00;00;01;14 - 00;00;05;24

Announcer

And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall.

00;00;05;27 - 00;00;23;17

Cary Hall

Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across, USA. Here on the HIA Radio Network, you can find out more about us by going to the website AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. We were having a problem when you were sending me emails with being able to respond.

00;00;23;22 - 00;00;46;00

Cary Hall

We have changed the system. My producer, Mr. Dave Thiessen, fixed it, so it's working now. I consider myself technologically this way: I'm a number two pencil in dot com world. Thank God for my producers, Dave Thiessen and Garner Cowdrey, in studio with me today. If you want to follow us, you can do that on the YouTube platform. AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.

00;00;46;02 - 00;01;13;12

Cary Hall

We're on 16 podcast platforms, including Rumble. We're now on Rumble. We're pretty happy about that. So if you want to reach out to if you want to listen to one of the shows or tell somebody about it or follow us, you can like us, follow us, subscribe. It doesn't cost anything to subscribe. If you want to do that and you get these shows every week that we do. If you are chronologically challenged, okay, or looking for ACA benefits, a lot of people are going to be dealing with this issue.

00;01;13;12 - 00;01;38;24

Cary Hall

Come open enrollment for ACA and open enrollment or AEP. The annual enrollment period for Medicare. They're going to be a lot of changes on both sets of these plans. Give the lovely Carolee Steele a call anywhere in the country. She's happy to help you. 877 385 2224. She’s at RPS Benefits by Design. Same thing on the group side for a lot of changes.

00;01;38;27 - 00;02;03;02

Cary Hall

We just had somebody the other day who got an increase of 37%. Okay. Maria Ahlers RPS Benefits by Design. Stepped in, brought them a whole host of plans, lowered the cost, adjusted some benefits and did a great job. There are a lot of options out there. Okay. This is the time you want to explore those before you get to your annual enrollment AEP your renewal for your group plan.

00;02;03;09 - 00;02;29;05

Cary Hall

Go to the folks over at RFPs benefits by design 877385 2224. My website, AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. If you want to send me an email. All right. This is a show that has been a long time in the making. We have a new assistant producer. His name is Nathan Halderman. And, he has done a wonderful job of assembling research and information so that we could do this show today.

00;02;29;07 - 00;02;49;28

Cary Hall

I call this multi topic. We do these kind of shows. We're going to talk about Medicare today. And we're going to talk about why is Medicare in danger. We keep hearing this that Medicare is in danger, Medicare is going to run out of money etc. etc., etc.. So today we're going to separate fact from fiction. On the topic of Medicare, is it running out of money?

00;02;49;29 - 00;03;07;17

Cary Hall

Why is it running out of money? Okay. Can it be fixed? How can you fix it? We're going to talk about all that today. This is huge problem okay. Because of the number of people in this country that are on Medicare. And that number is going up as baby boomers more and more retired, a lot of us are still working.

00;03;07;17 - 00;03;28;21

Cary Hall

I'm 76 years old, I still work. Yes, I'm on Medicare, okay, but I have a Medicare supplement plan that covers anything that Medicare doesn't cover. But here, here's what's important to understand, okay? And all the information that I'm going to use today comes off of government websites where this is posted up on the YouTube platform. Dave will put all the footnotes in here.

00;03;28;26 - 00;03;52;22

Cary Hall

So I'm not pulling this information off Fox News or Bloomberg or CNBC. Okay. Or or multiple newspapers. I'm this is coming directly off the government websites. Thank you. Nate Halderman, for all the work he did to pull the schedule. So the first thing. By 2033, the Medicare Hospital Trust Fund will be unable to pay full benefits. This is from the government's own numbers.

00;03;52;29 - 00;04;17;04

Cary Hall

This is off of an article that was put together on “Social Security Medicare Funding Cut Off” from the Medicare trustees. Okay, so I'm a repeat it by 2033. the Medicare Medical Hospital Trust Fund will be unable to pay full benefits. That's because there are not enough people paying into Medicare. Let me give you an example.

00;04;17;06 - 00;04;40;28

Cary Hall

In 1966, you had 4.6 workers for every retiree. So let's be real clear. 4.6 people, almost five people for every retiree, are paying in to the benefits program because it's taken it out of your FICA and FUTA those two taxes you see each week, month, two weeks, whatever it is on your paycheck stub. That's where that money goes.

