Why Is Healthcare So Expensive?

This episode explores the staggering costs of healthcare in the U.S., We share personal stories, systemic issues, and comparisons to international healthcare systems. We emphasize the need for reform and invite listeners to consider their own experiences while advocating for a more equitable healthcare model.

• Understanding the shocking costs of common medical services 
• Sharing personal stories about high medical bills 
• Exploring the impact of insurance companies on healthcare pricing 
• Explaining the concept of the charge master and its effects 
• Comparing U.S. healthcare to systems in other countries 
• Discussing the focus on reactive vs. preventative healthcare 
• Addressing the ties between employment and healthcare stability 
• Proposing a blend of public and private healthcare solutions 
• Highlighting the importance of raising awareness for healthcare reform

Chapters

• 0:00 Healthcare Costs in the US
• 10:03 Complexities of US Healthcare System
• 22:43 Proposing a Public/Private Healthcare System
• 31:44 Building Community Through Curiosity

Transcript

Cesar: 0:00

Today we're diving into a topic that affects every single one of us healthcare. $40 for an aspirin or $3,000 for an ambulance ride. How did we get here and, more importantly, how do they even come up with these prices? Why does an MRI cost as much as a round trip flight to Europe? I'm not dumb, but why is healthcare in the US so expensive? Welcome to the I'm not dumb but podcast, where we won't claim to have the answers to life's deepest questions but we'll give you an exciting journey into the realms of knowledge you never knew you'd either.

Cesar: 0:30

Might be mainstream, but not common knowledge. From artificial intelligence to conspiracy theories, no topic is too taboo for us to explore. Let's get curious together. I'm your host, cesar, joined by Chris, yo, rob, yellow and Victor. How y'all doing what's?

Rob: 0:49

up fellas. What is going on? I just paid a $50 copay, that's it.

Victor: 0:55

I thought that was a lot, you guys rich, so should I stop using an ambulance as an Uber.

Cesar: 1:00

If you can afford an ambulance as an Uber, you're a baller.

Victor: 1:03

I think I remember listening to this on a TikTok recently that if you have to get medevaced like they have to send a helicopter to come get you and bring you to a hospital. That's like 50 grand Crazy.

Rob: 1:18

Well, the fuel pilots, their salaries are pretty high, yeah. Then there's the annual certifications on those planes. I get that 50 grand. That's like taking a blade, man. You should just take a blade at that point. Yeah, where are you going, jfk?

Victor: 1:37

I don't think a blade picks you up wherever I think you have to go to.

Rob: 1:41

You got to meet it there, so just take an Uber to the blade. Well, they an Uber to the Blade.

Cesar: 1:45

Well, they're going to charge you congestion pricing now. Oh, yeah, it's not worth it. Then, yeah, it's not worth it, might as well die $9?.

Victor: 1:52

Are you kidding me? To take a helicopter ride? They're trying to just hurt the working man.

Chris: 1:56

They're going to rob you.

Cesar: 1:57

They're trying to just squeeze the middle class.

Victor: 2:00

Well, come on in this economy.

Cesar: 2:02

Wait, what are we talking about again? Healthcare. You guys have any crazy healthcare cost stories.

Victor: 2:07

Yeah, I just avoid going to the doctor. That's one way to do it. That's one way to save a lot of money. I eat an apple a day and that usually keeps away the doctors.

Cesar: 2:20

I still don't understand why they say that I don't know either. I have no idea.

Chris: 2:24

Because it doesn't make any sense. I have a pretty interesting story about healthcare. All right, let's hear it, Chris.

Victor: 2:28

Hold on, hold on, Before we do this. Shut the fuck up, Chris.

Chris: 2:32

I didn't even say anything.

Victor: 2:34

It originated in Wales in the 1860s. The original version of the phrase was eat an apple on going to bed and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread. Oh shit, that sounds pretty modern. The phrase became popular because of the belief that eating apples regularly can maintain good health. The concept of apples having health benefits is not new. Ancient Romans, anglo-saxons have all recognized their healthful properties.

