS, the National Health Service in Scotland, they have employees and Scotland’s emergency room, nurses, doctors, taking mandatory self defense classes, because of the huge immigrant population that’s over there that doesn’t even speak English that demands health care, they have to fight to protect themselves. What kind of system is that? And so when you have the point where people aren’t getting any health care, because the services aren’t available, or the modern techniques aren’t available, then you start to bring the system down into a into a chaos at it. People will fight. I can’t get cancer treatment, et cetera, et cetera.

Alan
Now busy day here with Dennis Wolfe. He’s an expert on the Obamacare and also then written book called The sixth solution. And now we’ve been talking about this national health care plan. And you know, what’s what’s coming down the more employers the UPS today announced that they were no longer going to cover spouses. Seems like companies are just cutting costs or dentists. I’m going to hold off for another segment. And I want to talk about this whole community pooling of national healthcare and how it’s gonna affect the system right now. How you know, the IRS enforcing health care, a Dennis, we’ll be right back after these messages and we’ll get more into this.

Alan
Welcome back and visit me here today with Dennis Wolfe. He’s an expert on the national health care plan Obamacare, and we’ve been talking about the effect that it will have on you. They’ve delayed implementation to of 2015 whether it’s right or whether it’s wrong, it looks like they they want to wait till after the election. Sure. And as you mentioned that but by design that they try to get the Republicans out of control.

Alan
I suffer no delusions on this. Okay. The bottom line is it’s all politics. Yeah. If I can destroy the credibility the other party and possibly swing as a key precinct or a few key precincts in a district and take out a marginally elected Republican, maybe do that maybe two different 10 or 15 different people, I’ve switched back control of Congress.

Alan
Oh, well, it was in the IRS enforcing health care classic. What’s this all about?

Dennis
The IRS should only be used as a collection tool. When it’s a localized mandate, which is part of my book, I absolutely know that the IRS can play an important role. This is not the case. Now. We’re now being pushed into accepting the IRS in a in a apologize for the word but in other words, to explain it historically, into a Gestapo type role, where they can literally pound on your door and demand to see what you’ve done. If you’re not paying for health insurance. The IRS is a necessary part of our country, whether people like to admit it or not. It’s we have to have a taxation system to support our government. But when you give them an unaccountable control, with 1000s of agents who have this an unlimited power, that becomes a questionable aspect of what the IRS is there to do.

Alan
So Dennis, what is that community pooling?

Dennis
Well, that’s an interesting aspect of where this thing is going. One of the things they did was a structure these they be in the government, the Obamacare, the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary etc, they set up this, they set up a community pulling rate structure in the legislation, so that the majority of the cost is ultimately going to be structured into three different categories of premiums, the elderly are not going to pay as much under 64. Forget Medicare and above 60 to 64 rates are going to drop a little bit in theory, the middle class upright, the middle and the middle class, the middle age group, I believe the same, what do you think all the premium is going to be pushed on to the youth, they can’t find work. They can’t have the jobs they do have aren’t going to create enough income. And they have to have health insurance. And their rates are gonna go from here, double, maybe double what they what they currently are, which already, they said they can’t afford it. So guess what their solution is, I’ll just pay the penalty to the IRS, which is only a few $100, except that it climbs to 2000 or more in a couple of years, interestingly enough, after the 2000.

Alan
Now isn’t also the penalty towards insurance companies or employers that are currently providing private insurance, that a lot of them are just saying, you know, why even try on the private side?

Dennis
Well, the group plans are still there. But the private by individual insurance is going to be a burden. Most employers are going you know, forget it. Forget it. If there are pockets in the country, Silicon Valley, this area, you’ll see companies will still provide.

Alan
If a person has enough money, they can still have healthcare still have health care. So isn’t this really against the middle class and majority of the people goes back to those two walls? And why is it Congress included in this?

Alan
What’s your take exempted themselves? Haven’t really Yeah. And then Obama decided that he would fund that with another exemption. The bottom line is this is all by design. And there’s there’s a great strategy out there, I wouldn’t I would encourage all of your listeners to look up cloud pivot at clo W ARD like coward with an L in front cloud at dash pivot pi vn strategy. It’s well documented on Wikipedia. At Google it, they’ll learn an awful lot about the the sole goal of all this is to keep one party in power. And I thought we had a two party system or at least a representative form of a republic, we’re losing that.

Alan
Well, you know, it seems like we’re evolving into a new system. And, you know, for good or for bad, it’s new. And I think that people are not familiar with the ground here. I think the bottom line is this if healthcare fails or become substantially substandard from when it is now there’s going to be a large outcry in this nation.

Dennis
When you have people already happening, that their benefits are being denied yesterday’s example, I took my wife to her doctor, and he said he cannot do that procedure anymore.

Alan
The damage covered we’re out of time to do it. I’m gonna have you back in there another day. Because I think that it’s important that we go healthcare is going to be.

Alan
Yeah, can’t wait till October 1.

Alan
All right, Dennis, what but thanks for joining today’s show. And thanks for being here on American Dreams. Join us again next week right here on AM 1220 kto W

 

We hope you enjoyed this interview; “ObamaCare – Dennis Wolfe, Healthcare Specialist”.

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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