00;04;40;28 - 00;05;02;12

Cary Hall

Some of it okay, well guess what it is now. It's 2.8 per retiree. So now it's gone from almost five down to little less than three. All right. So that has a direct impact on this. Here's another handy piece of information. And I'll refer to a show that we did here about a month or so ago.

00;05;02;14 - 00;05;39;13

Cary Hall

Illegal aliens. They're not guest residents or undocumented, they are illegal aliens. Sorry if that upsets some folks, but that's the reality. They don't pay into the Medicare trust fund. They don't pay into Social Security. We did a show here on these topics here about a month or so ago, and I had a young lady from Washington state who had reached out to me, and she came on the show and she gave an illustration of a woman who worked for them as a nanny when they lived in Los Angeles, and they were paying her somewhere between 5 and $6000 a month tax free under the table, because that's the only way she would do the work.

00;05;39;16 - 00;06;02;09

Cary Hall

That was so she could get her Cal Med benefits, her food stamps, and her other benefits that were being provided by the state of California. That's what's causing part of this. Okay, so it's a combination of not enough people pay in people coming in this country that are working here, but not paying into it because they're not legitimate citizens paying taxes like they should be.

00;06;02;14 - 00;06;16;03

Cary Hall

And there's a lot of that going on. So that's a big piece of the problem here. And that's what I'm trying to explain today. I'm going to explain today. So you understand that. Then there are other issues that get involved here

00;06;16;05 - 00;06;22;26

Cary Hall

Waste and fraud. So there is a comparison which when we come back from the break I'm going to do.

00;06;22;26 - 00;06;46;19

Cary Hall

I'm going to show you what waste and fraud looks like under Medicare Part A and B, what they call original Medicare. That's part A and B okay. And then when we talk about the other plans okay, the Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement plans. So we'll talk about what does waste and fraud look like on the Medicare original Medicare plans part A and part B.

00;06;46;24 - 00;07;14;00

Cary Hall

And then we'll talk about what does it look like over here on the other side of the equation, in terms of how much money is being wasted in waste and fraud. Now, you may remember, okay, that when the whole DOGE thing started taking place, Elon Musk and his crew came in. One of the first things that they started looking at was Social Security and Medicare and the massive fraud that went on in both, and they uncovered some pretty significant numbers.

00;07;14;00 - 00;07;36;17

Cary Hall

Okay. But when I come back from the break, what I'll do is I'll take you through the actual numbers as they are produced by the Medicare Trustees that show every year from CMS, the center for Medicaid and Medicare Services. How much money is going out the door for fake billing services that are never performed, kickbacks to providers? We'll talk about that.

00;07;36;20 - 00;07;59;08

Cary Hall

Okay. And hospital overbilling. Yeah, a lot of that goes on. We'll talk about that when I come back to the break. And how does that impact the overall cost of Medicare and the survivability. And then we're going to talk about what can be done to change it so that it is solvent. And it doesn't go broke by 2033, because that's where we're at.

00;07;59;08 - 00;08;16;22

Cary Hall

And here's the funny thing. It's really not very funny. Politicians don't want to talk about this. I call it the third rail of politics. There are two trains on that track. One is called Medicare. The other one is called Social Security. They don't want to talk about it. They don't want to talk about it running out of money.

00;08;16;22 - 00;08;42;24

Cary Hall

They don't want to talk about those issues. We'll also touch a little bit on what the Big Beautiful Bill did for Social Security. And you're probably a little surprised by what you're going to hear is fact versus what you're hearing in the legacy media and from other folks about what the Big Beautiful Bill did to Social Security, that this is an alarm that's constantly being sounded okay by folks on the left about running out of money and why and who was tampering with it and all the rest of it.

00;08;43;00 - 00;09;03;26

Cary Hall

Well, it is going to run out of money by 2033, but it's not going to run out of money for the reasons that people think it's going to run out of money, because you had 4.6 workers paying for every retiree around 1966, and we're down now to 2.8. And that does not include people in this country who are not paying taxes and paying into these systems.

