Curry Café: Seniors vs. the System – Medicare, Corporate Greed, and Retirement Challenges

In this episode of Curry Café, hosted by Ray Gary with Rick McNamer and Michael Gorse, guest Pamela Thorsch sheds light on the financial strain caused by rising Medigap premiums, corporate price gouging in healthcare, and the lack of transparency in insurance practices. The conversation critiques the U.S. healthcare system for prioritizing profit over patient […]

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe. I'm Rick
McNamer, producer and volunteer.
Every Sunday, your host of Curry Cafe, Ray
Gary, puts together a panel of guests to
discuss topics of interest in our community.
You listeners can also participate via our text
line at (541)
661-4098.

(00:27):
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
Now here's Ray to tell us about today's
show. Yeah. Hi.
Thank you, Rick. And today, we have a
kind of a special show. We only have
one guest, but she's extremely knowledgeable and will
will,
fill in for several people.

(00:47):
Before we get started, I'd like to welcome
everybody again to the Twilight Zone that we
are apparently living in right now, if you
watch the news at all. But, anyway, enough
of that, and maybe we'll get back to
that later.
Pamela, maybe you could introduce yourself. Tell us
a little about yourself and tell us what
you're gonna talk about.
Okay. Thank you, Ray.

(01:08):
My name is Pamela Thorsch. I've been a
resident of Brookings for the last four and
a half years.
I came from San Diego
and
thought I was gonna retire, but found that
I needed to continue to work because,
my Social Security is not enough.
So I'd be I'm a notary and notary
public loan signing agent here in town

(01:29):
and have enjoyed living here for the last
few years. But,
my personal experience that brought me here today
was regarding
the increase in my
supplemental
Medigap plan,
when I moved to Brookings from San Diego.
UnitedHealthcare,
or at the time, I had,

(01:50):
HealthNet,
they raised my premium
$80
just for moving from San Diego
to Brookings.
And they
even though,
the state is basically,
more affordable,
they justified it, that the move so they
raised my rate.
I have a Plan F

(02:11):
and a lot of people don't have that
plan. They have there's many different plans available,
but, that particular plan has sunset. But it's
like the Cadillac of
Medicare plans
And it's,
basically a PPO.
So I pay
a premium upfront every month,
and then I don't have the

(02:33):
expenses, the added expenses.
When many people have a co pay, I
don't have the co pay.
But, you know, you're so you pay up
front or you pay,
in the co pay, they get you no
matter what. Pay now, pay later? Pay now,
pay later. That's sort of the thing. And
I was, pretty distraught. You know, $80 on

(02:54):
a fixed income as a senior,
that's a lot of money a month to
be, forking out.
And
this gouging that has become sort of
a problem with corporate America,
whether it's in health insurance or we've seen
it in the grocery stores. I mean,

(03:14):
these false bottoms that they they claim that,
you know, we have to we're paying, but
things never,
they increase the prices, but they never roll
them back. So, you know, we're having to
learn to live with these increased prices across
the board.
And it it's very frustrating.

(03:35):
But on my 70
birthday,
I changed my plan,
from
Health Net to UnitedHealthcare.
And it was basically called an
AARP UnitedHealth.
Well, that's
another big issue. So everybody in the health

(03:55):
industry knows
UnitedHealthcare
as AARP
plan.
And AARP,
you know, as you know, is supposedly
this organization
that is looking out for us, our seniors.
There's a membership program.
We're out there
trusting them to,

(04:16):
to be the legislative voice,
in Congress looking out for the seniors.
But in fact, what I found in this
whole process
is that AARP
mainly just sells their branding. They it's a
marketing ploy. They sell their name
to,
UnitedHealthcare,

(04:37):
to Foremost Insurance, to other
companies
to use their name. They have no ownership.
They have no oversight. They have nothing.
They rake in about a billion dollars a
year,
for the use of their name,
and that is a real problem.
And when you see AARP,
most seniors, I think I think they said,

(04:59):
well, that's our club. They're on our side,
and they're gonna do it right. Right.
Exactly. And then then to find out what
what spurred me on is that when I
started looking for a better plan
for, to reduce that $80 a month and
came across UnitedHealthcare,
they told me at the time, oh, we've
only increased the rates about a few dollars

(05:21):
here and there. They will go up, but
not substantially.
And within two months of being with UnitedHealthcare,
I got a letter saying that they're gonna
increase my,
monthly rate to $40
$40 more.
And it's like, you know, when they when
an insurance broker tells you that, you know,
it's gonna be steady and then two months

(05:42):
later,
it's not the case, it's like, what?
Well, the $40 a month wasn't a big
deal to that guy. That was a small,
increase.
He told me at the time that,
it was only it had only gone up
about 4 or $5 a month over the
last couple of years. Oh.
In the meantime,

(06:03):
UnitedHealth
blamed Medicare and they said, well, it's because
of Medicare. Medicare was the one that, you
know, said this and so they've sort of
set the prices.
Well, I went on to talk. I called
Medicare and I was on the phone with
a supervisor for forty minutes at Medicare.
Medicare
said absolutely no way. There is just no

(06:24):
way that we dictate to a private company,
their
rates.
And so these
UnitedHealthcare
and I I had a similar,
situation with
HealthNet.
They're blaming Medicare.
Medicare has nothing to do with it
because those are privately held companies.

(06:44):
And so that's and they're they're trying to
pull the wool over our eyes
and and trying to justify and lying through
their teeth when they're doing it.
I would say too that from the way
you're describing the things you've gone through, you
have a lot more energy and a lot
more knowledge
to even deal with these people.
If I had that kind of an increase,

(07:05):
I'd just say, oh, well,
and and and and suck it up because
I don't have the energy or the knowledge
to deal with these people like that.
And you're absolutely right. And I've I use
this in the conversation. Thank god I still
am capable.
Mhmm. I'm on not on any medication. I'm,
you know, I I'm fully functional.

