We have Eric Guyer with me here today. You can learn what his team is up to by heading over to pure assurance.com. And with my Minnesotan accent, that probably didn't come out quite great, so it's I'm gonna make sure that is a clickable link in the show notes. So it's pure assurance.com. But, Eric, I appreciate your time here today as this is gonna be an interesting conversation about health insurance.
And I know being self employed in some regards, it's this is something that is top of mind, especially single family incomes. These everybody is gonna kinda struggle with this and how to navigate some of this. So thanks for your time today as we kinda make sense of some of this world. Yeah. Absolutely. It's my pleasure, Jack, and thank you for having me on your show. I'd be interested. The it always fascinates me, and I don't want you to have to spend a ton of time on
this. But how did you find your way to this niche? I'm sure there's a story there. Yeah. So I worked on Wall Street on trading desks for the better part of 2 decades. And when I was no longer employed in that area, seeking health insurance was very expensive, and it it was just it it was exhausting. I ended up buying into a franchise that didn't really have any good options either because a franchise organization
cannot insure distinct owners. So it just kind of led me down the path of solving a problem that every individual business, not everyone, but a lot of individual business owners are faced with, as well as small teams. And that is, how can I get comprehensive health insurance for me and my family, but also be able to offer it for employees I for prospective employees I wanna attract to my business and also
retain? Because I don't wanna lose anybody to what's arguably, after compensation, the most important benefit that, you know, that we have. Mhmm. Well, you know, I'd I'd like to explore some of that, especially when it comes to entrepreneurs. We got a lot of real estate investors are gonna be 1 man bands, maybe a couple couple people Mhmm. Outside of Obamacare or those directions by your state, what else
would there be? Sure. So if I could just kind of take a background on what got me into kind of the the the real estate investing space, is that we're the health insurance provider for Homevestors 1200 plus nationwide franchisees, and we've been so for the past 5 years. So we have a lot of experience in working with single owner businesses. A lot of their franchisees are single
owner or small teams. And what I found out was a lot of those guys are going without coverage just because the options are just too expensive. And, you know, you know better than anybody how cash intensive, capital intensive real estate investing is. So it created an opportunity where, through private means, we're able to provide coverage that only that not only frees up liquidity, but also provides benefits without having to first satisfy deductibles.
So it it was just it happened by happenstance, but it just it turned out to be an incredibly good fit for the real estate investor, you know, partially because they're single owner and, you know, they're and and it's a very capital intensive business. So how are you pulling
this off? It it kinda sounds like since since you are the providing health insurance for this for these this this group of investors, is it because that's that's a group or an entity and it's kind of underwritten as a as a corporation in itself, or is the how how does that piece work? Right. So when you Homevestor's obviously a franchise organization, and each one of their owners are distinct, and no attachments whatsoever to the mother ship other than, you
know, royalties and and that kind of thing. In that sense, they're really no different than any individual business owner. They have their own LLCs, and, you know, it's very difficult for insurance companies to manage risk on one person getting insurance, which is why the health insurance exchanges are so expensive. They insurance companies need to pad their, you know, premiums to account for unpredictable risk. So, you know, that is a is a is a huge
disadvantage to the individual business owner. However, there are private options that we that we found. We created a portfolio around it to be able to offer these owners a a a very good option that that enables them to go on their daily business without having to sink, you know, a $1,000 in for a health insurance policy while realizing benefits without having to satisfy $75100 deductibles
before they they see it. So it's it it and and and the other thing about what I found out about working with entrepreneurs is that they don't they're not huge users of health insurance. Like, they'll go for the annual exam, but they really want asset protection on the upside. Everybody wants asset protection, but it's more defined with the individual business owner. I don't wanna go bankrupt if I have a health event. So when we structure these plans, we structure with asset protection in
