Episode 93
Episode 93: Navigating Medicare: Insights from Healthcare Expert Jim Kulavatos
Get ready for a lively ride on this episode of Get It Right Texoma! Mike Hendren and Trey Sralla are holding down the fort as Terry McAdams embarks on a "super-secret" mission (🍎 Department of Apple, anyone?). Here's what's on tap:
- 📚 Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage: Special guest Jim Kulavatos, CEO of Clay County Memorial Hospital, joins the show to demystify Medicare. Forget Joe Namath commercials—Jim's got the straight talk on what seniors and their families need to know.
- 🌟 Fantasy of Lights & Electric Critters: The guys highlight Wichita Falls' beloved holiday traditions, filled with magical lights, family fun, and yes—Santa boots (watch out for imposters with tennis shoes 👟)!
- 🥩 Local Restaurant Spotlight: Pelicans: Discover why this Wichita Falls steakhouse near Fantasy of Lights is the ultimate spot for fine dining—though sadly, no actual pelicans were eaten during the making of this podcast.
- đź’ˇ Community Spotlight: Find out why Clay County Memorial Hospital could be your new go-to for quick, quality care.
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Big thanks to our awesome sponsors:
- 🎧 Get It Right Texoma Website
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- 🏍️ Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles
- 🍠Lollie and Pops Sweet Shop
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Apple
- Clay County Memorial Hospital
- Medicare
- Medicare Advantage
- Midwestern State University
- Electra
- Blue Cross
- Blue Shield
- Cigna
- Lollipop Sweet Shop
- Eddy Hills Fun Cycles
- MacTech Solutions
Transcript
You make this rather snappy, won't you?
Speaker B: y heavy thinking to do before: Speaker B:Hey, welcome to another episode of Get It Right Tech.
Speaker B:Soma normally got the whole trio here, but today we are minus one.
Speaker B:It's Mike Hendren, Trey Serala, Terry McAdams is off on a super secret Secret Squirrel mission that we can't talk about.
Speaker B:We cannot talk.
Speaker C:You know, Trump's filling out his cabinet right now.
Speaker C:You don't think that he's.
Speaker C:That Terry's interviewing for, like, director of.
Speaker C:Of Apple products.
Speaker B:I don't know what.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker C:To me, it's the department of Apple.
Speaker B:It's a hell of a coincidence.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right about this time, Terry disappears.
Speaker B:It just.
Speaker B:It's really strange to me.
Speaker B:Something.
Speaker B:Something is afoot, Trey.
Speaker B:I'm not sure what it could be, but, you know, head of technology.
Speaker B:Head of National Technology.
Speaker C:I was gonna say head of iPad.
Speaker C:The department.
Speaker C:The Department of iPhone.
Speaker B:Well, you know, we do have a space force now.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker B:So he could be somehow.
Speaker B:And he is ex Air Force.
Speaker C:That's right.
Speaker B:Retired air.
Speaker B:It could be, you know, you just don't know.
Speaker B:I guess we'll find out maybe when he gets back.
Speaker B:Or maybe we won't.
Speaker B:Could be just top secret, everything around.
Speaker C:Can't talk about it.
Speaker B:Can't talk about it.
Speaker B:Anyway, welcome to the show.
Speaker B:Glad to have you here.
Speaker B:Obviously, if you're watching on YouTube, you know we're on YouTube.
Speaker B:We're also on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
Speaker B:Be sure to hit the subscribe button on the YouTube page and be sure to like and share this across all your social media pages.
Speaker B:Visit our Facebook page, get it right, Textilema, and our website, get it right texoma.com.
Speaker C:Now, we will have a guest earlier.
Speaker C:Even though we have an empty chair.
Speaker C:We will have a guest.
Speaker C:Not earlier.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Later we will have.
Speaker B:Well, at some point he will have been here earlier.
Speaker C:Yes, that's true.
Speaker B:Jim Kulavatos.
Speaker C:That's his name.
Speaker B:I'm saying it right.
Speaker C:That's correct.
Speaker B:So we rehearsed this so much.
Speaker B:Jim Kulavatos will be with us.
Speaker B:He is with Clay County Memorial Hospital.
Speaker B:He's going to have some great information regarding Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, what the differences are.
Speaker B:Because we're at that time of the year right now where if you're a senior, you're starting to get calls.
Speaker B:I'm not a senior yet.
Speaker B:And I'm all.
Speaker C:And I'm getting calls and they're getting bombarded all over tv.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm getting stuff to my phone.
Speaker B:It's like, how old do you think I am?
Speaker B:I can't qualify for any of this.
Speaker B:So they're already hammering people with ads over this Medicare plan.
Speaker C:I think this is your enrollment time.
Speaker C:This is gonna happen.
Speaker C:So it's real timely.
Speaker C:And the nice thing about Jim is he'll give you the facts.
Speaker C:He's been like, he'll, he'll explain later.
Speaker C:He's been in hospital administration for a long time, so he understands the ins and out of it.
Speaker C:But he's not selling anything.
Speaker C:Yeah, he's not selling Medicare.
Speaker C:You can't sell Medicare because it's a government program.
Speaker C:But he's also not selling any kind of Medicare Advantage.
Speaker C:He's not selling anything to profit off.
Speaker B:He's not advocating for one or the other.
Speaker B:But he wants you to understand that they're not the same.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, it is an apples and oranges kind of thing.
Speaker C:Hopefully it's all eye opening experience.
Speaker B:I should be.
Speaker B:So he'll be here with us to talk about that very shortly here on the program.
Speaker B:Now we do have a couple things to discuss here, coming on here.
Speaker B:Where do we want to start here?
Speaker C:Electric Critters maybe?
Speaker B:Yeah, Electric Critters is coming up November 29th through the 21st on Friday and Saturday nights.
Speaker B:Electric Critters is a great holiday event that takes place at Riverbend Nature center here in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Speaker B:And they've been doing this for I don't know how many years, long time now.
Speaker B:But it's 6:30 to 8:30 each Friday and Saturday night starting on the 29th of November and through the 21st of of December.
Speaker B:So the Saturday right before Christmas.
Speaker C:Correct.
Speaker C:From 6:30 to 8:30.
Speaker C:And there's, I don't remember how, it's tons and tons, thousands and thousands of lights and you kind of go plan.
Speaker B:To walk a little bit.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And that's right.
Speaker C:And the butterfly fairy sometimes shows up and Mr.
Speaker C:And Mrs.
Speaker C:Claus can be there.
Speaker C:So go check it out.
Speaker C:And I don't know why it's not on here.
Speaker C:It somehow I dropped it somehow, which I need to put it back on.
Speaker C:Let's talk about Fantasy of Lights because it starts before the next thing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So Fantasy of Lights is going to launch the Monday before Thanksgiving.
Speaker B:It does every year now.
Speaker B:The Monday before Thanksgiving will continue through the end.
Speaker B:It'll go to the day after Christmas.
Speaker C:Which basically Thanksgiving is a week later this year than it normally is.
Speaker C:I think it's about every eight or nine years.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It pushes out.
Speaker C:It pushes out this.
Speaker C:Basically the last week of November.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so the.
Speaker B:For those of you that don't know, Fantasy of Lights, it's a collaboration between the.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker A:Really.
Speaker B:The Burns family.
Speaker B:The Burns family and Midwestern State University that started over 50 years ago.
Speaker B:Actually this year, I believe.
Speaker B:This year.
Speaker B:Yeah, this year actually is the 50th.
Speaker C:Year of the collaboration.
Speaker B:Of the collaboration.
Speaker B:The displays started on the burns family lawn 80 plus years ago.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Some of these displays are literally that old.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Some of these go back to the 20s and 30s, 30s or 40s or something.
Speaker B:There's a couple that are that old.
Speaker B:Most of them are 40s, 50s era, 60s era.
Speaker B:And there are some new displays that have been added over the last several years.
Speaker B:Every few years.
Speaker B:Full disclosure here.
Speaker B:I'm on the committee, the Fantasy of Lights nonprofit committee.
Speaker B:Every few years, we try to add a new display to it, and the whole thing is sustained through private donations.
Speaker B:And I really want to drive this home for the local audience.
Speaker B:For those of you here that are watching or listening in the local area.
