Healthcare Update: Federal Subsidies Illegal | Dennis Wolfe

Transcript, Healthcare Update: Federal Subsidies Illegal | Dennis Wolfe

 

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Dennis Wolfe. He is the founder of one 800. We care for you I help consulting website and also is the co host of a nationally syndicated radio show Wayman. And look, Dennis, welcome to the show.

Dennis
Thank you for letting me be here.

Alan
So, Dennis, you’re all about health care. And you’ve been talking and preaching about the Obamacare. Now, there’s been some recent developments and federal court rulings. And so why don’t you bring us up to date? What just came down?

Dennis
Well, we need to back up just a little bit to go back to when the law was passed. And Speaker the house at that time, Madam Pelosi, said we have to pass it. So we can read it to know what’s in it. Well, after it passed, people started reading it. And they found out what’s in it. And one of the things that was in it specifically, was that these health care subsidies that were given to people to help offset their high insurance premiums were only available if the state itself set up an exchange. So for example, in California, you have Covered California, that’s a state run Exchange. In in the state like Georgia, going across the country, or in 36. Other states, they said we’re not going to set up an exchange, we’ll simply let the federal government do it. And we got healthcare.gov. For those states that did not set up their own exchange. The subsidy as it was written in the law, word for word said, the subsidies are only available to the states who set up their own exchanges. So slowly through the court systems over the last two, three years has been a lawsuit that finally reached the appellate court level in front of a three judge panel. And so on Monday of this week, the three judge panel with two voting for one voting against said that the subsidies could not be used to help offset the insurance premiums. For anybody who enrolled in Obamacare through healthcare.gov. In any state that didn’t have an exchange, we’re talking about millions of people who suddenly are going to be without the subsidies to help pay their premiums. And the impact of that is going to be monumental.

Alan
So these subsidies are the exchange is really designed just to socialized medicine.

Dennis
Well, I think that’s the ultimate goal of Obamacare, it was designed to create a system that was going to fail. First of all, you need to back up and look at how the insurance companies built their product over the years. And time doesn’t give us enough. There’s not enough time here to go through the whole process. But let me be very simple. We started out with low deductibles, we had to increase the vegetables because the premiums were going to go up. We started out with networks where you at any doctor, we then started creating preferred provider networks, we then started creating exclusive provider networks. So when all of this failed, and then the deductibles raised, we had to have another outlet. And when you look at Obamacare, you see the ultimate extension of that. And that is that you limit the networks to keep the cost down. Friend of mine who happens to be the CEO of Anthem Blue Cross, I’ve known him over the years, Mark Morgan, that he actually said, well, where we faced with the decision, do we limit the network’s or do we raise the premiums, and they wanted to keep the premiums down? So now when you look at all the impact of all of this, people are going to start dropping their insurance and they’re not going to be insured? Well, how’s who not how, and maybe how to, but who’s going to be paying for the cost of the health care when you haven’t got insurance to pay for it. Consumers don’t have enough money to pay for these costs. It sets it’s a perfect situation for the federal government to step in and say, We’re here. We’ll create it. And then we have a VA scandal only now it’s a healthcare scandal across the whole country. That’s a complete mess, then I would say it’s an unmitigated disaster. What

Alan
What should people do that have already received notice that their coverage

Dennis
is canceled? Well, you’re asking a loaded question there. Because yeah, because there’s there’s different situations, there’s the people who are receiving notices that their coverages are being cancelled, because the carriers themselves cannot meet the standards as established by the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare, then there’s also people that are going to be cancelled, because the payments are so high that the concerti care is not going to cancel it, but the people themselves are going to cancel the policies. So I don’t know what to tell them anymore. I as a broker for almost 40 years selling health insurance and administering plans for large companies and small mom and pop businesses. It’s at the point now where you almost don’t want to be given any advice for fear of being sued. There are so many lawsuits out there.

Alan
How do you think this will ultimately play out? Well,

Dennis
this case is now going to go to the Supreme Court. Well, let me restate that. This case is headed that direction, whether the Supreme Court will hear it whether Roberts will now rule counter to what he ruled when he ruled for Obamacare is going to mean that the dynamics here are so insane. I couldn’t believe when he voted to support Obamacare the first time. I bought the I bought the fact that he was a principal constitutionalist. I now think my mind says, Well, who got to you, Mr. Roberts? You know, where’s your palm tree?

