Episode 93: Navigating Medicare: Insights from Healthcare Expert Jim Kulavatos

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You make this rather snappy,won't you?
I have some very heavythinking to do before 10:00.
Hey, welcome to anotherepisode of Get It Right Tech.
Soma normally got the wholetrio here, but today we are minus
one.
It's Mike Hendren, TreySerala, Terry McAdams is off on a

(00:21):
super secret Secret Squirrelmission that we can't talk about.
We cannot talk.
You know, Trump's filling outhis cabinet right now.
You don't think that he's.
That Terry's interviewing for,like, director of.
Of Apple products.
I don't know what.
I just.
It's.
To me, it's the department of Apple.
It's a hell of a coincidence.
Yeah.
Right about this time, Terry disappears.
It just.
It's really strange to me.

(00:44):
Something.
Something is afoot, Trey.
I'm not sure what it could be,but, you know, head of technology.
Head of National Technology.
I was gonna say head of iPad.
The department.
The Department of iPhone.
Well, you know, we do have aspace force now.
There you go.
So he could be somehow.
And he is ex Air Force.
That's right.
Retired air.
It could be, you know, youjust don't know.

(01:06):
I guess we'll find out maybewhen he gets back.
Or maybe we won't.
Could be just top secret,everything around.
Can't talk about it.
Can't talk about it.
Anyway, welcome to the show.
Glad to have you here.
Obviously, if you're watchingon YouTube, you know we're on YouTube.
We're also on Spotify andApple podcasts.
Be sure to hit the subscribebutton on the YouTube page and be
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Visit our Facebook page, getit right, Textilema, and our website,

(01:29):
get it right texoma.com.
Now, we will have a guest earlier.
Even though we have an empty chair.
We will have a guest.
Not earlier.
Yes.
Later we will have.
Well, at some point he willhave been here earlier.
Yes, that's true.
Jim Kulavatos.
That's his name.
I'm saying it right.
That's correct.
So we rehearsed this so much.
Jim Kulavatos will be with us.

(01:50):
He is with Clay CountyMemorial Hospital.
He's going to have some greatinformation regarding Medicare and
Medicare Advantage plans, whatthe differences are.
Because we're at that time ofthe year right now where if you're
a senior, you're starting toget calls.
I'm not a senior yet.
And I'm all.
And I'm getting calls andthey're getting bombarded all over
tv.
Yeah, I'm getting stuff to my phone.

(02:11):
It's like, how old do youthink I am?
I can't qualify for any of this.
So they're already hammeringpeople with ads over this Medicare
plan.
I think this is yourenrollment time.
This is gonna happen.
So it's real timely.
And the nice thing about Jimis he'll give you the facts.
He's been like, he'll, he'llexplain later.
He's been in hospitaladministration for a long time, so
he understands the ins and outof it.

(02:32):
But he's not selling anything.
Yeah, he's not selling Medicare.
You can't sell Medicarebecause it's a government program.
But he's also not selling anykind of Medicare Advantage.
He's not selling anything toprofit off.
He's not advocating for one orthe other.
But he wants you to understandthat they're not the same.
Yeah, you know, it is anapples and oranges kind of thing.
Hopefully it's all eye opening experience.
I should be.

(02:52):
So he'll be here with us totalk about that very shortly here
on the program.
Now we do have a couple thingsto discuss here, coming on here.
Where do we want to start here?
Electric Critters maybe?
Yeah, Electric Critters iscoming up November 29th through the
21st on Friday and Saturday nights.
Electric Critters is a greatholiday event that takes place at

(03:12):
Riverbend Nature center herein Wichita Falls, Texas.
And they've been doing thisfor I don't know how many years,
long time now.
But it's 6:30 to 8:30 eachFriday and Saturday night starting
on the 29th of November andthrough the 21st of of December.
So the Saturday right before Christmas.
Correct.
From 6:30 to 8:30.
And there's, I don't rememberhow, it's tons and tons, thousands

(03:36):
and thousands of lights andyou kind of go plan.
To walk a little bit.
Yeah.
And that's right.
And the butterfly fairysometimes shows up and Mr.
And Mrs.
Claus can be there.
So go check it out.
And I don't know why it's noton here.
It somehow I dropped itsomehow, which I need to put it back
on.
Let's talk about Fantasy ofLights because it starts before the
next thing.

(03:56):
Right.
So Fantasy of Lights is goingto launch the Monday before Thanksgiving.
It does every year now.
The Monday before Thanksgivingwill continue through the end.
It'll go to the day after Christmas.
Which basically Thanksgivingis a week later this year than it
normally is.
I think it's about every eightor nine years.
Yeah.
It pushes out.
It pushes out this.
Basically the last week of November.

(04:18):
Right.
And so the.
For those of you that don'tknow, Fantasy of Lights, it's a collaboration
between the.
The.
Really.
The Burns family.
The Burns family andMidwestern State University that
started over 50 years ago.
Actually this year, I believe.
This year.
Yeah, this year actually isthe 50th.

(04:39):
Year of the collaboration.
Of the collaboration.
The displays started on theburns family lawn 80 plus years ago.
Yeah.
Some of these displays areliterally that old.
Yes.
Some of these go back to the20s and 30s, 30s or 40s or something.
There's a couple that are that old.
Most of them are 40s, 50s era,60s era.

(05:01):
And there are some newdisplays that have been added over
the last several years.
Every few years.
Full disclosure here.
I'm on the committee, theFantasy of Lights nonprofit committee.
Every few years, we try to adda new display to it, and the whole
thing is sustained throughprivate donations.
And I really want to drivethis home for the local audience.

(05:22):
For those of you here that arewatching or listening in the local
area.
Every year, people will ask,well, why are you guys.
Because we have people thatwill stand.
There's a drive through whereyou can just drive through and look
at the displays that arevisible from the road.
And people ask, well, why doyou guys stand here and collect donations?
I thought Midwestern StateUniversity paid for all this.
They pay for nothing.
MSU pays for a zip.

(05:44):
They furnish the place.
They furnish the location.
We're allowed to set it up onthe lawn in front of the.
Basically the Hardinadministration building along Taft
Boulevard.
And that's it.
The electricity is metered.
Our committee has to pay for that.
Storage, maintenance, upkeep,set up, tear down.

(06:07):
Everything our committee, ournonprofit committee pays for.
We do that through acombination of private donors like
yourself, individuals who giveus money.
Philanthropic organizations.
Philanthropic organizations.
We have sponsors for each display.
There's a corporate sponsorfor each display.
And so that's how we raise the money.

(06:28):
And then the collection at thedonations at the.
The event.
Yeah, the donations at the event.
So you can either.
You'll see people standingthere with a.
Santa boot, by the way, onlyput money in the Santa boot.
If you see some guy who lookslike a crackhead holding an old tennis
shoe.
Don't put money in his.
No, no, he's not with it.
It's gonna go with a fantasyof something, but it won't be the
fantasy of life.
It won't be that.
It won't be our fantasy.