Speaker B:Every year, people will ask, well, why are you guys.
Speaker B:Because we have people that will stand.
Speaker B:There's a drive through where you can just drive through and look at the displays that are visible from the road.
Speaker B:And people ask, well, why do you guys stand here and collect donations?
Speaker B:I thought Midwestern State University paid for all this.
Speaker B:They pay for nothing.
Speaker B:MSU pays for a zip.
Speaker C:They furnish the place.
Speaker B:They furnish the location.
Speaker B:We're allowed to set it up on the lawn in front of the.
Speaker B:Basically the Hardin administration building along Taft Boulevard.
Speaker B:And that's it.
Speaker B:The electricity is metered.
Speaker B:Our committee has to pay for that.
Speaker B:Storage, maintenance, upkeep, set up, tear down.
Speaker B:Everything our committee, our nonprofit committee pays for.
Speaker B:We do that through a combination of private donors like yourself, individuals who give us money.
Speaker C:Philanthropic organizations.
Speaker B:Philanthropic organizations.
Speaker B:We have sponsors for each display.
Speaker B:There's a corporate sponsor for each display.
Speaker B:And so that's how we raise the money.
Speaker C:And then the collection at the donations at the.
Speaker C:The event.
Speaker B:Yeah, the donations at the event.
Speaker B:So you can either.
Speaker B:You'll see people standing there with a.
Speaker C:Santa boot, by the way, only put money in the Santa boot.
Speaker C:If you see some guy who looks like a crackhead holding an old tennis shoe.
Speaker C:Don't put money in his.
Speaker B:No, no, he's not with it.
Speaker C:It's gonna go with a fantasy of something, but it won't be the fantasy of life.
Speaker B:It won't be that.
Speaker B:It won't be our fantasy.
Speaker B:I'll tell you that.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:And there's also collection boxes if you decide to get out and walk all the displays, which.
Speaker B:That's really the best way to see them.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:And to see all of it is you gotta get out and walk it.
Speaker B:There are collection boxes at various locations throughout the displays where you can leave a cash donation.
Speaker B:There are also QR codes displayed that you can scan with your phone if you care to donate.
Speaker B:That way, if you don't have cash and you want to donate, but you just don't have the money, you can scan the QR code and it will take you to a donation page where you can make a donation and put that on your credit or debit card.
Speaker C:And it's going to start the Monday before Thanksgiving, and it will run until.
Speaker B:The day after Christmas.
Speaker C:The day after Christmas.
Speaker C:And it's every night.
Speaker B:Every night.
Speaker B:Every night, including Christmas night, Including.
Speaker B:Including Christmas night, 6pm to 10pm nightly.
Speaker B:And so you'll have lots of opportunity.
Speaker C:It's a great, It's a great family tradition.
Speaker C:If you, if you're new to the area, if you've never done this, especially if you have young kids or grandkids and stuff like that, it's a great family tradition to go out and go look at the fantasy of life.
Speaker B:Opening night.
Speaker B:There'll be some ceremonies, there'll be some high school choirs.
Speaker B:We'll have food trucks.
Speaker B:You'll have.
Speaker B:You can buy stuff to eat.
Speaker B:You know, we have nights where there's.
Speaker B:There's hot cocoa served and cookies served and things like this.
Speaker B:So there's various things going on that are.
Speaker B:That are interspersed with the event itself.
Speaker B:But it is a really, really cool tradition here that's been going on now.
Speaker B: years, since: Speaker B:And so it is.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's a really cool tradition and I'm proud to be a part of it.
Speaker B:It's a.
Speaker B:It's great.
Speaker B:It's great.
Speaker B:If you haven't been, if you live in the local area and you've never been, what is.
Speaker B:Where have you been all this time?
Speaker C:Go check it out.
Speaker B:But if you, if you're in the area, if you're within obvious.
Speaker B:If you're within driving distance of Wichita Falls within two hours of here, this is really something you should set aside a night somewhere between the Monday before Thanksgiving and December 26, and come see this.
Speaker B:It's really, really special.
Speaker C:And you're gonna see stuff here you'll not see.
Speaker C:There are places, there are some of the metroplex.
Speaker C:Places that have come up and they have these displays.
Speaker C:And then Ballora, Belton Lake.
Speaker C:Belton Lake recreational area.
Speaker C:That's down by.
Speaker C:By clean Belton.
Speaker C:Obviously they have displays and things like that, but nobody has displays that date this far back.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:These are.
Speaker C:Some of these are.
Speaker C:You can't.
Speaker C:The craftsmanship.
Speaker C:And of these displays, these aren't just a bunch of lights that have been strung together.
Speaker B:They're one of.
Speaker C:Welded a couple of things.
Speaker C:These are.
Speaker C:Like you said, they're one of a kind.
Speaker B:They're one of a kind.
Speaker B:They were handmade.
Speaker B:Many of them were handcrafted.
Speaker B:And there's.
Speaker B:There's not a.
Speaker B:There's not another one like it anywhere.
Speaker C:Yeah, anywhere.
Speaker C:Even if there was another one like it at one time, it didn't survive.
Speaker B:It didn't make it.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:Yeah, go check it out.
Speaker B:Go check that out.
Speaker B:Coming up, December 4th, the chamber.
Speaker C:You want to go ahead and skip?
Speaker C:Well, we just did those two.
Speaker C:Why don't we just skip down to Pelicans and we'll do the Chamber next.
Speaker B:Oh, you want to do.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:We'll say the Chamber, our restaurant.
Speaker B:Focus.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So every show we try to focus on a local area family owned restaurant.
Speaker B:This week it's going to be Pelicans.
Speaker B:Yeah, Pelicans is really kind of a high end steakhouse.
Speaker C:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C:The only thing that pisses me off, they don't serve Pelican.
Speaker C:It says right there on the thing they've got a picture of the pelican on the side.
Speaker B:And I hear it tastes like turtle.
Speaker B:Anyway, it.
Speaker C:But no, it, it's.
Speaker C:It's a really good steakhouse here in which office?
Speaker C:If you, if you want fine dining.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:In Wichita Falls.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's good fine dining and it's, it rivals the food there.
Speaker C:Rivals fine dining in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
Speaker B:It does, it does.
Speaker B:They're open six days a week, I think.
Speaker B:I think they're only closed on Sundays.
Speaker C:Might be.
Speaker C:I'm not quite sure, but go check out their website.
Speaker C:But they're over in what used to be called French Village.
Speaker C:I don't know if it's still.
Speaker B:I'm not sure if it's still French Village or not, but it's right off Midwestern Parkway.
Speaker C:By the way, it's right down the road from Fantasy of Lights.
Speaker B:Yes, it is.
Speaker C:So go get you a pelican steak.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And then go walk it off at the Fantasy of Life.
Speaker B:It's not actually Pelican, though.
Speaker C:No, no.
Speaker C:Stake it.
Speaker C:Pelicans I'm sorry, I should have said that.
Speaker C:But it's on the corner of Midwestern Parkway and Taft.
Speaker C:Yes, almost.
Speaker C:It's not on the corner, but it's in that little shopping center area.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a little, little difficult to find if you're not familiar with the area.
Speaker B:But basically, if you go past the fantasy of lights, you go down Taft, go to Midwestern Parkway, you'll take a left, get in the right hand lane and it's going to be very shortly.
Speaker B:It's going to be right there on the right hand side and you'll see it.
Speaker C:But they have seafood, they have steak.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:They have all kinds of really good, good products.
Speaker C:It's all handcraft stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:High quality, good ingredients.
Speaker B:They do they actually probably aside from my wife's, the it's the second best gumbo I've ever had in town was at Pelicans.
Speaker B:I don't know if it's on the menu all the time, maybe just in the wintertime, but second best gumbo I've had in this area was at Pelicans.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker B:So there's that.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Jim Kulavatos is going to join us here in just a few minutes.
Speaker B:We're going to be talking about Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
Speaker B:The differences, the similarities.
Speaker B:Similarities.
Speaker B:And it's that time of the year.
Speaker B:A lot of you seniors, you're getting bombarded with ads asking you to sign up for this, that or the other.
Speaker B:Jim's going to explain to us what those similarities and differences are and help you hopefully make an informed decision on that.
