The LNBE Podcast
Mike Rispoli presents: The LNBE Podcast. "LNBE" stands for "Literally Nothing, But Everything" and the goal is to touch on what his thoughts and opinions are…just like every other podcast...
The LNBE Podcast
Episode 48 - Nothing but Celebration Chaos and Healthcare Reflections
Podcast listeners, imagine losing your voice after a rowdy pre-Thanksgiving celebration and then being sidelined by a vicious cold. That's exactly what happened to me, leading to an unplanned hiatus from our beloved LNBE Podcast. Much like dusting off gym shoes after a lengthy break, I’m jumping back into the rhythm of things and sharing a few laughs along the way. This episode includes a little historical nugget about how Abraham Lincoln turned Thanksgiving into a national holiday amidst the Civil War, along with a funny story from a family gathering in Salem, Massachusetts, where a forgotten air mattress resulted in a memorable night on the floor. Your unwavering support, as seen in my Spotify Wrapped stats, reminds me of the community we're building together, and I’m excited to invite you to engage even more.
Switching gears, I tackle a topic that's been on my mind—our frustrating experiences with the American healthcare system. From sky-high deductibles to the paradox of paying out-of-pocket despite having insurance, these issues hit close to home and resonate with many of you. A chilling event involving the murder of a United Healthcare executive raises questions about its potential impact on industry practices. Could this tragedy catalyze a rethink in how insurance companies operate? We'll also touch on the uproar surrounding Blue Cross Blue Shield in Connecticut over anesthesia coverage changes, pondering if such incidents could drive meaningful reforms. Join me as we unravel these complex topics, hoping for a glimmer of positive change in a system that so dearly needs it.
If you would like to share your opinion, send an email to lnbemedia@gmail.com and don't forget to follow me on Insta and TikTok @thelnbepod.
and we're back. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the LNBE podcast, where lmbe stands for literally nothing but everything. I'm mike risp and I am so sorry for not putting out an episode last week. I know, I know I have been so inconsistent doing this podcast as of the last few weeks Actually you could even say as of the last month. But reason for this week why I missed is because I went out the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and, on top of talking over my friends and the music at the bar and whatever else was going on, I lost my voice and then I also got some sort of like a sickness. I think there's something going around where some sort of respiratory thing it wasn't COVID, but just something is going around. So I like lost my voice for the better part of a week. So to the people around me it was probably a blessing, but for me doing this podcast it has just been so inconsistent and I'm so sorry.
Mike:And I got to say it's kind of like when you miss a day or two from the gym where you're just going so consistently, or two from the gym where you're just going so consistently, and then all of a sudden maybe you go on vacation or you get sick, like in my case, and you try and get back into it and that first time that you're doing that first set you're just like what is my life right now? It is just so hard trying to get back into it. But we are back and I am sorry, so let's kind of get into this. I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving. I know I'm only like two or three weeks late. No, I think I'm only two weeks late. Thanksgiving was fucking late this year, which is really funny because all over social media which is something that I definitely have to get back into I mean, if you guys are curious, check me out on Instagram and TikTok @thelnbepod but all over like Instagram and TikTok, whatever, I was seeing people posting stuff of like.
Mike:I always thought Thanksgiving was the third Thursday of the month, not the last Thursday of the month, and, from what I know, abe Lincoln was actually the one who established Thanksgiving back in 1863. And from what I at least think, I know, abe Lincoln was actually the one who established Thanksgiving back in 1863. And, from what I at least think, I know he made it the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving because it was during the Civil War and he wanted it to be a day that people could just pray for peace and have harmony and whatever, at least throughout the union during a time of war. Because, keep in mind, like during the Civil War, it was brother against brother, even if these guys weren't fighting for the same side, they were all Americans. And it's so funny, because then you see these brain teasers on the internet Like what's the war that the most Americans died in? Of course it's the Civil War. 600,000 people died in the civil war and they were all american. Well, didn't? A lot of people die in vietnam? Yeah, but if we're only looking at american statistics, only 60 000 americans died in vietnam. So there you go, there's your little war, fun facts of the day.
