Caller Steve: ObamaCare Makes His Insurance $6,900 More Expensive

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – “If we’re looking for any kind of a silver lining from the ObamaCare implementation, and I’m not promoting this as a silver lining, and no, I’m not happy about it.  What I said was, in the first hour, that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has lifted the shroud on what this stuff actually costs.  People are shocked.  They are shocked at what it actually costs, shocked to the point of they’re ready to revolt.”  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  If you missed the first hour, what I said was, we may have one — it is Christmas season.  We cannot all be mired in misery.  If we’re looking for any kind of a silver lining from the Affordable Care Act implementation, and I’m not promoting this as a silver lining, and no, I’m not happy about it.  What I said was, in the first hour, that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has lifted the shroud on what this stuff actually costs.  People are shocked.  They are shocked at what it actually costs, shocked to the point of they’re ready to revolt.  No, I am not paying that much for health insurance.  I wouldn’t pay that much for car insurance.  I’d stop driving.  Hell, I’d take public transportation.  With health insurance, though, now that Mordor controls it, none of us have an out.  None of us have an out other than to really revolt and go Galt and say no to the entire enterprise.  Steve is in Washington, first up today.  How you doing?

Caller Steve:  I’m doing quite well.  Good morning, Mike.

Mike:  Back at you, sir.   Merry Christmas.

Caller Steve:  Merry Christmas to yourself and your family.

Mike:  I dragged a greeting.  I dragged a sign of holiday cheer out of one of you today.  I quit.  That’s it.  I’m going home now.  My goal for the day has been accomplished.  I’m kidding.

Caller Steve:  That would be mission accomplished.  I really liked your commentary this morning about lifting the shroud on the absolute cost of the health insurance.  There are two things.  Number one,

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I’m a contract employee, so that means that I am associated with a company but I pay all my own costs, including healthcare.  I have done that since the year 2000.  At that point, I had sticker shock back then of what actual healthcare — I’d never paid for my own health insurance up until that point.   I’d always been part of a company that I paid my portion and really didn’t pay much attention to what the total cost was.  Once I had to pay the whole portion for my family, my couple kids and my wife and I, it was about $1,500 a month back in the year 2000.  Since 2000 to 2013, October, it has gradually increased.  As of October, it was $1,971 a month.

Mike:  How many people are you covering with $1,971 per month?

Caller Steve:  This is kind of interesting.  It doesn’t really matter as long as you only have two children.  If you have two or 15, it makes no difference, which will tell you that something is wrong with the model in the first place.  I actually insure five, my wife, myself and our children.  That was in October.  Once the Obamacare / Affordable Care Act came in, I was just made aware that my new bill would be $2,473 a month.  I am pretty sure that the average mortgage in this country is right near $1,950.

Mike:  That sounds about right.  I did the math —

Your previous yearly expense for medical insurance, for you, your wife and your three children came to $22,992 per annum.  With the advent of Obamacare, which is going to save you money, you were told, it’s now $29,676 per annum.  If we do a little math here… you are now afforded $6,684 in increased expenses to purchase medical insurance.

Caller Steve:  Here’s what’s really interesting.  I like the fact that you picked up on that, that the shroud of how much health insurance actually costs has been lifted.  I think you should take it one step further.  The other shroud in there that I was welcomed to in the year 2000 is that I pay my income taxes.  I don’t have them removed from my pay.  I actually write a check every quarter.  Once you do that, that really lifts the shroud of what this federal government costs you.  I don’t know what it would take to get that shroud lifted.  It probably won’t be in my lifetime.  That one is a shroud that’s been around a long time.  I think the mass populace of the nation lives on what’s left at the end of the day on their paycheck and doesn’t really pay any attention to what goes into FICA and your healthcare and etc., etc., etc.  I do like that.

Mike:  You know what —

Caller Steve:  And back to that original point, like I said, if it were myself, my wife and two children, it would have been that price, the price I currently pay.  If I had seven children, it would be the exact — if I were Philip Rivers and coming up on my eighth, the price would be exactly the same.  That in itself tells you that there is something fundamentally and economically wrong and has been forever.