mind. That's the number one the number one aspect of coverage that we're looking at when we when we cover business owners. Okay. So could you kinda give us a kind of a summary of what is a common policy then for what would people expect here? Yeah. So the the day to day benefits are extremely generous. They're you know, each person each insured is looking at something like 20 doctor visits per calendar year if they want it, chiropractic benefits, urgent care benefits, obviously,
hospitalization catastrophic. But what the real value is is that, you know, you first of all, you don't need referrals to to see a specialist. That's that's big and pays benefits for all medically necessary services and procedures. The the fact that, you know, they somebody can just go to the doctor and, you know, and not have to worry, is this or is this not gonna be covered? That's a big one. The second thing is that it's very flexible. Like, HomeVestors has investors, for example, who
have properties in multiple states. And oftentimes, even a PPO plan, a traditional PPO plan, will not offer benefits other than emergency ones outside of your state. So the fact that it's network agnostic is is is hugely attractive. You can stay in network, for example, if you like, and the real benefit to that is that the convenience of doctors filing claims on your behalf, but you literally can go anywhere you want. You would just pay and
and and get reimbursed. So there's a flexibility there that does not exist with with a traditional health insurance plan. You know, another aspect of this coverage, which in my opinion is a game changer, is that I don't know if you are are familiar with direct primary care providers. They're getting very big around the country. It's like a it's a membership based primary care model where you you essentially have 247 access to to your doctor, whether that be through text, through
video chat, or go see a or or go to the office. You don't have to wait 3 weeks. You can pretty much get in same day if you need to. I am such a member of a practice. Now if you have traditional coverage, let's just use Blue Cross Blue Shield as an example, the any any monthly membership fees that you're paying to the concierge doctor or direct primary care provider is a sunk cost. You don't get that
back. With private coverage, you get reimbursed for each visit that you go to to such a doctor, and that offsets your membership fees. So, like, for me, for example, I pay $85 a month to go to a direct primary care provider, and I can see her as much as I want. This insurance reimburses me a $160 each time I go because that's my office visit benefit.
So it's you know, I'm basically paying for my DPC membership fees through insurance that's as much as 60% less than a traditional silver Blue Cross Blue Blue Cross Blue Shield plan anyway. So, you know, it's it's it's basically you're you're double dipping in a way. Right? So that's what I love about it. I'm a healthy guy, but I go to the doctor when I'm not feeling well now because it's so easy for me to get in. And I know that every time I go, I'm going to be
reimbursed. So that incentivizes me to go, which is another great point. This coverage rewards you for going to the doctor. It's what it it takes away one of the one of the biggest stumbling blocks to going, which is, you know, I know I have insurance. I could go. I I just pay this
co pay, so on and so forth. But this kind of adds gamification to it a little bit where if you know that you're gonna go and get paid for it, you know, it it'll make you more likely to, you know, to get that EKG that you've been putting off or the colonoscopy or whatever. I mean, I'm in my fifties. That's that's a reality for me right
now. But just for things that you normally wouldn't do, it's it's much better because we all know how important early detection is for, you know, for cancers, for pretty much any any illness that's out there? Well, I think a lot of investors or or entrepreneurs for that matter, they're kinda looking for a possibly, for a situation where you can kinda set it and forget it and try to save the the money. Yeah. It almost sounds like there's some management on
our end asking for reimbursement and and the like. Is am I mistaken there? If for a DPC provider, yes. For an in network provider, just the regular doctor, no. It it's it it works the same way from a claims perspective. But I was I was just kind of illustrating the flexibility that if you or your family had was a member of a DPC practice, that would not be a sunken cost like it would be with a traditional plan Sure. Would get money back
for going, which would offset that DPC fee. But in terms of going to, you know, your regular doctor or specialist, as you do now, they can, provide their network, they can just file claims on on your behalf. So with what people are experiencing now when it comes to insurance, health insurance, the the cost is astronomical sometimes. It's just almost like you pointed out, it's almost cost prohibitive in some regards. Yeah. Could you do a quick comparison as to what can people traditionally