Rob: 3:04

Well, there's probably a lot of nutrients. There's a little caffeine gets you going, wakes you up in the morning. There's no caffeine in apples. There's caffeine in apples.

Victor: 3:11

Oh, there is. Wait what? Yeah, there is. Are you jujoling it? There's no caffeine in apples. I don't need to jujol it. All right, let's Google it.

Rob: 3:20

There's zero caffeine in apples. Okay, good talk.

Cesar: 3:30

Chris, what's your story?

Chris: 3:31

man, it was like at least 10 years ago. We went to the hospital for a checkup or something and they told me that it wasn't covered by the insurance, so I had to pay out of my pocket right, I don't remember how much it was, but so I paid. And then a month later I got a bill of summary saying that they put it through the insurance to get it reimbursed. So they were like kind of double dipping. So I called them up and then they were like oh, I don't know what you're talking about. They're like well, you guys said that this isn't covered, so I pay out of pocket, and they're like denying everything. And then, soon as I said the word fraud came up, their whole attitude changed. I'll work with you, let's figure out what's going on. And then we literally went through the entire process of getting my money back.

Rob: 4:15

How much did they charge?

Chris: 4:16

you Like, almost like a grand.

Rob: 4:18

Wow, it's all the bills that come in after, like when I got my shoulder surgery that I think the surgery was like 60 grand or something like that 70 grand and then for months I just kept getting bills mri copay, then the person who reads the mri right x-rays person who reads the x-rays all of a sudden it's like three blood tests that I got like four months ago. I'm'm getting bills for that. You just get hit every month, every month, and that wasn't even anything. My insurance covered it. God forbid, I was sick.

Cesar: 4:50

They say medical debt is the highest reason for personal bankruptcies. All this is crazy.

Victor: 4:55

All this is crazy.

Cesar: 4:56

Take it up, take it over, no seriously the US St Luigi, where are you?

Victor: 5:03

Come save us.

Cesar: 5:04

Too soon, bro, too soon. The US spends significantly more on health care compared to any other nations, and we don't have better health outcomes.

Victor: 5:15

No, we have better health care. Better health care but might not have better outcomes. No, we have better health care. We don't want to let those commie fucking systems in here because they're going to destroy our health care system of a bunch of people that can't get it.

Chris: 5:29

This is.

Rob: 5:29

America, you dumb son of a bitch. Okay, I was talking to somebody some family members and they were out in Europe when I dislocated my shoulder. I had a surgery appointment in three weeks. I had a friend who broke his arm out there. He couldn't get to a doctor for three months. And one of my aunt's family lives out in like Germany or something and they had a friend who had a brain tumor. They couldn't get a thing for like a year and they ended up just dying because they could never get the surgery. They waited like six months till they got to this top of the list.

Rob: 6:06

Then they re-evaluate you. Then they say, well, your condition has gotten so worse because now you've developed all these other ailments like high blood pressure or whatever it is, you have to get re-evaluated. Then you go to the bottom of the list and then you got to wait again and it's like a nightmare to get anything done and a lot of like specialty, like surgeries. I guess people come to the US to get because the doctors make a lot of money here so that we have a lot of specialists as opposed to like basic types of medicine, I guess. But yeah, I'm all for getting people like covered and help, but I also like to get seen quick.

Cesar: 6:43

No, no, no, it's true, a lot of those countries that do have that universal healthcare. That's one of the issues. And in terms of specialists the specialists in those countries they're capped at a certain amount that they can bill or they can charge for the year. So let's say, like a cardiac surgeon, right, he's supposed to charge up to 500,000. If, like, in June, he's at that cap, well then, he takes the rest of the year off. Wait, what, what? I don't know if that's a hundred percent true.

