Does the current standard of care and health insurance companies have your best interest at heart or are they a booming business?
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006 – Should Insurance Dictate Your Health?
Hey guys, it’s Dr. Kelly and today we’re going to be talking about should you really let your health insurance be in charge of your health? Stay tuned?
Hi, it’s Dr. Kelly Shockley with Are You Really Healthy Radio. We’re we exposed the real truths in the realm of health and Empower you with insight and knowledge. So you can take back control of your health and when the highest quality of life for the rest of your life now, if you’re new here, make sure you click that subscribe button, and all of the links referenced in this video will be found in the description box.
Alright, let’s get started. Okay. So first of all, I got to give you a little bit of insight in info into this very may be controversial topic of should we really let our insurance be in charge of our health and what exactly am I meaning by that so one of the things I know you guys realize that health care expenses in the US are quite High We reached over what was it three point five trillion dollars in expenses of healthcare last year and those numbers are supposed to be higher this year.
The number one killer in The u.s. Still Remains heart disease despite the effort that government and apparently insurance and standard of care has tried to set for since 1976 when this was on the rise you last we have not made Headway it’s just continuing to be worse. So the heart disease industry were spending about three hundred and sixteen billion dollars annually on that disease loan. That’s the number one killer for both females and. Males in this country. The number two killer in this country is cancer and we’re spending about a hundred and twenty five billion dollars annually and expenses for that.
So we’re talking big money for the first let’s see episode of a heart attack the average lifespan expense for somebody who has now been diagnosed with heart disease and has had a heart attack for not even a severe heart attack guys is considered more of a mild. Obviously, they’re still alive. So it wasn’t severe enough that would have taken them out. It’s about seven hundred thousand dollars per person. I don’t remember what it is on cancer, but I can tell you the average cancer diagnosis and treatment within 6 months of care is anywhere from a hundred thousand to one point five million dollars and the majority of insurance does not cover that. I don’t know if you’re aware. Sure Insurance seems like we’re doing a lot for our people. But ultimately what we’re really doing is we’re bankrupting Americans because they can’t afford to pay the expenses that are leftover ones insurance doesn’t finish taking care of what’s there? So just a few stats there for you.
But what do I really mean by them being in charge of your health care? So there’s a standard of care within the United States and the medical population is expected to uphold the standard of care with how Healthcare has changed and there’s more Hospital influence over doctor practices versus they’re being private doctor practices which there still are but they are starting to become more few and far between these doctors hands are kind of being tied and what do I mean by that? Okay, so you go in for your annual exam and I actually just recently had this happen go in normally blood work was always done but no blood work was done. So you may or may not be getting blood work done on an annual basis. And if you are there’s a standard that they can order just to get a Baseline and it’s next to nothing. I mean, it’s not even. Gosh, it’s about 20 markers. Give or take the most that I’ve seen coming from a primary care doc has been 40 and that’s much more extensive. I can tell you my very basic set of blood and hair analysis. I’m looking at over 100 markers just to give you a little bit of difference Aviv what I’m able to do because I’m not held to the same standards versus what the standards of care allow.
So the way that this works if you come in and you see your doctor and everything seems to be fine. They’re going to run. Basic panel if they’re doing that at all anymore now. That basic panel is also tied to those clinical ranges that I just talked about the other day and those clinical ranges.
Remember I was the average of an average population and Americans are not getting healthier. They’re getting sicker. I just looked at our life expectancy. The life expectancy now is only seventy eight point six years that’s declined where the most medically Advanced. Oh, by the way, we also spend the most on medicine.
Family and treatment not just medication, but we spend the most unhealthy care annually compared to any other country in the world. And we’re ranked 38 for life expectancy. So something isn’t quite right here. I don’t know if you feel the same but from my perspective, we’re not doing a very good job here and there’s a lot of different theories as to why that might be so with that said, You get your blood work back.
Everything comes back in normal range hurry or the average of sick. Congratulations. I also have patients come in who don’t feel great and because they actually have symptoms that opens up the door for their Primary Care doc or whatever other physician they’re seeing based off of how the standard of care work.
They can actually order more symptom-based appropriate testing. So I emphasize symptom base because in order for. To do more you have to have a symptom of something that gives them a reason to order what it is that they’re ordering now. I also believe I have talked about. You don’t get symptoms as soon as something is wrong in your body.
