One nevada man signed up for health care on his states exchange. He paid his premium. But when he suffered a heart attack and underwent triple bypass surgery he was stuck with the bill. I will let larry here to tell his story just how much that bill was. Joining him, obek royce of the manhattan institute. Welcome to you both. Larry, this story is amazing. What kind of a bill did you get . Well i received several bills. The bill that everybody sees on television and the newspaper is 407,000 bill. That is the one that came from summerlin hospital, the hospital where i had my surgery. But i also had six or seven other, as you probably know, maybe you dont, but six or seven other doctors such as emergency room, anesthesiologists, xray folks, other gerri it all adds up. Yes, it does and it is not on that 407,000 bill. That is in addition to that. Gerri wow larry tell us about this story. You tried to sign up for obamacare right away. What happened . I started on october 1st. I was told on october 1st, come back in a week. I came back in a week, and still it was a mess. So what happened was i kept coming back, coming back and coming back. And what happened is that probably around october 23rd or so, Something Like that, this is after, i wont say hundreds, maybe 50 phone calls to the Nevada Health link site and many, many, i will say 100 hours of computer time trying to get through gerri wow. I finally got through to make a payment, but the Payment Option didnt work. So i said, well, okay what i do from now on, instead of worry about making a payment because i dont think it ever will work. I looked at plans. I examined probably, six, 10, 20 different plans. I went through the application process on maybe three or four. Now, what they asked is in nevada help link site is that you supply proof of citizenship and also proof of income. So i had to get fax them, or email them a copy of my birth certificate and my 1040 irs form. Well i went ahead and did that. Tried to do it. Failed. Gerri huh. The site failed miserably. Even taking that email. So it was up until november 7th or so i finally got that information to them. The birth certificate and also the irs 1040 form. But it wasnt until november 19th, november 19th that actually was able to get on the payment page where i could make a payment. On november 19th, 2013, i made a payment for the full premium of the Health Insurance plan that wanted. And, on november 21st, i got my confirmation number. Like when you do a check thing, transfer of funds you get confirmation number. Gerri sound like you thought you had coverage . As of november 21st, i thought i had absolute coverage. And so i just sat. And i waited. I figured, well that is what ive been promised. You make the payment. Make it by december 20 third and you get your Health Insurance. Da, da. Go on to december 31st, im making calls. Getting anxious gerri i want to stop you there for a second, larry. Tell the part of the story, they actually took the money out of your account, right . You paid . Yes. I paid. I paid the money. I paid the full premium for january of 2014. Thats correct. Gerri all right. And they accepted payment on november 21st. Gerri let me bring in obek roy for just a second. Let me interrupt you story. I apologize for just a second. He is an expert on this stuff. He has been looking at obamacare for months and months and months. Here is the story. The man tried so hard to get coverage. Working at it all the time. Lots and lots of hours, money spent. He gets some kind after confirmation number from the website. Does he have coverage. It is rackable story. He should. He has done everything right. I would be interested to hear whether he was previously uninsured or previously had a plan that he had to shift over into the exchange. Because his senator, harry reid, is the one going around saying all these Horror Stories are untrue. Nobody is having problems. Not just problems with the website. Just that the plans are expensive. People are paying all the money and not getting coverage or care they need. Gerri larry, did you have coverage before . Apparently you didnt because youre getting bills for 400,000 toll asker 400,000. Can i mention one thing. Gerri yes. I had coverage when i left hawaii with kaiser. I dont mean to burst any bubbles or question anything people were saying. My premium in hawaii was 4 off dollars a month. With the subsidies, my premium now is only 160 a month. I just wanted to say that to make sure you understand what my situation is. Gerri action absolutely. Still i, the problem i did not get coverage on january 1. And now, do this date i have coverage as of march 1st but all of my bills, all the bills i mentioned, were from, actually, from december 31st, well, january 3rd is when i, had my bypass surgery. And, when i, the bills aaccumulated from that point up to, gosh, i say half a million dollars. Between the 3rd of january and 24th of january. Gerri you had a heart attack at end of december . December 31st i gerri as far as obamacare was concerned you werent covered. As far as as end of december i wasnt covered. Believe me i was happy to pay anything. Because i went to a clinic. Clinic sent me to emergency room. Emergency room held me there for a stress test. I had a stress test done. And, well, i woken get into that but what i ended up having was the surgery on january 3rd. Fourday recovery period. They had to return back to the hospital twice because of, i dont know what you would call it errors and omissions. But at any rate what happened that i had suffered additional complication, call it complications. One that i had to go back on january 10th through the 15th. And then i had to go back from the 18th to the 24th. Gerri you know, larry, i think he can probably back me up on this, it is not that unusual with Severe Health problem that youre in and out of the hospital, youre in and out seeing doctors. And youre hoping against hope that youre actually covered. To you, is larrys story