Mike:Oh, I'm just being a holly, jolly asshole talking about war and death here. But yeah, technically, if it wasn't for abe lincoln, we wouldn't recognize thanksgiving as a national holiday, even though, as we all learned in school, or as you all should have learned in school, in 1621, when the pilgrims had that big ass harvest and they decided to share it with the Wampanoag tribe and all of that stuff, that was considered the first Thanksgiving, but without Abe Lincoln it wasn't considered a national holiday. So there we go. Honestly, I feel like this should have been what I talked about last week instead of going on my tirade about dating apps. But this is where we're at and, trust me, there's plenty more for me to bitch about with that, but at least for today we're gonna move on to some greener pastures here. So I hope all of you guys ended up having a fantastic thanksgiving.
Mike:It's funny because on thanksgiving I was the only one who didn't drink, yet I was the one who ended up being on the floor. Reason being is because we went up to my sister's house up in Salem Massachusetts, and we forgot the air mattress that I was going to sleep on. So what did we do? We took one of the little cushion things that my sister has on a loft in her living room and I just ended up sleeping on that. So not the first time I've slept on the floor.
Mike:Also, most likely probably not the last, but again, since I am bringing up the idea of Thanksgiving, I want to give a huge thank you to all of you guys, because last week I did end up getting my Spotify wrapped for this podcast and apparently for 35 of my fans. Thank you. I made your top 10 for 30 of you guys. I was a top 5 show, I had a 4.6 rating and I have 21 top fans, and I know for a fact that I have less than 20 friends. So, and I also have only maybe two or three family members who actually listen to this thing. So for the 30 of you guys who actually do listen to this, who I am not affiliated with, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for the support. With your help, it's only going to continue to grow.
Mike:But what I'm seriously looking for, guys, let's make this a resolution for 2025. You got to start writing in because I can only run my app for so much, so please write in. I really want to try and converse a little bit more with you guys. I know I could do better with the socials I've already said that, but I'm going to throw it on you guys. If you could please just be a little bit more interactive with me. My email is lnbemedia@ gmail. com. Please feel free to write in. I mean, I am so desperate to get better at this pod and I'm almost approaching a year now and out of the whole year I've gotten like two write-ins. So I actually use chat GBT to give me my advice because I can't rely on any of you fuckers. So I got to default to a robot to tell me what's working and what's not. But I'll tell you what's not working.
Mike:Is that ceo for united healthcare? Oh my god. News of the week can we please talk about this? The fact that they still had the meeting after he was shot. And the worst, worst part, you know, they have Microsoft Teams. Because Zoom is for hipster corporations or like startups. Zoom is not for established corporations like this.
Mike:So you're telling me that that couldn't have just been a Microsoft Teams meeting. They had to go in, and why? Because they just had to utilize the real estate that they were paying for. I'll tell you what if that shoe was remote, he probably wouldn't have gotten clipped. Oh my God. But the fact that they still had, they walked over this guy's dead body and was just like eh, you know what, we'll just get somebody to clean that up later. Is anybody truly shocked? Like? Let's put this in perspective United Healthcare is the biggest healthcare corporation in America, so of course they make also the most claim denials or whatever the terminology is Like by sheer volume. That would just make sense to me. I don't know what the actual numbers are. I'm also not going to bother to look it up, because that's what I got you guys for. But no joke, considering that this corporation also gave the least amount or the most filed denied claims or whatever it is. This guy probably just had one claim not go through and it was the last straw.
Mike:And look, I've been on health care before, like working for corporations, and it is dog shit. Let's be real here. Your deductibles are so fucking crazy high I've never actually been able to utilize my health care. If anybody else has been in this situation, please write in because I can't be the only one. I'm a genuine, like generally healthy person. I maybe would only get a physical once a year. You do your dental, your vision, whatever, but weirdly dental and vision mostly covered for some reason. Actual health care with a primary physician not covered at all.