(06:49):
I'll tell you that.
So.
And there's also collectionboxes if you decide to get out and
walk all the displays, which.
That's really the best way tosee them.
Oh, yeah.
And to see all of it is yougotta get out and walk it.
There are collection boxes atvarious locations throughout the
displays where you can leave acash donation.
There are also QR codesdisplayed that you can scan with
your phone if you care to donate.
That way, if you don't havecash and you want to donate, but

(07:11):
you just don't have the money,you can scan the QR code and it will
take you to a donation pagewhere you can make a donation and
put that on your credit ordebit card.
And it's going to start theMonday before Thanksgiving, and it
will run until.
The day after Christmas.
The day after Christmas.
And it's every night.
Every night.
Every night, includingChristmas night, Including.

(07:32):
Including Christmas night, 6pmto 10pm nightly.
And so you'll have lots of opportunity.
It's a great, It's a greatfamily tradition.
If you, if you're new to thearea, if you've never done this,
especially if you have youngkids or grandkids and stuff like
that, it's a great familytradition to go out and go look at
the fantasy of life.
Opening night.
There'll be some ceremonies,there'll be some high school choirs.

(07:53):
We'll have food trucks.
You'll have.
You can buy stuff to eat.
You know, we have nights where there's.
There's hot cocoa served andcookies served and things like this.
So there's various thingsgoing on that are.
That are interspersed with theevent itself.
But it is a really, reallycool tradition here that's been going
on now.
Well, on the campus of MSU for50 years, since 1974.

(08:15):
And so it is.
It's.
It's.
It's a really cool traditionand I'm proud to be a part of it.
It's a.
It's great.
It's great.
If you haven't been, if youlive in the local area and you've
never been, what is.
Where have you been all this time?
Go check it out.
But if you, if you're in thearea, if you're within obvious.
If you're within drivingdistance of Wichita Falls within
two hours of here, this isreally something you should set aside

(08:37):
a night somewhere between theMonday before Thanksgiving and December
26, and come see this.
It's really, really special.
And you're gonna see stuffhere you'll not see.
There are places, there aresome of the metroplex.
Places that have come up andthey have these displays.
And then Ballora, Belton Lake.
Belton Lake recreational area.

(08:59):
That's down by.
By clean Belton.
Obviously they have displaysand things like that, but nobody
has displays that date thisfar back.
Right.
These are.
Some of these are.
You can't.
The craftsmanship.
And of these displays, thesearen't just a bunch of lights that
have been strung together.
They're one of.
Welded a couple of things.
These are.
Like you said, they're one ofa kind.
They're one of a kind.

(09:19):
They were handmade.
Many of them were handcrafted.
And there's.
There's not a.
There's not another one likeit anywhere.
Yeah, anywhere.
Even if there was another onelike it at one time, it didn't survive.
It didn't make it.
So.
Yeah, go check it out.
Go check that out.
Coming up, December 4th, the chamber.
You want to go ahead and skip?
Well, we just did those two.

(09:40):
Why don't we just skip down toPelicans and we'll do the Chamber
next.
Oh, you want to do.
Okay, okay.
We'll say the Chamber, our restaurant.
Focus.
Yeah.
Okay.
So every show we try to focuson a local area family owned restaurant.
This week it's going to be Pelicans.
Yeah, Pelicans is really kindof a high end steakhouse.
Yeah, exactly.
The only thing that pisses meoff, they don't serve Pelican.
It says right there on thething they've got a picture of the

(10:01):
pelican on the side.
And I hear it tastes like turtle.
Anyway, it.
But no, it, it's.
It's a really good steakhousehere in which office?
If you, if you want fine dining.
Yes.
In Wichita Falls.
It's.
It's good fine dining andit's, it rivals the food there.
Rivals fine dining in theDallas Fort Worth area.
It does, it does.
They're open six days a week,I think.
I think they're only closed on Sundays.

(10:23):
Might be.
I'm not quite sure, but gocheck out their website.
But they're over in what usedto be called French Village.
I don't know if it's still.
I'm not sure if it's stillFrench Village or not, but it's right
off Midwestern Parkway.
By the way, it's right downthe road from Fantasy of Lights.
Yes, it is.
So go get you a pelican steak.
Yeah.
And then go walk it off at theFantasy of Life.
It's not actually Pelican, though.
No, no.

(10:43):
Stake it.
Pelicans I'm sorry, I shouldhave said that.
But it's on the corner ofMidwestern Parkway and Taft.
Yes, almost.
It's not on the corner, butit's in that little shopping center
area.
Yeah, it's a little, littledifficult to find if you're not familiar
with the area.
But basically, if you go pastthe fantasy of lights, you go down
Taft, go to MidwesternParkway, you'll take a left, get
in the right hand lane andit's going to be very shortly.

(11:05):
It's going to be right thereon the right hand side and you'll
see it.
But they have seafood, theyhave steak.
Yes.
They have all kinds of reallygood, good products.
It's all handcraft stuff.
Yeah.
High quality, good ingredients.
They do they actually probablyaside from my wife's, the it's the
second best gumbo I've everhad in town was at Pelicans.

(11:30):
I don't know if it's on themenu all the time, maybe just in
the wintertime, but secondbest gumbo I've had in this area
was at Pelicans.
There you go.
So there's that.
All right.
Okay.
Jim Kulavatos is going to joinus here in just a few minutes.
We're going to be talkingabout Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
The differences, the similarities.
Similarities.

(11:50):
And it's that time of the year.
A lot of you seniors, you'regetting bombarded with ads asking
you to sign up for this, thator the other.
Jim's going to explain to uswhat those similarities and differences
are and help you hopefullymake an informed decision on that.
So we'll be back with more getit right techsomer right after this.
Hang on.

(12:20):
Hey, welcome back to get itright Techsoma.
And again, normally the trio'shere, but today it's me, Mike Handren,
Trey Serala, and our veryspecial guest, Jim Kulavatos.
Did I say it right?
You said it right.
I said it right.
I got it right.
Is it sound sounds like aGreek yogurt brand.
We rehearsed during the break.

(12:42):
I did good.
Jim, welcome.
Thank you.
Appreciate be here.
Glad.
Glad to have you here.
Jim cannot be here at a soonertime to talk about this topic because
officially yesterday, no joke,I saw my first Medicare enrollment
period commercial.
So be prepared, folks, to beworn the hell out about this.

(13:04):
I don't know what B listcelebrities are gonna drag up this
year, but last year I was wornout with Joe Namath and Jimmy Jay
Walker.
So Jimmy Walker.
Every year they find somecelebrities like I Said that are
B listers from the 60s and 70s.
Drag them out of retirement there.
And so anyhow, Jim, go aheadand tell everybody a little bit who

(13:25):
you are.
Yeah.
Your background.
We're glad to.
I am the CEO of Clay CountyMemorial Hospital in Henrietta, Texas
and I did grow up in this area.
I grew up in Bergmannette, Texas.
All my family still in Berg Burnett.
I have been gone from thisarea for about 30 years.
A little over 30 years.

(13:45):
Been in healthcare, healthcareadministration for well over 40 years.
Enjoy it.
And that's, that's basicallykind of my life.
Healthcare has kind of been mylife for the last since I graduated
Midwestern State University.
How long have you been withClay County?

(14:05):
That started been a year.
Started in December of 23.
Okay, so you've worked inhealthcare, retired.
Yep.
Then come back.
Correct.
So you're, you're your secondphase of.
Your career.
And it is better but.
Came back to a smaller, asmaller community or a smaller healthcare

(14:27):
system.
Right.
Well, I've actually been inrural medicine my whole career with
with the exception when I didcome out of retirement, I helped
a cardiologist in northeastHouston, Texas.
Yeah.
So where did you spend the bulk.
Of your career then in healthcare?
West Texas.
Ok.
Out in the Panhandle, Texas.
And then.