00;09;04;03 - 00;09;32;23

Cary Hall

When I come back to the break. We'll continue the topic. Stay tuned. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across USA, where we separate fact from fiction. We'll be right back after the break with more.

00;09;32;25 - 00;09;55;28

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show, Broadcasting coast to coast across USA, here on the HIA Radio Network. All these shows are posted on our 15 podcast platforms. And the newest one, Rumble. And on the YouTube channel. So when you hear this. Maybe you want to tell somebody about it, maybe you're having a discussion with a friend and they're telling you that Medicare is going broke because of this or that, or something else.

00;09;56;01 - 00;10;14;25

Cary Hall

If you want to know the real facts, it'll be on our podcast platform and on our YouTube platform. So what we're talking about is Medicare in a crisis, because by 2033, according to the government, according to the Medicare Trustees, it's going to run out of money. And what's going to be done to fix it. Something's going to have to be done to fix it.

00;10;14;25 - 00;10;41;16

Cary Hall

So we were talking about examples of waste and fraud. So here, here this is an interesting number. I've talked about this before on previous broadcast. But thanks again to Nate Halderman, our assistant producer. He went in and actually pulled the numbers Medicare wastes between 50 and $60 billion a year. I didn't say million. I said 50 to $60 billion a year being wasted going out the window.

00;10;41;18 - 00;11;01;14

Cary Hall

Okay. This is part of what DOGE uncovered. It's been talked about for a long time. This is the biggest number I've ever seen. And that includes, improper payments for Medicare Part A and B. All right. In addition to that, fake billing for services never performed. I'm going to give you an example that coming up here in a minute.

00;11;01;16 - 00;11;40;18

Cary Hall

Kickbacks to providers. Are providers getting kickbacks to to do certain kinds of procedures that aren't maybe necessary, whatever the case may be. Hospital overbilling. This is a big one. Over billing. There was a recent issue regarding UnitedHealthcare and their in-house clinics, in-house primary care, whatever you want to call it. And there's a Justice Department investigation going on about this where they were sending people out of their centered primary care units to have certain tests done and certain procedures done that weren't necessary.

00;11;40;21 - 00;11;56;02

Cary Hall

And there was a lot of overbilling as a result of that. Okay. Well, that's on UnitedHealthCare. If they did that, if that turns out to be the case, they're going to get hit with a huge fine and they're going to have to put that money back, plus all types of penalties. So does that go on? You bet it does.

00;11;56;06 - 00;12;16;23

Cary Hall

Okay. Now I don't know whether that's true or it's not true about UnitedHealthCare. I know what I've read. And I know what what I've seen has yet to be proven. But there is a significant issue there. So does that happen? Well, evidently in some cases it does. And if it happens it should stop and it should be stopped.

00;12;16;25 - 00;12;42;00

Cary Hall

Right. That's what's important. So now let's talk about some examples. Here's an example I think you'll find interesting. In 2022. Just a couple of years ago, a Florida man was convicted for scamming Medicare. Listen to this. Out of $61 million, by the way, that's on a justice.gov. Website. We're going to post all these when we do the. I should say Dave Thiessen

00;12;42;00 - 00;13;13;00

Cary Hall

is going to post all these, when he posts all this up on our website and out on the YouTube platform. But we'll have all these reference points. And what was he? He was a durable medical equipment provider. So he was the guy that provided walkers, wheelchairs, those kinds of things. $61 million. How does one person with a small shop that's providing durable medical equipment bill $61 million and get paid?

00;13;13;02 - 00;13;39;15

Cary Hall

I mean, seriously, it in private industry, if you overbuild somebody by $61 million, you bet you somebody's going to figure that out probably long before you get to 61 million, probably around the 1 or $2 million mark. You know what I'm saying? Okay. But here, this went on in the federal government, they paid this man $61 million. For for services never rendered.

00;13;39;20 - 00;13;59;26

Cary Hall

All right. This went on for 12 years. Do you get what I'm saying here. This is one example. For 12 years he got away with this. I'm sure he he's probably got a couple of condos in the Caribbean somewhere. Who knows. But I mean, think about that. For 12 years, he pulled this off and he billed $61 million.