(07:26):
Ray Ray almost jumped out of my seat.
I just I just put the pills in
my little organizer this morning. Okay. Hour and
a half of Oh, no. I two of
this, one of that, none of that, whatever
you're I know. But I I tell them,
I said,
I'm
and I I have said, I speak not
only for myself, but on behalf of the

(07:47):
other people who are not willing or able
to speak
because that is an important factor.
Not only is there either they're physically or
mentally not capable of standing up for themselves
and that's why having a patient advocate,
for them is important, but,
we were talking earlier about the apathy.

(08:08):
People sit and they just take it,
and we just can't sit back, whether it's
in the medical field or in health care
or anything else that's happening in our lives.
Is just sitting back and thinking there's nothing
that we can do about anything, and that's
absolutely wrong.
Well, I have so many things areas I
need to want to go. But before I

(08:29):
do, we haven't introduced
our fourth
guest today. Mister Michael, please
tell us who you are and what the
heck you're doing here.
Well, I'm Michael Gorse. I am a volunteer
here
and with the Wild Rivers Film Foundation,
and,
I am
kind of sitting fourth seat because the fourth

(08:50):
seat was open, and I was interested.
And all I can say is, wow,
I am
everything that we're dealing with in in life
right now
occupies that same place, doesn't it? Yeah. It's
just a gratuitous
grab, a a gratuitous greed
that is
dictated by the fact that they can get

(09:12):
away with it more than the fact that
it's justified,
and they're all making more money than anybody's
ever made in the history of the planet
Earth. And we are flummoxing our stuff in
the midst of our last opportunity
to
get the water cycles back to normal and
to have a a planet that we can

(09:32):
all live in uncomfortably
for, you know, decades going forward. Without the
immigrant.
Yeah. Without yeah. No. The if if if
70% of us simply can't afford to live
in this country anymore,
It's wrong.
They are and this is what they've what
they're trying to pull. It's more of a

(09:53):
scam than a reality,
the financial issues that we're in.
And yeah. And and, of course, again, we
so much appreciate that Pamela's here because all
of us are dealing with issues in that
field. And I I'm being flashed. We do
have a text line to remind you again,
that it's (541)
661-4098.

(10:15):
So questions, comments, please give us a text.
You know, Pamela, I do have united health
care Mhmm. Slash AARP.
I've had it for a long time.
Right now and I'm 72.
And right now and I get updates all
the time. Every I think they raise mine.
It should and I have plan f also.
Mhmm.

(10:36):
Mine gets raised every six to seven months,
I think. Right now, my supplement is $300.
So,
and, of course, I also get the
my out of my I'm I'm railroad retirement,
a little different, Social Security, but they take
out for the Medicare
Mhmm. There also. And I I was gonna
get the numbers. I don't. But, anyway,

(10:57):
yeah, it's,
it's is it what do they call that?
Usury when they when they overcharge
people with what really should be charged? And
then there's also the drug supplement that I
have. Mhmm.
And,
well, anyway,
that kind of stuff, it it's hurting everybody

(11:17):
to pay those prices, but we have to
have that to, you know, visit our docs,
visit the it god forbid we have to
have other surgeries, which I've had minor ones.
And the fact that you don't need medications,
hallelujah, boy. I wish I was there because
I'm on multiple medications.
Well,

(11:38):
that's part of the problem is that the
more you use, from my understanding what what
I was told, the more you use your
health insurance,
the they they,
put you into a different category.
And so they actually increase your rates because
of the the use that you have comparatively
to people who don't use it quite as

(12:00):
much.
I
after doing a number of research, I reached
out to AARP,
to talk to them, and they went to
justify themselves, of course.
Of course.
And I finally ended up
and I'm coming back to your your what
yours just said,
a gal named Tricia Goldsmith.

(12:22):
And she there is
a part of the department I went and
reached out, excuse me, to the Department of
Insurance for the state of Oregon.
And they
directed me to this Tricia Goldsmith,
and it's a division of financial regulation.
And out of that office at the state
level, which they have at all in all

(12:44):
the states, it's the same thing.
These private health care companies have to present
on an annual basis,
a projection,
sort of showing
basically making the case why they wanna raise
the rates.
And and they and they do this,

(13:05):
breakdown and give it to the state and
then the state signs off on it. So
the state approves all these increases.
But
from my perspective,
the state's not really asking enough questions, and
it really lies down into that situation
because,

(13:25):
what we're what I have found,
not only as I mentioned that,
these large corporations are in the health business
to make a profit,
not not for our health care, but in
particular, United,
UnitedHealth
is, under investigation
at the Department of Justice, or at least

(13:46):
they were up until a couple of months
ago.
Yeah.
One, for trying to create a monopoly with
in home house,
in home care, but also,
the way they bill.
And they have been there's evidence that UnitedHealthcare
particularly,

(14:07):
goes to doctors and they
dictate to the doctors
of what kind of procedures they should be
approving. And so
we are getting people are getting procedures that
might not necessarily actually be the right procedures
for their particular
illness.
But UnitedHealthcare

(14:27):
finds that there's more money, and then they
bill
Medicare
based on those procedures.
And
if I can find it here,
the Medicare
paid out
I don't know
how many billions of dollars
that,
to to,
UnitedHealthcare,

(14:49):
because they were
because they were over they overbilled them.
Wow. Now is that's a real racket, isn't
it?
Well, it is. Then there's the other thing
that if,
if you go have a procedure or go
to the doctor or whatever and,
the, doctor's office will bill
you