expect here? On a premium perspective. Yeah. Somebody in their twenties for full coverage with catastrophic, somewhere between 20225 a month. In their thirties, maybe that goes up to 250, 275. Forties, 335, 350, and so on and so forth from there. It's it's age age specific because as we get older, you know, more things go wrong with us. We we use the doctors more, and there's more risk to the insurance company. So it's totally age driven. The premiums do not rise with number of claims or
dollar value of claims. It's coverage that can be kept till 65 years of age if you like, at which point we go we all go on Medicare in this country. And, you know, a more flexible policy, we have not found. It it it really if you're living in Texas, for example, and you move to Virginia, it would probably be the other way around, but let's just use that as an example. The coverage would work just as well in Virginia as it would in Texas mainly
because, first of all, you could see anybody you want. And secondly, it is a nationwide network of nearly a 1000000 providers. Obviously Just from Yeah. No. Go ahead. I was gonna say the major hospitals are all, you know, in network and, you know, it's it's it's exceedingly easy to to find providers. So just to remind everybody, head over to prosurancedot com to learn a little bit more about what we're talking about here and and maybe connect with Eric
and his team. And if you found some value in what we're talking about so far, share this episode with one of your investor friends. And if you're watching us on YouTube, do us a quick favor and give us a thumbs up and, subscribe. So, Eric, you're you're gonna have to give us the down and dirty here. What are the gotchas? Because some of the numbers you've been throwing out, the the the premiums for for that matter seem very low in comparison to what
I've experienced anyway Yeah. In regards to that. The numbers you're throwing out actually are are quite a bit lower than what, at one time, I was paying biweekly. Levis. Oh, from employer coverage. Right. Like but but that was still my portion. Yeah. So what how is this possible, and what are some of the gotchas here? No maternity coverage, and you do have to be reasonably healthy to qualify for the coverage.
So no cancer in the last 5 years, no insulin dependent diabetes, immune related illnesses, and musculoskeletal stuff like MS would be knockout, and heart attack, cardiovascular disease, stroke, that kind of thing. The the the really ugly stuff that you really should be on a traditional plan for. But if you are reasonably healthy, and we've done some analyses, and from the from what we've learned from Homevestors, about 75 to 80 percent of the entrepreneurial community qualifies for
it. So if you don't need pregnancy coverage, which is a kind of a scam in itself, and we can go into that if you like, and you are reasonably healthy. This is a a a very good value proposition for the independent business owner. And what is the process in validating that type of information? Oh, and it's there's no physicals. It's questions. And based on that, the insurance companies do their underwriting. They basically look at prescription history. Prescription
history tells a lot. And if there's anything ominous in that, they'll ask for more information and make a decision based on that. You know? And it's actually really good to go through an underwriting process with insurance because I've encountered a lot of situations where there's been wrong information on a medical report. And with wrong information on a medical report, that could kill your chances of getting life insurance, long term care coverage, you know, anything in the future
where underwriting is important. And you can have your medical history changed. You know, you just have to go to the doctor and and have it changed. But I I actually was just talking to somebody who they there was stroke written all over their medical records, and this guy did not have a stroke. He was in Denver and the skiing, and he had a faint episode because because of the air there. Right? Mile High City and all that kind of stuff. And they wrote stroke because of it, possible
stroke. And when he saw that, you know, it was like a wake up call. He's like, I didn't have a stroke. And, you know, lo and behold, he was able to go back and have his medical records changed and, you know, and and coverage was was doable for him. But that would have presented a lot of problems. For the one part is he's actually launching he's a key man in a in a new
company venture that's getting outside money. So with his with his medical record the way it was, he wouldn't be able to get Keyman life insurance. So this actually was fortuitous in that he was able to do this before, you know, a lot of this stuff came up. Well, I'm gonna put you on the spot. You used the words scam when it comes to, you know, pregnancies. Yeah. And then in cover.