Speaker B:So we'll be back with more get it right techsomer right after this.
Speaker B:Hang on.
Speaker B:Hey, welcome back to get it right Techsoma.
Speaker B:And again, normally the trio's here, but today it's me, Mike Handren, Trey Serala, and our very special guest, Jim Kulavatos.
Speaker B:Did I say it right?
Speaker A:You said it right.
Speaker B:I said it right.
Speaker B:I got it right.
Speaker C:Is it sound sounds like a Greek yogurt brand.
Speaker B:We rehearsed during the break.
Speaker B:I did good.
Speaker B:Jim, welcome.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Appreciate be here.
Speaker B:Glad.
Speaker B:Glad to have you here.
Speaker C:Jim cannot be here at a sooner time to talk about this topic because officially yesterday, no joke, I saw my first Medicare enrollment period commercial.
Speaker C:So be prepared, folks, to be worn the hell out about this.
Speaker C:I don't know what B list celebrities are gonna drag up this year, but last year I was worn out with Joe Namath and Jimmy Jay Walker.
Speaker C:So Jimmy Walker.
Speaker C:Every year they find some celebrities like I Said that are B listers from the 60s and 70s.
Speaker C:Drag them out of retirement there.
Speaker C:And so anyhow, Jim, go ahead and tell everybody a little bit who you are.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Your background.
Speaker A:We're glad to.
Speaker A:I am the CEO of Clay County Memorial Hospital in Henrietta, Texas and I did grow up in this area.
Speaker A:I grew up in Bergmannette, Texas.
Speaker A:All my family still in Berg Burnett.
Speaker A:I have been gone from this area for about 30 years.
Speaker A:A little over 30 years.
Speaker A:Been in healthcare, healthcare administration for well over 40 years.
Speaker A:Enjoy it.
Speaker A:And that's, that's basically kind of my life.
Speaker A:Healthcare has kind of been my life for the last since I graduated Midwestern State University.
Speaker B:How long have you been with Clay County?
Speaker A:That started been a year.
Speaker A:Started in December of 23.
Speaker B:Okay, so you've worked in healthcare, retired.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:Then come back.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:So you're, you're your second phase of.
Speaker C:Your career.
Speaker A:And it is better but.
Speaker C:Came back to a smaller, a smaller community or a smaller healthcare system.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Well, I've actually been in rural medicine my whole career with with the exception when I did come out of retirement, I helped a cardiologist in northeast Houston, Texas.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So where did you spend the bulk.
Speaker B:Of your career then in healthcare?
Speaker A:West Texas.
Speaker A:Ok.
Speaker A:Out in the Panhandle, Texas.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker B:Oh wow.
Speaker A:Is the.
Speaker A:And then West Texas.
Speaker A:Spent a few years in Oklahoma.
Speaker A:But the bulk of my career started in Wistol Falls and then on the clinic side and then moved to the hospital side in Graham, Texas as the Chief Financial Officer in Graham, Texas.
Speaker A:And then my first CEO position was at Electra, Texas.
Speaker A:And then from there it basically went to the Panhandle and then West Texas.
Speaker B:Well, as Trey mentioned, all this Medicare stuff now is ramping up.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:The nice thing about this and this is a great idea for Jim to come on because he's not selling anything.
Speaker C:He's not an agent.
Speaker C:He's not going to sell you anything.
Speaker C:It's really just somebody who knows the facts inside and out of the Medicare system.
Speaker C:Being in hospital administration for so many years because you've lived this life and.
Speaker C:But he can come out here and like we talked about before, Jim, Terry and Mike and I talked about this when we first introduced that you were going to be on.
Speaker C:There's a.
Speaker C:There's a lot of people that are that there are people that have watched this show or pay attention to this podcast that are of Medicare age.
Speaker C:But more importantly, there's a lot of people that are Mike and I age.
Speaker C:Mike and I are in our early 50s.
Speaker C:So we are sometimes helping one of our parents.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:To navigate this sort of thing.
Speaker C:You know, we have parents that are age.
Speaker C:Mike's mother was quite a bit older.
Speaker C:Long story.
Speaker C:But Mike's mother was in his, in her 30s before when he was born.
Speaker C:So she was quite, he's quite a bit older.
Speaker C:But a lot of people that are our age have parents that are, you know, in their early 80s, late 70s and stuff like that, like I do.
Speaker C:And so sometimes it's important to have this information so you can go, hey mom, hey dad, dad, you know, do you have Medicare Advantage?
Speaker C:Or if you, or don't, you know, if they come and ask you, hey, have you seen these commercials?
Speaker C:Because they get bombarded with commercials these days.
Speaker C:So we want to turn the floor over to you and kind of let us know what, what give us some ideas from a, a facts and figure standpoint of why, which way people give us some information so people can make a decision on Medicare.
Speaker A:And I think, and Trey, that's important.
Speaker A:I think what I think everybody needs to know and especially, you know, like you and Mike, it is the children of seniors that help their parents or even grandparents select do they want to be Medicare Advantage or they want to be traditional Medicare.
Speaker A:And what I would like to accomplish today is that it's not that Medicare Advantage is bad or good or better than traditional Medicare or vice versa.
Speaker A:It's to know what questions you need to ask.
Speaker A:You mentioned about all the advertisement and everything.
Speaker A:The one thing that Medicare Advantage agents that sell this, and especially if you buy it off the Internet because you can't get any questions answered is how much money are you going to pay out of pocket, either if you're on traditional Medicare or if you're on a Medicare Advantage plan.
Speaker B:Well, traditional Medicare is a taxpayer funded government administrated program.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Well, it is.
Speaker A:Now the other part of this, a lot of people that have Medicare Advantage think that they're still in the Medicare program and they are not.
Speaker A:They are not in the Medicare program.
Speaker A:Medicare Advantage is a commercial product.
Speaker A:You're basically a commercial insurance.
Speaker A:You're on commercial insurance.
Speaker A:So you are not in the Medicare program.
Speaker A:The again, everything comes down to cost.
Speaker A:And when you're retired, no matter how much money you made in the past, if you're on Social Security, you're not making a lot of money.
Speaker A:And you see all these ads for Medicare Advantage products that say, you know, $0 premium or $20 premium or $50 premium.
Speaker A:And what a lot of people don't understand with Medicare Advantage is there are a lot of other costs that are associated with those plans.
Speaker A:The biggest cost is most of them have a out of pocket expense limit which can be anywhere from 5,000 to, you know, 7, 75, 8, $10,000 depending on what plan that you, that you go with.
Speaker A:And so, but you have a lot of other deductibles or coinsurance with some of the services that you may need that they don't tell you about.
Speaker A:Whereas traditional Medicare part A is free, doesn't cost you anything.
Speaker A:Part B is about 100, I think $84 a month.
Speaker A:And then if you get a Medicare supplement, which is, which will probably run anywhere from a little over $100 to maybe close to $200 depending on what plan you get.
Speaker A:Other than paying those premiums, you don't pay anything else because this Medicare supplement will pay for whatever Medicare doesn't pay.
Speaker A:And I want everybody to understand that if you're on traditional Medicare and you're going to the hospital, the only thing that you're going to have is about a seventeen hundred dollar deductible, inpatient deductible.
Speaker A:If you've got Medicare supplement, it'll pay for that.
Speaker A:So you have no out of pocket expense there.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And on part B, it's the same thing.
Speaker A:If you got a supplement, it'll pay whatever Medicare doesn't pay.
Speaker B:What's the fundamental difference between part A and part B?
Speaker B:That's what I don't understand.
Speaker A:Part B is basically physician coverage.
Speaker A:Part A is hospital coverage.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Part A takes not only hospital, but it also does if you have home health, skilled nursing and then your, your traditional hospital service.
Speaker B:So if I, if I'm 65 years old and I've got Medicare part A and I have a heart attack and I have to go in the hospital and have to do bypass surgery, part A is going to pay for that.
Speaker A:Part A is going to pay for that.
Speaker C:And if you don't have a supplement, your out of pocket is going to be about seventeen hundred dollars.
Speaker C:But if you do have a supplement, you have no out of pocket.