Mike:Make that make sense to me, probably because that's the most expensive part. So why would a corporation want to pay for that shit? It doesn't benefit them. So my deductible has always been like extremely high. And then when I go and get a physical I'm automatically paying a $50 copay on top of then doing like whatever the blood tests are, because when you're of a certain age, that's your physical, everything's based off of your blood work and the blood work is like $700, $750, all the way up to God knows what, and that's all come out of my pocket because none of my deductible ever gets put towards that. So I'm like why is this? Why do I have health insurance if I'm still paying out of pocket for this garbage? So you know what? It was only a matter of time before somebody got sick of it.
Mike:And look, I'm not saying that I agree with what happened. I actually feel really bad for the guy's kids and the guy's wife. I mean, truth be told, it's not necessarily their fault that their father and husband was the one who worked or was the ceo for some heartless corporation. But like it took this long for somebody to snap. Are we really shocked by this? Like I don't know what the guy's situation is. I think they just found the guy, I think they just released his mugshot I have not seen it but like say, his wife or kid or whoever could be going through like chemotherapy or whatever. And all of a sudden United is just like, yeah, we're just not going to cover this. And he probably got fed up. Look, I really don't know what the guy's situation is. I'm just kind of talking out of my ass here. I need more information before I go and just make blanket statement claims like this. But the more that I'm seeing about these healthcare companies, the more I kind of understand it. Did you guys see this little tidbit that came out All of a sudden, at least in Connecticut, I think it was Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Mike:Somebody's gonna have to look this up too. There was some sort of anesthesia that was covered under insurance and then randomly, they were just like yeah, no, you know what, we're no longer going to cover this anesthesia. Good luck, everybody, have fun paying for it. But the way that it worked was that it was based on how long the operation was supposed to last. So say you have God knows what the operation is, but say it's supposed to last six hours and your anesthesia is only supposed to cover those six hours. If your operation were to go eight hours, blue Cross Blue Shield was just like well, we're no longer going to cover those extra two hours and that's going to have to come out of the patient's pocket, whereas before I don't think it really mattered how long the anesthesia was needed, because all of it was covered by insurance. But blue cross, blue shields is just like nope, we're paying for a set amount and that's final. If the patient needs more, the patient can go fuck themselves. That's not our responsibility and it's not and that's final. If the patient needs more, the patient can go themselves. That's not our responsibility and it's not like that's the patient's fault that they need the anesthesia.
Mike:And all of a sudden, once this united guy got marked, all of a sudden connecticut blue gosh, blue shields was like ah, maybe you know, we'll still cover the full percentage. No, we'll still cover the full percentage. So I mean I'm not saying that what the healthcare CEO murderer did wasn't wrong, because I mean, at the end of the day, he still killed somebody. That's pretty fucking bad. I mean, what kind of a Catholic would I be if I didn't at least follow the sixth commandment of thou shall not kill. So I'm definitely not condoning this guy's actions, but I am saying that maybe he's kind of putting all the CEOs in check here with what they're allowing and what they're not going to allow, at least when it comes down to coverage.
Mike:So maybe health insurance companies will actually do more to help cover people in need and maybe you don't make the deductibles so crazy, stupid, fucking high where people actually have to pay out of pocket for crazy amounts of money for typical generic little physicals or other basic necessities that people just need. Physicals, regardless of what company you have, should all just be standard covered. How is it that a frigging dental cleaning, 100% covered Physicals are dependent on a frigging deductible and until you hit that deductible, that's when your insurance kicks in. It's all a fucking scam. Or am I wrong? Am I just thinking of this the wrong way? Like I don't even have kids, I'm not married, but I can only imagine what that would be like, how much money that that would cost. I mean, you go to the fucking vet. You're not spending anything less than $1,000 walking out of there, which is absolutely crazy, because people would be way more willing to pay for an operation on their freaking pet than they would be on themselves, because it costs that much less and it's going to be that much less of a headache for them. So if a kid needs it shot or whatever, I can only imagine the cost that that would bring to a family.
