Tag: healthcare insurance

13-30 An Unbelievable Number | Oregon’s Healthcare Transformation

13-30 An Unbelievable Number | Oregon’s Healthcare Transformation

Show 13-30 Summary: Lisa Lettenmaier, a former accountant and current insurance expert, has been tracking Oregon’s healthcare system for decades. We take a deep dive with her into Oregon’s healthcare system and the completely unsustainable path its on — unless you want to eventually spend every penny on “free” healthcare.

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of June 2021
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.

The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: July 29th & 30th, 2023 | Guest: Lisa Lettenmaier

This Week – Oregon’s Healthcare is Unsustainable

This week, we’re looking into Oregon’s health care system. And, in particular, the tidal wave of spending, endless spending, we’re dumping into what Oregon thinks is a “free” system. Or that’s the goal. It will just take a few hundred billion to get there — and another few hundred billion to keep up the illusion of “free.”

Oh, and doctors are looking to form a union. Because that always makes government expenditures go down, right? Yikes.

We talk with Lisa Lettenmaier, our go-to expert on insurance as well as the inner workings and financial health of the healthcare system.

Diagnosis: the patient is sick.

Oregon’s Healthcare Transformation

There’s a saying I’m sure you know: “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Along those lines, “Those who do not learn from Oregon are doomed to repeat its mistakes.”

Oregon’s forest management polices often lead to more forest fires. Which is stupid because all we need to do is to do something. Like the most obvious: open the forests up and let timber companies harvest — especially in areas prone to fires. Plus the government makes money. Twice. They get a payment from the sales of timber and they get all those taxes from good-paying jobs and companies making profits.

But the government would rather not do that (logging sounds like hard work) so they would rather spend money on putting out forest fires than make money doing things that would prevent the problem.

Oregon is pretty much setting its health care system on fire. And, once again, it’s a problem they caused — and then they set it on fire.

Tune in to find out just how bad it all is. Yes, the state of Oregon’s healthcare system will make you sick.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

 

 

Our Many Healthcare Crises, Part 2 | The Root Cause of Many of Them

Our Many Healthcare Crises, Part 2 | The Root Cause of Many of Them

Show Summary: When Obamacare was passed (rammed through without a single Republican vote), it was supposed to fix health care and lower costs. All those savings, remember? What happened? But there are more problems and more spending than ever. This week, we continue our talk with healthcare-system expert, Lisa Lettenmaier, but zero in on the two root causes of many of, if not all of, our many healthcare crises.

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of June 2021
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.

The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: August 6th & 7th, 2022 | Guest: Lisa Lettenmaier

This Week – Our Many Healthcare Crises

We continue our deep dive into the problems plaguing our health care system—the many healthcare crises and the ever-growing expense. How is it that we are spending more than ever — by far! — on healthcare and yet it’s just one crisis after another? 

But this week, we zero in on the two main problems. And they should be no surprise, really, for anyone who has followed I Spy Radio’s many shows on healthcare or for anyone who has a lick of common sense. The two root causes are money and government. Particularly, government interference.

Healthcare crises in the UK: "My cousin had to deliver his child because the ambulance said they’d take 4 and a half hours to come for his wife. What is the UK coming to? He had to watch a YouTube tutorial on how to deliver a baby."
Healthcare crises in the UK. THIS is what they want to emulate?

We bring back our healthcare system expert, Lisa Lettenmaier. Lisa is currently an insurance agent and owns Health Source NW. But her background is in accounting, overseeing budgets and forecasting for major companies. So when she looks at the healthcare crises, she is viewing it not just from an insurance standpoint but from a systemic-analyst’s viewpoint.

Need healthcare and not sure where to turn? Give Lisa a call. Her website is www.HealthSourceNW.com.  She helps individuals and businesses throughout Oregon and SW Washington make sure they have the right coverage for when, God forbid, they really need it. Will your policy cover what you think it does? 

The Root Cause of So Many Healthcare Crises

This week, you’ll also hear an extended opener from I Spy Radio host, Mark Anderson, on the government’s interference — sabotage, really — of the normal free-market forces that would normally lower cost and improve care. Mark walks you through what a free market system would look like. Hint: we don’t have one now (remember Obama et al. when they were pushing Obamacare:  “the free market failed”?), not in health care. And he walks you through the government interfering with the free market, much of which can be traced back to a 1943 IRS ruling.

If you didn’t already think “they” are destroying things on purpose, you’ll believe it after this show. No one, no government, makes this many “mistakes” on purpose.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

What to do About Our Many Healthcare Crises | Part 1

What to do About Our Many Healthcare Crises | Part 1

Show Summary: We are dumping billions upon billions into our healthcare system. But there are more healthcare crises than ever. What’s going on? We talk with health care system expert, Lisa Lettenmaier to find out what’s happening and why there are so many crises. Next week, we’ll look at the root cause of so many of these problems and what can be done.

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of June 2021
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.

The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: July 30th & 31st, 2022 | Guest: Lisa Lettenmaier

This Week – Our Many Healthcare Crises

We are diving deep into the problems plaguing our health care system. The many healthcare crises and the ever-growing expense. How is it that we are spending more than ever — by far! — on healthcare and yet it’s just one crisis after another? 

Does anyone even remember that we were promised that Obamacare would fix all this? And cost less?

We bring back our healthcare system expert, Lisa Lettenmaier. Lisa is currently an insurance agent and owns Health Source NW. But her background is in accounting, overseeing budgets and forecasting for major companies. So when she looks at the healthcare crises, she is viewing it not just from an insurance standpoint but from a systemic analyst’s viewpoint.

And it’s not good.

We talk with Lisa about the many healthcare crises right now but focus on three in particular that are the most troubling. Including the mental health crisis, which, in many ways, is emblematic of the other system-wide problems.

We’ll continue this deep dive next week and focus in on the root of all these crises. Which has changed everything—and not for the good.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Rising prescription drug prices (OregonLive, July 20, 2022)

Oregon agency sets virtual public hearings on 2023 health insurance preliminary rate decisions (KTVZ, July 23, 2022)

Healthcare and ambulance services deal with capacity crisis (KGW, July 22, 2022)

Profits of the pandemic: Moderna gives Boston’s property market a shot (Daily Mail, July 23, 2022)

WA hospitals facing ‘unsustainable’ financial losses, in danger of cutting services (Seattle Times, July 21, 2022)

Left’s Latest Health Care Scheme Will Worsen Inflation, The Deficit, And Your Insurance (The Federalist, July 25, 2022)

Difficulty Paying Bills Tops Pandemic High in US Census Survey (Yahoo News, July 25, 2022)

Covid Relief Spending by the Federal Government (via USASpending.gov, retrieved July 28, 2022)