Speaker A:And the thing about the inpatient deductible if you're on traditional Medicare is it's if you go in the hospital today, you'll get it.
Speaker A:If in, if you go in within the next 60 days, you won't have a deductible.
Speaker A:Okay, so the deductible only counts after you've been out of the hospital for 61 days.
Speaker C:So the, so it's not a yearly deductible then?
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:It's not a yearly deductible, it's in the current, so it's every, every 61 days you can have that deductible.
Speaker A:And that can be if you don't have a supplement that can get expensive if you're in the hospital a lot.
Speaker B:If you got a lot of health problems, if there's a lot going on.
Speaker C:Probably ought to consider having a supplement.
Speaker A:And again, Medicare Advantage is not a bad product and I don't want anybody to think that it is.
Speaker A:It's not a bad product but the problem is a lot of people don't understand what they're buying.
Speaker A:They come in and they tell you here's the price and this is what it does and everything else.
Speaker A:And so when they get, and I'll give you an example, my mother in law a few months ago was in the hospital and she, she had two or three things that hit her just within a month of each other.
Speaker A:Anyway, we were going to get her, bring her to Henrietta for our swing bed program, which is a rehab program.
Speaker A:And she's got Medicare Advantage.
Speaker A:And so we were trying to get her approved to come and they basically said, they denied it, they wouldn't.
Speaker A:They said no, she doesn't need it, although her physician said she needed it.
Speaker A:But the Medicare Advantage plan that she's on said no, we're not going to approve it.
Speaker A:And the reason they didn't approve it because they said she could walk so many feet without assistance.
Speaker A:Well, what they didn't know is that yes, she could walk, but that physical therapist was right there next to her and they had a wheelchair just in case she got tired or started to fall.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:But they denied that a physical therapist.
Speaker B:Is too heavy to carry around everywhere.
Speaker C:They get expensive too.
Speaker C:Oh they do.
Speaker B:They actually expect to be paid and fed.
Speaker A:And again that's the other thing with the Medicare Advantage plan that there are a lot of things you have to get pre authorized that you don't have to if you're on traditional Medicare.
Speaker A:For instance, if you want, if you have a CT scan or an MRI scan, you're going to have to get that approved through your Medicare Advantage plan.
Speaker A:And they're going to take at least three days before they approve it or they make a decision.
Speaker A:But it also again like I said, as I just talked with my mother in law, any kind of rehab place.
Speaker A:So there are a lot of things you have to get or services you have to get pre authorized in a Medicare Advantage plan that you don't have to if you're on traditional Medicare.
Speaker C:Well now why wouldn't you have to get it authorized through traditional Medicare?
Speaker C:Do they just accept that the hospital or the doctor is that takes Medicare or whatever is going to do the right thing?
Speaker A:Yes, I mean that, that's.
Speaker A:And I don't think any physician out there is going to send somebody for a CAT scan or an MRI.
Speaker B:Or.
Speaker A:Even outpatient surgery, whatever that may be.
Speaker A:That's, they don't need it.
Speaker C:Well and I guess Medicare is still, they kind of, it's the government you're messing with if you do that.
Speaker C:So you're, they kind of hold a lot of power and things so you, you're less likely to jack with them, I guess.
Speaker A:Well, the, the other thing with Medicare Advantage is Medicare Advantage is paid.
Speaker A:I mean the, the government CMS pays these Medicare Advantage plans depending on the beneficiary or the person signing up.
Speaker A:They pay them like 90, 95% of, of what they think they're going to be spending on that patient.
Speaker A:So that even Medicare Advantage is tax dollars.
Speaker A:They've got tax dollars that they get paid from the government to take care of this.
Speaker A:And again one of the issues you have is technically they're supposed to follow the Medicare guidelines, but they don't always do that.
Speaker A:So again, there's things that, and again the one thing I will say that is detrimental that I think is detrimental concerning or regarding Medicare Advantage plans is that is a for profit company.
Speaker A:They're, they're actually trying to make money just like they do commercial insurances, health insurance.
Speaker C:Commercial just like Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna or whatever.
Speaker A:They're out there to make money.
Speaker A:Medicare Advantage, excuse me, traditional Medicare is more of a, of what I call truly healthcare in that if you're sick, go to the doctor, go to the hospital, things like that.
Speaker A:So it's, I guess I don't mean.
Speaker B:To interrupt you here, but I'm a little confused here.
Speaker B:So Medicare Advantage is a private enterprise product.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:But it is backed by taxpayer dollars the same as Medicare.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Now we hear a lot of talk politically about Medicare going bankrupt.
Speaker B:Medicare is in trouble.
Speaker B:That political carrot gets dangled every election cycle about Medicare, this, Social Security, etc.
Speaker B:If Medicare is truly financially strained, and I have no doubt that it is because we've got a whole, all the baby boomers now, which I'm assuming you're, you're a part of that group.
Speaker A:I'm on Medicare.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, I have Medicare myself.
Speaker B:You got millions of people that have come into this program in the last few years.
Speaker B:So I'm assuming it is probably very financially strained in many respects.
Speaker B:Why are we using tax dollars to supplement a commercial product that really is doing nothing more than just mirroring the name Medicare?
Speaker A:Again, my opinion, and I'm not necessarily an expert, but I think when the Medicare Advantage program started, it was.
Speaker A:I think they looked at it from the standpoint, this is how we save money.
Speaker A:Let's turn it over to a commercial insurance company.
Speaker A:They can manage it better than the government can manage.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker C:Could be something to say for that.
Speaker A:There probably is some truth in that.
Speaker A:There's no doubt.
Speaker A:But I think.
Speaker A:And again, you guys work your whole life.
Speaker A:You guys are doing it.
Speaker A:You're paying for Medicare, you're paying for Social Security.
Speaker A:So I don't look at that as in a time, because we've actually paid for that.
Speaker A:So when we get to whatever age, 65, 70, whatever, we decide to retire and we decide to go on Medicare, you know, we've paid for that.
Speaker A:The, you know, one of the reasons why I think that there's a shortfall in these programs is because there's a lot less people working than when we were young.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker A:When our parents, you know, we.
Speaker A:There was a lot more.
Speaker A:Now that you just said we were all baby boomers.
Speaker C:Well, the baby boomers didn't have.
Speaker C:We're Gen X.
Speaker C:So the baby boomers didn't have nearly as many kids.
Speaker C:I mean, exactly.
Speaker C:Mike had three kids in his family.
Speaker C:I had one.
Speaker C:I mean, you know, but both of my parents, My dad's.
Speaker C:My.
Speaker C:My dad's family had five, and my mother's family had seven.
Speaker C:So, I mean, just do the math.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But, but having said that, irregardless, again, what, even whatever political spectrum that are the side that you're on, the Medicare program is.
Speaker A:Is a good program.
Speaker A:Yeah, there are some things that we could probably do to strengthen it, but it's a great thing.
Speaker A:Medicare Advantage program, again, it's not a bad program.
Speaker A:However, I will say this, that, and I'll use Clay County Memorial Hospital.
Speaker A:We are designated as a, what we call a critical access hospital.
Speaker A:And critical access hospitals were designed to help small hospitals like Clay County Memorial survive.
Speaker A:And so the way that Medicare reimburses critical access hospitals is based on the percentage of Medicare patients that come through.
Speaker A:And I mentioned in the beginning that Medicare Advantage is not a Medicare.
Speaker A:You're not in the Medicare program.
Speaker A:So when somebody comes into.
Speaker A:To our hospital or any critical access hospital, they're not counted as Medicare.
Speaker A:They're counted with commercial insurance.
Speaker A:So Our reimbursement goes down when we have a Medicare Advantage patient come in or a patient that has Medicare Advantage.
Speaker A:So it is important for us for critical access hospitals to have the more traditional Medicare.
Speaker A:We see more reimbursement than we get from Medicare.
Speaker A:Now we still get reimbursed from the Medicare Advantage, but we don't get reimbursed in the same way that we do under medicine.
Speaker B:It's a different pot of money.
Speaker A:It's a different system, and it's based on our cost and all that.
Speaker A:So it's not hard to really understand.
Speaker A:It is in the beginning, but technically we get paid based on our cost.