(14:48):
Oh wow.
Is the.
And then West Texas.
Spent a few years in Oklahoma.
But the bulk of my careerstarted in Wistol Falls and then
on the clinic side and thenmoved to the hospital side in Graham,
Texas as the Chief FinancialOfficer in Graham, Texas.

(15:09):
And then my first CEO positionwas at Electra, Texas.
And then from there itbasically went to the Panhandle and
then West Texas.
Well, as Trey mentioned, allthis Medicare stuff now is ramping
up.
Yeah.
The nice thing about this andthis is a great idea for Jim to come
on because he's not selling anything.
He's not an agent.
He's not going to sell you anything.

(15:31):
It's really just somebody whoknows the facts inside and out of
the Medicare system.
Being in hospitaladministration for so many years
because you've lived this life and.
But he can come out here andlike we talked about before, Jim,
Terry and Mike and I talkedabout this when we first introduced
that you were going to be on.
There's a.
There's a lot of people thatare that there are people that have

(15:54):
watched this show or payattention to this podcast that are
of Medicare age.
But more importantly, there'sa lot of people that are Mike and
I age.
Mike and I are in our early 50s.
So we are sometimes helpingone of our parents.
Exactly.
To navigate this sort of thing.
You know, we have parents thatare age.

(16:16):
Mike's mother was quite a bit older.
Long story.
But Mike's mother was in his,in her 30s before when he was born.
So she was quite, he's quite abit older.
But a lot of people that areour age have parents that are, you
know, in their early 80s, late70s and stuff like that, like I do.
And so sometimes it'simportant to have this information
so you can go, hey mom, heydad, dad, you know, do you have Medicare

(16:36):
Advantage?
Or if you, or don't, you know,if they come and ask you, hey, have
you seen these commercials?
Because they get bombardedwith commercials these days.
So we want to turn the floorover to you and kind of let us know
what, what give us some ideasfrom a, a facts and figure standpoint
of why, which way people giveus some information so people can
make a decision on Medicare.

(16:57):
And I think, and Trey, that's important.
I think what I think everybodyneeds to know and especially, you
know, like you and Mike, it isthe children of seniors that help
their parents or evengrandparents select do they want

(17:18):
to be Medicare Advantage orthey want to be traditional Medicare.
And what I would like toaccomplish today is that it's not
that Medicare Advantage is bador good or better than traditional
Medicare or vice versa.
It's to know what questionsyou need to ask.

(17:39):
You mentioned about all theadvertisement and everything.
The one thing that MedicareAdvantage agents that sell this,
and especially if you buy itoff the Internet because you can't
get any questions answered ishow much money are you going to pay
out of pocket, either ifyou're on traditional Medicare or

(17:59):
if you're on a MedicareAdvantage plan.
Well, traditional Medicare isa taxpayer funded government administrated
program.
Right.
Well, it is.
Now the other part of this, alot of people that have Medicare
Advantage think that they'restill in the Medicare program and
they are not.
They are not in the Medicare program.
Medicare Advantage is acommercial product.

(18:21):
You're basically a commercial insurance.
You're on commercial insurance.
So you are not in the Medicare program.
The again, everything comesdown to cost.
And when you're retired, nomatter how much money you made in

(18:46):
the past, if you're on SocialSecurity, you're not making a lot
of money.
And you see all these ads forMedicare Advantage products that
say, you know, $0 premium or$20 premium or $50 premium.
And what a lot of people don'tunderstand with Medicare Advantage

(19:10):
is there are a lot of othercosts that are associated with those
plans.
The biggest cost is most ofthem have a out of pocket expense
limit which can be anywherefrom 5,000 to, you know, 7, 75, 8,
$10,000 depending on what planthat you, that you go with.

(19:33):
And so, but you have a lot ofother deductibles or coinsurance
with some of the services thatyou may need that they don't tell
you about.
Whereas traditional Medicarepart A is free, doesn't cost you
anything.
Part B is about 100, I think$84 a month.

(19:58):
And then if you get a Medicaresupplement, which is, which will
probably run anywhere from alittle over $100 to maybe close to
$200 depending on what planyou get.
Other than paying thosepremiums, you don't pay anything
else because this Medicaresupplement will pay for whatever

(20:19):
Medicare doesn't pay.
And I want everybody tounderstand that if you're on traditional
Medicare and you're going tothe hospital, the only thing that
you're going to have is abouta seventeen hundred dollar deductible,
inpatient deductible.
If you've got Medicaresupplement, it'll pay for that.
So you have no out of pocketexpense there.

(20:40):
Okay.
And on part B, it's the same thing.
If you got a supplement, it'llpay whatever Medicare doesn't pay.
What's the fundamentaldifference between part A and part
B?
That's what I don't understand.
Part B is basically physician coverage.
Part A is hospital coverage.
Okay.
Part A takes not onlyhospital, but it also does if you
have home health, skillednursing and then your, your traditional

(21:05):
hospital service.
So if I, if I'm 65 years oldand I've got Medicare part A and
I have a heart attack and Ihave to go in the hospital and have
to do bypass surgery, part Ais going to pay for that.
Part A is going to pay for that.
And if you don't have asupplement, your out of pocket is
going to be about seventeenhundred dollars.
But if you do have asupplement, you have no out of pocket.
And the thing about theinpatient deductible if you're on
traditional Medicare is it'sif you go in the hospital today,

(21:29):
you'll get it.
If in, if you go in within thenext 60 days, you won't have a deductible.
Okay, so the deductible onlycounts after you've been out of the
hospital for 61 days.
So the, so it's not a yearlydeductible then?
No, no, no.
It's not a yearly deductible,it's in the current, so it's every,
every 61 days you can havethat deductible.

(21:52):
And that can be if you don'thave a supplement that can get expensive
if you're in the hospital a lot.
If you got a lot of healthproblems, if there's a lot going
on.
Probably ought to considerhaving a supplement.
And again, Medicare Advantageis not a bad product and I don't
want anybody to think that it is.
It's not a bad product but theproblem is a lot of people don't

(22:14):
understand what they're buying.
They come in and they tell youhere's the price and this is what
it does and everything else.
And so when they get, and I'llgive you an example, my mother in
law a few months ago was inthe hospital and she, she had two
or three things that hit herjust within a month of each other.

(22:38):
Anyway, we were going to gether, bring her to Henrietta for our
swing bed program, which is arehab program.
And she's got Medicare Advantage.
And so we were trying to gether approved to come and they basically

(22:58):
said, they denied it, they wouldn't.
They said no, she doesn't needit, although her physician said she
needed it.
But the Medicare Advantageplan that she's on said no, we're
not going to approve it.
And the reason they didn'tapprove it because they said she
could walk so many feetwithout assistance.
Well, what they didn't know isthat yes, she could walk, but that

(23:26):
physical therapist was rightthere next to her and they had a
wheelchair just in case shegot tired or started to fall.
Yeah, exactly.
But they denied that aphysical therapist.
Is too heavy to carry around everywhere.
They get expensive too.
Oh they do.
They actually expect to bepaid and fed.