00;13;59;28 - 00;14;22;23

Cary Hall

I mean, this is the kind of stuff that drives me nuts when I see it. All right, now let's get to let's compare the number that I just gave you earlier, this the 50 to $60 billion being wasted on Medicare Part A and B with private insurance, that would be Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement. So let's compare that number and see what that number looks like.

00;14;22;28 - 00;14;48;23

Cary Hall

Again, this comes off of the government website from the Medicare Trustees. So improper payment rate was 5.6% for the for the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement plans totaling 19.7 billion. That's not a small number. And that definitely needs to be that needs to be looked into. And if there's improper billing, whatever the case may be, that needs to be stopped.

00;14;48;23 - 00;15;17;08

Cary Hall

But compare that to the 60 billion. Now think about that. So what it's saying is that the Medicare Advantage plan and the Medicare supplement plans are running much more efficiently. You probably aren't going to continue to bill them for 12 years for $61 million. But for an auditor at Aetna, Blue Cross United, Centene, whatever the case may be, figures out somebody is getting paid something.

00;15;17;08 - 00;15;38;04

Cary Hall

They shouldn't be getting paid. Okay, not so much at the federal government, but most certainly, the numbers speak for themselves. And you know what's interesting about this? I went back and did a little research. Who screamed the loudest about Medicare Advantage plans when they were being introduced? You may not remember this, but let me give you a little history.

00;15;38;06 - 00;16;05;25

Cary Hall

In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act put forward by George W Bush brought in the Medicare Advantage plans. Who screamed the loudest about how these were going to take choices away from seniors? Government was paying private insurance companies to take over Medicare. And on and on. On this radio station right here in Kansas City where I had started, I had a debate with Claire McCaskill, then the senator for Missouri.

00;16;05;28 - 00;16;32;22

Cary Hall

Unfortunately, Senator McCaskill didn't have her facts straight. And it wasn't she didn't enjoy the interview. In fact, she got a letter from one of her managers after the fact, advising me that she was very unhappy with me because I pointed out she really didn't know what the hell she was talking about. But again, let's go back. So you have 50 to $60 billion worth of fraud versus, the private insurance carriers at around 19 billion in fraud.

00;16;32;22 - 00;16;59;00

Cary Hall

So there is a significant difference here. That's the point I'm making. None of that is acceptable. All right. But this has to change. If and when I come back to the break, I'll talk about what's the math look like if we correct these things. And does that extend the life of the Medicare plans? Does that extend the life past 2033 when the Medicare trustees say they're going broke and benefits are going to have to be cut?

00;16;59;02 - 00;17;26;00

Cary Hall

And think about that now, the benefits are going to have to be cut. Those Medicare Advantage plans, by the way, have 32.4 million people on them. Now, those plans that we heard so much about in 2003 that weren't going to work, and they were going to take benefits away from seniors, 32.4 million seniors are on those plans. I guess George W Bush has something to be proud of in terms of what he was able to usher in for better benefits for seniors under Medicare Advantage.

00;17;26;08 - 00;17;43;23

Cary Hall

But I come back to the break. We'll continue this topic and we'll talk about where we're at, where we're going, and now we're going to talk about how do we correct it, what do we do to change that so that we're not on this trajectory, the we're on now, which is that it's going to fail and we're going to start taking benefits away from senior citizens.

00;17;43;25 - 00;18;08;15

Cary Hall

we'll be right back after the break. You're listing America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network coast to coast across the USA. Send me an email if you've got questions. AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.

00;18;08;17 - 00;18;31;14

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show Broadcasting coast to coast across USA here on the HD Radio Network. I want to welcome our newest affiliate in Asheville, North Carolina, WZGM 96.1 FM, and 1350 AM in Asheville, North Carolina on Saturdays at 8:00 in the morning there. Thank you all at the station for bringing us on the air.

00;18;31;14 - 00;18;49;00

Cary Hall

And thanks to all of our friends over Radio America, our syndicator that got us on that station up in Asheville, North Carolina. All right, so let's do the math, because I talked about earlier, you know, we're going broke with Medicare 2033. If we don't, do some change things. Things are going to happen. So if you have 60 billion.

00;18;49;02 - 00;19;13;29

Cary Hall

And 19 billion here. All right. And you add those two together, You're looking at $79 billion a year going out the window. So if you add those two numbers together that's about what it works out to be between the fraud and waste okay. And what it looks like annually you wind up in a situation.