Speaker B:But Jim, I can see where the folks that are on Medicare or that qualify for these programs where they get confused.
Speaker B:They hear Medicare Advantage.
Speaker B:They hear Medicare.
Speaker C:You think it's the same.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's the same thing in their mind.
Speaker B:It's exactly the same thing.
Speaker B:Just one.
Speaker B:But you tack the word Advantage onto it.
Speaker B:Oh, it sounds like it's a much better.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's Medicare Plus.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:It's newly improved.
Speaker C:It's Formula 409, not Formula 408.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Anyhow, so what would you, what would you say people would be like the top two or three questions that somebody needs to ask when they're, when they're trying to.
Speaker A:I think the number one from a Medicare Advantage standpoint is ask this question.
Speaker A:What is my, what is my total out of pocket expense going to be?
Speaker A:I know, and I'm doing a forum tonight at Bridge Street Annex in Henrietta about this same topic.
Speaker A:And I'm going to, I've got some examples here.
Speaker A:I'm going to use an example of, of a Medicare Advantage plan that I just took off the Internet.
Speaker A:I just went and took it off the Internet in the.
Speaker C:What celebrity was pimping this one?
Speaker A:I don't, I don't know.
Speaker A:And, and so, but it's.
Speaker A:The cost is $20 a month, $22.
Speaker A:That's is.
Speaker A:It seems like a pretty good amount.
Speaker A:And then I compare, I take a, an inpatient, hypothetical inpatient stay and show this is what Medicare's gonna reimburse.
Speaker A:This is what the Medicare Advantage And I use this basically use the same reimbursement.
Speaker A:So I don't, I don't.
Speaker A:And I show them.
Speaker C:You don't look at it from a hospital standpoint.
Speaker C:You look at it from a patient standpoint.
Speaker A:From a patient standpoint, like what is.
Speaker C:Your out of pocket?
Speaker A:And so in this, in this example that I use, I traditional Medicare, they got part B and they have a supplement.
Speaker A:So I go through the whole thing and basically the out of pocket expense for the patient is.01 traditional Medicare on the Medicare Advantage, it's around $2,000.
Speaker A:They'll be at pocket because they have again, this is what a lot of people, this is why I say ask the question on a Medicare Advantage plan, A lot of Medicare Advantage plans, if you're in the hospital, you're going to have a copay of somewhere probably between 3 and $400.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Each day while you're in the hospital, you don't have that with Medicare, traditional Medicare.
Speaker A:And it's usually four to seven days that if you're in the hospital, that's what it pays.
Speaker A:If you're in there longer than seven, eight days, then you don't, you don't have that anymore.
Speaker A:Now the traditional stay, the length of stay for somebody in the hospital is three to five days.
Speaker A: , $: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Just in a copay for an inpatient stay.
Speaker A:Traditional Medicare, the only thing you're going to have is a deductible.
Speaker A:If you got a supplement, it's going to pay for that.
Speaker A:So you're not out of any money.
Speaker A:So I think the biggest thing that anybody either if you're Medicare eligible, ask these questions and especially I think it's really important for the children, the adult children to understand this too because they need to help their parents or their grandparents, aunts, uncles, whoever it might be that ask these questions.
Speaker A:Okay, what's pre, what do I have?
Speaker A:What services do I have to get pre authorized?
Speaker A:What's my out of pocket?
Speaker A:Do I have any co pays, Do I have any either co pays or coinsurance before I, before I do anything else?
Speaker A:And when you look at it in this particular one that I'm going to use tonight, it's got a maximum out of pocket expense of $7,500.
Speaker A:So you're going to have, if you're sick that year, you're going to pay $7,500.
Speaker A:I mean if you're in the hospital, right.
Speaker A:Quite a bit you're going to read and other things you're going to be, you're going to be in, you could be at $7,500 easy.
Speaker A:The whereas if you have now this particular Medicare Advantage plan I'm using does not pay for part B, so you're still going to be have to pay for part B.
Speaker A:So you're still going to have to pay $184 a month because it does not pay for part B.
Speaker A:Now, there are some, there's not very many anymore since, since Medicare has kind of cut back or CMS has cut back on the Advantage programs for 25.
Speaker A:But you have to ask that question, does it pay part B or does, you know, does it at least maybe pay for some of part B or does it pay for part B at all?
Speaker A:So if it doesn't pay for part B, then again, there's another $184 a month that you're going to pay for again for the physician.
Speaker B:So if I'm a Medicare, Medicare eligible age is what, 65.
Speaker A:65.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So if I'm 65 and I'm going on Medicare and I determine I'm gonna, okay, I'm buy this Advantage plan, I'm automatically opted out of traditional Medicare.
Speaker B:Just by selecting the Advantage plan, I'm automatically opted out of traditional Medicare.
Speaker B:So now am I still eligible to purchase a supplement to go with the Advantage plan?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:If you've got a Medicare Advantage plan and it, and it doesn't pay part B, you're not, you're not going to be able to pay, get a supplemental plan.
Speaker B:So whatever the Advantage plan pays, it pays.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Now, there are some things that it does pay for physicians.
Speaker A:Some of it, it'll pay.
Speaker A:But, but, but, but then again, on, on, on a part being part B insurance, there, There is a $200 deductible for, for part B.
Speaker A:So you're gonna pay the first $200 of your, of your.
Speaker A:Well, Medicare.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're gonna pay the first $200 out of pocket supplement.
Speaker A:If you have a supplement, it'll pay for that.
Speaker A:And I think that, again, questions you gotta ask, you know, tell me how, number one, does it pay anybody part B, the cost?
Speaker A:If the answer is no.
Speaker A:Okay, so what does it pay for?
Speaker A:When I go to the physician, physician's office, what's it gonna pay for?
Speaker A:How much am I gonna have to be out of pocket?
Speaker A:How much of whatever.
Speaker A:So you can, you can have a coinsurance amount and then you can still owe money.
Speaker A:You'll have a balance when you're done with that physician or hospital or X ray or lab.
Speaker A:Well, not lab.
Speaker A:Lab.
Speaker A:Lab is not going to cost any.
Speaker A:Whether you're on a Medicare Advantage or a Medicare, traditional Medicare, you're not going to have to pay for any lab.
Speaker A:But again, not saying that Medicare Advantage is a bad product or a good product.
Speaker A:It's just I want everybody to Understand that you've got to ask these questions, paint the picture.
Speaker A:And I can't advise strongly enough.
Speaker A:Do not buy this over the Internet.
Speaker C:Go see an agent in person.
Speaker A:Yes, go talk to an agent.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:Again, I'll stress this.
Speaker A:Most of the agents that sell Medicare Advantage do not understand that product.
Speaker A:They've been trained as any salesman for any company has been trained.
Speaker A:This is what you, you know, sell this, sell this, sell this.
Speaker A:Don't worry about the other stuff.
Speaker A:Just sell this, this, this and this.
Speaker A:And you know, they give them talking points and everything else to, you know, this is, this is how you sell the product.
Speaker A:So some of them will not know either.
Speaker A:I will say this.
Speaker A:If you, if after all this, you looked at Medicare Advantage, you looked at traditional Medicare and you still got questions, call me at the hospital there.
Speaker A:And Henriette, I'll be glad to help you.
Speaker A:I don't care where you're from, I'll be glad to help you with, hopefully maybe answer some of those questions or at least tell you, you know, call your agent back and ask him these questions.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:So real quickly, because we're going to wrap it up here.
Speaker C:Well, kind of in a nutshell, sounds to me like just based on what you said was traditional Medicare will probably cost you more monthly than a Medicare Advantage plan.
Speaker C:But so if you, so by the, if you never go to the hospital and you never go to the doctor, you will probably come out less with a Medicare Advantage plan.
Speaker A:That is, that is very true.
Speaker C:Than a traditional Medicare.
Speaker C:But also you have to look at reality.
Speaker C:What is your age?
Speaker C:Generally, if you're over 65, you're going to the doctor at least some point, your chances of going to the hospital are going to be increased.
Speaker C:And so therefore, that's when you need to make your determination.
Speaker B:So what is your overall health been up to that point, but not only if there's a family history of a lot of problems you can kind of anticipate.
Speaker B:Okay, as I age, I'm going to probably develop some of these things that mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, you know, I.
