 Hello, how are you doing? This is Gordo the Tech Star here. Welcome to another exciting episode of Hibachi Talk, phase two as we talk about the high cost of healthcare insurance when Hibachi talks, the world listens. Rick's the fundmeister is here, so we're having a discussion on why healthcare insurance is going up so much. We don't have the answers. We have opinions on this and we're hoping that more and more people get engaged in this and start to tell us, help us understand why it's so much. So we left, you left a dangling participle. Yes. So you were mentioning that the Obamacare has 34,000, let's say. I think it was 37,000, right? Yeah, let's just say 35,000. But my thought on that is that a lot of those members or people already had healthcare through the prepaid healthcare. So they already had healthcare through the prepaid? Yeah, how many new people were employed in Hawaii that were uninsured before and then chose Obamacare because they were individuals or had a small company. So. And I remember a number, but this goes back to the very first several months of Obamacare back in what the 2013, 2014, that in there. And there's a number in the back of my mind that was about five to 8,000 new members. New members. Who never had healthcare before. Before that. So hold that, hold that. So is that a bit number? 5,000 to 8,000, okay. We spent 10 dollars. Yeah, that's my recollection. That's old data. That's old data, but it's old data. Let's just use that. Let's say it was 10,000. I don't care. Let's say it was 100,000. I'll just pick that number. It's not 100 because there are only 35. I'm just gonna throw that number up because I'm lobbing up this ball here. We did not need Obamacare in Hawaii. No. We had the prepaid healthcare act. So first of all, I don't even know why our legislators decided to go down that path. Then we dumped $100 million into a computer system that failed and had to get shut down. So here we now, so wait a minute. I'm watching my insurance rates go up like this. Who paid for that $100 million? Where did it come from? It came out of your in my pocket to pay $100 million for a system we didn't need that we ended up shutting down. To ensure how many people? That's why I said make it 100,000. We could have just paid their medical bills. Yeah, and here's, I know, you are. I got a little agitated. And there's two parts then to my answer on that. One is the funding did come from, or I think the bulk of the funding, came from the Fed as part to cover. Where did the Fed get the money? Yes, but that's all of ours and all of our listeners, federal tax at work to federal dollars to fund a failed system. The other thing that I will tell you though is that the company that the state chose to implement that system also implemented that same Obamacare in several other states across the nation. And there were numerous lawsuits. Numerous lawsuits. Across the nation to these companies that were involved in failed implementation of Obamacare. Which by the way, people don't realize that under the new tax laws that got passed, our new taxes was went in. Obamacare, the tax, the fine, which is really a tax that you would pay by not having healthcare insurance is gone. 2019, that penalty, which they call a fine, which is really just a tax for not having insurance has been wiped out. So that's no longer going to be there. So you don't have to have Obamacare. Right. And so the question is, It's painful. That's the conundrum that I have in my mind is why has it gone up? Because I don't believe Obamacare is covering all that many more patients in Hawaii. So has it been a failure in Hawaii that there are still a lot of people who are uninsured? Right, and there still are. And there are, we have a large homeless group. And I'm sure they file their tax return every before April. I'm sure they're at the post office putting in their tax return. But those homeless people, they've always been with us. You know, what was the number? Maybe 1500 or something? Is that what it came to or something this time around? Yeah, they're doing a count right now. They're doing the homeless count. Yeah, and the percentage, yeah. They call it in place homeless count. Yeah, and I know that the percentage of our population that are homeless is, I believe, the highest in the nation. It's highest in the nation, yeah. Again, we're first again. But is it growing that much and is it growing? It might be growing as a percentage, but in just a number, is it growing by 500 new people or is it 20,000 new people? I don't think it's big 20,000 people, but is it large enough to actually drive the kind of healthcare increases that we're seeing? It's going to drive the costs that the hospitals, outpatient, or the EMR, emergency rooms are going to take. Those are being absorbed by the providers, right? They've got to absorb them somehow. And they've got to get paid. They can't turn around and bill someone for someone that walks in that doesn't have any insurance. So, in my mind, in my devious