(15:10):
for $3,000.
Mhmm. And Medicare says, well, we're only gonna
pay 1,500
Mhmm. Or 1,200 or something. And what I
mean,
what's that all about?
It it seems to me like if I
had a pacemaker installed,
it should be like a flat rate for
what a pacemaker cost Mhmm.
And and and not have to be negotiating

(15:32):
with the
people who pay for it.
You would think, Ray, but, according to
this regulatory
agency at the state,
she said that
that you would think that the rate was
going to be the rate across the country,
but it's not. It varies from state to
state. Even in area. I mean, if if

(15:54):
the richest guy in in Oregon went into
the same hospital,
same thing, would he
pay the same well, probably wouldn't pay anything
because he has enough
influence to not have to pay silly little
things like that. Well,
he might have a different kind of coverage.
You know,
we're we have what we have. I mean,

(16:18):
I I just wanted to point
out that,
that the premiums and the the claims that
they tell you they tell you that they're
gonna refund you if you don't
have to use all of that money, which
I've never received a refund
in my I've I've received bumps in my
supplement, but never I know. Crazy. Yeah. You

(16:39):
know? And I I'm still I gotta backtrack
a little bit. I was totally unaware.
So my supplement, I thought because of my
age
with UnitedHealthcare
slash AARP, whatever that is now, I keep
calling it UnitedHealthcare,
but I thought that was just a generic
sum. I thought everybody 72 my age was

(16:59):
paying $300 a month. It's roughly $300.
But it's based on, like, my visits
to the doc? That's what that's what the
Department of Insurance at the state of Oregon
has said. And I'm California, so it's probably
even more rigid. I don't know. But, well,
again, that's a I didn't know that. So
you get put in a different risk level

(17:20):
for if you Well, apparently Right. Like your
car insurance. If you have a lot of
speeding tickets, you pay more.
Exactly. That's what that's what, does Tricia Goldsmith,
outlined here.
So I on my plan f right now,
I'm paying $2.17.
Okay. Okay. And they're gonna raise it to,
$40.
Well, in in the last three about three

(17:42):
months, I I I had pneumonia, and I
went back and forth to my dog probably
four times with a couple of trips for
chest. Boy, I can just see in another
six months, you're gonna
yank this guy up. Yeah. I mean, I
I just had no idea that that was
happening. You're gonna you're gonna need another pill
organizer because the one you have is in
big alpha. I've I've I've I'm already there.

(18:03):
I've got two of them for two weeks.
Anyway yeah. And see, this brings me to
another point. The way the health care system
is set up in our country right now,
they don't have a wellness program really in
place. Right?
If there was programs in place to keep
people well, to,

(18:23):
you know,
for food and for massage and for chiropractic
care and for different things, Some plants cover
it, but most of them don't. Right. But
they'll cover you when you have a catastrophic
catastrophic illness or something happens to you. That's
when they cover you. But when to make
more sense is to keep people well?

(18:45):
Well, a lot of stuff that would make
a lot more sense than what's going on.
Sounds like, some woke stuff to me. Are
you a woke? I'm a weak person?
I I am a woke person. Oh, okay.
Alright. And I'm very proudly woke. Good for
you. Because I think woke is
being aware and being conscious. Sure is. Sure
is. And and not sitting back in an

(19:07):
apathetic way,
not taking action. In other words, you hate
America. Is that what you're saying? Oh my
god. I'm completely Not with that flag on
it.
Is there any way or time that we
could expect that the human head will become
part of the human body and covered by
the human health care?

(19:27):
Maybe not in this country. You know? Because
like ears and eyes
and teeth and none of that is covered
by this stuff that is
absolutely
over the top,
ruining our lives
in the manner in which they're providing
their non service
and making us sicker because we're all traumatized

(19:48):
by this. Right. And we have been for
decades.
You're absolutely right. When does traumatizing
us
get qualified
as an event
in all of this?
Well, when you when you get that answer,
please let me know.
Yeah. No kidding. Alright. You're gonna
since you have all this energy, we can
assign you to the research on that.

(20:10):
Well, I've,
I have done a lot of research, and
there's You have. We've received that. Yeah.
But it's important. It's important to know because,
you know, just, again, sitting back and and
letting people keep on telling you this when
you don't understand why.
And, Pamela, you mentioned advocate.

(20:30):
Mhmm. There is there are no advocates or
let me let me go back a little
bit. Do you advocate advocate for some people?
Or do you help some people out, family
members, friends? I I have in the past.
Okay. But it would be nice Mhmm. If
there were a special advocate in each community
because I cannot
I cannot navigate this stuff. Right. No. My

(20:53):
wife who passed,
six over six years ago was very good
at this. She's the one that helped. I
didn't have to she read the the War
and Peace novel pamphlets to go through and
all of that stuff. I can't I just
don't do it, and I kind of automatically
just say, well, it's only gonna be this
way. But it's hard. It's very hard for
the a normal person

(21:14):
to navigate
this horrible
corn maze
that has a block almost every or the
yeah.
A door closed, if you will, on every
turn you try to make.
I I really admire you people that can
look into this and stuff. My
my whole health thing was set up by
my ex wife,
and and she is one of those people

(21:35):
who
looks at every every man.
And and all and and when I went
to the doctor, she went with me. She
was always the one that took out the
cards and gave them,
to the person who wants the cards. And
I go into a doctor now, and I
put a stack of cards down on the
on the desk and say, which one do
you need?