Speaker A:Heard years ago and this is from a physician that talked about, about senior health.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And he said the same thing.
Speaker A:You got to remember, you know, when you, you're 65 years old, your body is going to break down and you're, you're, even if you, even if you're in shape, doesn't matter, good shape, you know, 65, most people, and I can attest to this, you've kind of put your body to a lot of stress.
Speaker A:65 years.
Speaker A:So at some point your body is going to break down and that's what you have to remember, that you're not as young as you used to be.
Speaker A:Your body is going to break down.
Speaker A:So be prepared for that at some point.
Speaker A:And Mike, like you said, if you've got a family history of whatever it is, diabetes, heart, whatever it might be, chances are you're going to inherit some of those.
Speaker C:Well, you can't outrun genetics.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:No, I mean, that's just it.
Speaker C:Okay, well, so real quickly here, and we really appreciate that, but I can't let you leave without giving a quick pitch about Clay County Memorial Hospital.
Speaker C:Just so people understand, there's a lot going on at Clay County Memorial Hospital that I wasn't aware of.
Speaker C:I'm kind of involved now.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:But anyhow, tell people what, what's, why Clay County Memorial Hospital could be a good alternative for them if they live in this area.
Speaker A:Sure, be glad to.
Speaker A:Well, number one, you're going to get one on one care.
Speaker A:It's, it's, I guess the best way you're going to get personalized care, number one.
Speaker A:But we, we have a lot of services that a lot of small hospitals do not offer.
Speaker A:Again, we've got inpatient, we've got a great laboratory, we've got a great radiology department, we got absolutely great physical therapy department.
Speaker A:We've got a great surgery department.
Speaker A:We also now have a, what we call a Senior Life Solutions, which is a program for seniors that again, this is more for traditional Medicare that treats or helps seniors with, you know, anxiety.
Speaker A:Again, changes in life.
Speaker A:Yeah, mental changes in life that they just need help, need some assistance.
Speaker A:So that's something I've been wanting to do for probably 30 years.
Speaker A:We've just never, there's nothing been out there really for this type of program up until, until recently.
Speaker A:And we've partnered with a company out of Tennessee called pmc, which is a mental health company.
Speaker A:They do a lot of this throughout the United States.
Speaker A:So it's good, it's a great program.
Speaker A:So there are a lot of things and again, we've got what I thought great physicians.
Speaker A:We've got another physician coming in probably in January that's going to join our staff.
Speaker A:So there are a lot of great things happening at Clay county and I can promise you if you need a place, you need a doctor, you know, you.
Speaker A:Again, if you've got a, if you need a ct, come call us because I'm told here in Wichita Falls it could take up to anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to get in for a ct.
Speaker A:Call us.
Speaker A:You can get in today or tomorrow, it doesn't matter.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's, that's the thing.
Speaker C:And it's a, it's a drive to Henrietta.
Speaker A:You're right.
Speaker A:It's 20 minutes, guys.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker A:Yes, that's all it is.
Speaker C:So that, that's, that's one thing that I've really thought was pretty impressive.
Speaker C:It's fact is, I mean if, if your doctor says, hey, I want you to go get a CAT scan and by the way, you can pick where you get your stuff done.
Speaker A:Yes, you can.
Speaker A:You, you're, you're not restricted.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Just because the doctor says go here, the doctor's used to this person or anything like that, they can't force you to go someplace.
Speaker C:It's illegal.
Speaker C:A doctor can't tell you you have to go to this place.
Speaker C:Am I correct about that?
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:That's what I thought.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:And plus it would be an asshole move on top of that.
Speaker A:But no, Clay County Moore Hospital is really a great place to be.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:I guarantee it's probably one of the most friendliest places you'll ever, you'll ever see again.
Speaker A:I've been in this business a long time and I was very impressed when I started my, my tenure there at Clay county about how friendly and how great and just the staff that they have at Clay county is unbelievable.
Speaker A:You'll have a great experience, Jim.
Speaker B:If people want to reach out to you with questions about the Medicare issues, for example, how do they get in touch with you?
Speaker A:They can call me at the hospital.
Speaker A:And guys, I should have wrote the phone number down, but I don't have the number.
Speaker B:I'll get it.
Speaker B:We'll put it up on the screen.
Speaker A:You can email me at J Kula Vadis or J K O U L O.
Speaker C:Good luck remembering that one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:J K O U L O V A T o s@ccmhospital.com.
Speaker A:either way, I mean, I enjoy talking to anybody and everybody and if you call me, you might get my, my voicemail and that's okay.
Speaker A:I will call you back or if you email me, I will definitely email you back and love talking to you.
Speaker A:I'm a great advocate for Clay County Memorial Hospital.
Speaker A:I believe in what we're doing there.
Speaker A:And, and I can promise you you'll have a great experience if you, if you, you come and use and see what we've got there at Clay County Morehouse.
Speaker C:And by the way, that phone number is.
Speaker C:And Mike you can put it right here.
Speaker C: -: Speaker B:Jim Kulavatos from Clay County Memorial Hospital.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Well, I thank you.
Speaker A:I appreciate this has been fun.
Speaker A:And call me again.
Speaker A:I would love to do this again.
Speaker B:Hey, we'll have you back for sure.
Speaker B:Jim.
Speaker B:Thanks again for being here.
Speaker B:We appreciate.
Speaker B:Guys, stick around.
Speaker B:We're gonna take a short break.
Speaker B:We'll come back and we'll wrap it up.
Speaker B:Let's get it right.
Speaker B:Texoma coming back in just a mom.
Speaker B:Hey, welcome back.
Speaker B:Get it right Tech Soma.
Speaker B:I want to thank again, Jim Kulavatos for joining us and talking about the Medicare, Medicare Advantage differences likenesses.
Speaker B:Oh my gosh, there's wealth of knowledge right there.
Speaker B:We probably, we probably covered about 20 or 30% of what we could talk about on this.
Speaker C:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:We hit all the high points anyway.
Speaker B:But the nice thing is it's a.
Speaker C:Podcast, so if you have any questions, you can go back and re watch it.
Speaker B:You can go back and rewatch it.
Speaker C:Like Jim said, call him.
Speaker C:Jim's a super nice guy.
Speaker C:I've been fortunate enough.
Speaker C:I'm on the actually Clay County Hospital board now.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:And I've gotten to work with Jim for the last several months and he's a real high quality person.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Straight shooter and knows his stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's good to have someone like that that you can call on and get, just, just get information from.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Not trying to sell you a problem.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Just give you the information.
Speaker B:So again, thanks to Jim for being here to do that.
Speaker B:I got a few things to talk about here.
Speaker B:This, this has been on the radar for a while now here, that talk and we just never seem to have a chance to get into it.
Speaker B:But you brought this up.
Speaker B:Active racism versus passive racism.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And we'll see how this goes.
Speaker C:It seems like the country has had about an asshole of the racist misogynist talk and that sort of thing.
Speaker C:But here's, here's the thing on active and passive racism, you have active racism.
Speaker C:That is your clan, your neo Nazis, your Black Panthers.
Speaker C:I think blm, I mean they, they've, they've used race hustling to extort money from people.
Speaker C:There are people that say, or, and you could even say some of the people that are anti Semitic because that is a race type thing as well, because the Jewish people are considered a race of their own, even though they're kind of white looking most of the time.
Speaker C:So you have the active racism.
Speaker C:You have the people who come out there and say I don't like you because the color of your skin or because of something like that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:But they're upfront about it and they tell you up front.
Speaker C:Then you got the passive racism.
Speaker C:The passive racism has nuances.
Speaker C:It's much more subtle, but yet it is racism.
Speaker C:Now, I'm going to tell you, I make a distinction.
Speaker C:Just because there's something, somebody exhibits racism, I don't think that person is necessarily a racist person.
Speaker C:A racist person is somebody who, who has this, in my opinion, has this hate or this whatever in their heart and that's who they are.
Speaker C:Yeah, but a person who doesn't consider themselves racist and really is not racist almost the thing can distribute or can display some racism.
Speaker C:And the passive racism war is where that happens.
Speaker C:The people who say Idaho IDs are, it's racist to have an ID to vote.