here just the tip of the iceberg . I think a lot of people, and you had some of them on your show, who had problem signing up for insurance. Having paid and money taken out of their account thinking they have coverage but no doctor has any record of their new insurance policy no insurer has any record. This is a problem. Obviously if youre in your 50s and 60s more likely to have something happen to you, is a ticking time bomb. I dont think weve been hearing a lot of stories just specifically like the one larry has, having this problem and having a heart attack but we may have more problems if they dont get resolved soon. Gerri luckily people dont have a coverage for a while but nothing happens. Poor larry here, actually had a heart attack in between and wasnt covered. Larry, to you, how has the stress affected your health . Well, lord i wish i could tell you. Some people have come to me and said, it was stress of not getting my Insurance Coverage that caused the actual heart attack. There is absolutely no way i can prove that. Gerri wow. I dont care. All im interested right now is just cover what you promised from january 1st to whatever ive got going now. Please cover that. Youre right, i have, i still have meetings with cardiologists. I have meetings with my surgeon. I have meetings with my internist. I have meetings with my primary care physician. There are a lot of people still involved. The heart attack is not just the operation, three, triple bypass. Gerri i know. It is everything you work on from then on. They told me up to eight months, right now, i have a sixmonth, standing, yes, yes. Can i ask you quickly, larry, how old are you . Im 29. No, sir, im 62. Okay. Gerri so too young for medicare. And yes. Yes. Three years away. Gerri obamacare i see logic of what you did. Im sorry you had such a bad experience. And, you know, weve got a little over a week until the deadline for obamacare signups. It will be interesting to see how that goes. Larry, ovik, thanks so much for coming on. Larry, thanks for telling your story on our show. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Gerri most welcome, most welcome to both of you, thank you. Weve got more to come this hour, including a report on recalled gm cars being found on used car lots. A report on millions and millions of middle class americans living paycheck to paycheck. Middle class americans. What needs to be done to turn the scary trend around . Scary trend. [ female announcer ] its time for the annual shareholders meeting. Therell be the usual presentations on research. And development. Some new members of the team will be introduced. The chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom. And you . Well, youre the chief life officer. You just need the right professional to help you take charge. A short word thats a tall order. Up your game. Up the ante. And if you stumble, you get back up. Up isnt easy, and we ought to know. Were in the business of up. Everyday deltata flies a quartr of Million People while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. Were raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. My dad has aor afib. Brillation, he has the most common kind. Its not caused by a heart valve problem. Dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. Thats why i take my warfarin every day. But it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. In a clinical trial, pradaxa® Dabigatran Etexilate mesylate . Was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. And unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. Hey thanks for calling my doctor. Sure. Pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves. Dont stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. Stopping increases your risk of stroke. Ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before surgery or a medical or dental procedure. Pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. Dont take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding or have had a heart valve replaced. Seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if youre 75 or older, have a bleeding condition or stomach ulcer, take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners. Or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctors about all medicines you take. Pradaxa side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. If you or someone you love has afib not caused by a heart valve problem. Ask your doctor about reducing the risk of stroke with pradaxa. Gerri there is a new class of americans living paycheck to paycheck. People you might consider wealth think. New research by economists at princeton and New York University say these folks are rarely thought of as being a pink slip away from poverty. Joining me with a closer look at the report, moodys chief economist john lonski. Great to have you here. This is what caught my attention out of this report. It is 70 pages. So there is a lot of there there. Two thirds of those People Living paycheck to paycheck have assets. Theyre earning 50,000. These are not necessarily people you think of as poor. These are not people you think of, if you lose my job i lose my house. They have illiquid assets. Assets that you cant quickly spend on goods and services, thats the problem. And, you know, unfortunately, perhaps these people didnt take the time to open up a savings account or some form of a liquid holdings they could draw on in case they come up short of cash. Gerri are these people then poor . They may feel poor. Gerri yeah. But as we noted earlier, they have assets that are worth quite a bit. The problem being again theyre not easy to spend. Gerri so, the lineup on these people, theyre older, theyre more educated. They have all kinds of assets as we talked about. Theyre illiquid like in a house, right . These are people you would drive doesnt street of their suburban neighborhood and would think they were fine and hunkydory. Theyre at risk. On the edge. People that could