(21:56):
Well oh, okay. Well, let let me say
one thing about that. And my wife, when
we started, you know, getting aged, whatever you
wanna call it, seniors, the golden years, we've
always accompanied each other to their to our
doctor's office. Absolutely required.
And,
right now, we have a friend,
who well, me too. I'm single now, widowed,

(22:18):
but always want to take somebody with you
if you can. Because you don't pay attention.
Pad. Mhmm. I mean, because some of that
stuff, it just gets confused in my brain.
I
do take a notepad in every doctor appointment
that I have. So I have a friend
who has a medical thing going on right
now and the first time. She finally got

(22:39):
a doctor's appointment, which took forever,
and she came back. And I said, well,
what'd they say?
And she looked at me with this blank
expression.
Oh, I'm supposed to because she had the
the same thing I did. She had a
husband who took care of everything for her,
and she just Right. Right.
You you just brought up a point, which,

(22:59):
can be very intimidating,
that you call any of these organizations
and you can be on hold for forty
minutes. Yes.
And
But your call is important to them. Then
after thirty five minutes, they say, if you
would prefer, you we can have somebody call
you back at this. I've done that and
never received a grip. I never call. I've

(23:21):
I've always found that to be pretty effective.
Well, you're you're lucky.
And another thing was I have an authoritative
voice. I know they better call me back.
Oh, maybe I'm too weak. Yeah. So but
the the call centers,
that we call now, it's normally
a for to me, I've encountered Mhmm. You're
sure it's a foreign country. Now this is
a story I tell. People won't believe it,

(23:42):
but I I promise you this happened. This
wasn't a health care company, and I don't
remember exactly what it was, but I called
one time for commute customer service. Mhmm. I
heard chickens and roosters in the background.
I'm serious.
Now
the lady was nice, and I I I
don't wanna be, you know, berate anybody. But
I thought, man, what kind of this is
not customer service, and and they're hard to

(24:05):
understand.
I I just wish that sometimes, you know,
they would or or train the people to
speak
better. I don't know. But it's frustrating, especially
for a Probably don't have to get paid
as much if you don't speak English. Well,
you know that that's gonna be the bottom
line. Between
between the this call coming from or wherever
it's coming from, the accent, and the and

(24:26):
the lousy
sound you get on a cell phone, it's
and and I'm deaf in one ear and
don't hear well out of there.
Excuse me? What did you say? Did you
ask her if she had eggs for sale?
This day and age, I might. Yeah. Send
them. But isn't that amazing that
when we're in this in The United States

(24:48):
and we are talking to somebody in Malaysia
or,
pick a country. Right? Philippines. Right. And they're
telling you about your
health plan
or your
whatever issue you're dealing with. And it
and it's like, well, you're not in this
country. Do you really understand what we're up
against here? But they have their little,

(25:12):
script. A cheat sheet. Yeah. Right.
And then dictate to us what, you know,
we can or cannot do. And when I
asked to speak to a a customer service
representative
in The United States,
Nine times out of 10, they tell me,
oh, nobody is available now.
Got it. You know, it's funny. I never
even thought of asking that, but and that's

(25:32):
the answer you get.
We don't have any.
Right. But why why are we outsourcing
to all these countries? Why why do we
have to why are we doing that? Bottom
line dollar
money savings. I get it. See, this this
whole thing is all about money.
Uh-huh. And I just wanna I mean, it's
staggering

(25:53):
because I wanna go back to this. I
really wanna make a point,
that
Health Net
is owned
by a corporation
who's,
owned by
it's called Sysdine,
and they are owned by four or five
investment firms.

(26:17):
As I mentioned, UnitedHealthcare
is owned by Vanguard.
And
yesterday's or this Friday's stock was $516.85
a share.
Apple
on Friday was $218.27
a share. And Amazon

(26:37):
was a hundred and $96.21
a share. So comparatively,
when you look at these three big corporations,
UnitedHealthcare,
it has a larger stock value than these
other companies that we're dealing with. Now that's
pretty phenomenal.
Yeah. Don't you think? It is. And,

(26:58):
also before I continue, I just wanna throw
out our text line again.
(541)
661-4098.
Questions, comments, please,
text in. A a a a few months
ago, we had this,
years ago, I guess now, we had this
big scandal. Was was it the Sadler family
that was
producing some kind of a painkiller that they

(27:19):
knew was Oxycodone.
Oh, is that what Wait. That the one
you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.
And they got sued for all kinds of
everything,
and and it barely hurt any of them.
They're all still very rich and still living
off their other drugs. They just settled that
a couple weeks ago, but,
yeah, I'm sure they're still very rich.

(27:41):
Well, I think that's a given.
You know, and,
Pamela, with like, again, we talked or I
have you with UnitedHealthcare.
Mhmm. But there's others out there. Are they
really any different or better? The ones I
just quickly wrote or thought of were there's
Mutual of Omaha,
Aetna,
Humana,
Cigna, and there are a lot more. But

(28:01):
it's probably not even worth
trying to change.
Are are the prices gonna be that different
in different companies?
Probably not. That I can't answer that. I
don't know because I haven't I haven't done
any investigation
myself personally on those. Okay.
I was just
told actually, a friend of mine used to

(28:22):
work for AARP,
and she was a regional director.
And when I was fed up with Health
Net,
she had told me that she when she
went on to her
Medigap plan, she went with United,
Health, and that's one she was with.
And some of these aren't quite rated,
as high,

(28:43):
as the others because,
UnitedHealth is the largest one, pretty much the
largest one.
But you also brought up another,
situation with
the plan d
where Oh, the drug a prescription plan? Prescription
drug plan. I find that most of them,

(29:04):
have they have what they call a formulary,
and those formularies
limit the kinds of drugs that are available
to you.
And it's through that's why you can't
get everything,
all the drugs that you need through through
that plan. I actually I think I only
used that plan once this last
year. $45,

(29:25):
was billed to them.
Other than that, the the GoodRx and that
have much better prices than that plan d.
It's like, why is that? I'm paying
for that plan d, and I'm and I
I'm not even utilizing it because
the deductible is so high. I think it's
close to $600
you have to spend before they cover any

(29:46):
of the insurance.
Well and I have a little disclaimer for
me personally, and I
I thank my lucky stars. I was able
to qualify for
tribal health in California.
So but and I still have these supplements.
Now as far as prescription drugs,
I'm on a lot,
and I don't pay a dime.