Speaker C:That's what you're saying, is that people that you think are below you, people don't come out and say, I think black people are below me because they can't get an id.
Speaker C:But what you're saying is people don't have.
Speaker C:They can't get IDs.
Speaker C:How insulting is this to say it's racist against black people to make.
Speaker C:Make sure they have an ID to vote just like every other American or, or minorities can't get.
Speaker C:Minorities can't get IDs, minorities can't get checking accounts and that sort of thing.
Speaker C:That is passive racism.
Speaker C:Because basically what you're saying is it is, you have a checking account, you have an id, you were able to obtain that, but these people are below you and they're not able to obtain that.
Speaker C:They're Americans.
Speaker C:If you're an American and you can walk or go somewhere, you can get an id, you can get a checking account, you can get a credit card.
Speaker C:And by the.
Speaker C:So quit.
Speaker C:Quit telling everybody these poor people can't get this and these poor people can't get that.
Speaker C:These poor people are.
Speaker C:Just because somebody's poor or a different color than you doesn't mean that they're less intelligent than you or less capable than you.
Speaker C:Yeah, the whole thing, that's where the passive racism is.
Speaker B:The whole thing with the id, by the way, y'all think about this.
Speaker B:You can't take out a loan.
Speaker B:You can't buy a car, buy a house.
Speaker B:I'm a real estate agent.
Speaker B:We go to a closing.
Speaker B:When we get to the closing, the first thing my buyers are asked to provide is a photo ID to verify that they are who they say they are.
Speaker B:So the Title company knows that the person who's about to sign all this paperwork and take possession of this property is in fact the person who's named on the document.
Speaker C:We have to have a copy of the ID to send down to get the title work done on a, on a motor vehicle.
Speaker B:You, there's, there's a whole laundry list of things in society.
Speaker C:Get on a plane.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Go try to rent a hotel.
Speaker C:Now you might be able to get some motel somewhere within a day.
Speaker C:The Sleep well Motel or something like that that would rent you a room without an id.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:But try to go to a Hilton or a Sheridan or Holiday Inn Express or something and show up there with no ID and try to rent a room.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Any place that's going to rent you a room without an ID you better be checking for bed bugs.
Speaker C:Ok.
Speaker C:Or get the black light out and see, see, you know who's been.
Speaker C:If it's a murder scene or something there.
Speaker B:They ever wash that comforter?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:It's the whole.
Speaker B:It is insulting.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker C:It is insulting it to massively insulting to people that are minorities.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:And if you're a minority, please be insulted and let that person know how insulting it is.
Speaker C:You are not less capable simply because of the color of your skin or your educational level or because of your socioeconomic status.
Speaker B:But I think we know the whole reason that the party that has almost exclusively promoted the it's racist to require an ID to vote ideology is the Democratic Party.
Speaker B:And I think we all know why they're doing that.
Speaker C:Well, and let's go even further.
Speaker C:I don't necessarily think it's the mainstream Democrats.
Speaker C:It's the people that are on the.
Speaker B:Far more leftists.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean I think most mainstream Democrats think that showing an ID to vote is probably a normal idea, a good idea.
Speaker B:And we do tend to associate the term liberal with them.
Speaker B:I think there is a clear distinction quite frankly between a traditional liberal and a leftist.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:The leftist.
Speaker B:These are your.
Speaker B:These are the ones who are Nazi esque.
Speaker B:These are the ones who want domination and control.
Speaker B:These are the ones who want the damn dictators.
Speaker C:They want to control your thoughts, they want to control your speech, they want to control that sort of thing, everything.
Speaker C:And that is not true.
Speaker C:Your classic liberals.
Speaker C:Because classic liberals defend your speech and defend the fact that you have three free thoughts and you're.
Speaker C:What you're seeing in the Republican Party right now is a kind of a remake of the Republican Party where you do have some of the classic liberals that have come over to the Republican Party.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And mingled in there with some of the traditional conservatives.
Speaker C:And you're getting this really, I like this very moderate middle of the road type party in a lot of ways.
Speaker C:You and you could be socially on one side and fiscally on the other.
Speaker C:You don't have to be a hardline conservative or a hardline liberal on anything.
Speaker C:But you have first off, Donald Trump grew up a liberal.
Speaker C:Donald Trump is not an ultra conservative guy.
Speaker C:He never was your Elon Musk's.
Speaker C:He's a liberal.
Speaker C:You're Joe Rogans, he's a liberal.
Speaker C:Tulsi Gabbard.
Speaker C:But they're more your classical liberal people.
Speaker C:They're not your hard line, your leftist.
Speaker C:And they're not hard right conservatives either.
Speaker B:And liberal.
Speaker B:And I think liberal in the vein of you should be able to make decisions on your own.
Speaker B:You should be able to make your own choices.
Speaker B:And as long as you're not out here committing felonies, as long as you're.
Speaker C:Not hurting somebody else, who the hell cares what you do as long as you're not hurting somebody else.
Speaker B:Why should the.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:As long as you're not doing harm to someone else, as long as you're not out here breaking the law, why in the hell should the government have any say, input or concern about what you do, how you do it, when you do it, where you do it, any of it.
Speaker C:That was the stance for liberalism for so many years.
Speaker B:And now you've got Democrats that are far leftists who really, they are the thought police.
Speaker B:They want to be the thought police.
Speaker B:They want to control every aspect of your life that they possibly can.
Speaker B:I'm telling you, everybody just needs to wrap their head around this when they're offering you.
Speaker B:One of the big selling points toward the latter fourth or so of the Harris campaign was the whole thing about we're going to give you $25,000 to go toward a down payment on a new home.
Speaker B:So you can, so home ownership can, the dream of home ownership can come true for you.
Speaker B:Let me tell you something.
Speaker B:They're offering you that.
Speaker B:They're offering you money.
Speaker B:First of all, there are strings attached.
Speaker B:It's never free.
Speaker B:You will be paying it back one way or another.
Speaker C:Put it on the other end of the loan.
Speaker B:Somewhere in the chain, you will be paying that back and you'll be paying it back with heavy interest too.
Speaker C:Well, and it's not just that.
Speaker C:If everybody, if everybody's going to get it, then what does that do?
Speaker C:That just makes the price of that house go up 2,500 more dollars because, because the whole point behind it was competitiveness.
Speaker C:You somehow gained some competitive advantage because now you have a down payment.
Speaker C:Well, if everybody has that down, that down payment, nobody has a competitive advantage anymore in the house, in many housing markets.
Speaker C:It is a competitive thing in many, in many markets.
Speaker B:I'm not giving you anything.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's the taxpayer's money.
Speaker B:They're not giving you anything.
Speaker C:That's the whole thing that bothered me about the.
Speaker C:Forget loan.
Speaker C:Loan forgiveness.
Speaker C:You can't forgive something that you didn't issue.
Speaker C:Call it what it is.
Speaker C:If you're going to do it.
Speaker C:If it's a program that you're, that you're going to, the government is going, the taxpayer are going to pay off student loan debts, then call it what it is.
Speaker C:That's what I keep going back to call things what they are.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker C:I've got a whole thing on this.
Speaker C:We'll talk about another time.
Speaker C:Changing the language and talking about the language.
Speaker C:Be honest.
Speaker C:Quit using nomenclature and that sort of thing to make things sound differently than what they really are.
Speaker B:Real quick here.
Speaker B:I want to, because I just is such a big, this is such a big deal.
Speaker B:And with, with the incoming administration, border security is going to be priority number one.
Speaker B:That's, that's the message.
Speaker C:Day one.
Speaker C:Day one, Mike.
Speaker C:Day one.
Speaker B:Texas.
Speaker C:I don't, I don't have very good Trump.
Speaker B:It's going to be the best ever.
Speaker B:The best ever.
Speaker B:Texas is buying two huge ranches.
Speaker C:They already have.
Speaker B:They are, they've already bought them.
Speaker B:The 353,000 plus acre Brewster Ranch which borders Big Bend National Park.
Speaker B:They're going to be, they're going to have some leasing options for the land for hunting and other things.
Speaker C:This is probably one of the most spectacular pieces of property in the state of Texas.
Speaker C:Really is.