What what were you referring to there, and what others, quote, unquote, scams are there in the marketplace that we should be aware of? Cash prices for pregnancies are between $510,000 depending upon where you have it done. Meaning that you can go and say, here's $5,000. Here's $8,000, and and and the pregnancy is done. You pretty much pay the same thing because it's marked up so much for the chargemaster price at hospitals, which is akin to
MSRP on cars before discounts. So when insurance companies, when they when when they determine benefits, the the part that you have to pay, it's based on that high number. But the reality is for them and for everyone else, it's about half that. So every you know, you think you're going in and, oh, yeah. I need maternity coverage, but at the end of the day, you're probably gonna pay the same thing by being
a cash payer, maybe less. I've seen them as low as $45100 for a regular delivery than you will for having insurance, unless you're on a very low deductible plan, which is very expensive. Very, very expensive. Well, you know, could you ascertain then? You know, you point out one scenario there, but is that the case for the majority of the health care that we receive? Is that the the prices are just completely blown up, and it's primarily because of the insurance
companies? Yep. Yeah. There's there's a lot and and kickbacks to providers and and facilities. You know, when you go just to get labs 12, like, you could get a full thing of labs, a full panel of labs, and see a $1200 bill on that. The real price could be 10% of that. And, you know, you could go to and here here's just a a place to go. Go to walk in lab.com, book lab tests through LabCorp or Quest, and you're gonna pay rock bottom prices. Why is that?
Because there's kickbacks to the providers that are referring them to these labs. And a lot of times, those kickbacks are pretty material. So it's there's a lot of there's a lot of mouths to feed in the health care slash health insurance industry. And, you know, what we advocate for is complete transparency. And this coverage that we do offer, it it it it offers benefits at the true price
of care. And, you know, that's why they can afford to be so generous is because, a, yeah, it's the true price of care, and and, b, you know, you're going in as a reasonably healthy person. So based on their actuarial metrics, you're not gonna be a big user of coverage, and they're gonna make a lot of money off of it. So you know? But that said, I I I have clients, young clients in their twenties, who pretty much they negate their annual premium bill
through excess. If you have a benefit through insurance that's higher than what a provider is owed, you're going to get the difference back to you. Let me let me just kind of illustrate that very, very easily. So on the top level of coverage for one particular plan, the the chiropractor benefit is a $160 per visit, and you can use that 6 times a year. I pay $40 to go to the chiropractor.
So that means since my benefit is 1.60 and it costs me $40 to go to the chiropractor, I'm going to get that difference or a $120 back each time I go, and I can do that up to 6 times per calendar year. That's huge. That's a $960 benefit. That's an that offsets my premiums. So in you know, if you're a 25 year old who's paying 202.25 a month for insurance, you know, that let's just call it $24100 a year, You're getting a $960 benefit that's probably gonna cost you 2.40, you
know, 40 times 6. And then the difference, $720, effectively offsets your annual premium. So your premiums just went from 24100 to 24100 minus $700, which is the excess represents the excess benefit of those 6 annual chiropractor visits. That that's that's really interesting because more times than not, the insurance that that I've experienced, it doesn't really matter what the chiropractor charges. That's what the insurance company provides. Yeah. I don't I would never
see any kind of excess funds back to me. Yeah. I had a conversation with this woman, and and and and she she wasn't getting it because her traditional insurance policy that she had, she's like, well, I go to the chiropractor, and I just pay a $50 co pay. I said, I mean, I I said to her, I said, you know, what if it was cash? Like, what how how much would you pay if it was cash? Oh, like, $45. Like, why aren't you paying cash is my first question. Like, why are you even going through insurance?
