| Over the past month, our newsletter has increased by about 33%, which is crazy! Welcome to all our new friends 🙂 Let’s get into this. Here’s the Agenda
U.S. Healthcare SpendingMy little area of focus is healthcare. But, it’s even more focused around Medicare. So when details around the dollars that the U.S. spends on healthcare get put into perspective and include Medicare, it becomes something I want to take the time to understand and think through. It’s troubling to see the trajectory the country is on from a spending perspective. Ultimately, WE end up paying the price. I spent 3 weeks putting together this video. It’s the longest I’ve spent on an individual video because it got complicated – not just in the numbers, but in the attempt to draw things out in an interesting way. There was a healthy pile of crumpled up papers on the floor next to my desk as I messed up at various times of the drawing. It’s still not perfect, but it does a decent job showing the scope of America’s healthcare spending. Where that impacts each of us specific to Medicare would involve the trends in Medicare spending, Private Insurance spending, and our own out of pocket spending. If you’ve followed the channel or this newsletter for any length of time, you know I’m as politically neutral as they come. What worries me is the proposals set out by entities trying to let us all know that they, and they alone can help reduce this crisis. The reality is, we and our children are ultimately the ones who will be paying for this, and I think we are all following closely to figure out how this will play out. |
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A Disturbing Legislative ProposalWatch the above video first, because I think a response to that topic is what was introduced back in May by Representative David Schweikert from Arizona. He introduced a Bill to reform the Medicare Advantage program. Part of that bill includes making Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option for anyone going onto Medicare for the first time, and that beneficiaries would automatically be enrolled in the lowest-cost Medicare Advantage plan available to them. Unless they opt out, they would be stuck in their Advantage plan for 3 years and unable to switch. I have a lot of issues with this proposed bill. I do need to take a deep breathe, take a step back, and realize that it is just a proposal. And this is not because I think Medicare Advantage is evil. While our client base is much more supplement plan leaning, for the right people in the right areas under the right contexts, Advantage plans are great. But, they are not for everyone, and foregoing Original Medicare for Advantage as the default is not something I will support. More to come. Here is the proposed bill’s current language: |
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Book Recommendation |
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| Hidden Potential Adam GrantMy best friend’s sister recommended this book to me, and I’m glad she did. She is a licensed clinical social worker and focuses on children and family conflict. With me being a parent, coach, and someone who obsesses over being a little bit better each day, this book was wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the data around effective learning and improvement strategies that embrace failure rather than eliminating it. With the athletes I coach or my kids, I tend to default to trying to do things for them. I enjoyed the ideas here and it’s a relatively short read. Words of Wisdom – A Cartoon Destroying My Emotional Death StarHave you heard of K-Pop Demon Hunters yet? Of the people I interact with in real life, those who do not have any kids, or they only have young kids, haven’t heard of it. But, if you have 6+ year-old-kids and grandkids, it’s kind of hard to avoid the craze that was/is K-Pop Demon Hunters. If you don’t know, it was the #1 most-watched movie on Netflix for 5 weeks in a row. My kids have watched this movie – and I’m not exaggerating – 50 times this summer, so naturally… I know every song by heart, but I hadn’t actually watched the movie. Then, my kids convinced my wife and I to sit down and watch the whole thing as part of a movie night and… I have a somewhat embarrassing confession… But first… Some Background. I was a super emotional kid, meaning, I used to cry a lot. My 10-year-old son Jared is currently in a very similar position of life. As I got a little older, I got better at keeping emotions in check and I learned to bury them deep inside. Once my parents got divorced, it was almost like my strong emotions got locked inside an impenetrable box deep within my soul. There was a period of my life where I went 10 years without crying. Like I said… that box was impenetrable. Over the last few years, I learned that it has one, teeny-tiny, little weakness. Kind of like the Death Star in Star Wars. Remember that one? The most devastating weapon ever built. Much like my emotional box, the Death Star was indestructible. Except… that little opening the size of a womp rat. Seems like a serious design flaw… but I digress… My Ventilation Duct. The surprise to me was that it wasn’t until my oldest was about 8 years old that the box designed to contain nuclear emotional energy… started to leak. Little things get me. ALL. THE. TIME. The reason I bring all this up is that in even more-recent years, certain music is able to strike a chord (nice pun?) with my emotional side and it kind of comes out of nowhere. Some examples: My Little Girl by Tim McGraw. I’m not really a country guy, but this song gets me every time. Forever and Always by Parachute. If you really love your significant other… no way you’re getting to the end of that one with dry eyes. Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran. If you have a mom, no chance you make it through that one. If you have lost your mom… buckle up. Speaking of moms… Garth Brooks singing Mom in front of his mom… oof. Now, these are all songs where it’s like, “Okay… that makes sense. I could see why someone might get emotional with those.” The next ones… I dunno if we can justify them the same way… Show Yourself from Frozen 2. I won’t try to justify it. It just hits in all the right places. Okay, maybe I will try to justify it… there are like… REALLY good harmonies, guys! There’s the song – Epilogue – in Les Miserables where Fantine and Eponine harmonize. Well… enter K-Pop Demon Hunters and add another song to the list. But you kinda gotta watch the movie and listen to this one in context. I’m better now after listening a few times… but that first time… I had issues. Now, I’m not like… full on weeping… c’mon people… it wasn’t THAT good… but a couple quick blinks to try to make sure I was solid and the family couldn’t see anything. It has really nice harmonies! Don’t judge. Also the song Golden… Okay, but THAT’S IT! End of confession. Living With My Emotions My dad was the same way. Now I know. I’m getting better at embracing it, yet I still fight against my emotions pretty hard. But, aren’t the things that elicit these strong emotions what make life worth living? Compassion, appreciation, awe, unconditional love, and a longing to protect the people we love by spend just one more minute or hour or day with them – one last time? That makes us human, and that’s okay. So… My challenge to you this month is to allow yourself to be put in a position where you get to feel deep, intense, human emotions. Alone and by yourself is level 1. Level 2 is allowing yourself to feel these emotions with someone you care about. I guess Level 3 is to go through this exercise in front of strangers – like I did yesterday watching Freakier Friday with my daughter in a movie theater of strangers. Luckily it was dark. A Sincere Thank You Thank you – to all of you who take the time to read this and reach out with your kind words and support. I hope you have a wonderful month, and I’ll see you in the next newsletter 🙂 Erik |