Cesar: 7:11

So they do those countries do have better access because everyone's covered. But there's also deficiencies with those systems, just like here, our system is based based on private and public, so we have our employer sponsored insurance plans, our private insurance companies and then the privately owned healthcare providers. Then you've got the public sector, who provides programs such as Medicare, medicaid. But our system is based on this has like a fragment, so it causes a confusing web and this leads to a lack of care, redundant services, delays and inefficiencies. So there's issues with our system and with that one you just mentioned.

Cesar: 7:52

We all know where the major players in the healthcare system are right. We got the insurance companies determining coverages and negotiating costs. We got the pharmaceutical companies that develop and sell medication at high prices because of minimal regulation. We got the hospital and healthcare providers, some of which are operating as a nonprofit and some of which are operating for profit. And you got the patients, some of which have insurance, others that are underinsured, others that don't have insurance at all, and a whole host of you know patients with chronic conditions. All of this is just a clusterfuck as to what's driving healthcare costs. So what do you guys think are some of the major reasons? Costs are so high. They can charge whatever they want. You're talking about pharmaceutical companies or hospitals, both.

Rob: 8:45

So there is no set price for things? What do you mean? They can charge whatever they want.

Victor: 8:51

Who can charge? As far as I'm aware, you can go to one hospital in one state and they can say your shoulder surgery is going to cost $20,000. You go to a hospital in a different state, they can say your shoulder surgery is going to cost $20,000.

Cesar: 9:04

You go to a hospital in a different state, they can say your shoulder will cost $50,000. Yes, what? There's no regulations to stop. There's no rhyme or reason for yeah, so there's no prices on things.

Rob: 9:12

Things don't have prices.

Cesar: 9:16

The hospitals are like technically private right. Some of them a lot of them work under the nonprofit umbrella, but they still can run a revenue. Non, some of them, a lot of them, work under the nonprofit umbrella, but they still can run a revenue. Nonprofits can make a lot of money. That's a good segue. So how do hospitals actually come up with their prices? Right, some of them use what they call the charge master, which is an internal list of prices for services, procedures, supplies, which are usually often overinflated, beyond the actual cost, overinflated beyond the actual cost. They rarely disclose prices upfront, which creates a lack of transparency, and uninsured and out-of-network patients often are charged full rates, like I mentioned earlier, the $40 for an aspirin that costs pennies to make, and hospitals negotiate lower reimbursement rates with insurers, leading to inconsistent pricing for the same procedure and leaving the uninsured patient with the higher costs. They're kind of negotiating with the insurance companies. There's no standard, so they can charge whatever they want.

Rob: 10:09

So they say this is what it costs. I have insurance, my insurance goes over there. They're like we're not even paying close to that.

Cesar: 10:16

Your insurance company is negotiating prices with the hospital. The hospital is telling them this is what we're going to charge. The insurance company says this is what we're going to pay the difference in that is where the problem is, because the hospital is still. Someone needs to cover those costs and they just push it on to another person or another. Let's say like.

Chris: 10:38

Medicaid to push it on to that or somebody else it is ridiculous because they charge, you say, for a procedure for, say like hundred thousand or something, and then negotiate a price it's like five thousand. It's a huge gap that I noticed when you see the bills you get ask for a itemized bill.

Victor: 10:56

they start lowering the costs because they don't want you to show that you used five cotton swabs and you got charged $20 for each swab. Two things I think number one.

Cesar: 11:09

Another way they kind of jack up the prices. What they do is they take services that make the most money, like elective surgeries.

Victor: 11:16

So things like what Cosmetic nose job, joint replacements, apparently, what, which is crazy? Are you serious?

Cesar: 11:21

Yeah, it's crazy, right, as in elective surgery. Yeah, it's crazy. And they price them higher to subsidize less profitable services like the emergency room or to take care of patients with Medicaid or Medicare. What a system. Trump and Biden both put into office some sort of transparency bill, so they're going to tell you the prices of what the services cost. It's supposed to take into effect in 2026 or something like that, but Merck the pharmaceutical sued them. Nice, so we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. So, yeah, that's one of the reasons why prices are crazy. What other reasons do you guys think so? A large share of the US healthcare spending goes to administration, billing, insurance, insurance management, compliance, a lot of redundant systems and multiplayer complexities that drive the cost of a single payer system, which tend to divert these resources from patients to administrative costs Right now who has the model setup.

