Chris Faddis joins The BS Show to discuss preventative care as we age and how Solidarity is helping care for Members at every stage in their life. Listen to the interview or read the transcript below.
Bob Sansevere (00:00):
We are joined by Christopher Faddis, co-founder and president of the nonprofit healthcare sharing ministry, Solidarity HealthShare, which is an ethical, affordable alternative to traditional health insurance and is faithful to the moral teachings of the Catholic church. Chris, I have to give kudos to you and what you’ve set up at Solidarity Health Share. My family, we’re members of Solidarity and my wife had a sinus infection last week. She called Dialcare, which is what you use for telehealth. This was the quickest it’s ever been. Talk to someone who does intake and within, she’s saying, “Well, how long could it be because they said it could be up to two hours?” It was less than five minutes later. The doctor called, she gave the symptoms, and within an hour she had her meds because we had to go pick them up. But I mean, it was terrific.
(00:49):
And as I said to her, if we went to a doctor, we could be spending 700 to 750 bucks just on that one visit to confirm what we… Or she already knew she’s had a sinus infection before. She knew all the symptoms and she explained it to the doctor and he did it. And there’s a lot of reasons why people who are looking for an alternative to traditional healthcare should consider Solidarity HealthShare because this one is terrific. You don’t have to leave your house. You give the symptoms and you could get a prescription over the phone. And if you’re a member, it doesn’t cost anything to call DialCare. It’s part of what you offer. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to me, in some cases that alone is worth the monthly to have that covered.
Chris Faddis (01:34):
Yeah. I think that the telehealth side, I think just the idea of that piece where they can say, “Yeah, that’s what it is.” And sometimes, I’m sure you’ve had this too, Bob, where you’re certain you have the symptoms of a sinus infection or a strep throat or whatever it is that you’ve had before. And then you talk to a doctor and he’s like, “Actually, that sounds like this thing because of this other little symptom you have.” So it’s really a great service for that reason. It keeps you home, like you said. If you do need a prescription, it’s much quicker than dealing with the whole doctor’s office thing. Anymore, I mean, it’s really hard to get into a doctor the same day unless you go to urgent. And urgent care is a mixed bag. I mean, certainly there are some benefits to urgent care, but you really don’t know what you’re going to get.
(02:19):
So I think the fact that you get that over the phone… Now, the doctor also might say, “You know what? I’m really sorry, but I can’t diagnose this over the phone. I need you to go in somewhere.” And that’s also good – Which is fine.
Bob Sansevere (02:29):
Indeed.
Chris Faddis (02:30):
Because they’re helping triage you and let you know when you do actually go to the doctor.
Bob Sansevere (02:33):
Yes. In my town where I live, it’s in Buffalo, Minnesota, there are two urgent cares. And one of them, I showed up once at the urgent care and I said, “Do you have an appointment?” I said, “An appointment? You’re urgent care.” Well, they want you to make an appointment for urgent. I don’t think that’s urgent. I mean, I want to go in and I want to get seen. So that’s an odd way to do, but that’s how they do it. So yeah, you could save a lot of time by calling Dialcare. And with the programs you have, and we’ve talked about the most recent one where you do have a program for people on Medicare now and you have programs set up for young people. I mean, the people that are paying the young people where they’re buying something where they don’t get sick very often, but they’re paying a fraction a month of what it would cost for a doctor visit.That’s why I really want to talk up the whole Dialcare thing because I absolutely love it, the ability to have
Chris Faddis (03:30):
Something like that. I think the program we have for young folks is essentially, we call it savvy. It’s essentially the same program that you’re talking about that’s more comprehensive minus a few things. We take away a few things we know they have to be. And then they have telehealth in there, they have their prescription in there. And the beauty is they can then have what they want, which is, shoot, I feel sick. I really don’t want to deal with the doctor. Let me call the doctor and figure that out. But also if something does happen, they have all of the other comprehensive medical services available if they need surgery or they, God forbid, get some chronic illness at a young age. So it really is a great program. And then again, for Medicare, we have the two options. One is if you’re like Bob and you’re a senior, no offense Bob, and you are on Medicare, you get a discount on our comprehensive program.
(04:23):
Or if you’re not, if you want to just have the gap to help take care of your deductible and your out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare, we also have a program for that. And all of those programs, they either come with telehealth or you can add telehealth to the program, which is really, like Bob said, just a huge benefit. And I think it’s helping people in a big way deal with issues maybe they would just ignore and they might get better faster if they talk to a doctor.
Bob Sansevere (04:49):
Well, and Chris, on the point, I am a senior, but see, here’s how I look at it. Throughout known history, how many people do we know of who have immortality? I say the odds are in my favor that maybe I’ll be the first one because we haven’t had any or many.
Chris Faddis (05:04):
I think you’re getting close, Bob. So yeah, you’re doing great.
Bob Sansevere (05:08):
I’m doing great. Thanks a lot.
Chris Faddis (05:09):
You’re so on top of your health, you’re going to live longer than most of us. So that’s a good thing.
Bob Sansevere (05:12):
Well, I try to be… Okay, I’m going to give a plug here to something. And I think it’s native… Whatever. I read something about collagen and I was getting, because I have been taking for years a baby aspirin because I’ve been aware that it helps keep your blood thin and that would help with your heart. And I was getting though those, some people call them age blotches, but it looks like bruising on the back of your hand. Chris, this is incredible. I started a little over a week ago taking collagen. By the next day, it was all gone. I have not had a single bruise since. So for people that deal with that, and it’s not only people that are seniors, I mean, it’s not like I’m ancient, but I did notice it.