00;19;14;02 - 00;19;38;22

Cary Hall

How much of a difference would that make? All right. How much of a difference would that make over a ten year period of time to correcting the issues with Medicare? Well, it would make a huge impact? Obviously. So that's one of the ways that you can correct it. And the savings, if the accounting is done right, on Medicare, ACA and Medicaid, it's $79 billion.

00;19;38;22 - 00;20;08;10

Cary Hall

Those are other programs. But that money can be used, all right, to help reinforce what's going on with Medicare. Because in the past these things weren't being audited. This is what DOGE has done all the negative publicity and all the rest of it out there, they have uncovered massive, inefficiencies, fraud and waste in the federal government. And this is a classic example of what that would look like if you cut the waste, it would make a huge difference.

00;20;09;17 - 00;20;32;05

Cary Hall

So now we have private audit firms that are in 2023. They're auditing. They're doing the audit. The CMS recovery audit contractors recovered 1.4 billion in Medicare payments. It's a start okay. It's not much but it's a start okay. Here's some of the things that can be done that that are not as painful as a lot of people think they are.

00;20;32;07 - 00;20;59;27

Cary Hall

All right. Let's talk about raising the eligibility age. Yeah. And I know this starts a hue and cry with a lot of people. I'm not saying to, you know, did you start with people that are 45 years old? But if we're talking about people prior to being age 30, and if we were to say to that generation coming up, we're moving the age to 67 or 68, that would make an enormous difference in terms of overall cost.

00;20;59;27 - 00;21;28;26

Cary Hall

All right. So you're pushing it out so there'll be more money available because they're not going to get benefits till they're 67 or 68. Here's an interesting contrast. If you don't take your Social Security at age 63.5, okay, or age 65, and you wait until you're aged 70, you actually compound your benefit significantly every year. I think the numbers something like 8 or 9% a year, you compound your benefit.

00;21;28;26 - 00;21;52;18

Cary Hall

If you don't wait till you're 70. Why don't we do something like that with Medicare? Simple, right? People are living longer. They're working longer. I saw an article the other day in the Wall Street Journal that said, with the advances on Alzheimer's, the new 80 is now 60 because they're this close to a cure for Alzheimer's, either going to slow it down or stop it completely.

00;21;52;24 - 00;22;20;02

Cary Hall

So making a change like that would make an enormous difference. Here's some other differences. AI. In the government going through and doing auditing, seeing all of these issues, encourage tech driven audits, just like the private sector uses into these government entities, specifically into CMS for the inefficiencies, fraud and waste that we talked about that could make this work and work the way that it should.

00;22;20;09 - 00;22;43;06

Cary Hall

The problem is that we haven't done that up until now. And if we're going to turn this thing around, that's exactly what has to happen if you combine these reforms. So you combine getting rid of fraud and waste. You push the ages out to 67 or 68. And you introduce some different plans. All right. So there are other ways to do this.

00;22;43;06 - 00;23;08;06

Cary Hall

If you if you introduce plans that allow private insurers to offer discounted plans for ages 65 to 67, so you're retiring 65 or 67, you don't have a lot of issues. You don't have a lot of Medicare issues. Well, we can offer you a discounted plan. Maybe you don't even have to pay for part B, maybe they enroll you in part B and you don't pay for it.

00;23;08;06 - 00;23;30;08

Cary Hall

And that's all you need. And then you go until you're 67 or 68 and then you move into a more robust plan on Medicare Advantage, or Medicare Supplement. That would make a lot of sense. There are solutions out there for this. The problem is, as I said it before and I'll say it again, that politicians are afraid of this issue.

00;23;30;10 - 00;23;56;02

Cary Hall

All right. And because they're afraid of the issue, we're not talking rationally about how to solve the problem. You get a lot of people over here screaming on the left saying that the Republicans or Republican party is out to try to destroy benefits. Every election cycle. It's the same song and dance. Destroy benefits for Medicare recipients, destroy Social Security for senior citizens.

00;23;56;04 - 00;24;22;06

Cary Hall

None of that has happened. None of it's going to happen. History proves this. It's not my opinion. I'm just giving you the facts. Benefits to Medicare have increased dramatically. Not when you just look at the Medicare Advantage plans. If you had just original Medicare, which is what the hue and cry was when in 2003, when Bush put this through Medicare Modernization Act, do you recall the hue and cry?