(23:46):
And again that's the otherthing with the Medicare Advantage
plan that there are a lot ofthings you have to get pre authorized
that you don't have to ifyou're on traditional Medicare.
For instance, if you want, ifyou have a CT scan or an MRI scan,
you're going to have to getthat approved through your Medicare
Advantage plan.

(24:07):
And they're going to take atleast three days before they approve
it or they make a decision.
But it also again like I said,as I just talked with my mother in
law, any kind of rehab place.
So there are a lot of thingsyou have to get or services you have

(24:32):
to get pre authorized in aMedicare Advantage plan that you
don't have to if you're ontraditional Medicare.
Well now why wouldn't you haveto get it authorized through traditional
Medicare?
Do they just accept that thehospital or the doctor is that takes
Medicare or whatever is goingto do the right thing?
Yes, I mean that, that's.
And I don't think anyphysician out there is going to send

(24:55):
somebody for a CAT scan or an MRI.
Or.
Even outpatient surgery,whatever that may be.
That's, they don't need it.
Well and I guess Medicare isstill, they kind of, it's the government
you're messing with if you do that.
So you're, they kind of hold alot of power and things so you, you're
less likely to jack with them,I guess.

(25:17):
Well, the, the other thingwith Medicare Advantage is Medicare
Advantage is paid.
I mean the, the government CMSpays these Medicare Advantage plans
depending on the beneficiaryor the person signing up.
They pay them like 90, 95% of,of what they think they're going

(25:42):
to be spending on that patient.
So that even MedicareAdvantage is tax dollars.
They've got tax dollars thatthey get paid from the government
to take care of this.
And again one of the issuesyou have is technically they're supposed

(26:02):
to follow the Medicareguidelines, but they don't always
do that.
So again, there's things that,and again the one thing I will say
that is detrimental that Ithink is detrimental concerning or

(26:23):
regarding Medicare Advantageplans is that is a for profit company.
They're, they're actuallytrying to make money just like they
do commercial insurances,health insurance.
Commercial just like BlueCross, Blue Shield, Cigna or whatever.
They're out there to make money.
Medicare Advantage, excuse me,traditional Medicare is more of a,

(26:49):
of what I call trulyhealthcare in that if you're sick,
go to the doctor, go to thehospital, things like that.
So it's, I guess I don't mean.
To interrupt you here, but I'ma little confused here.
So Medicare Advantage is aprivate enterprise product.

(27:10):
Correct.
But it is backed by taxpayerdollars the same as Medicare.
Correct.
Now we hear a lot of talkpolitically about Medicare going
bankrupt.
Medicare is in trouble.
That political carrot getsdangled every election cycle about
Medicare, this, SocialSecurity, etc.

(27:30):
If Medicare is trulyfinancially strained, and I have
no doubt that it is becausewe've got a whole, all the baby boomers
now, which I'm assumingyou're, you're a part of that group.
I'm on Medicare.
Yeah.
You know, I have Medicare myself.
You got millions of peoplethat have come into this program
in the last few years.

(27:51):
So I'm assuming it is probablyvery financially strained in many
respects.
Why are we using tax dollarsto supplement a commercial product
that really is doing nothingmore than just mirroring the name
Medicare?
Again, my opinion, and I'm notnecessarily an expert, but I think

(28:11):
when the Medicare Advantageprogram started, it was.
I think they looked at it fromthe standpoint, this is how we save
money.
Let's turn it over to acommercial insurance company.
They can manage it better thanthe government can manage.
It.
Could be something to say for that.

(28:32):
There probably is some truthin that.
There's no doubt.
But I think.
And again, you guys work yourwhole life.
You guys are doing it.
You're paying for Medicare,you're paying for Social Security.
So I don't look at that as ina time, because we've actually paid
for that.
So when we get to whateverage, 65, 70, whatever, we decide

(28:57):
to retire and we decide to goon Medicare, you know, we've paid
for that.
The, you know, one of thereasons why I think that there's
a shortfall in these programsis because there's a lot less people
working than when we were young.

(29:18):
Exactly.
When our parents, you know, we.
There was a lot more.
Now that you just said we wereall baby boomers.
Well, the baby boomers didn't have.
We're Gen X.
So the baby boomers didn'thave nearly as many kids.
I mean, exactly.
Mike had three kids in his family.
I had one.
I mean, you know, but both ofmy parents, My dad's.
My.
My dad's family had five, andmy mother's family had seven.

(29:40):
So, I mean, just do the math.
Right.
So.
But, but having said that,irregardless, again, what, even whatever
political spectrum that arethe side that you're on, the Medicare
program is.
Is a good program.
Yeah, there are some thingsthat we could probably do to strengthen

(30:07):
it, but it's a great thing.
Medicare Advantage program,again, it's not a bad program.
However, I will say this,that, and I'll use Clay County Memorial
Hospital.
We are designated as a, whatwe call a critical access hospital.

(30:27):
And critical access hospitalswere designed to help small hospitals
like Clay County Memorial survive.
And so the way that Medicarereimburses critical access hospitals
is based on the percentage ofMedicare patients that come through.

(30:53):
And I mentioned in thebeginning that Medicare Advantage
is not a Medicare.
You're not in the Medicare program.
So when somebody comes into.
To our hospital or anycritical access hospital, they're
not counted as Medicare.
They're counted withcommercial insurance.

(31:14):
So Our reimbursement goes downwhen we have a Medicare Advantage
patient come in or a patientthat has Medicare Advantage.
So it is important for us forcritical access hospitals to have

(31:37):
the more traditional Medicare.
We see more reimbursement thanwe get from Medicare.
Now we still get reimbursedfrom the Medicare Advantage, but
we don't get reimbursed in thesame way that we do under medicine.
It's a different pot of money.
It's a different system, andit's based on our cost and all that.

(32:00):
So it's not hard to really understand.
It is in the beginning, buttechnically we get paid based on
our cost.
But Jim, I can see where thefolks that are on Medicare or that
qualify for these programswhere they get confused.
They hear Medicare Advantage.
They hear Medicare.
You think it's the same.
Yeah, it's the same thing intheir mind.

(32:21):
It's exactly the same thing.
Just one.
But you tack the wordAdvantage onto it.
Oh, it sounds like it's a much better.
Yeah, it's Medicare Plus.
Yeah.
It's newly improved.
It's Formula 409, not Formula 408.
Yeah.
Anyhow, so what would you,what would you say people would be
like the top two or threequestions that somebody needs to
ask when they're, when they'retrying to.

(32:43):
I think the number one from aMedicare Advantage standpoint is
ask this question.
What is my, what is my totalout of pocket expense going to be?
I know, and I'm doing a forumtonight at Bridge Street Annex in
Henrietta about this same topic.
And I'm going to, I've gotsome examples here.

(33:07):
I'm going to use an exampleof, of a Medicare Advantage plan
that I just took off the Internet.
I just went and took it offthe Internet in the.
What celebrity was pimpingthis one?
I don't, I don't know.
And, and so, but it's.
The cost is $20 a month, $22.
That's is.