Alan
So I’m visiting. I’m visiting here today with Dennis worked. He is the founder of one 800. We care for you Health Consulting website, and also co hosts the show, Wayman. And with Dennis, I need to take a quick break. And we’ll be right back after the businesses with more on the Obamacare legislation.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m visiting here today with Dennis worth. He’s a healthcare consultant and founder of the website, one 800. We care for you, Dennis, we’ve been talking about the Affordable Care Act, recent legislation and court rulings that have come down where the courts have basically said, You can’t do what you want to do.

Dennis
Well, one court has okay. And other courts have not, which is of course, where the groundwork is laid when you have conflicting court opinions to go to the Supreme Court.

Alan
So what is the public think about all this?

Dennis
Well, I think, first of all, no one likes insurance. I don’t like insurance. If someone said they’d love insurance, unless it was a CEO of an insurance company. I’d be asking what’s wrong with you, nobody wants to buy it, it’s a concept that we have to have it to share the risk. Now, having said that, when you buy insurance for your car, you know, at least you’re protected to rebuild your car if there’s an accident or an injury, etc. But when you’re buying health insurance, you’re buying something on a gamble that you may not get sick for many years. So it becomes something you put on the shelf. And then you get frustrated with when every month when you have to write that check. And nothing happened until that one day. So you’ve got this massive confusion over the whole how the whole health care cost delivery system works in this country. And when you have that confusion, and then you couple it with policies that people don’t understand. You’ve got a perfect storm for massive disobedience and frustration. I predict people are going to be dropping their policies. What about the insurance companies? How would they respond? I think they’re scared out of their minds, because they’re trying their best to maintain a business, I’m going to give them credit as a business, they’ve delivered the product. But they’re in a quandary. Because if they lose all these revenues, because they can’t deliver a product that meets the guidelines of Obamacare, and then people won’t pay the premiums. Then essentially, you reach a point where you create worst and massive confusion among consumers. You create massive economic disaster. The insurance companies drive this country, unless any person out there listening, this forgets this. Look at the buildings you see in major cities, the Prudential building, the New York Life building, the MetLife building, I can go on and on and on. All a lot of major commercial projects. And a lot of major buildings and downtown’s around the country are built with mortgages financed by the insurance companies from their reserves from which they use to pay claims as the revenues come back in the form of payments. If these insurance companies go under, where’s the money? And where all the jobs that trickle down, is going to be disastrous?

Alan
What about the medical community how they react?

Dennis
Well, there you have another dilemma. And I really support a lot of the independent physicians out there around the country that are doing their best to create. I hate to use this word, but that’s what it is concierge type service, where you can say I will pay an annual fee, maybe on a monthly basis to a doctor, and I’ll have access to that doctor anytime I need it. But the hospitals, they’re going to be scampering hospitals right now are being severely limited by the HHS Health and Human Services Department 1300 Page recent rulings on how to manage Medicare and Medicaid. They can even readmit a patient under certain conditions and get paid. How do you stay in business? If you’re forced to take people and then you don’t get paid for it?

Alan
Is there anything that we should be doing today in light of this legislation?

Dennis
You know, I can give you a one word answer. Pray, pray for America. Prayer works. Prayer does work.

Alan
And so that. So there’s an appeal on the way

Dennis
or, well, the the ground is set. Now the groundwork is set now with this new opinion, and even those a three judge judge panel, the petitioners for the for the defendants, the government, Obamacare, the federal government who probably going to go and petition the appeals court for an in bank ruling, which is, of course, the entire group of judges on the bench at the appeals court. And they may or may not uphold it. And regardless, the other groundwork is set from other judges that have already dismissed the case. It’s going to go to the Supreme Court and it has to,

Alan
say, using your little crystal ball, what do you think, Oh, really

Dennis
will happen with this, my crystal ball. You know, I’m almost afraid to say anymore, but I can almost smell a punt coming. Obama really cannot issue President Obama really cannot issue an executive order to make this go away. I’m sure his advisers are telling him hands off this one, let it go to the courts, and the courts that have the ability and when they’ve done it too many times to legislate from the bench and reinterpret a penalty as attacks as Roberts did to justify the mandate. So you don’t know really where it’s going to play out. If if it was the letter of the law as it was exactly written, it’s a slam dunk. But in the slam dunk being that the case has to be thrown out, and this would just would this would deal a crippling blow to Obamacare, but with so much pressure, who knows.