(30:08):
A dime? Really? You don't even have a
co pay? No. No. It has to do
believe me, you have to meet certain requirements,
and I did. And
I thank my lucky stars. I'll say it
all the time. So I'm
unique maybe, but I feel all of my
other family and friends, I they've there's horror
stories about them going in to get a
prescription that the doctor says, you know, well,

(30:31):
you you need this right now. And then
he'll well, one particular friend I'm thinking of,
he went in to get it, and it
was,
600 and some dollars for a thirty day
supply.
Long story short, because it was kinda confusing
confusing,
but he tried to navigate other ways, and

(30:52):
it took him a long time. It took
him a lot of phone calls. It took
him a lot of waiting time
to find another plan
that he got that same drug,
a ninety day supply, and another oh,
he went to Walgreens. That was expensive. But
then he went to CVC on another plan.
Then it was $60
for
this, a 90 day supply. My point is

(31:14):
how
Where's the It's not doesn't make sense. Right?
It just doesn't make sense. And it's hard
for seniors, like, it's hard for anybody Mhmm.
To try to
navigate those,
those roads to see where the best
what
the best price you can get.
I was put on a I think it's
a blood thinner

(31:34):
Oh, I might want it though. A a
year or so ago,
and the doctor said, well, there's three drugs
we can
give you and the Cadillac, the best one,
if you can afford it, that's what and
then it goes down from there. So I
have this prescription for the Cadillac, and
and I and the woman at Fred Meyer
gives me the prescription and charges me $5

(31:56):
co pay,
and she said, you have very good health
insurance.
The the the cost of that drug was
$500
a month. So why why is this so
expensive is the question. Well,
quite a quite a few years ago, my
my my my brother's wife,
got brain cancer, and she

(32:17):
they were doing everything. My brother is is
fairly well off, so he's he was able
to do what everything that was needed to
be done.
And they came up with an experimental drug
that she that she could take,
and,
the doctor said she had a two percent
chance with this drug, maybe, because it's experimental.

(32:37):
And so, well, she's got a zero
chance right now, so let's try it.
And the doctor's saying, but it's very, very
expensive.
And my brother said, well, how expensive could
it be if it's just a drug? You
know? And it was something like,
oh, it was several thousand dollars a month.
And my my my brother says, well, wait
a minute. What's in that little jar that

(32:59):
costs that you know?
And he was in the business world, so
I'm surprised he doesn't know about recent research
expenses and things like that. But
his fortunately, his insurance company covered it,
even though it was an experimental drug.
So
isn't it
the idea is that when things are mass

(33:19):
produced,
that the rates go down because, you know,
they they have this mass production. It's not
an individual thing. But in this case Once
once the r and d is paid for
Right. It should be able to go down.
But it that's the case. It doesn't go
down. Yeah. And here's another thing too.
They're taking all these drugs and they are

(33:40):
generic. And
your system, your body is special to you,
comparatively,
to Rick and completely different, two different body
types, two different,
you know, DNA structure and everything. Why should
you be taking the same drug? Because it's
not going to have this
it's gonna have a different effect on you
than it's gonna have on you. You know,

(34:02):
having medicines that are,
specific to your individual DNA or to you,
it makes much more sense than having this
generic
medication that may or may not work in
your particular case. Right.
But I really want to know why
countries like France and Canada
and even,

(34:22):
what we consider third world countries,
are giving health care to their
citizens.
And here in this country,
we don't have that.
No. I've I've always been what what do
they call it? Social,
I can't Socialized medicine. Thank you. Socialized I
I mean, that should be a privilege in

(34:43):
in my opinion, I'm probably most people here,
but it certainly is not, and we're it's
gonna be quite a while if that really
ever does happen. Our politicians
talk about how much greater we are. Now
you don't wanna live like people in Europe
live, do you? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Happiest people on Earth.
Yeah. Northern Europe.
Yep. I mean, what? Norway? Finland? Finland. Just

(35:06):
kidding. Nor Right. Norway. They just got rated
the happiest place on Earth. And they they
had their tax, an incredible amount of tax,
but that tax covers an awful lot of
stuff. It actually covers the costs that are
we are all complaining about right now, and
the rest of the world gets the benefit
of the lower costs

(35:26):
because we're paying so exorbitantly here Mhmm. In
part.
I I read an,
a a thing the other day that I
don't quite understand, and this guy was a
was head of Social Security or a mucky
muck with Social Security,
and he says the way we get the
fraud out of Social Security is cut everybody
off. And the people who are the thieves

(35:47):
will squeal right away, and the others won't
say anything.
Well, this is a a multibillionaire.
Excuse me? That's Howard
Latwick, who's now,
the
intern at Social Security,
a billionaire. And that's, you know, that He
knows all about living on on
Right. Minimum yeah. Right. $1,200

(36:07):
a month or whatever. But, you know, something
because I came from the nonprofit world,
and worked there for many years, but not
into health care.
But health care, it becomes such a big
business in this country.
You have all these nonprofits
raising money for American

(36:28):
Cancer Society or the MS Society and this
society and that.
You have all the drug companies. You have
the lobbyists. I mean, there are so many
people vested
in being ill
that nobody really wants you to get well
because if they if you got well and
they were able to actually find a cure
for any of those diseases,

(36:49):
you know, that whole industry would dry up
and their
their money would dry up. And that's what
it's all about.
It's money. The drug companies want to,
develop drugs that you have to stay on
forever. Pain, things like that. That's
that's that's that's a
a ticket or whatever. We have health control

(37:11):
and gun care.
Yeah.
Yes. We do.
And we were talking about the total body
health.
Again, lucky I get dental coverage,
but dental coverage isn't covered under any of
the Medicare
medic I don't believe.
Okay.