(33:28):
It seems like a pretty good amount.
And then I compare, I take a,an inpatient, hypothetical inpatient
stay and show this is whatMedicare's gonna reimburse.
This is what the MedicareAdvantage And I use this basically

(33:50):
use the same reimbursement.
So I don't, I don't.
And I show them.
You don't look at it from ahospital standpoint.
You look at it from a patient standpoint.
From a patient standpoint,like what is.
Your out of pocket?
And so in this, in thisexample that I use, I traditional
Medicare, they got part B andthey have a supplement.

(34:15):
So I go through the wholething and basically the out of pocket
expense for the patient is.01traditional Medicare on the Medicare
Advantage, it's around $2,000.
They'll be at pocket becausethey have again, this is what a lot
of people, this is why I sayask the question on a Medicare Advantage

(34:37):
plan, A lot of MedicareAdvantage plans, if you're in the
hospital, you're going to havea copay of somewhere probably between
3 and $400.
Right.
Each day while you're in thehospital, you don't have that with
Medicare, traditional Medicare.
And it's usually four to sevendays that if you're in the hospital,

(34:58):
that's what it pays.
If you're in there longer thanseven, eight days, then you don't,
you don't have that anymore.
Now the traditional stay, thelength of stay for somebody in the
hospital is three to five days.
So you're going to spend, ifit's $300, you know, you're going
to spend 12, $1500.
Yeah.

(35:19):
Just in a copay for aninpatient stay.
Traditional Medicare, the onlything you're going to have is a deductible.
If you got a supplement, it'sgoing to pay for that.
So you're not out of any money.
So I think the biggest thingthat anybody either if you're Medicare

(35:41):
eligible, ask these questionsand especially I think it's really
important for the children,the adult children to understand
this too because they need tohelp their parents or their grandparents,
aunts, uncles, whoever itmight be that ask these questions.
Okay, what's pre, what do I have?

(36:06):
What services do I have to getpre authorized?
What's my out of pocket?
Do I have any co pays, Do Ihave any either co pays or coinsurance
before I, before I do anything else?
And when you look at it inthis particular one that I'm going
to use tonight, it's got amaximum out of pocket expense of
$7,500.
So you're going to have, ifyou're sick that year, you're going

(36:32):
to pay $7,500.
I mean if you're in thehospital, right.
Quite a bit you're going toread and other things you're going
to be, you're going to be in,you could be at $7,500 easy.
The whereas if you have nowthis particular Medicare Advantage

(36:53):
plan I'm using does not payfor part B, so you're still going
to be have to pay for part B.
So you're still going to haveto pay $184 a month because it does
not pay for part B.
Now, there are some, there'snot very many anymore since, since
Medicare has kind of cut backor CMS has cut back on the Advantage
programs for 25.

(37:18):
But you have to ask thatquestion, does it pay part B or does,
you know, does it at leastmaybe pay for some of part B or does
it pay for part B at all?
So if it doesn't pay for partB, then again, there's another $184
a month that you're going topay for again for the physician.

(37:40):
So if I'm a Medicare, Medicareeligible age is what, 65.
65.
Okay.
So if I'm 65 and I'm going onMedicare and I determine I'm gonna,
okay, I'm buy this Advantageplan, I'm automatically opted out
of traditional Medicare.
Just by selecting theAdvantage plan, I'm automatically
opted out of traditional Medicare.

(38:02):
So now am I still eligible topurchase a supplement to go with
the Advantage plan?
No.
If you've got a MedicareAdvantage plan and it, and it doesn't
pay part B, you're not, you'renot going to be able to pay, get

(38:24):
a supplemental plan.
So whatever the Advantage planpays, it pays.
Exactly.
Now, there are some thingsthat it does pay for physicians.
Some of it, it'll pay.
But, but, but, but then again,on, on, on a part being part B insurance,
there, There is a $200deductible for, for part B.

(38:44):
So you're gonna pay the first$200 of your, of your.
Well, Medicare.
Yeah, you're gonna pay thefirst $200 out of pocket supplement.
If you have a supplement,it'll pay for that.
And I think that, again,questions you gotta ask, you know,

(39:06):
tell me how, number one, doesit pay anybody part B, the cost?
If the answer is no.
Okay, so what does it pay for?
When I go to the physician,physician's office, what's it gonna
pay for?
How much am I gonna have to beout of pocket?
How much of whatever.
So you can, you can have acoinsurance amount and then you can

(39:27):
still owe money.
You'll have a balance whenyou're done with that physician or
hospital or X ray or lab.
Well, not lab.
Lab.
Lab is not going to cost any.
Whether you're on a MedicareAdvantage or a Medicare, traditional
Medicare, you're not going tohave to pay for any lab.
But again, not saying thatMedicare Advantage is a bad product

(39:49):
or a good product.
It's just I want everybody toUnderstand that you've got to ask
these questions, paint the picture.
And I can't advise strongly enough.
Do not buy this over the Internet.
Go see an agent in person.
Yes, go talk to an agent.
Now.
Again, I'll stress this.

(40:10):
Most of the agents that sellMedicare Advantage do not understand
that product.
They've been trained as anysalesman for any company has been
trained.
This is what you, you know,sell this, sell this, sell this.
Don't worry about the other stuff.
Just sell this, this, this and this.
And you know, they give themtalking points and everything else
to, you know, this is, this ishow you sell the product.

(40:32):
So some of them will not know either.
I will say this.
If you, if after all this, youlooked at Medicare Advantage, you
looked at traditional Medicareand you still got questions, call
me at the hospital there.
And Henriette, I'll be glad tohelp you.
I don't care where you'refrom, I'll be glad to help you with,

(40:56):
hopefully maybe answer some ofthose questions or at least tell
you, you know, call your agentback and ask him these questions.
Right.
So real quickly, because we'regoing to wrap it up here.
Well, kind of in a nutshell,sounds to me like just based on what
you said was traditionalMedicare will probably cost you more
monthly than a MedicareAdvantage plan.

(41:17):
But so if you, so by the, ifyou never go to the hospital and
you never go to the doctor,you will probably come out less with
a Medicare Advantage plan.
That is, that is very true.
Than a traditional Medicare.
But also you have to look at reality.
What is your age?
Generally, if you're over 65,you're going to the doctor at least
some point, your chances ofgoing to the hospital are going to

(41:38):
be increased.
And so therefore, that's whenyou need to make your determination.
So what is your overall healthbeen up to that point, but not only
if there's a family history ofa lot of problems you can kind of
anticipate.
Okay, as I age, I'm going toprobably develop some of these things
that mom, dad, grandma,grandpa, you know, I.

(42:00):
Heard years ago and this isfrom a physician that talked about,
about senior health.
Yeah.
And he said the same thing.
You got to remember, you know,when you, you're 65 years old, your
body is going to break downand you're, you're, even if you,
even if you're in shape,doesn't matter, good shape, you know,

(42:21):
65, most people, and I canattest to this, you've kind of put
your body to a lot of stress.
65 years.
So at some point your body isgoing to break down and that's what
you have to remember, thatyou're not as young as you used to
be.
Your body is going to break down.
So be prepared for that atsome point.