way, I go like, then why do I need insurance? Why don't I just walk in? I'm going to walk in. And now you can. I can't, why not just walk in? You don't have to have insurance anymore. Just say I don't have any money. I'm broke, you know? And I'll walk in and I'll be in the bed next to you. You'll take your chances. Which is not really where I want to go. I would suggest you do. No, I'm not either, but do they really care? That may be the first three good meals a day that they've got in a long time. Now we're picking on the homeless, so we should listen to them too much. But I just don't understand, is it the homeless? Because if it is. I think they're a piece of it. Yeah, they're a piece of it. But I think it's the drug companies. I'm going to pick on them too. It may well be. The high cost of drugs, all these new medications that are coming out. I've always had heartburn for commercials on television by drug companies. I really, those just really irritate the heck out of me. You know, you've seen them, right? We're at the gym and I've come to add for such a section. And the side effects far out reach the benefit, the value of the drug in some cases, you think. So I think that. It's that, you know, I listen to Pandora and I get it on Pandora and you know. So all of those advertisements cost money. And where does the cost of those, that doesn't go? And I think that because there are so many of those, I bet you they're pretty effective, which means that there's going to be a lot more people using those drugs. They're sitting at home, right? Watching, you know, the soap operas, I call it the edge of wetness. So they're, you know, the young and the useless. I don't see OxyContin on there, but we know that there's just been a huge, you know, increase in OxyContin. I've got to give it to, to, who's that? Trump, who's that president? I mean, he came in and he said, something's got to be done about OxyContin. And he's forced his administration, to do it. And I shouldn't say forced. I don't think he's, you know, he's given that to his secretaries to force the government to implement changes for things like OxyContin and other things. Is that just a whole huge problem with our drug industry? Oh, I think it's a national societal issue. I think, and based on my personal experience, I think that doctors, and I love them all, they overprescribe. Absolutely. They overprescribe when, you know, and I've had like, you know, surgeries for knees and those kinds of things. And they give you a prescription for pain meds. I can tell you right now, 95% of the pain meds I've had for knee surgeries, you know, my hand surgeries and such are still in the bottle. Yeah. But I had to pay my co-pay on them. Now someone else may not have a high pain threshold. So they need, but they're sitting there. So I'm thinking, what about pre-packs, right? Give me three. Exactly. And if I need more. Yeah. If I need more, I'll call and I'll go get another pre-pack. Yeah. And Amazon could deliver it to me. Yeah. Oh, which, by the way, I gotta bring that up too. So here's, so let's talk, bear with me when I'm saying it. So Amazon has a million employees. I only got one minute. Amazon's got a million employees. Amazon is seriously looking at starting their own insurance company and ensuring their own employees through their own company. I predict here, you watch within a year or so, Amazon's going to be offering insurance plans to the citizens of the United States. You'll be able to buy your insurance plan in at Amazon. Okay, you got 15 seconds for your last commentary. Then we gotta close. I don't have enough to do the last commentary other than we need to get more people talking about this issue and getting true experts and smart people to answer these questions. Because we as individuals, but we as a society, can't have these kinds, we can't sustain these. It's not sustainable. Companies will close or they'll go to part-time employees. They'll have to do something because they will not be making enough money to justify why they're even in business. And our healthcare system, which is a good system, especially here in Hawaii, will fall apart. It'll fall apart. Anyway, so Gordo the tech czar. Rick's the fundmeister. I also remember your name. Rick's the fundmeister. We're talking about high cost of healthcare in Hawaii. Watch this show and get yourself agitated about it and start asking questions. Don't be so passive now. Make some noise. Talk to your legislator. Talk to anybody. Talk to your doctor. Kos. HibachiTalk.com. Gordon.bru said outlook.com. Just come and send us a message and we'll find out. Anyway, Rick's just always been a pleasure. Thank you. We'll see you again next week. We have a healthcare expert, I think, coming in next week too. I hope so. Maybe he can tell us what's going on. And like we say at the end of every show, one, two, three. How are you doing? How are you doing? With your healthcare costs. Good job. You and I, that's why I don't, I don't worry about not having a guest.