00;24;22;09 - 00;24;49;17

Cary Hall

I talked about it a minute ago. You wouldn't have Meals on Wheels going to people's home that are disabled and are on Medicare that you have today under the Medicare Advantage, but you wouldn't have private transportation picking people up from their home and taking them to their doctor's office. You wouldn't have dental benefits. There are no dental benefits on part A and part B as standalone Medicare plans, or as they like to call them, original Medicare.

00;24;49;25 - 00;25;14;19

Cary Hall

You wouldn't have the vision benefits that are covered where you can go get your glasses, you can have other exams done, you can have other things covered. You certainly wouldn't have silver sneakers. Okay. How popular is that? All right. So what's really happened when you look at what's really happened with Medicare. And again, I'm going back to 2003. The hue and cry was it's going to take benefits away from seniors.

00;25;14;21 - 00;25;46;11

Cary Hall

It's done. Just the opposite of that. Probably the reason why you've got 32.4 million people enrolled in the plan. Do you think maybe that could have something to do with it? So what history says to us is that there's a better way to do this. All right. And when you compare the fraud and waste under the Medicare excuse me, under the Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement plans, with the fraud and waste that we're seeing under the Medicare Part A and part B, once again, you're looking at dramatic differences in numbers.

00;25;46;11 - 00;26;10;14

Cary Hall

Is is any of it acceptable? No. Having 19 billion a year going out the door, because private insurers aren't staying on top of it and shutting it down is not acceptable. But having 60 billion a year going out the door on the federal side, run by the Medicare organization, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, that's a lot more unacceptable.

00;26;10;18 - 00;26;38;27

Cary Hall

So again, there is a solution to this. But in order to get to the solution, politicians are going to have to start talking about this. And if you're a seasoned citizen or just a concerned citizen, this is a topic that you know, when you go to these town hall meetings, when you interact with your with your legislature, your congressmen, your senator, whoever it may be, this you ought to ask these questions, when are you guys going to tackle these issues in a real way?

00;26;39;01 - 00;27;01;14

Cary Hall

That's going to make a difference? Or are we just going to sit here and wait till 2033, when the whole damn thing goes off a cliff? Probably not. Right? Probably not. There'll be some emergency legislation or something to try to patch it up and try to make it work. But that's not the answer. We need a long term fix, and that means people that are here illegally.

00;27;01;17 - 00;27;28;28

Cary Hall

If you're here illegally, you're out, okay. You're not paying taxes. You're not paying the FICA & FUTA that I pay, I still pay it at age 76, for the paycheck I get, I still pay into those funds. So do all of you out there in the audience, that's why again, we've gone from, you know, almost five people paying for each recipient down to a little over two and a half.

00;27;29;00 - 00;27;50;13

Cary Hall

And that's that's had a huge impact. You don't have enough people paying for the benefits that are being taken out. That has to change. If we're going to keep this thing in place, it's a great benefit. Those of us that are senior citizens greatly appreciate this and we love having it. It makes a huge difference for us that we can get good medical care.

00;27;50;15 - 00;28;12;15

Cary Hall

I don't think too much of standalone Medicare A and B, because they leave a 20% hole that oftentimes doesn't get talked about. When Claire McCaskill came on this radio station. Talk to me. She left that little piece out. And then when I reminded her, if you had $150,000 heart surgery, guess what? You got left with 30 grand that you got to pick up on your own.

00;28;12;17 - 00;28;35;20

Cary Hall

Yeah. What Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement do is they get rid of those pieces. Under Medicare Advantage, you have copays. You have some out-of-pocket maxes. Under Medicare Supplement, which is a plan I've been on since I turned 65. I've talked about this before on this show. When Laurie broke her leg in Hawaii, we had to fly back here, air ambulance, the whole nine yards to the hospital.

00;28;35;20 - 00;29;01;26

Cary Hall

All of it. Okay. Because it was a very significant break and very difficult. Had to have. We had to do a special search and do the surgery. It was over $150,000. We did not pay $0.10 out of pocket because we had a Medicare Supplement plan. So I think that private insurance has improved the Medicare benefits significantly. The key is without the part A and part B, the whole thing collapses.