(42:44):
And Mike, like you said, ifyou've got a family history of whatever
it is, diabetes, heart,whatever it might be, chances are
you're going to inherit someof those.
Well, you can't outrun genetics.
Exactly.
No, I mean, that's just it.
Okay, well, so real quicklyhere, and we really appreciate that,

(43:05):
but I can't let you leavewithout giving a quick pitch about
Clay County Memorial Hospital.
Just so people understand,there's a lot going on at Clay County
Memorial Hospital that Iwasn't aware of.
I'm kind of involved now.
So.
But anyhow, tell people what,what's, why Clay County Memorial
Hospital could be a goodalternative for them if they live

(43:28):
in this area.
Sure, be glad to.
Well, number one, you're goingto get one on one care.
It's, it's, I guess the bestway you're going to get personalized
care, number one.
But we, we have a lot ofservices that a lot of small hospitals
do not offer.
Again, we've got inpatient,we've got a great laboratory, we've

(43:49):
got a great radiologydepartment, we got absolutely great
physical therapy department.
We've got a great surgery department.
We also now have a, what wecall a Senior Life Solutions, which
is a program for seniors thatagain, this is more for traditional

(44:12):
Medicare that treats or helpsseniors with, you know, anxiety.
Again, changes in life.
Yeah, mental changes in lifethat they just need help, need some
assistance.
So that's something I've beenwanting to do for probably 30 years.
We've just never, there'snothing been out there really for

(44:35):
this type of program up until,until recently.
And we've partnered with acompany out of Tennessee called pmc,
which is a mental health company.
They do a lot of thisthroughout the United States.
So it's good, it's a great program.
So there are a lot of thingsand again, we've got what I thought

(44:59):
great physicians.
We've got another physiciancoming in probably in January that's
going to join our staff.
So there are a lot of greatthings happening at Clay county and
I can promise you if you needa place, you need a doctor, you know,
you.
Again, if you've got a, if youneed a ct, come call us because I'm

(45:21):
told here in Wichita Falls itcould take up to anywhere from a
couple of weeks to a couple ofmonths to get in for a ct.
Call us.
You can get in today ortomorrow, it doesn't matter.
Yeah, that's, that's the thing.
And it's a, it's a drive to Henrietta.
You're right.
It's 20 minutes, guys.
So.
Yes, that's all it is.
So that, that's, that's onething that I've really thought was
pretty impressive.
It's fact is, I mean if, ifyour doctor says, hey, I want you

(45:44):
to go get a CAT scan and bythe way, you can pick where you get
your stuff done.
Yes, you can.
You, you're, you're not restricted.
Yeah.
Just because the doctor saysgo here, the doctor's used to this
person or anything like that,they can't force you to go someplace.
It's illegal.
A doctor can't tell you youhave to go to this place.
Am I correct about that?
Correct.
That's what I thought.
So.
And plus it would be anasshole move on top of that.

(46:07):
But no, Clay County MooreHospital is really a great place
to be.
It's.
I guarantee it's probably oneof the most friendliest places you'll
ever, you'll ever see again.
I've been in this business along time and I was very impressed
when I started my, my tenurethere at Clay county about how friendly
and how great and just thestaff that they have at Clay county

(46:33):
is unbelievable.
You'll have a greatexperience, Jim.
If people want to reach out toyou with questions about the Medicare
issues, for example, how dothey get in touch with you?
They can call me at the hospital.
And guys, I should have wrotethe phone number down, but I don't
have the number.
I'll get it.
We'll put it up on the screen.

(46:56):
You can email me at J KulaVadis or J K O U L O.
Good luck remembering that one.
Yeah.
J K O U L O V A T o s@ccmhospital.com.
either way, I mean, I enjoytalking to anybody and everybody
and if you call me, you mightget my, my voicemail and that's okay.

(47:20):
I will call you back or if youemail me, I will definitely email
you back and love talking to you.
I'm a great advocate for ClayCounty Memorial Hospital.
I believe in what we're doing there.
And, and I can promise youyou'll have a great experience if
you, if you, you come and useand see what we've got there at Clay

(47:41):
County Morehouse.
And by the way, that phonenumber is.
And Mike you can put it right here.
940-538-5621.
Jim Kulavatos from Clay CountyMemorial Hospital.
Thank you.
Well, I thank you.
I appreciate this has been fun.
And call me again.
I would love to do this again.
Hey, we'll have you back for sure.
Jim.
Thanks again for being here.

(48:02):
We appreciate.
Guys, stick around.
We're gonna take a short break.
We'll come back and we'll wrapit up.
Let's get it right.
Texoma coming back in just a mom.
Hey, welcome back.
Get it right Tech Soma.

(48:23):
I want to thank again, JimKulavatos for joining us and talking
about the Medicare, MedicareAdvantage differences likenesses.
Oh my gosh, there's wealth ofknowledge right there.
We probably, we probablycovered about 20 or 30% of what we
could talk about on this.
Oh, absolutely.
We hit all the high points anyway.
But the nice thing is it's a.
Podcast, so if you have anyquestions, you can go back and re

(48:44):
watch it.
You can go back and rewatch it.
Like Jim said, call him.
Jim's a super nice guy.
I've been fortunate enough.
I'm on the actually ClayCounty Hospital board now.
Yes.
And I've gotten to work withJim for the last several months and
he's a real high quality person.
Yeah.
Straight shooter and knows his stuff.
Yeah.
It's good to have someone likethat that you can call on and get,

(49:05):
just, just get information from.
Yeah.
Not trying to sell you a problem.
Yeah.
Just give you the information.
So again, thanks to Jim forbeing here to do that.
I got a few things to talkabout here.
This, this has been on theradar for a while now here, that
talk and we just never seem tohave a chance to get into it.
But you brought this up.
Active racism versus passive racism.

(49:28):
Yeah.
And we'll see how this goes.
It seems like the country hashad about an asshole of the racist
misogynist talk and that sortof thing.
But here's, here's the thingon active and passive racism, you
have active racism.
That is your clan, your neoNazis, your Black Panthers.

(49:48):
I think blm, I mean they,they've, they've used race hustling
to extort money from people.
There are people that say, or,and you could even say some of the
people that are anti Semiticbecause that is a race type thing
as well, because the Jewishpeople are considered a race of their
own, even though they're kindof white looking most of the time.

(50:09):
So you have the active racism.
You have the people who comeout there and say I don't like you
because the color of your skinor because of something like that.
Right.
But they're upfront about itand they tell you up front.
Then you got the passive racism.
The passive racism has nuances.
It's much more subtle, but yetit is racism.

(50:30):
Now, I'm going to tell you, Imake a distinction.
Just because there'ssomething, somebody exhibits racism,
I don't think that person isnecessarily a racist person.
A racist person is somebodywho, who has this, in my opinion,
has this hate or this whateverin their heart and that's who they
are.
Yeah, but a person who doesn'tconsider themselves racist and really

(50:53):
is not racist almost the thingcan distribute or can display some
racism.
And the passive racism war iswhere that happens.
The people who say Idaho IDsare, it's racist to have an ID to
vote.
That's what you're saying, isthat people that you think are below

(51:19):
you, people don't come out andsay, I think black people are below
me because they can't get an id.
But what you're saying ispeople don't have.
They can't get IDs.
How insulting is this to sayit's racist against black people
to make.
Make sure they have an ID tovote just like every other American
or, or minorities can't get.