get in who get all of the benefits that our federal government is twig dole out . On a risk adjusted basis they are living beyond their means, without question. I mean if youre going ahead and youre functioning from paycheck to paycheck, and yet you have all of these assets on the side gerri are you saying they should cash out the 401 k . They should sell their house . What do you think . Maybe they should learn how to save money. Cut back a little bit on spending. As i said, spending beyond what they can afford, given the fact there is always unforeseen circumstance that is pop up. This is important also i think in economic sense. A lot of people are trying to tell us that the economy is really going to ref up and in 2014. Gerri right. Believe me, if you have people, making 50, 70,000 a year, living paycheck to paycheck, i dont think that is going to happen anytime soon, especially since youve had a shutdown of mortgage refis for cashout refinancings. Gerri i didnt realize mortgage refis was that a important of an issue . That is how they go ahead and liquify their illiquid asset, refinancing their mortgage and perhaps to take out some additional cash but that is most difficult today in today ace environment. Gerri i think you make a really good point. People think the economy will go gangbusters by the second half. But there have been Big Questions out there. The housing numbers have not been impressive. I dont see people spending willynilly. Like were talking about the People Living paycheck to paycheck. You see theyre overspending. I dont see that in the economy. Look at it this way, incomes are growing by only 3. 2 yearoveryear. And that is pretty lousy, given that youre nearly five years into an economic recovery. And that tells me, that overall, retail sales, probably are not going to grow by more than 3 annually. So, in the end, i wouldnt be surprised if auto sales grow more slowly this year. And if some sales grow more slowly. But for some reason we have gdp growth going up from 1. 9 to something north of 2 1 2 . Go figure. Gerri according to the consensus. We need more growth. We need more economic growth. We need more jobs. We need people working. We need companies to expand. That is just got to happen for this kind of stuff, thi kind of numbers im talking about here, which are so frustrating to see for that to change. And thats right. So the first thing that the government has to do is perhaps get out of the way of business. The cheapest type of stimulus, the federal government could supply is the simply reduce regulations. My goodness. They would need fewer people to enforce these regulations, especially silly ones whose purpose is problematic. Gerri weve got a lot of those, thats for sure. John lonski, always good to see you on a friday. Have a great weekend. Nice to have you here. You too, thank you. Gerri later in the show, how much information, how much info is your employer entitled to know about you . And next, are you sick of living paycheck to paycheck. Well have advice boosting your income from a terrific expert. You will want to hear that. Cmon, you want heartburn . When your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast, with tums. Heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact. And goes to work in seconds. Tum, tum tum tum. Tums so i can reach ally bank 24 7, but there ar24 7. Branches . 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See your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz financial services. If your denture moves, it can irritate your gums. Try fixodent plus gum care. It helps stop denture movement and prevents gum irritation. Fixodent. And forget it. Gerri there is a norm in this economy. A top jobs expert shows you how to boost gerri wow, this economy is punk, right . Stagnant wages, more and more common. We discuss the new class of americans living paycheck to paycheck. Theyre not poor. Theyre middle class. And now were looking at ways to retool yourself, to get that income boost. With more on tony bascera, creator of the online website, the job search solution. Job search solution. He is author of the book, powerful phrases for successful interviews. Tony, welcome to the show. Terrific to have you here. Ive seen you talk. You are a powerful speaker. People out there, they want o know, i get this question all the time, on my email, on twitter, i have got to boost my income. What do i do . How can i boost my income . Do i have to change jobs . Can i get more money where i am . What do you say . Well, first of all, thank you for having me and it is a pressure sure to be hire. Sometimes people really grossly overlook the job they have got thinking that the grass might be greener somewhere es. So, your businesses having problems . Your employer is having some difficulties in you go to him, say, look, i want to bring more value to the company. Somewhere down the line i would like you to take into consideration the value im bringing you but i would like to bring more value. What else can i do . How about that new software we bought . I would like to learn it. I know it is not my job, but i would like to learn it. You laid off susie the other day. Somebody has to pick up the slack. I would be more than happy to do that im willing to come in and willing to go the extra mile. I would like to keep my job and i realize right now we may have a hard time paying me more but i would like to add value to the company. So what else can i do . Gerri thats a great point. You know, i think people think, can i retool myself where i am . Can i make my managers think of me in a different way than maybe they have in the past . Someone who is really growing the bottom line, as somebody who is contributing in a big way. Beyond putting up your hand and volunteering for more duties, what else can you do . Well, first of all, go back to school and get some course that is might be able to help. Go to the Accounting Department and help them out. Dont ask, if you can go