Yeah.

The consulting company was brought in to take that medical jargon and put it into a language in which you and I could understand.

So they went, they, they rolled it out, and the insurance company called them back and said, "You know what? We're gonna roll this back." And the, the, the, the consulting company's like, "What? What?" And well, well, people were finding too many errors on the bill, you know.

And the example she gave me was this woman called in who had a baby girl, and on her bill was a circumcision.

How does that work? And so as they converted the medical jargon to normal everyday jargon, what they were finding is there were so many errors in these bills that they, instead of m- correcting the errors, they pulled back the everyday jargon, went back and replaced it with the medical jargon to keep this, I don't know, this, this, this cover over it-

Yeah

... married, and, uh, she got pregnant right away.

In our 12-week ultrasound, we found out our daughter had a fatal condition, would not survive.

And, you know, maybe explain to me where is the breakdown, because I feel like practices like Brian's and ours, you know, are trying to solve this problem, and I know you're trying to solve this same problem.

Yeah, I mean, I think you actually, you actually did, did great, and my, my, uh, my MBA is not a benefit, it's probably a liability, [laughs] um, you know, in, in looking at these things, 'cause MBAs love the status quo.

Um, they make lots of money off of the status quo, and so we're trying to change the status quo.

But I think, I think you hit it almost perfectly, which is like if we, if we put it into more like a layman's term, right? If, if you have a, to go get your oil changed, right? You show up at Jiffy Lube and they say, "Hey, listen, you know, we're gonna do it for 50 bucks," and you know what the price is, then they have the incentive to have the cost of delivering you that service to be as low as possible.

Um, however, if you go in and you say, and they say, "Hey, you know, I'm gonna charge you 15% on, on top of what it costs me to provide that oil change," um, they're gonna let that oil change cost go as high as freaking possible because they get that 15%.

So if my oil ch- change costs, you know, 50 bucks, they get, you know, 15% of that, $7.50.

But if they let that cost go up to $100, they're gonna charge me, you know, uh, 15% on top of that.

You know, what are you seeing on an individual level, and have you engaged with the companies at all?

When did it become that way, and why is that normal?

Yeah, I mean, um, it's one of those things where, you know, it's, it's almost like you're going to the grocery store with somebody else's credit card.

You don't care what the price is.

And so there are obviously some hazards to that [laughs].

Um, you know, but that's been a w- a, the, the way for a long time, um, you know, more than 50 years, closer to 100 years.

Um, you know, and, and ultimately then it was codified into law after World War II where our employer now was responsible for our healthcare, and so they were paying for the healthcare.

And so that kind of taken- took us off the hook of having to pay for healthcare.

Okay.

What were the reasons that they gave you they couldn't do it?

They said it was medically unnecessary.

And I'm saying, hold on a second, like, the day before she had this she was, couldn't sleep, screaming bloody murder.

The day after she was totally fine and a normal human being.

Our ear, nose, and throat doctor said he was seeing some scar tissue build up in her eardrums, and so he's like, "We have to get this done." I'm like, "If an ear, nose, and throat doctor says it's medically necessary, what right do you have, insurance company, to say it's not medically necessary?"

Mm.

And so people think healthcare is really, really complex, and I say, "You know, I can break it down pretty easily," right? You have the buyer of healthcare, which are these health insurance companies.

They're the ones paying for it.

Our spaces are filling up very quickly.

Yeah.

I mean, I think ultimately, um, you know, we're enable...

We're a platform that connects people who, um, need help with people who are willing to help, um, within a community.

Um, so we're just a software platform basically that connects those two people, those two people.

Um, and b- but ultimately, the platform is to enable people to pay their doctors, um, directly.

Because if you do that, you get to take out all that bure- bureaucracy that we've been able to...

Yeah.

Explain that a little bit.

Yeah.

Ultimately, what Obamacare did is they made the, um, buyers of healthcare, which is the health insurance companies, actually have an incentive for prices to go up.

So it's ultimately like the military industrial complex, uh, when they contract with the government on this cost plus system.

Um, what happens when you have a cost plus system is you want costs to rise so that your 10 or 15% is much, much larger, and it's the hem- same thing happens with health insurance plans, where the Obama administration said you can only make 15% of your premium as profit.

And so what happens if you have $1,000 of premiums, you can make $150 worth of profit.

So how do you make 10% more than that, $165? Well, your premium has to go from $1,000 to $1,100.

How does CrowdHealth succeed in this Obamacare system? Is this how we're gonna beat the system and make it better for people?

Explain that a little bit.

Yeah, ultimately what Obamacare did is they made the buyers of health care, which is the health insurance companies, actually have an incentive for prices to go up.

So it's ultimately like the military industrial complex when they contract with the government on this cost plus system.

What happens when you have a cost plus system is you want costs to rise so that your 10 or 15 percent is much, much larger.

And it's the same thing happens with health insurance plans where the Obama administration said, OK, you can only make 15% of your premium as profit.

And so what happens if you have $1,000 of premiums, you can make $150 for the profit.

So how do you make 10% more than that, $165? Well, your premium has to go from $1,000 to $1,100.

How does CrowdHealth succeed in this Obamacare system? Is this how we're going to beat the system and make it better for people?

Mm-hmm.

And so we went in network, did everything we were supposed to do, got these tubes in her ears.

It was a 15-minute procedure.

And then I got the bill from the, the, the, um, the facility a few weeks later.

And it was fif- or yeah, it was $8,000, excuse me, for this 15-minute procedure.

And I was just like, "Holy crap," you know? $8,000 for 15 minutes.

This is ridiculous, but this is what health insurance is for.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

...

if we continue to print money, that's why grocery prices are so high, that's why home prices.

I don't know about you guys, I live in Austin.

Between 2020 and 2024, my home pr- my- the value of my home went up by 100%.

Why?

Yeah.

We're coming off the- the government shutdown, the, you know, you can argue whether the Democrats or the Republicans were- looked worse on that.