Healthcareonomics Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dr. Kevin Wacasey
Are you lost in the health insurance game? In the 13th episode of Healthcareonomics, Ashley Berges joined the radio show to discuss the health insurance game. In addition to hosting the syndicated radio talk “Perspectives with Ashley Berges,” Ashley is a certified life coach and family therapist. Similar to the Colleyville Medical Clinic, Ashley does not take health insurance. How does accepting health insurance hurt a doctor and the patient? “I think you kind of get devalued…when you’re only looking at the network, when you’re only focusing on who I can actually see, not actually who’s the best
Are you looking for a 2015 health care preview? That’s a significant topic in Episode 12 of Healthcareonomics. If physicians and health insurance companies subscribed to the concepts of affordability, customer service and consumer choice,
Will consumer choice return to healthcare? Basically, in every other aspect of life, you have consumer choice. Why not healthcare? That’s a primary topic in the 11th episode of Healthcareonomics that is now available on podcast. Remember, I don’t want to change healthcare. I just want to change the way you think about healthcare. In addition to discussing the absence of consumer choice in healthcare, we discussed our previous visit with healthcare executive and Tea Party founder Michael Johns. We give you a behind the scenes look at my recent video, the reasoning behind publicizing the menu of charges on
Tea Party leader Michael Johns joined Healthcareonomics for episode 10, the final show of 2015. In addition to being a Tea Party leader and founder, Michael is a healthcare executive who was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and policy analyst for The Heritage Foundation. Michael Johns discussed a variety of topics including how the premise of Healthcareonomics correlates with the Tea Party’s viewpoint on healthcare… “I think it correlates very closely. The Tea Party has been so focused, I think understandably so, we’ve been very focused on trying to fight back Obamacare for a bunch of
In the 9th podcast of the Healthcareonomics Radio Show, we discussed Kathleen Sebelius, the new calculator/widget for The Wacasey Equation, what happens when you present your health insurance card at the Colleyville Medical Clinic and much more.
Here’s an excerpt from the discussion on Kathleen Sebelius—the former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services…
“They compared her to Jonathan Gruber for his remarks about how stupid the American voters are and that’s not what I think she was saying. She wasn’t saying that people are stupid per se, she was saying that their financial literacy, specifically when it comes to health insurance, is very low. As a practicing physician and seeing people who utilize their health insurance so disastrously, I have to agree with her. People have the wrong mindset.
Here’s an excerpt on the new calculator for The Wacasey Equation…
“This calculator, it’s a really cool tool. It’s free. It costs nothing to use it and you don’t have to put your e-mail in or give me any information that I might otherwise use for NSA purposes, but you just plug in some numbers from any old health insurance policy and you can find some very interesting results I’m sure. I’ve shown this to a lot of people over the past couple of weeks and they’re amazed when they start plugging in their numbers.
Even my 21-year-old son, I asked him one night, he was visiting me – which is a rare occasion these days – and I said which do you think is the best health insurance policy? He said obviously the gold is going to be the best one, and I said really?
I plugged in his information as a single 21-year-old guy and living in his zip code and we started punching in numbers for bronze, silver and gold plans and he was amazed to find that the higher the metal level, the more shiny and brilliant the metal level, the silvers and the golds and especially the platinums, in general, you’re losing money.
You’re losing money on the cost of staying well, which is again the premium, the P, and you’re probably losing money on your O, your out-of-pocket maximum and even in cases where you’re not losing money … Remember the equation is POW, P + O = W or POW, and that’s premium plus out-of-pocket maximum equals W; what you might spend in any given year on health care and health insurance.
To me, that’s a very important number because that is the bottom line of the value of any health insurance plan, is what is it going to cost me to stay well and what is it going to cost me if I get hit by a train? We found a couple of different scenarios as you rise through these metal levels and the first one obviously is where your premium is always going to be more. The more coverage you buy, you’re going to pay more out-of-pocket for the premium, so you can count on that going up the higher you go in the metal levels, but the out-of-pocket maximum doesn’t always go up and the W doesn’t always go up.
We found some cases where the W is actually cheaper for the gold plan than it was for the bronze plan, but here’s the rub…
Check out the podcast.
Healthcareonomics airs every Sunday on 570 KLIF in Dallas, Texas. The podcasts are found on this website and on iTunes.
The post Financial Literacy and The Wacasey Equation appeared first on Healthcareonomics.
As open enrollment continues, millions will have to balance their needs against their bank accounts in a quest for the best health insurance plan. The Wacasey Equation helps turn this difficult decision into an easy one, and during the 8th radio show and podcast of Healthcareonomics, I show you how.
It couldn't be simpler. Just enter a couple of easily found numbers - the monthly premium and annual out-of-pocket maximum - from any health insurance policy. Add those up, and you get the true value of any health insurance policy: what you might spend on health insurance and health care for a given year.
Think Gold is always the best health insurance? Use the formula to compare plans, and I'll bet you won't believe how much less, can really mean more.
Check out my radio show Healthcareonomics that airs every Sunday at 4 p.m. on 570 KLIF in Dallas, Texas. Or you can download the podcast here and on iTunes.
Remember, It’s not the COSTS of healthcare that are outrageous…it’s the CHARGES.
Do you know what’s missing from healthcare today? “To me, there are three things missing from healthcare today…affordability, customer service and consumer choice,” Dr. Kevin Wacasey explained during the seventh episode of Healthcareonomics (find the podcast in this blog post and on iTunes). Dr. Kevin Wacasey, who is the creator of Healthcareonomics, owns and operates The Colleyville Medical Clinic in Colleyville, Texas where he has a policy that if you wait more than 15 minutes to see him, then the charges are waived! You would be hard-pressed to find another doctor with that policy! Also, how many doctors do you
Dr. Kevin Wacasey wants to change healthcare by changing how you think about healthcare! The sixth podcast of Healthcareonomics begins with the story of how health insurance took over healthcare. Do you know when health insurance began? Do you know how much it for health insurance back in the day when insurance first was introduced? What is it about the copay? Dr. Wacasey also shares why health insurance companies are able to charge what they want in present day. Dr. Wacasey also attacks and dissects specific headlines around the healthcare world. You can see any auto mechanic, barber or
What is the big myth of healthcare? This is a major topic in this week’s edition of Healthcareonomics. The fifth podcast of the radio show can be downloaded now! This edition of Healthcareonomics scrutinizes the costs versus charges of healthcare and health insurance, specifically, managed care and how it was created. Health insurers control the entire healthcare industry with the aid of the government. Isn’t that un-Constitutional? Dr. Kevin Wacasey will explain what happens, from an insurance standpoint, when a patient comes into the Colleyville Medical Clinic. He will also provide suggestions on how to get the most out
What good is health insurance without access to health care? That’s Obamacare for you. Why are we spending too much on healthcare? What happened to consumerism in healthcare? These are several of the questions that are asked and answered in the fourth episode of Healthcareonomics – The Radio Show. Healthcareonomics airs on Sunday at 4 p.m. on 570 KLIF in Dallas, Texas. In addition to finding the podcasts here, you can listen to them on iTunes. Dr. Kevin Wacasey, who owns and manages the Colleyville Medical Clinic in Colleyville, Texas, is the creator and co-host of Healthcareonomics. Open