Rob: 12:22

You know where people are seen quickly and things are cheap and reasonable and things are more efficient. Like who's running? Who's kind of nailing it right now? Is there a country that's doing it or is this a overall?

Victor: 12:35

fuck fest. Top healthcare systems in the world Number one Singapore. Number two Japan. Number three South Korea. The United States is 69th 69.

Cesar: 12:49

69 is a good number, not bad.

Chris: 12:51

Not bad. My cousin was telling me that in Korea their treatment is so good that you could go drink lunchtime. You can go back to work right after.

Rob: 13:00

They fucking would. They'd be like yo. We got to get these people back in the office, got you?

Cesar: 13:06

Work, work, work.

Rob: 13:07

Yeah. So I noticed growing up, a lot of my doctors growing up have now started joining these groups. And then every time I'll get an email saying like, oh, this group has now been taken over by this group and this group, so what is happening there? Saying like, oh, this group has now been taken over by this group and this group, so what is happening there? Are they consolidating all these like smaller medical offices, and what's the benefit?

Cesar: 13:30

of these groups, it could be two things. It could be bigger practices buying out these smaller practices, doctors retiring selling their practices, but also, when you get it like a large group of doctors, one entity negotiating on behalf of one doctor, you're going to get most bang for your buck. It's the same thing with a lot of these hospitals. A lot of these larger hospitals now are buying out all these things. It's like an arms race.

Victor: 13:54

So the largest hospitals in the US number one, advent Health out of Orlando. Number two, yale New Haven Hospital. Number three is Jackson Memorial Hospital out of Miami. So two of those are Florida. The Mount Sinai Hospital is number nine in New York.

Rob: 14:13

I called my primary care physician, who I've been seeing since I was a child, and they were like you've been seeing a pediatrician as a 40 year old and he doesn't find anything wrong with that.

Victor: 14:25

Yeah, that fire truck is way too big for him to be sitting on. They have the best band-aids.

Cesar: 14:30

As a kid he's like Robbie, looking good buddy.

Victor: 14:35

Look how big you are.

Rob: 14:37

Working out Dave. Now I called my primary care physician. I can no longer see her because she is part of a concierge service where I have to pay $300 a month to get her as like a retainer and then go see her. I can only see her PAs.

Cesar: 14:55

That's an escort that you're seeing Okay, that's the wrong bill.

Rob: 15:00

I did find her on Twitter, you.

Cesar: 15:00

That's the wrong bill. I did find her on Twitter. You're looking at a wrong bill, so did?

Chris: 15:03

she just joined a group recently. Is that what happened, or?

Victor: 15:07

What's a concierge?

Rob: 15:08

service. Yeah, I have to pay monthly if I want to be treated by her. So now I have to be treated by her PAs.

Chris: 15:15

What.

Rob: 15:15

Which the best thing is is, if they have any questions, they just go ask her the next but prior to this you did see her oh yeah, for years that's crazy for like 20 years don't you have a one-on-one more or more access to her with the concierge services?

Cesar: 15:28

that's the whole thing it's. It's like it's supposed to be, like personalized medicine, this and that will see you whenever you have access to what your doctor, whatever yeah, but I don't go to the doctor enough to pay $300 a month.

Victor: 15:41

Supposedly they're supposed to offer you personalized care, direct access, expedited appointments and coordination of care. Shouldn't this be the norm? If I've been seeing the same physician for the past five years, I should be getting all of this already. This should be a non-starter.

Rob: 15:56

I have been getting that for years.

Victor: 15:58

Yeah, you're giving me aspirin with my name on it. Is that what's going to be different?