Right? And secondly, in in the scenario of of our coverage, you would make a $115 per visit for 6 visits on that, but you couldn't get it. You know, this kinda reminds me of a story just personally because we had to get a prescription once, and it was a it's an it was an ongoing thing. So we we went to I asked the pharmacy once because it was, like, $20 every time. That was my co pay. $20. Okay. Here's my $20. And I and I stopped him once and I said, if I would just pay for this,
what what would it be? It was 10. Yeah. Yeah. It was half if I would just pay for it. Yeah. I was like, why why didn't you tell me this then? Why why did I have to ask? And and and then it just leads to why is it cheaper for me to just buy it. Yeah. And and that I think and so I started to get into the habit of of asking each time just because, like you just pointed out, more times than not, it's actually cheaper than the co pay had been. For a generic for, like, a a
generic? Yeah. Absolutely. Like, if you go to GoodRx and you take a, you know, a routine antibiotic like amoxicillin. You know, if if Walmart, for example, is overstocked in amoxicillin, it could be free. Right? And and if you have insurance, you'll go and you'll pay your $20 co pay if you don't know any better. But why would you pay a $20 co pay that is free or dollar or $10 in your case? And it it just it makes no sense. It's what I do is really
not selling. It's more educated. And people you know, the the insurance industry and Wall Street does the same thing with with finance. They create these these elaborate names and then that nobody understands, so they think only they can do it. But you start peeling the onion, and you start seeing how all of this is just a ruse. It's all smoke and mirrors to justify higher costs.
And the the clients that I have are much better educated than their average insured on a traditional plan, which is essentially a bury your head in the sand, which is what, you know, the BUCA plans want, which blue BUCA meaning Blue Cross, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna. And, you know, don't take my my food away from me is basically their thing. Right? They've they live high in the hog, and there's a lot
of money that they make. And because people think that health insurance is this this this, you know, so complicated thing, and it's really not. It's not at all. It doesn't have to be. And if you just kind of get a little bit of education, then, you know, you just become smarter, and that intelligence leads to you paying less for coverage. Just to remind everybody one more time, pure assurance.com. That's gonna be a
clickable link in the show notes. Eric, before we transition into rapid fire questions here and close out this episode, I'm sure I'm missing something else here. Is there a question or concept do you think we should have covered made sure we covered here? You know, I just would love your viewers to just take, you know, a little bit of steps just to kind
of ease the burden of their health costs. You know, if if they need a scan or they need imaging of some sort, you know, go to go to a website like greenimaging.net, and, you know, you'll save 100 of dollars by getting any kind of ultrasounds or CT scans by doing that. I have a client who needed an ultrasound. His doctor was charging him $1500 for the ultrasound through Green Imaging 6 miles away from his house. He got it for a $110 through an
interview. You have, like, a list of resources like that on your website anywhere? I don't. I I share them with clients. I'm happy to put together a list of of things, and and, you know, you're you're welcome to share them with your readers. But, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of resources out there to to save money, especially if you're uninsured. I'm not advocating for being uninsured and, you know, health insurance at a reasonable price should be the antidote to,
you know, uninsurance. Because just because you've never had anything happen to you in the past is no indication that a serious injury or illness is gonna come out of left field. And I just kind of want people to understand that. But there are resources out there, independent imaging centers, you know, like walk in lab for blood work. That that that's a fraction of the cost, and they always run specials that make
those costs even less. So, yeah, I'm I'm happy to put such a document together and and forward it over to you, which you're welcome to share with your listeners. Yeah. I I bet you a lot of people would take advantage of that because you you're absolutely right. Until you become self reliant to a certain extent, you know, lab work is a great example. I didn't even really have an idea that there were such companies available. And then I did a search online a few years back,
found some a place in a strip mall. Walk in, they do your test, and it was, like you said, a fraction of the cost. Fraction of the cost. There were it it's the same exact test that your doctor would order, but you're just cutting out that that kickback scheme. Yep. And it's surprisingly easy to understand and read when you got it. Yeah. Again, it's pure pure assurance dot com. And, Eric, if you're ready, we'll jump into the rapid fire questions.
Let's do it. So first of all, since you've been working a lot with entrepreneurs and real estate investors, I'd be curious what lie do we tell ourselves and sometimes to others? That you're going to make a $1,000,000 the 1st year of of investing in properties. Yeah. Very optimistic. Right? Overly optimistic. But people tend to over overestimate results in, when they go into business. Do you have a book recommendation, or what are you reading right now?