00;29;02;02 - 00;29;18;14

Cary Hall

So it's important that politicians start paying attention. This we'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate. Broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast across the USA.

00;29;18;16 - 00;29;41;26

Sponsor

Quid pro quo. A Latin phrase that means an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care community if you'll pay me a huge kickback for my referral. The free referral services have a vested interest in you choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make their money.

00;29;41;28 - 00;30;12;21

Sponsor

Does this paid recommendation sound, objective or credible? Of course not. I'm Steve Kuker with Senior Care Consulting. I'm so proud to say we have never received a single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community without conflict of interest and without the quid pro quo. Call 913 945 2800, 913 945 2800.

00;30;12;28 - 00;30;21;02

Sponsor

A placement service with integrity at SeniorCareConsulting.com.

00;30;21;04 - 00;30;42;14

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. You know, you can get our shows on our podcast platforms. There's 16 of them, including Rumble. Now that's newest one that we're on. So you're more than welcome to go to any of those podcast platforms, including the Cumulus podcast platform.

00;30;42;16 - 00;31;06;03

Cary Hall

From here on there, we're on the Audacy platform as well, along with SoundCloud and a whole host of others. Also, the YouTube platform, AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. Dave Thiessen does a fabulous job of we videotape all these. He puts them up there, and they're up there to be viewed. So if you want to tell somebody about this, that's a great place to go to get our broadcast, you can sign up, you know, subscribe.

00;31;06;03 - 00;31;25;17

Cary Hall

It doesn't cost anything. You can like us. We greatly appreciate that. You can certainly share us with your friends, if you'd like to do that. All right, let's get back to this, because we're talking about the crisis, the looming crisis in Medicare by 2033. So you know, for me, that means that, you know, 85, 86 years old, 87 years old.

00;31;25;19 - 00;31;44;14

Cary Hall

If this doesn't get fixed, my wife and I are going to have a big change in benefits. Our benefits are going to be reduced. So for those of us that are, you know, I'm 76, right? If you're 65 and above, this is a significant issue. All right. And if you're not 65, maybe you're 55, maybe you're 50.

00;31;45;10 - 00;31;59;29

Cary Hall

Well, you better think about this. Because if it doesn't get fixed by the time you get there, there might not be enough money to pay for it. And that's why I'm doing this show today. You know, I often say that one of the things I try to do here is separate fact from fiction. I don't try to make this political.

00;31;59;29 - 00;32;25;03

Cary Hall

Yes, I, I do criticize people, for saying things and doing things that are irresponsible. Like back in 2003 when we heard this great hue and cry about what President George W Bush was trying to do with the Medicare Modernization Act, which resulted in 32.4 million people going on Medicare Advantage plans. That's fact, not fiction. Okay, let's talk about another piece of fact.

00;32;25;03 - 00;32;58;24

Cary Hall

In 2021, 20% of the Medicare spending went to prescription drugs. This is an issue. And it continues to be an issue. And the cost of these drugs continues to go up. And I don't know what the solution to this is. You know, there's two arguments. The United States fits the bill for the, research and development of probably the majority of medications used around the world because the companies that produce these drugs Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, go down the list that they spend.

00;32;58;27 - 00;33;21;01

Cary Hall

I've done shows on this. They spend millions of dollars bringing these drugs to market. And many of them fail. There have been at least five, maybe six Alzheimer's drugs have actually done shows on this that that have been attempted to bring to market. And they failed. They got to second level of trials, third level of trials, whatever the case may be.

00;33;21;06 - 00;33;49;02

Cary Hall

And they didn't pass muster, so they failed. And that was after these companies invested millions and billions dollars. So the argument is that, we have to do what the Europeans are doing, what Canada, New Zealand, Australia do, where the government sets the prices for the prescription drugs, and then that's what the drugs cost. Well, the problem with that is that if that happens, a lot of people think research and development into new drugs is going to go away.

00;33;49;05 - 00;34;05;09

Cary Hall

So how do you find a happy medium? I don't know the answer to it. I know it's a problem and I know it needs to be addressed. I don't know if it's going to be addressed or not. It certainly does need to be addressed. If it doesn't get addressed, this is going to continue. It was 20% in 2021.