Rob: 16:04

I mean yeah, Ooh, you're.

Cesar: 16:05

VIP. My doc is good and he does that now, but I'm not. There's something else. You see, a man yeah, something about a female is just very caring, bro, he's the best. He's quick and thorough. Are we off? We're still talking about healthcare.

Rob: 16:25

Victor has a concierge service as well. I think, yeah, my back is killing me, yeah, my back. Well, Jules, the funny thing about my back is that it's located on my cock.

Cesar: 16:35

Another reason why healthcare in the US is so expensive is our healthcare system is more focused on reactive versus preventative care. I think the system prioritizes that's terrible, like. Ultimately, healthcare is a business right. Unfortunately.

Victor: 16:49

Yeah, but I don't want to get sick. I don't want to already go to the doctor and be like listen, I'm dying, Fix me.

Rob: 16:57

The worst part about being sick is being poor and sick, fucking sucks.

Victor: 17:02

I'm not a fucking car Like. I don't want to break down and then go to my mechanic and go listen, you need to fix this. I don't want my car to break at all.

Rob: 17:11

Well, the thing is, if you sign up, for the concierge service, then you could go monthly. Oh, really at all. Well, the thing is, if you sign up for the concierge service, then you could go monthly whenever you need to go. So if you're making it part of your routine. But the problem is, are you really going to a doctor that much, Especially at our age? You know, like a lot of young people don't go.

Victor: 17:25

I do my annual physical and if I don't need to go for anything else, I don't go.

Cesar: 17:29

Yeah, we talked about like three or four different topics. That all are included. Right, our healthcare system is focused on reacting and not actually preventing. There's a whole host of social determinants in healthcare factors like housing, education, income, food access, a whole bunch of poverty, income inequality a whole bunch of shit that just drives the price of healthcare. And let's say you don't have health insurance, the hospital is still going to get their money somehow some way. What are they going to do?

Chris: 17:59

They're going to pass on the cost to someone who can't pay. It's crazy, because I was in the hospital a few years ago and I was checking in and there was a lady next to me and she was also checking in and they were telling her if you don't have insurance, the cost will be 50 bucks. And then I looked at my bill and it was 150 bucks, but I had insurance, so they're charging me more.

Cesar: 18:15

Because they're charging their insurance company more.

Rob: 18:17

Because you can afford it. I walked in to my doctor a couple months ago. I was like I'm not feeling well. She looked at my insurance. She goes oh, you have great insurance. I took every test, every blood test. I walked out of there depleted, depleted, and then you know what they did. You're going to need to come back in about five weeks. We got to just run the numbers again.

Victor: 18:40

She went in Before everyone starts voting Republican. With your insurance, you probably go to the doctor more than this person without insurance so as they're going to the hospital as the last resort, because they're already fucked and they have nowhere else to go. You go to the hospital as the last resort because they're already fucked and they have nowhere else to go.

Victor: 18:57

You go to the doctor semi-regularly, which is a good thing which is a good thing and you can figure out these problems before they turn into something that forces you to be hospitalized just before people start, you know, jumping on the fucking red wave after listening for that fucking caesar's like going. Why is? Why is the flag at half?

Cesar: 19:18

max. Yeah, why is it?

Chris: 19:19

Why isn't the flag at half max, my fucking president just got in.

Rob: 19:22

We're going to win so much you may even get tired of winning.

Cesar: 19:26

I'm so lost. What's going on in the politics? I'm so lost. But it is true he has great health care and they start testing all these things. And it's one of the issues high cost interventions. You know the US healthcare relies heavily on expensive treatment sometimes and pharmaceuticals often, without corresponding improvement in outcomes. We're over medicalized and sometimes unnecessary testing of procedures increases costs without significant health benefits. It's another reason why healthcare is so expensive.

Rob: 19:54

So there's really just no way in our current system to bring this down.