Okay, those come on after the fact and those symptoms are not always specific or indicative of where the actual cause of the problem may be. For example, I mentioned one of the other episodes that patient had significant neck discomfort pain for years on end had a ton of different musculoskeletal types of approaches and Healthcare and was not getting anywhere.
He actually had major cardiovascular disease and that neck. Symptom was more a sign of this underlying much more severe problem. So you see how symptoms don’t always come from where the cause of the problem is. So I last though standard of care. This is what they have to go by. So a patient comes in they order those symptom appropriate types of testing and because our ranges have been skewed if this person is not in an advanced enough state of this disease process.
They’re still going to come back within that normal clinical range that average range of sick and nothing’s going to be able to be done for them. Now with that said if markers come back outside of the range the standard of care dictates that. That physician has to prescribe appropriate medication.
Okay. So if you get come back in your cholesterol marker is out of range. They are required to recommend a Statin drug because that is what the standard of care dictates and says and because there is more influence now with hospitals essentially owning. Doctor practices if they don’t abide by that standard they can actually get in trouble.
So a lot of Physicians hands are being tied a lot of Physicians to that are newer into the medical world. Don’t know how things used to be. So this is like normal for me when somebody comes in I don’t. Well, I do care what their symptoms are shouldn’t say? I don’t care what their symptoms are but that is not what guides me to what it is that I’m going to do.
I also don’t have to wait for somebody to have a symptom in order to order symptom appropriate types of testing. What I do in my office is considered more investigational and I’m allowed to do this because I am not a medical doctor and I’m not held to those same standards. So when somebody comes into my office on an annual basis, if we are just doing an overall health check in and getting a good idea of where they are at we order far more than what you would ever get.
Just going in for the same type of routine check-up with a different physician. Okay. So for example, I always recommend that my patients. Once a year have a cancer panel ran on them. Did you know that we have markers that are found in our blood that are specific to different cancers now not all of them, but it’s anywhere from about eighty to ninety percent of cancers will actually have.
Something show up in the blood work if they exist so our country does not use these has diagnostic of cancer other countries do use these as diagnostic of cancer. The thought process is. If you are starting to head towards that path of cancer, it will show up in your blood work long before it shows up on a biopsy or scan won’t long before you actually end up with a symptom.
So from a proactive in a preventative standpoint, what would be the better approach waiting for you to end up with a symptom waiting for something to actually be detected by a scan or a biopsy which also probably means you’re having a symptom at this point in time for that to actually show or.
Being far ahead of the game and looking in the blood. Long before anything shows up down the road. Okay, in order for you to have a detectable mass or like a tumor on a biopsy or a scan. It has to be the size of the end of your pinky that’s like millions of cells already. I can guarantee you something would have showed up in your blood work long before this Mass actually formed that was did now detectable.
So other countries use this is diagnostic now, I do not diagnose cancer, but. I have a patient who comes back their blood work comes back in there cancer markers are outside of that clinical range or even if they’re outside of the ideal healthy range because I look at a narrow range to try to catch pathologies or disease processes problems because before they become more advanced if off-kilter if it’s out of whack. I cannot say that that person has cancer. However, their medical physician cannot say that they do not have cancer. So we use those because if we’re finding things here and there not symptomatic and they you know, depending on how it comes back. I cannot also make appropriate referrals so that they can get going on more advanced testing if need be, you know, scans and such.
I would never ever ever do a biopsy of anything because what you’re doing your body is super smart, right and it’s Walling off this cancer in protecting you from it. So it’s in this like in. Sack and as soon as you go and you poke it you’ve now essentially like went and poked a hornet’s nest and oftentimes people if you did cancer markers before a biopsy and then measured cancer markers after a biopsy the cancer marker is actually going to be much worse because you just proliferated the cans are all over the place.
Probably not the best thing. So if somebody’s recommending doing a biopsy what my suggestion is either leave it completely alone or remove it completely. Do not poke it and then expect for things to be just fine. Okay. So sticking with this whole cancer thing again, I don’t treat cancer. I don’t diagnose cancer.
I do have patients who I am working with and treating who do have cancer. But we do not treat cancer. We treat the patient as a whole because if I can help you get your body healthy enough. Does it really matter the name of the diagnosis or the disease? No, so whole point being to cancer markers.