00;34;05;11 - 00;34;37;17

Cary Hall

I guarantee you that numbers up significantly. By the time we get to 2025, 2026 and it's going to keep going up. Part of the reason is because we keep finding new drugs. So I just I think I mentioned this earlier, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal the other day that talked about 80 being the new 60, because they are now finding medications that can literally they're very close to curing Alzheimer's and most definitely slowing it down to a point where they can stop it.

00;34;37;20 - 00;35;00;03

Cary Hall

So there are a lot of things happening going to make a difference, but there's a lot of money that goes into doing that. So there has to be a balance here. And I don't know how that's going to happen. I guess we'll have to see what what happens, how all that works. I'm going to shift gears now, and I'm going to talk about, something else that we heard a lot about before the Big Beautiful Bill passed.

00;35;00;05 - 00;35;22;21

Cary Hall

What you heard was that we were going to see Social Security cut. we also heard you're going to see Medicare cut. Well, that didn't happen. In fact, I did a show here just the other day with the folks from Blue Cross of Kansas. They're actually adding benefits this year to their plans that are coming out, but putting more dollars in certain programs.

00;35;22;23 - 00;35;52;04

Cary Hall

So. But what we heard around the country, in the media was that the Big, Beautiful Bill was going to cut benefits and Social Security. They were going to cut Social Security benefits to seniors. Well, let me tell you what really happened. Okay. 88% of seniors will be receiving their Social Security checks with no tax. I'm going to repeat that 88% of seniors receiving Social Security will pay no tax.

00;35;52;06 - 00;36;15;03

Cary Hall

That's what really happened. It always griped me, still does to this day that I worked my ass off since I was 16 years old. Okay, paying into Social Security, I'm still getting taxed on what I paid in. All right. Yeah. I don't think it's fair. And guess what? President Trump changed that. And here's another piece you'll find interesting.

00;36;15;06 - 00;36;37;29

Cary Hall

That was a largest tax break for senior citizens in the history of this country. Once again, I'm separating fact from fiction. So what does that mean to seniors? I don't know. What if you're tax is you're getting a benefit of $2,000 a month and maybe you're getting taxed $100. How much more disposable income does that mean for that senior.

00;36;38;00 - 00;36;57;01

Cary Hall

Does that mean that senior can have more money to use for prescription medications? Or maybe occasionally go out to eat and be able to afford it, or have money for better groceries? I don't know, but this is the single biggest thing has been done for seniors in the history of the US. That, by the way, those numbers don't come from me.

00;36;57;04 - 00;37;29;20

Cary Hall

All right? Those come from the federal government Office of Management and Budget, CBO. Okay, so if you're getting $24,000 as a single recipient on, on, Social Security, you'll pay nothing if you're getting $48,000 as a couple, you'll pay nothing in terms of taxes. That is what came out of the Big Beautiful Bill. Not what we heard. The legacy media and a lot of people on the left screaming and yelling about it was going to happen as a result of the Big, Beautiful Bill passing.

00;37;29;26 - 00;37;50;22

Cary Hall

What it really did was it saved seniors and gave them the largest tax break in the history of this country. Once again, I do these shows and these multi topic shows that I talk about for the sole purpose of bringing honest information to you, especially on topics that surround health care. Some upcoming shows we're going to do a show on ACA, Obamacare.

00;37;50;28 - 00;38;10;20

Cary Hall

We're going to talk about what that looks like now, where that's going. Can can we sustain that program? That's another massive government program. What changes are coming to ACA this year? Oh, they're going to be a lot of changes this year. So we're going to talk about that. So we'll talk about some of those from talk about Social Security in some of the upcoming shows as well.

00;38;10;20 - 00;38;28;05

Cary Hall

And where that's out. This is part of what we do here on America's Healthcare Advocate. Thank you for listening. And now I leave you with this thought from Doctor Albert Einstein. The one who follows the crowd, they usually get no further than the crowd, the one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.

00;38;28;07 - 00;38;51;29

Cary Hall

Remember, friends, it's a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the very best. You most often get it. Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast across the USA. Goodbye, America.

00;38;52;01 - 00;38;54;07

Cary Hall

You.