Victor: 19:58

I'll be honest, I don't think anyone wants to, besides the people that are using the healthcare. I don't think anyone wants to bring it down. There's no lawmaker that wants to bring it down.

Rob: 20:05

I mean, if you got to do that, then a lot of these businesses aren't going to make money. As long as I'm getting the treatment I need and I'm only just shelling out a few co-pays, I'm cool with it. Charge $400 million If my insurance is covering it.

Victor: 20:20

I'm good, Rich white guy. You have a stable job that gives you that kind of flexibility of like well, as long as my health insurance is covering it, I'm good. There's people that move around a lot 1099. Right, there's people that own small businesses that don't have that kind of health insurance. 1099. Right, there's people that own small businesses that don't have that kind of health insurance. There's just like this huge gap of people that go to the doctor and the people don't look at their card and go, wow, you have great health insurance, you know.

Cesar: 20:45

And like. Look, inflation has been on the rise for like on average 2%, right? The cost of healthcare increases on average 3% every year, so it's outpacing inflation every single year, so it's never going to go down. And our country's getting older. As the share of the US population age 65 and over increases, more and more people are going to go into Medicare, and Medicare is one of those things where it will only pay a certain percentage of the costs. You got a lot of businesses or a lot of doctor's offices or a lot of hospitals finding other ways to recoup that money Another reason why healthcare is increasing and will continue to increase every year, do we?

Rob: 21:29

solve healthcare at the end of this episode, like single-handedly figure it out.

Victor: 21:33

No, Again you're coming up with depressing fucking episodes Bro.

Rob: 21:39

Just give me a story, just give me a story, give me some hope.

Cesar: 21:42

Give me a funny story, doesn't matter. What are we supposed to be happy every episode? Yeah, no, I knew you were going to say this too. I knew you were going to say this, this is healthcare.

Chris: 22:01

Healthcare-y. Say this too. I knew you were gonna say this is health care, health care. As I was doing it, I'm like this guy's a fucking bitch. I could blame.

Rob: 22:04

I know right what a fucking downer. You know your episode is good. It wins when victor shit on it. Hater's gonna hate. It's a lot of info but I can't relate to all of it, so I need a story.

Victor: 22:13

He doesn't know what poor people problems are.

Rob: 22:18

What do you mean that I can't?

Victor: 22:19

What's a poor person?

Rob: 22:21

It's like I honestly don't really know. I never know Hide the money y'all, there's poor people around. I thought we were going to walk away here with a clear understanding and be like this is what you got to do.

Cesar: 22:32

I'm Debbie Downer today, we can't donate or do something Okay.

Rob: 22:37

Healthcare we can't do.

Victor: 22:38

We can't do healthcare Space lasers, though Come back to it.

Rob: 22:43

Chad GPT. You got a great idea on space lasers. We've been mulling that over for a while, yeah.

Cesar: 22:48

It's just, it's expensive and it's going to continue to be more expensive, no matter what.

Rob: 22:57

You got to be more expensive, no matter what. You got to be rich or you got to get a good job or you got to not get sick. I'm in Costa Rica, right, I got sick out there, terrible stomach problem. So they take me to the doctor. I'm there for hours. I'm there for hours. They're hitting me with IV, they're hitting me with this. They can't figure out what's going on. I'm having stomach spasms, whatever. I'm walking out of there I'm beat up and the little girl behind the register is like, and she looks at me and the look on her face I was like, oh my God, I'm going to spend a thousand dollars right now. Like, seriously, she goes, it's going to be $74. I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. I've been here for hours. I was in that hospital longer than I was in my hotel room and it cost me $74. What kind of healthcare do they have?

Victor: 23:40

Costa Rica's healthcare system is 36th in the world.

Rob: 23:43

It's way better than ours. Oh, wow Okay.

Victor: 23:49

Well, there you have it. Costa Rica is known for its affordable and high-quality healthcare system. It includes both public and private options.

Cesar: 23:55

That sounds good.