Speaker C:If you, if you've never been to Big Bend, please take the time to go.
Speaker C:It's an outdoor level, lovers adventure.
Speaker C:It's the high desert.
Speaker C:But there, but this, this particular property, what this property was at the Brewster Ranch was a combination of all these old ranches.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:In South Texas that would, people would die off or sell off in the, in the, I guess the Brewster family or whoever put this together over the years.
Speaker C:They put all this ranch together.
Speaker C:Now it was on, I don't know what state of Texas paid for it, but it was for sale at one point for $453 million.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:It's a lot of land.
Speaker C:It's a lot of buildings and things like that, so this will be open for hunting.
Speaker C:Agricultural, soil, carbon sequester, sequestration.
Speaker C:I couldn't say that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Minerals and hopefully maybe, maybe some UTV, ATV trails, dirt bike trails.
Speaker B: They've also bought the: Speaker B:Much smaller ranch, but still a critical strategic purchase here in border security.
Speaker B:This serves two purposes.
Speaker B:Number one, it keeps a foreign investor from stepping in, like the Chinese, for example.
Speaker C:That was the biggest thing on that Brewster Ranch is keeping somebody else from buying it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So it keeps it in Texas hands, basically now the taxpayer's hands.
Speaker B:And it gives them more opportunity to.
Speaker C:Build more border wall.
Speaker C:They're going to build 1.5amile and a half of border wall basically on the Star Ranch.
Speaker C:Now where the Star Ranch.
Speaker C:Star.
Speaker C:Or I'm Starr County Ranch, where Star county is.
Speaker C:It is the county.
Speaker C: or, I'm sorry,: Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker C:Star county is, if you, if you're looking, it's out in the Rio Grande Valley.
Speaker C:You've got Falcon Lake.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:And then as you go down, you get too close to La Jolla.
Speaker C:Now, most people had never heard the word, heard of the town of La Jolla until Fox News made it famous.
Speaker C:And because they were on the border every day reporting from La Jolla, that was one of the hot spots that people were crossing the Rio Grande.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:So this, this county doesn't go all the way to La Jolla, but gets in that area.
Speaker C:But somewhere on that, right on that border is this, this ranch that the Texas bought.
Speaker C:And they're going to build border wall.
Speaker C:Because the fact is you don't have to ask permission to build border wall on your own property.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:So this is, this is a major, major move for Texas.
Speaker B:Texas has been at the forefront leading the way on border security for the last four years where the current administration has repeatedly, continuously and deliberately failed.
Speaker C:And look, don't listen to all the hype and the BS that comes out there.
Speaker C:I don't know anybody in the Republican Party or this administration who has said we don't want immigrants.
Speaker C:The first lady is a goddamn immigrant.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:You know, my wife's an immigrant people.
Speaker C:There are a lot of people that have immigrants.
Speaker C:I have never heard anybody that says they're against having immigration.
Speaker C:It's legal.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:That's what it's all about is legal immigration.
Speaker C:And I know it's easy to say, look, these poor people just want a better life for themselves.
Speaker C:And there are a percentage of people that.
Speaker C:That's literally all they want.
Speaker C:They want a better life for themselves.
Speaker C:But at some point, we have a finite amount of resources and we need to take care of Americans that are suffering before we can start saving the world that are suffering.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So I'm in favor of closing this border to, to the checkpoints, modifying our immigration system, getting rid of the people that came in here illegal over a certain period of time.
Speaker C:Maybe we need to have a show on this.
Speaker C:I am not for deporting people that have been here for 25 or 30 years, that are paid taxes, that maybe came over here illegally.
Speaker C:I need to see the plan.
Speaker C:I'm not for that.
Speaker C:But if you've come in in the last five years illegally and especially start, start with criminals.
Speaker C:I've looked and seen what they're talking about.
Speaker C:They're going to start with anybody who has a criminal background.
Speaker C:They're going to start with there's, I think, 2 million people that were issued court dates and never showed up.
Speaker C:Well, there's a reason you didn't show up for your court date.
Speaker C:Well, you got to go back.
Speaker B:We also know that we've had people who are on terror watch lists.
Speaker C:That's a deal.
Speaker B:They've gotten into this country.
Speaker B:And before anybody starts in about.
Speaker B:Well, that's just a small percentage of them.
Speaker B:The numbers are in the hundreds and perhaps even the thousands of people who have felony criminal records and, or some sort of terrorist ties.
Speaker C:Oh, it's tens of thousands.
Speaker B:Okay, so, okay, let's say it's 10,000.
Speaker B:Before anybody tries to say, well, that's not a huge number.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:It took 19 hijackers to take down three airliners and kill over 3,000 people.
Speaker C:And, and change our.
Speaker B:Fundamentally change our country and fundamentally change 19.
Speaker B: that much damage, what could: Speaker B:What could 10,000 do?
Speaker B:That's what you better stop and think about.
Speaker C:The fact is there's people in this world that are bad people and will do bad things and they don't care.
Speaker C:They don't like us.
Speaker C:They don't.
Speaker C:And they, you can, you can say, oh, I'll reason.
Speaker C:There's people out there that you cannot reason with.
Speaker B:No, you talk about hating their heart.
Speaker B:Now these people got genuine hatred in their hearts and they, and like you said, they don't care now.
Speaker B:They just, they just want to kill people.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So we need to.
Speaker C:We need to stop the flow, as much of that as we can.
Speaker C:And we need to utilize our resources to help Americans first.
Speaker C:Yeah, because.
Speaker C:Because you got to help.
Speaker C:You got to help your home first.
Speaker C:You got to take care of your house before you can take care of the neighbor's house.
Speaker B:Guys, we're going to wrap it up here.
Speaker B:Thank you for joining us again.
Speaker B:Go to our website, get it right.
Speaker B:Texoma.com find us on Facebook as well.
Speaker B:If you're on YouTube, be sure to hit that subscribe button on YouTube and share this with all your friends across social media.
Speaker B: downtown Wichita Falls since: Speaker B:Eddyhillsfundcycles.com website MacTech Solutions.
Speaker B: studio, MacTech Solutions, at: Speaker B:Mactech-solutions.com and Lollipop Sweet Shop, your online bakery at LP suite.com and on Facebook.
Speaker B:Lollipop Sweet Shop.
Speaker B:L O L L I E.
Speaker B:Lolli and Pop Sweet Shop.
Speaker C:It's an online bakery, but it's not a virtual bakery because they bake real stuff.
Speaker B:We do.
Speaker B:We real stuff.
Speaker B:Real good stuff, too.
Speaker C:And they'll deliver it to you.
Speaker B:Yes, yes, that's right.
Speaker C:What is the policy on that?
Speaker C:If you live within.
Speaker B:If you're within.
Speaker B:If you're within 25 miles or less of Wichita Falls and you order at least $25 worth of product, we will deliver it to your door free of charge.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker B:And you know, if it's.
Speaker B:If it's less than that or you live further away, then we'll work out a delivery.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's not that you can't get it delivered.
Speaker C:It's just gonna have to be something to take care of that.
Speaker B:Yes, yes.
Speaker B:Well.
Speaker C:Well, if somebody ordered several hundred dollars worth of stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah, they lived 50 miles away, they probably could get a good deal on.
Speaker B:You know, ship it to Cucamonga or something.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:You know, by the way, bunch money used to go there all the time, you know, always.
Speaker C:But it made.
Speaker C:Made the wrong left turn at Albuquerque.
Speaker C:Could have made the left turn to Albuquerque.
Speaker C:But good quality.
Speaker C:Good quality stuff.
Speaker C:Good quality treats.
Speaker C:And the holidays are coming up.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:So remember that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's stacking up fast here, so I bet.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We're down to what, five weeks now till Christmas.
Speaker B:Come on.
Speaker C:Whoo.
Speaker B:Did I say that out loud?
Speaker C:You did anyway.
Speaker B:All right, guys, thank you for being with us once again.
Speaker B:We appreciate it.
Speaker B:And again, we want to say thanks to our guest, Jim Kulabatos for his time with us today.
Speaker B:And we look forward to seeing you next time here on Get It Right, Texoma.
Speaker B:Until then, take care.
Speaker B:We shall see you down.
Speaker C:Development.