(37:31):
Michael, this right eyes here I
but the dental is a pretty,
important part of total body health. Good grief.
Yes. Right. And if you don't have the
money, you just forget it. And that's It's
$200 or something to have your teeth cleaned.
It's it's a lot of money. I know.
Yeah. So what what's somebody gonna neglect? Somebody
on a fixed income? Mhmm. Like everybody,

(37:54):
they're they're gonna yeah. They're just not gonna
go. Dental dental, vision, and hearing are not
covered by most plans. Vision and hearing. Right?
And if you're paycheck to paycheck, you're not
gonna go get that And what happens to
your eye I examination?
So here here we are at
you wanna call it the golden years. I
don't know if it's really golden.

(38:17):
Some parts are, some parts. Yeah. But so
we're we're not in a income producing part
of our lives per se. No. And yet
they keep on raising the costs on us.
And so where do they think it's all
gonna come from? You know,
especially
somebody like myself, I have my Social Security,
and I have my little nest egg. But

(38:39):
that's basically what I live, right, is my
Social Security, and I Yeah. I supplement it,
you know, working part time. But, you know,
when you're 71,
70 five years old, and I know a
lot of people that had to go back
to work,
just to not to afford any luxuries, just
to base Just to live that that's horrific
to me, and I I mean, I I

(39:00):
used to be not there yet. I hope
I don't because I love the nonworking life.
I worked my whole life. A lot of
this, we did. But Yeah. I since I
was 15. Yeah. But as a woman, I
never made a lot of money. I mean,
I always got paid. You were up against
it there for sure. That's for sure.
That's for sure.
Yeah. Well, go oh, I thought I might
go ahead. Being a female is a preexisting

(39:23):
condition, young lady. I'm sorry about that. It's
just a fact.
And it's used against you. It has been.
Yes.
Certainly has. Yeah. My wife went through the
working world and also. And boy oh, boy.
Stories, man.
Whole different a whole different deal. When I
was getting ready to retire, people would come
in, well, what are you gonna do now?

(39:45):
What do you mean what am I gonna
do now? What you know, you don't want
to go into work? Or do you I'm
gonna suddenly do everything I did when I
wasn't going to work, but more of that
and not going to work.
Well, right. Again, I I I feel lucky
that I don't have to. Right after I
did retire from the railroad
because you're working all your whole life, and
it's kinda like you get in the mood.

(40:06):
Well, I and I did the same thing.
It the reverse, basically. I thought, well, I
gotta go out and make a part time
living. I drove truck for the railroad.
So I
two weeks after I retired, I was hired
on a company, the part time driver.
And even my wife was like, why do
you wanna do that? Well, I kinda think
I need a job like a guy is

(40:26):
supposed to have. I've I've made it exactly
the same way. I made it one day
because that truck driver job was not like
the railroad truck driving job. And after that,
I was done. I figured, okay, I like
being on my own and walking the dogs
and reading. Yeah. I mean, and I can
do that. I feel very lucky that I
can. We started a little business because we
felt like we have to be doing something.

(40:47):
I have to you know, I've been working
since I'm 13 years old, so I have
to be doing something to to be making
money. Yep.
And it it worked out well.
Well, that's good. Because when I didn't feel
like doing that anymore,
I I had a I I used to
make jewelry box and wooden boxes, and
my shop was, I don't know, a hundred

(41:08):
yards from the house. And
one day I went out there and I
just didn't feel like doing it anymore. And
I didn't think I was gonna recover,
And I went back into the house and
said, I think we're done. Well, you retired
from retirement. Yes. Exactly. What you did.
Gosh.
I would like to go back again to
the advocate, though. Two things.

(41:29):
I I wish that there were some young
people, and maybe there are, that would have
little advocate or or businesses where old people
could go in and get schooled on computers
and iPhones and all of that stuff because
they know what they're talking about. I have
trouble with that. But the big one is
health care. Bring that big pamphlet into somebody
and say, can you help me out? And
Mhmm. Because I just can't go through that

(41:50):
thing. And I don't understand. I've tried to
go through it, and it's confusing
to me.
It is confusing, and
they are
those industries can be very intimidating.
They they posture,
and so they go out after you
and only to make you wanna shy away.

(42:14):
But I I think I mentioned I was
a, a health advocate for a friend of
mine. Yes.
She,
she lives in San Diego. She fell in
France
and, broke her femur
Okay. A very serious problem Yeah. And,
was flown back,
med back back to The United States where

(42:34):
she had actually had had several surgeries.
They wouldn't
Health Net
refused to honor her policy while she was
gone and though she would have been covered.
It took me six months, but I advocated
for her on her behalf.
It came to about $30,000

(42:56):
And after going back and forth and
they're threatening us and I and I didn't
we didn't get an attorney, but I told
them exactly,
you know,
where I was gonna go with this
and if they did not
honor their commitment.
And the bottom line is they reimbursed you
the $30,000.

(43:17):
Boy, that's that's pretty unusual to hear. It
is, but I fought like hell for her.
Could do. Because, you know, she had to
pay it upfront, but it got she got
reimbursed.
But it was
pure tenacity. I was completely wiped out at
the end of that,
because they they were so mean and so,
again, the you the word is,

(43:38):
intimidating. They did not want to see them
clearly
until
they finally did.
Well, that's a good story. But, again,
you said wiped out. Mhmm. Even talking to
when we have to go through that phone
bank to wherever they're at, that that tears
me down too.
You know? It really does. Mhmm.