Victor: 23:56

Couldn't we do a public slash private healthcare system where we still have private health insurance that you have to get through your employer or something, but it's only for specializations and anything that's just basic care or like routine visits or prevent health care be completely government funded? Wouldn't that system kind of work? A?

Cesar: 24:21

basic health care system. Isn't that what Obamacare?

Victor: 24:25

is the exchanges. That's just another health insurance option. That's just an overall health insurance, but for more affordable, like a public system.

Cesar: 24:34

I think it started out as something completely different.

Victor: 24:36

Yes, the whole Affordable Care Act was supposed to be. Everyone contributes and depending on your age, you contribute a different amount. So the older you get, the less you contribute, because it'll be more beneficial to you when you're older rather than when you're younger, when you're not going to the doctor.

Cesar: 24:51

And you still have private, you still have your private insurance.

Victor: 24:56

I'm talking about you still have private. You still have your private insurance. I'm talking about you still have private insurance. But like anytime you go see your primary care doctor, you're paying nothing, no copay, you're not even going through insurance. You just show up there or you make your appointment and it's all covered for you. But your specializations, that's what your insurance kicks in for. Isn't that the best?

Cesar: 25:12

of both worlds. So the government would subsidize primary care. Yeah.

Rob: 25:16

And preventative care. It would be cheaper for the insurance companies. They don't have to cover as much if people are going to a doctor more.

Victor: 25:20

Theoretically, you need a specialist less than you need your primary care. Just figured it out. Aoc, hit me the fuck up. We have concepts of a plan that would be better.

Rob: 25:30

And this is how we're going to pay for it, right you? How we're gonna pay for it, right you gotta tax it casinos in the hospitals downstairs.

Cesar: 25:40

All the losses will cover all the old people.

Rob: 25:42

They're already in there, they're in there hey wait, wasn't it idiocracy?

Chris: 25:44

wasn't there um casino thing like slot machine in the hospital?

Rob: 25:47

that's what we need to cover this aoc, hit me up.

Victor: 25:51

I got a plan for you, yeah I don't think that. I don't think that will pass, just because, like I don't think it'll, but I think that would be the best approach that would be beneficial to everybody. I want my money.

Cesar: 26:02

as a doctor, you're going to have less people going to primary care. You're going to get your money.

Victor: 26:05

You're going to get your money.

Rob: 26:06

They're going to cap it, you're going to get your money.

Victor: 26:08

What do you?

Rob: 26:09

mean Salaries.

Victor: 26:16

Yeah, is it'll force doctors to take on more patients. Not specialized, only specialized won't have to cap it. No, I'm talking about primary care.

Cesar: 26:19

You're talking about everybody. Primary care will be subsidized by the government, right? So they're going to have to cap it at a certain price, at a certain salary.

Victor: 26:25

But that's already. That's already. First of all, it's already hard to find primary care physicians, but at least they'll be free and not anyone's issue. But at least they'll be free and not anyone's issue. And if you can avoid seeing that specialist, even better, Because now you're getting that kind of preventative hair.

Cesar: 26:41

Specialists are going to be pissed. It's hard to get an appointment now. It's crazy.

Victor: 26:43

They're going to be pissed Because they can charge so much? Why Cancer's not going away.

Rob: 26:48

But don't you have to go to the primary care to get. If you go to a lot of these, specialists like urgent care.

Cesar: 26:55

They're just doing a bare minimum and they're just passing you on to somebody else.

Victor: 27:00

That's all everybody needs. Really Number one, that's urgent care. But that's what urgent care is for. It's like the basic and get the fuck out. Because even if you go to urgent care and you have a serious emergency, they say go to the ER. Oh really, yeah. They tell you they're like listen, we can't shoot you, you're bleeding out of your asshole. You need to go to the ER. All right world hunger, let's solve that. It's not a bad idea. I think victory Thank you what a good one.

Rob: 27:25

Too good, too good, too good, too good.