Mike:  Steve, let’s run this model out here for just a moment, shall we?  I did some quick math, thanks to my iPhone calculator.  Here’s what I produced.  Your previous yearly expense for medical insurance, for you, your wife and your three children came to $22,992 per annum.  With the advent of Obamacare, which is going to save you money, you were told, it’s now $29,676 per annum.  If we do a little math here, slide the abacus to the left, pull that one down, slide that one up, put that one down, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, you are now afforded $6,684 in increased expenses to purchase medical insurance.  That’s point number one, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to get back to the other point you just made about how it wouldn’t matter if you were Philip Rivers or Steve from Washington, that two kids or seven kids is the same price.  Let’s think of this in terms of automobile insurance.  Let’s pretend that you are Philip Rivers and that it’s just you and Mrs. Rivers that are driving the family Suburban or Escalade or whatever it is that San Diego Chargers quarterbacks drive these days.  It doesn’t matter.  Junior number one gets his driver’s license and says: I want to drive a car, pops.  Pops adds junior number one to his policy.  What does the GEICO gecko say?  Cha-ching!  That’ll be an extra $75 a month, Mr. Rivers.

Caller Steve:  For a 16-year-old it would be a lot.

Mike:  Whatever it is, let’s go with $100 a month.  The next one is a daughter that comes along and says: Dad, I’d like to drive the Riversmobile.  Okay, daughter, you can drive, too.  Cha-ching!  The State Farm “like a good neighbor” guy who magically appears will now add another $100 to the kitty.  Now we’re where healthcare insurance costs are.  We have a family, husband, wife and two children, but wait.  Children three and four, who are fraternal twins, now decide they want to buy insurance.  Wait a minute, using the health care insurance model, it shouldn’t cost the Rivers family anything else to add them to the GEICO gecko policy, should it?  Oh, yes, it will.  You add children three and four and cha-ching!  They’re going to add an additional $200.  You’re not going to get any quantity discount.  You might get ten percent or something stupid like that.  When you reach a certain amount, they’re going to say: Look, you can only have three drivers on one car.

Caller Steve:  You’re going to need another policy.

Mike:  That’s right.  You’re going to have to have another policy.  Why does it work that way in automobile insurance but it does not work that way in health insurance, Steve?

Caller Steve:  Because your point is absolutely spot on.  The head of these leviathan at the health insurance industry have been tied to the U.S. government for quite a long time, I would argue decades.

Mike:  Indeed.

Caller Steve:  It’s the only economic answer that makes sense.  Of course, the reason it makes sense is because it makes no economic sense.

Mike:  Steve, you’re spot-on on all this.  I’m so glad you called.  I am not glad, though, and I am not happy one iota for your pain, for your economic hardship.

Caller Steve:  I’m a contract employee.  I sell industrial equipment.  Guess what will happen to the price of my industrial equipment?

Mike:  Either you can try to factor that in and pass it on to the consumer, which many people are going to try to do, or you’re going to have to eat it.

Caller Steve:  And hope that my Chinese competitor doesn’t cut me at the knees.  That’s all I can do.

Mike:  That’s all you can do.  The other alternative is you can eat it — hold on, just hear me out.  If Steve decides to eat it and say: I can’t go up in my prices.  My guys will bail on me.  Then he is going to deny DirecTV and AT&T Wireless and the Verizon chick in the hot pink, he’s going to deny them some of what they are currently getting.  Then he’s going to deny the guy that’s out there ranching and farming angus beef because I can’t afford filet mignon any longer; give me some skirt steak.

Caller Steve:  It will affect everything.

Mike:  It does.

Caller Steve:  Yes, it does, it absolutely affects everything.  I used to think that fuel was really the one that affected everything, but this one goes beyond that.

Mike:  Fuel does, but I think that your example — you know what, Steve?  You and I — I talked earlier about my policy and the sticker shock that I got when I actually dug into my own policy and what it costs between my portion and what the company pays.  You and I are not far apart.  That is a shocking number.

Caller Steve:  I’m sure it’s very common.

Mike:  It is a shocking number, absolutely shocking.  There’s not a single American that’s in your class of income or my class of income that could actually afford this and afford the luxury of things like a mortgage and the luxury of things like private education.  Now you see where the real threat of this is.  That’s why I said when I started this segment that the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act is now making a very public spectacle of exactly what it costs to purchase and have health insurance.  That in and of itself may cause a revolution and a revolt.

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End Mike Church Show Transcript