Radio CG 9: Healthcare, Scams, and More

What are our politicians doing? That was the first question we posed during what we admit was a slightly unorthodox episode. For our final September show, we discussed predatory scams and why they’re allowed to continue; the danger our tech-dependent society poses to our most vulnerable; and what might replace the ACA if it’s struck down by the Supreme Court.

Protecting Consumers

Does this sound familiar? Someone calls you and claims they’re from your health insurance, your bank, the IRS, or, more recently, Social Security. They explain to you a situation – maybe your Social Security number has been compromised; maybe someone has broken into your account – and you need to provide information to them right away. This information is always sensitive. The consequences they threaten are always dire. Usually jail is involved.

If you’re rolling your eyes as you read this, congratulations! You’re savvy enough to know better. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people out there who don’t. In 2018, some $55 million was lost to tech support scams alone. Overall, in 2019 U.S. consumers lost over $10 billion to scams of all sorts.

Often, the victims are seniors who just don’t know better. But scammers don’t just prey on the elderly. They can spoof phone numbers, which makes it much easier to convince you that your bank or a business contact is on the other end of the line.

The ultimate question, of course, is where are our politicians in all this?

We didn’t have an answer for that, by the way. But even the most heartless of our political representatives can surely see there’s a lot of money being funneled out of the economy?

The Healthcare Problem

We devoted the second half of the show to one of the topics looming large on everyone’s mind: the American Healthcare Act, also called Obamacare.

It’s slated to head to the Supreme Court in November. President Trump’s nomination, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, has questioned the law, and if confirmed before the hearings begin, she could well help dismantle it. Even if she does not, a 4:4 split of the remaining justices would kick the ACA back down to the lesser courts – which effectively kills it.

Here is where Pat and Dean disagree.

Multiple outlets have reported that if the ACA is repealed, millions could lose their health insurance immediately. What’s more, preexisting conditions could once again be something insurers could charge more to cover, or refuse to cover at all. Pat doesn’t believe the former will be a problem; by the time the law is decided, he reasons, the 2021 rates will be locked in anyway and no changes will come.

Pat did provide two quick potential fixes for the current system: First, get the prescription drugs under control. When he wrote insurance 20 years ago, prescription medication was 2-3% of a rate; now it’s closer to 30-40%. Additionally, “unlimited wellness checks” are unrealistic, and just lead to people getting test after test.

But regardless of all that, it does seem like changes are coming for the ACA, and for American citizens as a whole when it comes to healthcare.

All in all, we had an interesting conversation, though we’re not sure our listeners quite agreed (c’mon, do you really want us to scream at each other in every episode?!). We’ll see you next week!