(43:58):
Did she consider staying in France
and getting all the medical over there?
I think she would have if, I think
she would have,
but she has family here. So she's yeah.
Now and and the information they told us
about you before
you showed up is that you also have
some knowledge about these after 55 communities and,

(44:22):
maybe the the
mobile armed parks that are being bought up
by corporations. Is it is that am I
right in assuming that?
I've been very active, and I live in
a 55 and over community and manufactured Home
Park here in Brookings.
It's been
it's been an interesting

(44:44):
process.
I I,
when I came in and I saw what
was happening and how corporations,
both,
corporations here in The United States
and Chinese,
owned corporations
have come in, and they have
bought park after park.

(45:04):
They've done it here locally here in Brookings
on several parks. They come in and they
raise the rates, I mean,
exponentially
so that it just becomes unaffordable
and people are forced to sell. They reduce
any amenity, so you're paying you have to
they they,
cut off your water supplies and everything. You
have to go get your own water. You

(45:25):
have to go get your own
different kinds of hookups. I mean, they really
make it hard because, again, the bottom line,
is all they care about.
I went ahead in my park, and to
the chagrin of the park owner,
and formed a tenant association.
And in doing so,
I got

(45:46):
almost
not quite,
almost half of
the people that live there on board with
that.
I did that only so that we would
have a voice, a unified voice, but,
I did a lot of research in what,
might be
available to us for grants. So it came

(46:06):
time that we could actually buy our park.
And the the,
landlord, you know, claims that he's not going
to to sell it.
We have,
but I've tried to position our our our
tenant association,
our park, so we would be in a
position to be a strong position to move

(46:26):
quickly. That's the bottom line is that you
have to be set up to be moved
quickly,
to get some of these programs in place.
But what was really,
very unfortunate
is that,
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
are actually
have been giving
low income

(46:47):
or not low income,
incentive rates
to investors,
institutional
investors across this country.
So
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in place
to
be an oversight
to some of this industry, but also to

(47:07):
protect
low and low
and moderate
income homeowners.
And in the meantime,
they are giving
loans
at a low interest and tax incentives to
these corporations
to go in and buy up senior citizens'
parks and displace people out of their homes.

(47:28):
And to me, that's a crime.
That's a big crime. How horrible
to treat our senior citizens. Well and they've
done it all across this country. Yes. They
have. Congress is very well aware of it.
There was actually a letter that went out,
to the to, Fannie and Freddie
questioning the viability

(47:48):
signed on by 24
senators, including senator Wyden,
asking for accountability.
And then they did receive one reply.
It was just smoke and mirrors.
And
they said that they had been looking into
finding some kind of ways or means to

(48:09):
extend that to
the residents of the park, but it's never
since come about.
In the meantime,
nothing ever came out of it,
after that one letter that was sent, and
I can't even get Wyden's office to respond
to it,
is that
they this they should have been

(48:29):
in front of a congressional committee testifying Yeah.
As to their situation
and explaining theirselves
and being and being exposed,
but it never even went that far.
Well, that's boy, we could do ten hours
on that alone. I have to say, our
wonderful guest, Pamela, has a prior
in commitment
and getting close to the sun. So she's

(48:51):
gonna be leaving us early, and I wanted
to give you enough time to to do
that. Thank you. I wanna leave,
for anybody who's listening,
two numbers.
There's
a a man in town, Rick Ray.
He's with Wild Rivers Insurance Medicare.
He's up on Oak Street. He's very Yes.

(49:13):
I have heard of him. He's very knowledgeable,
with the Medigap plans. Okay. And
so if somebody wanted to make some inquiry,
I would suggest
Rick will sit down at his office and
talk to you. His phone number
is (541)
469-7000.
Okay.

(49:33):
And then,
this gal from the division of financial regulations,
she, informed me that there is a program
run by the state of Oregon, and it's
called SHIBA,
s h I b a. SHIBA stands for,
senior health insurance benefit assistance.
K. And this is mandated by volunteers,

(49:55):
and their phone number is 807224134.
And they're in place to answer questions about
insurance and health care.
That's great, Tamela.
Thank you so much for being here. Thank
you. Really appreciate it. Or
happy You said you're not on any drugs.

(50:15):
What what do you do to maintain the
energy you have to I drink a lot
of red wine.
Okay.
That's
finally, somebody I can relate to. Red wine
and coffee,
ale of the gods right there. Well, I'm
I'm also a vegetarian
Okay. And have been for years. So Good
for you. Okay.
Pamela, thank you. Give that to you very

(50:36):
have a have a good time where you're
headed. Thank you very much. Alright.
And we'll have you back. Okay. Alright. Thanks
again.
Alright then, Ray and Michael. It's just us
for the last few minutes. Yeah. So,
listening to all that and then,
also watching the news this morning and

(50:58):
reading the news on my phone and
realize how we
are sinking deeper and deeper into the Twilight
Zone.
And and and is there any
can anybody do anything about it?
Trump Trump has a judge that disagrees with
him, so we'll impeach him.
He's just one of those

(51:19):
Waco Radical Liberals.
Well,
right now and this is funny how some
of those old twilight zones that were made
in the, what, the late fifth early sixties
Yeah. Really ring true. I think about the
one where well, there's a a lot of
them, but,
that the guy was
now I can't think of the exact,
episode. So let let me I'm having a

(51:40):
brain freeze. Okay. But they do they do
make sense, some of them. Mhmm. Let me
just say that.
I I don't know. I've done a fair
amount of reading. It was years ago, but,
I'm I'm recovering some of it now in
my brain about the rise of Nazi Germany.
And my goodness, there is there is so
many parallels.
We even have Trump quoting Hitler. Yeah. Saying

(52:02):
things like only I can do this and
and now we have
a a Musk with his Nazi salute.
What do we need? And we and we
have many scapegoats. We don't just have the
Jews. Yeah. We have Trans. Trans people
and those
those those people coming from Mexico and other
countries. They're not people, they're animals.