Chris Faddis (05:59):
No, no. I kid. But I’m in my 40s and I have those issues, Bob. So yeah, I mean collagen.
Bob Sansevere (06:03):
Well, the collagen –
Chris Faddis (06:04):
The collagen is huge.
Bob Sansevere (06:06):
Yeah. I mean, it’s good for your joints. It’s good for your skin. I mean, maybe it thickens your skin. I don’t know what it does, but it’s nice to look in my hands and not see them all bruised up.
Chris Faddis (06:17):
Yeah, that’s huge. To have that result in a week is pretty amazing.
Bob Sansevere (06:20):
And back in the day, and this actually was before I was in school, when the teacher would swatch you with the ruler, you probably got some bruising then. But anyway, I digress. What I wanted to ask you about, I wanted to share something with you and then ask you, I came across this story actually just today that heart failure is becoming more common in adults under 65. That’s according to a report and it’s saying heart failure, hospitalization and mortality rates are increasing among adults under 65. And this report, it’s kind of staggering because it says an estimated 56 million people worldwide were living with heart failure in 2023, more than double the number in 1990. That’s frightening. Now, some of that is maybe it was again reported the same way, but what I wanted to ask you, and we don’t need exact numbers, but are heart conditions one of the things the people that our members deal with the most?
(07:22):
Is it cancer? Is it diabetes? Are there some that far outweigh the others that you have people dealing with?
Chris Faddis (07:29):
Yeah, it’s hard to say. I wouldn’t say heart disease is high. Cancer’s definitely the highest as far as major illnesses that people deal with for us. But I would say there’s a lot more cancers than there are versions of heart disease.
Bob Sansevere (07:44):
Yeah, good point.
Chris Faddis (07:46):
And you could have somebody with heart disease who also has cancer. But we do see it not as much. I think a lot of our members come in fairly healthy, and so I think that’s part of the reason. But you are right. We’re seeing more and more of it at younger ages. I think there’s a few indicators as to why. I’m not totally sure the answer, but we certainly know that some of the COVID vaccine effects are part of that. There’s a lot of people who are dealing with heart issues because of that, but also obviously diet, lifestyle, all those other things play into it. So yeah, we definitely see it. Cancer is for sure the highest overall, but again, it’s all types of cancers. I mean, major cancers, minor cancers, breast cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer. So it’s all over the place. And as they’re with us longer, there’s certainly more of a chance that those things are going to happen.
(08:38):
One of the things I will say, Bob, about the heart disease thing is I took it upon myself about, I don’t know, I guess it’s been three years now, two or three years ago to go do the full cardiac workup. And I’m in my 40s, like I said, and it’s earlier than is recommended, but I had a couple things happening.
Bob Sansevere (08:55):
Never too early.
Chris Faddis (08:57):
It’s never too early. I mean, I think getting that overall sense of where you’re at, and it was actually very comforting for me because I had a heart murmur growing up, but I have a few other little things that when I’m working out or I’m exercising, and the doctor was able to put me at ease, first of all, like, “Hey, that thing you’re experiencing, even on the stress test, I remember I had this little weird pain that I get in my chest, but it goes away.” And on the stress test, she saw it and she said, “Do you feel that?” I said, “Yes.” And she explained to me what it was. And I was like, “Oh, this is great,” because I was limiting my exercise every time that happened. And they basically explained it to me. It’s a very normal thing. It doesn’t cause anything and you just feel it.
(09:36):
So they said, “You can keep exercising at that point. That does not cause you to stop.” So that was actually a helpful thing. Now, I do need to go back. In fact, you realize when I said three years, I think I’m due this year to go back to do the stress test again. But that being said, getting that stuff done earlier I think is very, very beneficial.
Bob Sansevere (09:53):
Absolutely.
Chris Faddis (09:53):
It’s also something that Solidarity HealthShare promotes and encourages with our members.
Bob Sansevere (09:57):
No, and that’s very important to do. I had friends, several friends who had polyps when they had colonoscopies. They were older than me, but I went in my mid – 40s for my first colonoscopy and I was told I had the colon of a 20-year-old, and I’ve had several since.
Chris Faddis (10:10):
Nice. There you go. Once again, that mortality is coming about.
Bob Sansevere (10:14):
Well, see, that’s what I’m working on. Immortality.
Chris Faddis (10:16):
Immortality. Immortality.
Bob Sansevere (10:17):
I’ll keep you posted. You know what? My hope is that I am doing this with your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren, still talking to them when they’re working with Solidarity.
Chris Faddis (10:27):
So you’re going to outlive me.
Bob Sansevere (10:29):
Well, I hope we all… Maybe you and I will both have the immortality thing cooking
Chris Faddis (10:33):
For us. Well, let’s start talking about longevity medicine on our next call.
Bob Sansevere (10:37):
That’d be great.
Chris Faddis (10:38):
I’ll get into some good stuff.
Bob Sansevere (10:39):
See, we’re setting it up. All right. Chris, thank you. Chris Faddis, co-founder and president of Solidarity HealthShare. Find it at solidarityhealthshare.org.