Yeah. So as fate would had it would have it, I just finished a book called Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, and it talks about what we do as human beings that we think are the right things to do and the right ways to approach things, but they're completely irrational in the way we think about it. It's such an easy read, and
it's so good, and it's so enlightening. I think it's I I think everybody should be reading it, but if you're a business owner, you're gonna find out a lot of insights about what makes you tick and what what goes into your decision making process and what, you know, takeaways to what you can do to to put yourself in a better decision making situation. Yeah.
I'm gonna look that one up. Like, we've we have something my partner and I were talking about just the other night where we're, for as long as we've been doing this, there's one scenario where we don't understand why people act so irrationally. Yeah. And we it it just has baffled us. And we were talking about it again just the other night, and we don't we don't understand. So maybe this would give
me the answers. 1 of the major one of the major causes that that that causes people to act irrationally is is unpredictable stress, stress that you didn't see coming that's overwhelming, that you know, I I I saw a very disturbing article about a woman, a normally good woman, who left her 10 month old who left her infant baby alone while she went on vacation for 10 days. They the cops said they've never seen anything so
bad in their life. Obviously, you know, the the the baby passed from emaciation and thirst and all this other horrible stuff. But this is a relatively normal, sane person when when confronted with all of this stress that she didn't see coming, does something completely irrational that Mhmm. That you and I couldn't even fathom doing. And, yeah, she got life
imprisonment, but that's really not the point of it. The point of it is is what can we do to to the best of our ability to ahead of time to try and prepare ourselves for the kinds of stresses that are beyond the normal day to day stressors. And resiliency is a huge part of that. You know? So I'm I'm very interested in concepts that, you know, talk about resiliency and, and inner strength because, you know, as an
entrepreneur, we don't know what's around the corner. We don't. And I say we because I'm I'm a business owner too, and things that kept me up 2 years ago aren't the thing same things that keep me awake now because I built resiliency to that. But there's other stuff. But knowing that you're resilient can be in and of its in and of itself a a a great self introspective thing because you you you become attuned to the fact that you can deal with anything even when it seems like there's
no good options out there. Mhmm. No. Good point. If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? Be a better student. Don't don't think that you've got all the answers at a young age. You know? I I that's that's a big one. Get a mentor, somebody who you look up to, somebody you trust, and engage with that because doing it all on your own is puts a lot of unnecessary suffering. So that's that's what I would do.
Sure. What single strategy, process, or tool have you implemented that has the biggest time saving impact? Virtual assistance. I love them. I love them. $5 an hour for grunt work that I don't have to hire for is has been a lifesaver, absolute lifesaver. I'm a huge, huge fan of virtual assistants, the right ones. You can get wrong ones, but do your due diligence and find good virtual assistants to take off all of the non revenue producing stuff on your plate as a business owner.
Because I think a lot of business owners confuse busy with productive. And you don't wanna be busy doing the wrong things. You wanna be busy closing business and adding value. So virtual assistants have been a life saver. And with virtual assistants, you don't have to worry about, you know, paying FICA and and all this other stuff. And at $5 an hour, you're not even gonna be able to get anything like that anyway. So, yeah, I'm a big fan. Yeah. I that that
was awesome. I I appreciate you bringing that up because I I, frankly, I think everybody's tired of hearing me preach from that pulpit regarding Yeah. Putting that Great. Like, take it take it off. Be a delegator. You know? Just focus on on why you're in business and and growing that that value. Yeah. Well, Eric, this has been a fantastic conversation. I really appreciate the value you brought here today. It is pure assurance.com. That is gonna be clickable in the show notes.
But, Eric, I hope you'll come back again sometime when we can dig in because I have a feeling you talked about perseverance quite a few times. There must be a story there that we could dive into. It would be my pleasure.