Cesar: 27:37

Might be a habit's time. Yeah, they're listening in. United health care is about to get its revenge on you.

Chris: 27:39

I will find you the part that gets me is that, like the uh evaluation or whatnot, whatever we call it like even my co-worker, like he said that his daughter had a heart issue and then they were going for like a surgery or something like that, they have to get like statements and letters to show proof that their daughter's gonna to die. If I don't get this, it was like I don't know.

Cesar: 28:00

I don't know if you've seen the memes about the insurance companies. The insurance companies are out to basically reject and deny anything you need them to pay.

Chris: 28:10

It's such a bullshit and I remember my coworker being super worried. He was like yo I don't know if they're going to reject this. I don't know what's going to happen.

Rob: 28:19

Don't they have AI chatbots that are designed to deny so many percentage of claims or something like that? Unitedhealthcare had that An AI that was denying 90% of claims and it was off and they knew it, but they let it run anyway.

Cesar: 28:35

Crazy times, anyway, healthcare Expensive, chris. What'd you learn today, man?

Chris: 28:39

Like I never from the beginning, like I knew it was a bullshit because of all the. It's difficult and it's very confusing and it's I don't know, it's a topic. It's very uneasy too. So it's like I have mixed feelings about healthcare. But sometimes I do feel bad for people that can't afford it or don't have really nice ones, you know, because I know what they have to go through, because even like a little thing that happens to me, that I always get pissed off and it takes a lot of time just to resolve it and I can't imagine what people have to go through a daily basis. To you know that people, even they, can't afford to do it.

Cesar: 29:13

So yeah, Victor, what about you, man?

Victor: 29:16

What about you, man? I don't understand how we as a country who love to talk about our freedoms and our rights, and love to talk about how important our freedom of speech is, our freedom to bear arms, but for somehow we missed the freedom to be healthy, like as a God given right, as if that's something that should be for profit or should be exploited. That being said, I solved the healthcare problem, so you know.

Rob: 29:45

Rob, it just seems that the way you explained it I mean healthcare just is incredibly confusing. It seems like there's so many hands on the pot. For it to have change, people have to really care about it. A lot of people have. There's a lot of rich people, there's a lot of people who have jobs that cover this type of thing, and you're only really going to hear about the people who can afford it, and the young don't even care. So you know you have a small amount of people who are really getting hurt by these things. And then the outliers, where you know the major cases where you hear you know someone has cancer or something like that, and then they're completely bankrupt these terrible stories. But it's a confusing thing.

Rob: 30:25

I don't even read my explanation of benefits. I don't even look into this type of stuff. I go to the doctor. They tell me it's 20 bucks. I pay it. I go the next week. It's 25. I'm like, okay, the prices went up. I don't even know how it works. So I think majority of people probably think that way too, and if it's too confusing, they're probably really not looking into it. Either you got to set yourself up or you got to be lucky enough to have yourself set up to get through this, because you know when you're young you don't even think about it. As you get older, you know you're going to doctor a lot more.

Chris: 30:56

There are people in this country where they're miserable and they hate their job but because of the health care they can't leave. They're kind of like buying to the job they're called public sector workers.

Victor: 31:11

How crazy is that? That we have something in our Constitution that allows the pursuit of happiness but we are stuck with jobs because of health insurance. That's the biggest. One of the biggest limiters of freedom there is the fact that it's tied to your job.

Cesar: 31:27

Oh yeah you're in prison at that point. So there you have it A deep dive into why healthcare in the US is so expensive. From the insurance negotiations to the inflated prices and the lack of regulation, it's clear that the system is complex, but the stakes are incredibly high. If you enjoyed today's show, hit that follow button and spread the word of this amazing podcast you've discovered. We want you to be an active part of our community, Whether you have a question, suggestion or just want to share your thoughts on our topics. We want to hear from you. Find us on Twitter at I'm Not Dumb but, and on YouTube at I'm not dumb but podcast. Until next time, Remember, stay curious.