Mike:So, yeah, I think, if anything now again, I don't know what this guy's motives were, but if anything, it shows that people are just getting sick and tired of what healthcare companies are doing and it's kind of like no different than colleges to a degree, because colleges are becoming crazy expensive. I think I covered this on one of my very early episodes too. But at least nowadays, in order to even get your foot in the door in some company, you need to have a bachelor's degree. So colleges know, hey, we know that this is a requirement for any standard job nowadays, I think even working at McDonald's, you need to have some sort of a degree. So colleges know that people have to pay for these astronomical degrees, no matter what it's in, because that's the only way that they're going to be quote unquote hireable. So what do they do? They jack up their prices, knowing that it's quote unquote a need. And I feel like that's what healthcare companies are also low key kind of doing, because it's a need that everybody has to have. So they're going to jack up all of their prices, regardless of what it is, because it's something that we all need and we all are going to have to pay for it no matter what.
Mike:So I don't know. I don't know. Something needs to happen here where there is some form of easier coverage and people don't just get denied things based on a pre-existing condition or whatever. I mean the fact that insulin, I think, costs what? $60 for a 30 day supply. People spending $700 a year just on insulin is astronomically way more expensive in the United States than it is in any other country, and that's not something that even that person can control. Now, granted, if it's type two diabetes and you got that just because you're hopped up on sugar, as in any other country, and that's not something that even that person can control. Now, granted, if it's type 2 diabetes and you got that just because you're hopped up on sugar and instead of eating donuts you can replace it with an apple every once in a while, then that's on you. And also, from what I know, type 2 diabetes can somewhat be reversed. You go on a treadmill, you watch your sugar intake and you'll end up being pretty okay for the most part. But for someone with at least type 1 diabetes, where, if they literally don't get their insulin or they will die, is that maybe one of the things that United was saying, hey, we're actually not going to cover.
Mike:I think people's eyes are being opened up to all this shit and they're like, hey, something needs to happen. It's no different than that stupid insurrection that happened in january 6th. People were so pissed off at the government. They were like, hey, we're just gonna go right to the source, never mind the fact that our leader also pretty much told us to go and do this. But, on the same note, this guy got so pissed off at his health insurance. He was like, hey, fuck it, I'm gonna go right to the source. I don't know, like I said, none of the details have come out, or, if they have come out, I haven't looked into them. So I really don't know what this guy's motives were. I don't really know anything about this whole situation. But that is just my take on what I think is going on here.
Mike:But since this was the most current news of last week and considering I didn't do anything last week, I felt like I had to talk about it. But here's a promise to you guys that when I do another episode this coming friday, it will be a little bit more fun and light-hearted. We're not going to talk about any of this garbage. I do have a pretty interesting story, or at least it's interesting to me that I can tell you guys.
Mike:On friday also, I do want to get back into some of the segments that I was doing with music. Hopefully you guys like that segment because that is something that I can make consistent. But please write in. Do you guys like it when I talk about music? Do you guys like it when I talk about sports? Because that's really all I got other than like current events and stuff. So you guys gotta write in, because friday I was definitely thinking of telling you guys, uh, something that happened to me last week, uh, maybe we'll cover some sports stuff and I was gonna cover the music segment again. I got a couple bands that I think you guys might like if you guys are into the same music that I'm into, and hopefully I'm also back up to 100% by friday.
Mike:Although I gotta be honest, I kind of like the rasp in my voice Kind of makes me sound a little bit more sexy, at least in my opinion. I could be totally wrong, but I'm hoping that the sickness goes away, but the voice kind of remains. But if you guys did like this episode. Please share it with a friend. Please like, subscribe, comment. Give me that five star rating. It really does help boost this thing more than you guys know. And please feel free to write in. You can email me at lnbemedia@gmail. com, and also feel free to check me out on my socials. You can find me on instagram and tiktok @theln be pod, although I feel like by next month, tiktok is no longer going to be a thing, so we'll figure that out as we go along. But alright, guys, thank you so much for listening and I will catch up with you on Friday. Thank you.