We will run them here in the US but oftentimes they’re. Ran until somebody’s already started treatment for cancer, you know started radiation or started chemotherapy in those markers. Then at that point are used to determine prognosis and treatment Effectiveness. So we do use them but not until after the fact and by the way when you start chemo generally those cancer markers are going to get worse before they get better.
So again just difference of approach I can do this because I’m not held. Standard of care in my opinion. The sooner we detect something the easier it is to help remedy it and give your body what it needs so it can get back to a healthy state if we wait until your symptomatic often times. It may be too late.
So I mean, you know those people and maybe this has been you yourself where you go in and feel just fine and you get slapped or you know, somebody who gets slapped with a stage 4 in cancer metastatic cancer diagnosis or you go in. Don’t go in oftentimes. They don’t know if you realize this but the first sign or symptom of heart disease is a heart attack like who knew this is bad.
It is the number one killer in the u.s. I’ve pulled away from that but there’s over 600,000 cases of heart disease being diagnosed every single year. So kind of a big deal. Yeah. 635,000 260. Actually that’s causes a death per year and cancer claims just last than 600,000 annually the stats for cancer.
Now, it used to be like one in eight people. Now, this is 1 in 3 or 1 to 2. So every like flip a coin there’s you and another person in the room one of these going to end up having. Based off of what the recent stats are so wait until you have symptoms and treated that way because this is what health insurance will cover in this is what standard of care actually dictates or.
Take and take control and be in charge of your own house be your own Advocate and be able to do these tests with doctors, like myself who are not held to the same standard of care and can do what’s more considered investigational which hey if we’re trying to keep you on track, why do we not want to investigate that is far less invasive than treatments for a lot of these top killers in the US.
Right, you just give me a little bit more blood we change up your diet we get into nutrition. Maybe you need to do some heavy metal detoxing because hey the environment were in is incredibly toxic and our body can’t keep up with that and ultimately I’m a doctor of cause a DC’s a doctor of cause we’re going after the cause of the problem not just giving you medication to cover up the symptoms which ultimately is going to make the body sick.
But hey, it’s going to keep you from having a heart attack today. So that is considered. Okay, but we don’t tell you is that it’s going to end up making your livers. Kenny second, you’re going to end up with Dementia or Alzheimer’s or neurologic problems this that and the other thing on down the road.
Taking a medication to cover up a symptom is not a great approach for overall health care, but again that standard of care as well health insurance recognizes. So I again Ask. Do you want them to be in charge of your health just because I know you’re paying a premium every month and it’s not cheap by any means, but do you really want to.
Be like I’ve had patients come in with my insurance doesn’t cover that or I’ve known people who were like, well, you know, I could do X Y and Z to try to remedy this problem, but that’s not covered by in my insurance but my insurance will cover surgery. I’m sorry, but choosing surgery over. A non-invasive and more conservative management approach that is going to help fix and remedy.
The issue is probably not the best idea because now you’re exposing yourself to Anesthesia different medications. Sure, maybe the surgery took care of why you were experiencing the pain or whatever the symptom was, but did that actually address the underlying why you ended up with that in the first place mean I have patients who do end up having to have surgery and that’s fine.
But. What I stress to them is okay. So you tore your ACL where you’ve got a meniscus issue where you’ve got some arthritis and it’s causing nerve impingement. And yes, we need to get that out of there. But why did that happen in the first place? You can take care of the underlying like here’s why I have pain but that doesn’t take care of the why did you end up in that circumstance in the first place?
Same thing with heart disease? You have a heart attack do not come to me. If you’re in the middle of having a heart attack. You need medical you need crisis management. That’s what they accelerate at. They are phenomenal at crisis management. They have all the life-saving drugs that you need in that moment.
So that’s going to take care of you having the heart attack right then and there that does not take care of the why did you end up having a heart attack in the first place and taking a medication is not going to help fix the why you had a heart attack in the first place or why you ended up with cancer or why you have diabetes or Alzheimer’s or dementia or any other name disease out there.
You’ve got to look below the surface and figure out the why and start changing up the lifestyle habits. Which is a lot of different things that your sleep it’s your environment is what you’re choosing to eat all day long and like it one of the biggest factors, you know, different social habits exercise habits, all of these things that we know about they play a major influence into what our body does.