Alan
And basically here, Dennis Dennis worth he is the co founder, co founder, we care for you and also the the radio show hosted payment with nationally syndicated a dentist I need to take a quick break. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Oh, welcome back. I’m here today with Dennis Wolfe. He is the founder one 800. We care for you healthcare consulting website. And Dennis, we’ve been talking about the Affordable Care Act, the recent legislation. I’m gonna turn the page for just to topic here talking about the Veterans Administration scanner. What was that all about?

Dennis
Do we have a couple days? This is a nightmare. You have an internal combat. I mean, literally you have a war within the Veterans Administration. You’ve got the SIU employees si s E i, you the Service Employees International Union, who is literally permeated throughout the Veterans Administration, and they’re all fixated on making their bonuses making their targets. They’ve been outed in Phoenix, and then it went to Philadelphia. And then it went all over the country over the last few months, that they were fudging the records on appointments, people have gone into our veterans, the people that fought for this country, whether you agree with a war, whether you agree with a military issue, they fought to keep this country safe. So you and I could be sitting here and people could go about their lives, and they don’t deserve this. There are people that are now getting appointments where the family is going, excuse me, he died six months ago, people the veterans are not getting their wheelchairs. I mean, I could go on and on and on. But what’s really, really concerning about this is the first thing Eric Shinseki did was he fired Robert Petzel, who was his second in command, who was only four months away from retirement anyway, so he’s gonna get his retirement. We wouldn’t want it to serve that. And then I had been on the show much on my regular show, I said, I predicted that Obama was going to fire Shinseki. And I said, Watch when he starts calling him, Eric, you know, he’s on his way out. And sure enough, when President Obama was up there saying, Eric has my full support. I said to myself, this is right at the godfather. So sure enough, Eric Shinseki was fired. Now you’ve got McDonald coming in there, who is the Procter and Gamble former CEO, who is a businessman. And you, you think you go on record, you’ll Wow, this is great. He’s gonna go in there. He’s gonna trim fat. He’s gonna look at how to make this Veterans Administration work better. And then I thought to myself, this is going to be a shredding, you’ve got the SEIU coming in on one side, and they’re starting to get their motors going to get those blades going, because they’re going to protect their fiefdom. And then you’ve got McDonald coming in there, who wants to right now he’s going to the hearings to be confirmed and I think he’ll be confirmed who else is going to take Who else wants the job? And they’re going to fight Oh, for what’s going to have to be done to streamline this, the biggest concern I have is that if the federal government can’t run the Veterans Administration at all, and it’s not been like just last week, this has been brewing for years, even President Bush when he left office, had not fully addressed it. So he doesn’t get any he doesn’t get any leeway for me either. He has some culpability, too. But President Obama made it a big issue when he first ran for office and said, he’s going to fix it. Nothing’s been done in six years. So both of them have some blame. But regardless, you’re gonna see this situation get worse. And you start to ask yourself if they can’t run this. And in light of what you asked me earlier about where we go into socialized medicine, you throw up your hands and go, Oh, good grief. This is what we want for national health care. So my biggest concern is now the Veterans Administration is now issuing vouchers. So these patients, veterans can go get care outside of the VA buildings has structure and go to private hospitals. That means there’s more of a burden being placed on the system. And now we have this massive illegal immigration influx with them all needing care with all the diseases they’re bringing in. The health care system can’t handle it. And that’s why you’re seeing five hour waits or longer in emergency rooms,

Alan
The baby boomers, okay, of which I’m one. All right, so And with all these baby boomers getting ready and set to retire, do you think that the mandatory retirement age is affecting Medicare?