(51:40):
Minorities can't get IDs,minorities can't get checking accounts
and that sort of thing.
That is passive racism.
Because basically what you'resaying is it is, you have a checking
account, you have an id, youwere able to obtain that, but these
people are below you andthey're not able to obtain that.
They're Americans.
If you're an American and youcan walk or go somewhere, you can

(52:02):
get an id, you can get achecking account, you can get a credit
card.
And by the.
So quit.
Quit telling everybody thesepoor people can't get this and these
poor people can't get that.
These poor people are.
Just because somebody's pooror a different color than you doesn't
mean that they're lessintelligent than you or less capable
than you.

(52:22):
Yeah, the whole thing, that'swhere the passive racism is.
The whole thing with the id,by the way, y'all think about this.
You can't take out a loan.
You can't buy a car, buy a house.
I'm a real estate agent.
We go to a closing.
When we get to the closing,the first thing my buyers are asked
to provide is a photo ID toverify that they are who they say

(52:43):
they are.
So the Title company knowsthat the person who's about to sign
all this paperwork and takepossession of this property is in
fact the person who's named onthe document.
We have to have a copy of theID to send down to get the title
work done on a, on a motor vehicle.
You, there's, there's a wholelaundry list of things in society.
Get on a plane.
Yes.
Go try to rent a hotel.

(53:04):
Now you might be able to getsome motel somewhere within a day.
The Sleep well Motel orsomething like that that would rent
you a room without an id.
Yeah.
But try to go to a Hilton or aSheridan or Holiday Inn Express or
something and show up therewith no ID and try to rent a room.
Yeah.
Any place that's going to rentyou a room without an ID you better
be checking for bed bugs.
Ok.

(53:24):
Or get the black light out andsee, see, you know who's been.
If it's a murder scene orsomething there.
They ever wash that comforter?
Yeah.
No.
It's the whole.
It is insulting.
It's.
It is insulting it tomassively insulting to people that
are minorities.
Yes.
And if you're a minority,please be insulted and let that person
know how insulting it is.

(53:45):
You are not less capablesimply because of the color of your
skin or your educational levelor because of your socioeconomic
status.
But I think we know the wholereason that the party that has almost
exclusively promoted the it'sracist to require an ID to vote ideology
is the Democratic Party.

(54:06):
And I think we all know whythey're doing that.
Well, and let's go even further.
I don't necessarily think it'sthe mainstream Democrats.
It's the people that are on the.
Far more leftists.
Yeah.
I mean I think most mainstreamDemocrats think that showing an ID
to vote is probably a normalidea, a good idea.
And we do tend to associatethe term liberal with them.

(54:26):
I think there is a cleardistinction quite frankly between
a traditional liberal and a leftist.
Absolutely.
The leftist.
These are your.
These are the ones who areNazi esque.
These are the ones who wantdomination and control.
These are the ones who wantthe damn dictators.
They want to control yourthoughts, they want to control your
speech, they want to controlthat sort of thing, everything.

(54:48):
And that is not true.
Your classic liberals.
Because classic liberalsdefend your speech and defend the
fact that you have three freethoughts and you're.
What you're seeing in theRepublican Party right now is a kind
of a remake of the RepublicanParty where you do have some of the
classic liberals that havecome over to the Republican Party.
Yeah.
And mingled in there with someof the traditional conservatives.

(55:10):
And you're getting thisreally, I like this very moderate
middle of the road type partyin a lot of ways.
You and you could be sociallyon one side and fiscally on the other.
You don't have to be ahardline conservative or a hardline
liberal on anything.
But you have first off, DonaldTrump grew up a liberal.

(55:33):
Donald Trump is not an ultraconservative guy.
He never was your Elon Musk's.
He's a liberal.
You're Joe Rogans, he's a liberal.
Tulsi Gabbard.
But they're more yourclassical liberal people.
They're not your hard line,your leftist.
And they're not hard rightconservatives either.
And liberal.
And I think liberal in thevein of you should be able to make

(55:55):
decisions on your own.
You should be able to makeyour own choices.
And as long as you're not outhere committing felonies, as long
as you're.
Not hurting somebody else, whothe hell cares what you do as long
as you're not hurting somebody else.
Why should the.
Exactly.
As long as you're not doingharm to someone else, as long as
you're not out here breakingthe law, why in the hell should the
government have any say, inputor concern about what you do, how

(56:18):
you do it, when you do it,where you do it, any of it.
That was the stance forliberalism for so many years.
And now you've got Democratsthat are far leftists who really,
they are the thought police.
They want to be the thought police.
They want to control everyaspect of your life that they possibly
can.
I'm telling you, everybodyjust needs to wrap their head around

(56:38):
this when they're offering you.
One of the big selling pointstoward the latter fourth or so of
the Harris campaign was thewhole thing about we're going to
give you $25,000 to go towarda down payment on a new home.
So you can, so home ownershipcan, the dream of home ownership
can come true for you.
Let me tell you something.
They're offering you that.

(56:58):
They're offering you money.
First of all, there arestrings attached.
It's never free.
You will be paying it back oneway or another.
Put it on the other end of the loan.
Somewhere in the chain, youwill be paying that back and you'll
be paying it back with heavyinterest too.
Well, and it's not just that.
If everybody, if everybody'sgoing to get it, then what does that

(57:18):
do?
That just makes the price ofthat house go up 2,500 more dollars
because, because the wholepoint behind it was competitiveness.
You somehow gained somecompetitive advantage because now
you have a down payment.
Well, if everybody has thatdown, that down payment, nobody has
a competitive advantageanymore in the house, in many housing
markets.
It is a competitive thing inmany, in many markets.

(57:39):
I'm not giving you anything.
Yeah, it's the taxpayer's money.
They're not giving you anything.
That's the whole thing thatbothered me about the.
Forget loan.
Loan forgiveness.
You can't forgive somethingthat you didn't issue.
Call it what it is.
If you're going to do it.
If it's a program that you're,that you're going to, the government
is going, the taxpayer aregoing to pay off student loan debts,

(57:59):
then call it what it is.
That's what I keep going backto call things what they are.
Exactly.
I've got a whole thing on this.
We'll talk about another time.
Changing the language andtalking about the language.
Be honest.
Quit using nomenclature andthat sort of thing to make things
sound differently than whatthey really are.
Real quick here.
I want to, because I just issuch a big, this is such a big deal.

(58:20):
And with, with the incomingadministration, border security is
going to be priority number one.
That's, that's the message.
Day one.
Day one, Mike.
Day one.
Texas.
I don't, I don't have verygood Trump.
It's going to be the best ever.
The best ever.
Texas is buying two huge ranches.

(58:41):
They already have.
They are, they've alreadybought them.
The 353,000 plus acre BrewsterRanch which borders Big Bend National
Park.
They're going to be, they'regoing to have some leasing options
for the land for hunting andother things.
This is probably one of themost spectacular pieces of property
in the state of Texas.

(59:02):
Really is.
If you, if you've never beento Big Bend, please take the time
to go.
It's an outdoor level, lovers adventure.
It's the high desert.
But there, but this, thisparticular property, what this property
was at the Brewster Ranch wasa combination of all these old ranches.
Yes.
In South Texas that would,people would die off or sell off

(59:22):
in the, in the, I guess theBrewster family or whoever put this
together over the years.
They put all this ranch together.
Now it was on, I don't knowwhat state of Texas paid for it,
but it was for sale at onepoint for $453 million.
Yes.
It's a lot of land.
It's a lot of buildings andthings like that, so this will be
open for hunting.
Agricultural, soil, carbonsequester, sequestration.