So if you want to have a life full of quality versus. Being sick and being honest winterling spiral and ultimately ending up using all the retirement that you’ve busted your tail to save instead of being able to enjoy when you actually get to retire. Now, you’re spending all of this retirement on trying to make you well because you’re sick because you didn’t do anything about it and you bought into the standard of care and you let Insurance actually be in charge of your.
You don’t have to do that. You have a choice in the matter and the types of services that we offer in our office because it’s not dictated by insurance is also not covered by insurance. But that doesn’t mean that is outrageously expensive either part of why this approach will never work or be something that catches on at a more viral level is because.
Ultimately medical is also way business and for what we do like I’ve seen the type of work that I do for somebody who has in stage cancer. Stage 4 cancer who would have spent at least a hundred or a half a million to one point five million dollars in six months have major improvements on less than 5,000 in an entire Year’s worth of treatment and care.
And by the way this person who I’m talking about is not just one. Individual but she was given at best if she did chemo and radiation and had a double mastectomy. She had stage 4 breast cancer again went and had no symptoms and got slapped with this diagnosis. She had young kids and she’s was getting at best maybe eight years.
I don’t know does maybe eight years sound good to you when you have young kids and like you’re not even in your late 40s like no, that’s way too young and there’s too much left to be a part of and to witness and experience, especially. Early with munchkins. So in also, they can’t guarantee you what those eight years are going to look like.
Are you going to end up in a nursing home in diapers drooling and having somebody have to do everything for you? I don’t know that’s like playing Russian roulette. So this gal she had a double mastectomy done. She did not do chemo and radiation. And the type of work that I’ve done basically her numbers were being checked on a weekly basis.
This is what’s cool about what we do in not being held to Insurance in the standards is we can create a treatment protocol specific to you and customize it specifically do what your needs are and then we keep tabs on you. This is how we know we’re being effective or not. This is how we know if we’re getting away with just giving the body what it needs or.
Is the body going more towards a crisis mode where we actually need medical crisis management involves them if need be but as soon as your bodies back out of Crisis go back to restoring health with what it is that we know at any rate this gal every week. Haven’t delivered uncheck in the cancer marker.
Everything was coming back down towards the normal range and dramatically so so stay the course. She never had to have any kind of Crisis management other than she had the cancer removed. So, like I said, she had a double mastectomy. She’s never had chemo. She never had radiation. She just passed the 12 year mark, so she already exceeded which he was given as a best prognosis of eight years by medical and she’s fine.
Like she’s living a vivacious high quality life. She’s raised her kids. She like life is good. Yes, she kind of has to be strict with her diet, but the alternative would be six feet under already according to what medical Gabe. So this is why I’m so passionate about what we do medical is necessary.
There is a time and a place for everything but they may not be the best approach at the very. Okay, unless you’re increases then go with that and waiting for what insurance is going to cover is probably not the best way to keep yourself healthy in this country because of how things are structured and because of what the standard of care dictates so I may have ruffled a few feathers, but hopefully I’ve also created some really good questions and maybe had some aha moments happen with sharing this information with you.
The biggest thing is you have to be an advocate for yourself. Ultimately, I’m not telling you what to do. I’m giving you different side of the equation that maybe you didn’t know about a different perspective and trying to stimulate thought process. If you have questions by all means Reach Out research.
It don’t always believe everything you read on the internet. Okay, because also now it sounds like things are going to be censored even more from an alternative standpoint because I don’t know you figure out that because so at any rate. Thank you so much for being here with me. I greatly appreciate you guys if you’re enjoying.
Is kind of content please go rate us on iTunes because yes, you’re seeing you in video. But this is also in podcast format if that’s easier for you guys. Look for that podcast as well, and please leave comments. Ask questions reach out. I am a resource for you. Even if you’re not in the state, I have people all over the US that I’m working with and helping and my goal.
My mission is to just help as many people as possible get healthy High have high quality of life. Get the most out of life out. You know while we’re here and do that through natural means and things that actually make sense and logic and help you be able to know when you need to do more advanced things and when you don’t or if you take care of yourself, if you have to even do that down the road, like no quality, we want quality.
So thank you guys so much and here’s to being healthy.
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