(52:24):
They're animals. And they're riddled with disease, and
they wanna come
well, come on, man. They've been able to
make that work for the,
I'll go there, work for the cult members
right now. That's my opinion. Well, I don't
know what else you could call it but
a cult. Well,
you know, and
it disturbs me

(52:45):
and continues to disturb me. Now I haven't
been witness to this in a while, but
the, Trump trains have been blasting through Harbor
and Brookings
ever since
Biden got elected
in Mhmm. 2020
that, they just keep going.
And I I went into one of those
once and and
handed out cards, told them who I was,

(53:07):
and alive. To tell the story? Well, you
know, oddly enough, after
a few days I got an email from
somebody who
oddly enough
gave me kudos for having the courage to
go there. Were they gonna beat me up
or what?
But anyway,
he sent me
an email that
was just so full of nonsense and mis

(53:29):
Oh, the one we read on air many
Yeah, I remember that. Where he talked about
we are a government sponsored radio station and
all Pretty nasty. We tried to get him
to come on and actually defend some of
that stuff, but he doesn't
and no others will.
Well, while we do have a little bit
a little bit more downtime, I wanted to
alert people. Hopefully,

(53:50):
next
Sunday,
we're gonna be talking about emergency preparedness.
Yes. And I've got,
Karen
Dajine. I hope I'm pronouncing that, Karen. If
you're out there, text it if that's right
or not.
She works for,
with for Red Cross, and she's gonna be
here with we'll try to get other guests,

(54:12):
maybe even,
Brett Cecil. But, anyway, I'm working on that.
And then
let's see. Three weeks out, we're gonna have
Dakota,
Daley,
Tabitha Root,
and Katrina
Upton Johnson. I hope I have that right.
Talk about green energy.
And,

(54:33):
that's That's part of that woke stuff. Yeah.
Well, keep going. Come on, go on. Green
energy. So anyway, I just Radical leftist.
Right.
Right. Communist Germany. We have to have the
oil companies continue to be
The leaders. Big companies that have made more
money
than any other company

(54:55):
business in the history of the earth, and
we have to make sure we keep supplementing
them too and giving them some breaks on
the land. And Yeah. I yeah.
Well, anyway, little tidbits of the news that
that I've been seeing too. You know,
the Tesla craziness,
I'm not a fan of the vandalizing.
I I don't think anybody really should. It's

(55:15):
kinda stupid, really. Well,
but it's but you can do something. You
can see Tesla and break the windshield. That
makes you feel better, I think. I mean,
I'm glad to see them having a problem.
Own a Tesla.
That doesn't mean I agree with them. Don't
break my windshield. No. No. I know. And
I have seen a couple of the trucks
around. I think I've seen two around town.
Yeah.

(55:36):
I think they're god awful ugly. They look
like a urinal to me. You know, those
people have enough problems owning one of those
damn things. They don't need us to vandalize
them. Well They're not a very good vehicle.
Yeah. And again, my point is it it
bothers me that that's
going and it's going on at a pretty
heavy duty rate. What makes you think that
the vandalization
isn't from the,
Musk people trying to get No. That crossed

(55:58):
my brain, but I really don't think it
Yeah. That's a good it it completely is,
I would suggest to you. The whole thing
about the black lives matter,
protests
that were so violent,
the, where they were violent was on the
edges of the protest,
where people would show up in dark clothes
with masks on and throw Molotov cocktails

(56:21):
into
windows,
and that made the entire protest violent.
This was easy to set up in order
to make this,
protest
look like it's violent, and that way you
can
call on the Insurrection Act and deal with
it. That was their plan

(56:43):
the entire time. Somehow they got
they were kept from,
calling up the insurrection,
plot.
So but this is this is their active
plan, is to do the damage and then
blame it on somebody else, just like the
healthcare
companies do, healthcare companies. They're not healthcare, they're

(57:04):
insurance
companies
do in order to separate you from healthcare
and then blame
AARP
or Social Security or whoever.
It's a game.
And the asymmetrical
game is what is always ahead of us.
That's a plot. It's a function of the
plot. And every time we buy into it

(57:26):
enough to say, well, you know, this part
of what they're saying is accurate, We have
lost the narrative at that point, and that's
where we're at until we get the narrative
back. And the only way we get it
back is by telling our own stories.
And I'm just curious, though, Michael, so you
do believe that most of the vandalism is
done by the, Musk people? I think it
started late and they started screaming about it

(57:49):
immediately
and demanded that there be a proper government
reaction to this thing. And we did send
them to the prisons in Venezuela for twenty
years. Well, well, they switched them.
Which it's actually vandalism, but they're calling it
domestic
terrorism. Terrorism. Yeah. That was one of the
Marjorie Taylor Greene weirdos, but I think
well, okay. Well, that was just my little

(58:12):
opinion. Oddly enough, he's saying
we didn't he's talking about the dealerships on
fire. He says we didn't have any of
that kind of violence on on January 6.
Oh, well, that
Oh, it is Self doubt. We've we've got
your beat now.
Well, we are winding down
to about a minute ago. So I wanna
gosh. Pamela was wonderful. We'll have her back.

(58:33):
That was a lot of good information for
everybody.
And let's see. And I already said what
might be coming up, and
I wanna thank everybody. I wanna thank our
Tom in the engineering booth for making this
all happen too.
And,
that's about all I have for ending words.

(58:53):
Anybody else? My my ending words are start
paying attention. Don't just watch Fox News. Don't
just watch
the 06:00 news where they report something and
then don't really talk about it. But there's
a lot a lot a lot going out
there. It's very, very scary. There is. So
thanks everybody for listening
and you're listening to KCIW

(59:15):
LP 100.7
beautiful Brookings,
Oregon.