Dennis
Definitely, when I wrote my book in 1991, the sixth solution, a prescription for national health, I flat out eviscerated Medicare, I said, We got to get rid of it. What we need to do is allow people to continue to work to do whatever they want with their lives, and that they then determine when they want to retire. And that becomes their own personal trigger. The greatest thing about America is probably our individual illness, and their own entrepreneurial ship. So I want to work till the day I don’t want to work. Well, when that when that day comes it might be 71 instead of mandatorily at 65 or 67. So at that point, I would trigger retirement due to age. And I think the baby boomers are now reflecting just how maybe we needed to go back and look at that idea because it’s going to create such a burden on this country. I don’t think we can fund the liability.

Alan
Is there anyone exempt from the Affordable Care Act?

Dennis
Yes, and it’s kind of I don’t mean to create a firestorm here. But certain religions of the Islamic faith for one has diminished tude, which says they do not believe in any type of insurance or health care costs. They are exempt. I believe there might be a few others, but that’s one that comes to mind.

Alan
How do they cover themselves? Well, they

Dennis
don’t I’ve actually have employees at groups who are very steadfast to their faith, and they absolutely sign the forms and they do not want to participate in any health insurance. And that’s their decision.

Alan
Alright, Dennis, we’re we’re running short on time here. That person wants more information about the Affordable Care

Dennis
Act, they can do one of two places. We’re building the website for women and Wolf all about America. It’s w two a three.com. They can contact me there. We’re ultimately coming out with the W two a three University to help award people’s certificates as they learn more about what’s going on in this country. Or they can contact me at one 800 We care for your.com and I’ll make a special offer. If they do contact me contact me through the website. I will give them a free health care Advanced Health Care Directive, free Advanced Health Care Directive through errors, which is our new product we’re unveiling. Everything else is free on the website.

Alan
Dennis worth. Thanks for being on today’s show.

Dennis
Welcome. Thank you.

Alan
We’ll be right back after these messages.

 

To receive our free newsletter, contact us here.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for updates.

These transcripts may not represent exactly what was said, as they are software generated and occasionally edited for concision and clarity.

We hope you found this interview; “Healthcare Update: Federal Subsidies Illegal | Dennis Wolfe” helpful.  If you have questions or need expert tax or family office advice that’s refreshingly objective (we never sell investments), please contact us or visit our Family office page  or our website at www.GROCO.com.

Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com.  GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.

Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio

 

 

GROCO.com is a proud sponsor of The American Dreams Show.

 

The American Dreams show was the brainchild of Alan Olsen, CPA, MBA. It was originally created to fill a specific need; often inexperienced entrepreneurs lacked basic information about raising capital and how to successfully start a business.

Alan sincerely wanted to respond to the many requests from aspiring entrepreneurs asking for the information and introductions they needed. But he had to find a way to help in which his venture capital clients and friends would not mind.

The American Dreams show became the solution, first as a radio show and now with YouTube videos as well. Always respectful of interview guest’s time, he’s able to give access to individuals information and inspiration previously inaccessible to the first-time entrepreneurs who need it most.

They can listen to venture capitalists and successful business people explain first-hand, how they got to where they are, how to start a company, how to overcome challenges, how they see the future evolving, opportunities, work-life balance and so much more..

MyPaths.com (Also sponsored by GROCO) provides free access to content and world-class entrepreneurs, influencers and thought leaders’ personal success stories.

To help you find your path in life to true, sustainable success & happiness.  It’s mission statement:

In an increasingly complex and difficult world, we hope to help you find your personal path in life and build a strong foundation by learning how others found success and happiness.

True and sustainable success and happiness are different for each one of us but possible, often despite significant challenges. Our mission at MyPaths.com is to provide resources and firsthand accounts of how others found their paths in life, so you can do the same.

About Dennis Wolfe

Dennis Wolfe is the founder of www.1800WECARE4YOU.com, a website designed to help consumers understand the complexity of the healthcare cost-delivery system.

He 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 that broke precedent for how all independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield state affiliates do business across state lines – in 1998! Dennis wrote in 1986 (published in 1991) his book on true health care cost-delivery reform. It is entitled, “The Sick Solution – A Prescription for National Health”. It foretold of the exact problems that exist today in the health care cost-delivery reform.