(59:48):
I couldn't say that.
Right.
Minerals and hopefully maybe,maybe some UTV, ATV trails, dirt
bike trails.
They've also bought the 1400acre Star Ranch that borders the
US Mexico border now.
Much smaller ranch, but stilla critical strategic purchase here
in border security.

(01:00:10):
This serves two purposes.
Number one, it keeps a foreigninvestor from stepping in, like the
Chinese, for example.
That was the biggest thing onthat Brewster Ranch is keeping somebody
else from buying it.
Right.
So it keeps it in Texas hands,basically now the taxpayer's hands.
And it gives them moreopportunity to.
Build more border wall.
They're going to build1.5amile and a half of border wall

(01:00:32):
basically on the Star Ranch.
Now where the Star Ranch.
Star.
Or I'm Starr County Ranch,where Star county is.
It is the county.
By the way, we talked aboutStar county because it's, this was
the county for the first timesince 19 or, I'm sorry, 1896, voted
Republican.
That's right.
Star county is, if you, ifyou're looking, it's out in the Rio

(01:00:53):
Grande Valley.
You've got Falcon Lake.
Yes.
And then as you go down, youget too close to La Jolla.
Now, most people had neverheard the word, heard of the town
of La Jolla until Fox Newsmade it famous.
And because they were on theborder every day reporting from La
Jolla, that was one of the hotspots that people were crossing the
Rio Grande.
Yes.
So this, this county doesn'tgo all the way to La Jolla, but gets

(01:01:16):
in that area.
But somewhere on that, righton that border is this, this ranch
that the Texas bought.
And they're going to buildborder wall.
Because the fact is you don'thave to ask permission to build border
wall on your own property.
That's right.
That's right.
So this is, this is a major,major move for Texas.
Texas has been at theforefront leading the way on border

(01:01:38):
security for the last fouryears where the current administration
has repeatedly, continuouslyand deliberately failed.
And look, don't listen to allthe hype and the BS that comes out
there.
I don't know anybody in theRepublican Party or this administration
who has said we don't want immigrants.

(01:01:59):
The first lady is a goddamn immigrant.
Okay.
You know, my wife's animmigrant people.
There are a lot of people thathave immigrants.
I have never heard anybodythat says they're against having
immigration.
It's legal.
Right.
That's what it's all about islegal immigration.
And I know it's easy to say,look, these poor people just want
a better life for themselves.
And there are a percentage ofpeople that.

(01:02:21):
That's literally all they want.
They want a better life for themselves.
But at some point, we have afinite amount of resources and we
need to take care of Americansthat are suffering before we can
start saving the world thatare suffering.
So.
So I'm in favor of closingthis border to, to the checkpoints,

(01:02:42):
modifying our immigrationsystem, getting rid of the people
that came in here illegal overa certain period of time.
Maybe we need to have a showon this.
I am not for deporting peoplethat have been here for 25 or 30
years, that are paid taxes,that maybe came over here illegally.
I need to see the plan.
I'm not for that.
But if you've come in in thelast five years illegally and especially

(01:03:06):
start, start with criminals.
I've looked and seen whatthey're talking about.
They're going to start withanybody who has a criminal background.
They're going to start withthere's, I think, 2 million people
that were issued court datesand never showed up.
Well, there's a reason youdidn't show up for your court date.
Well, you got to go back.
We also know that we've hadpeople who are on terror watch lists.

(01:03:26):
That's a deal.
They've gotten into this country.
And before anybody starts in about.
Well, that's just a smallpercentage of them.
The numbers are in thehundreds and perhaps even the thousands
of people who have felonycriminal records and, or some sort
of terrorist ties.

(01:03:47):
Oh, it's tens of thousands.
Okay, so, okay, let's say it's 10,000.
Before anybody tries to say,well, that's not a huge number.
I'm going to take you back to9, 11, 2001.
It took 19 hijackers to takedown three airliners and kill over

(01:04:09):
3,000 people.
And, and change our.
Fundamentally change ourcountry and fundamentally change
19.
If 19 could do that muchdamage, what could 1900 do?
What could 10,000 do?
That's what you better stopand think about.
The fact is there's people inthis world that are bad people and

(01:04:30):
will do bad things and theydon't care.
They don't like us.
They don't.
And they, you can, you cansay, oh, I'll reason.
There's people out there thatyou cannot reason with.
No, you talk about hatingtheir heart.
Now these people got genuinehatred in their hearts and they,
and like you said, they don'tcare now.
They just, they just want tokill people.
So.
So we need to.
We need to stop the flow, asmuch of that as we can.

(01:04:52):
And we need to utilize ourresources to help Americans first.
Yeah, because.
Because you got to help.
You got to help your home first.
You got to take care of yourhouse before you can take care of
the neighbor's house.
Guys, we're going to wrap itup here.
Thank you for joining us again.
Go to our website, get it right.
Texoma.com find us on Facebookas well.
If you're on YouTube, be sureto hit that subscribe button on YouTube

(01:05:13):
and share this with all yourfriends across social media.
And also be sure to check outour sponsors, which, of course is
Eddie Hills Fun Cycles, 401North Scott, downtown Wichita Falls
since 1966.
Eddyhillsfundcycles.comwebsite MacTech Solutions.
We record this podcast in theMacTech Solutions podcast studio,
MacTech Solutions, at 4020 RayRoad in Wichita Falls, Suite 3B.

(01:05:38):
Mactech-solutions.com andLollipop Sweet Shop, your online
bakery at LP suite.com and on Facebook.
Lollipop Sweet Shop.
L O L L I E.
Lolli and Pop Sweet Shop.
It's an online bakery, butit's not a virtual bakery because
they bake real stuff.
We do.
We real stuff.
Real good stuff, too.
And they'll deliver it to you.
Yes, yes, that's right.
What is the policy on that?

(01:05:58):
If you live within.
If you're within.
If you're within 25 miles orless of Wichita Falls and you order
at least $25 worth of product,we will deliver it to your door free
of charge.
There you go.
And you know, if it's.
If it's less than that or youlive further away, then we'll work
out a delivery.
Yeah, it's not that you can'tget it delivered.
It's just gonna have to besomething to take care of that.
Yes, yes.
Well.
Well, if somebody orderedseveral hundred dollars worth of

(01:06:19):
stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, they lived 50 milesaway, they probably could get a good
deal on.
You know, ship it to Cucamongaor something.
I don't know.
You know, by the way, bunchmoney used to go there all the time,
you know, always.
But it made.
Made the wrong left turn at Albuquerque.
Could have made the left turnto Albuquerque.
But good quality.
Good quality stuff.
Good quality treats.
And the holidays are coming up.

(01:06:39):
Oh, yeah.
So remember that.
Yeah.
And it's stacking up fasthere, so I bet.
Yeah.
We're down to what, five weeksnow till Christmas.
Come on.
Whoo.
Did I say that out loud?
You did anyway.
All right, guys, thank you forbeing with us once again.
We appreciate it.
And again, we want to saythanks to our guest, Jim Kulabatos
for his time with us today.
And we look forward to seeingyou next time here on Get It Right,

(01:07:00):
Texoma.
Until then, take care.
We shall see you down.
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