Solidarity HealthShare President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis joins Bob Sansevere of The BS Show to discuss hospital price inflation and what’s causing the trend to continue. Listen the interview audio 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 came across a story that the Associated Press had, and it talked about you should not eat too fast, you should take 20 to 30 minutes to eat. I often take two to three minutes to eat. I eat fast. I’ve met one guy I used to work with who is faster than me. One of my sons can rival my speed. And are you a quick eater yourself or do you take your time?

Chris Faddis (00:39):

I’m a quick eater and I’ve tried so many times to change it, but it’s hard.

Bob Sansevere (00:45):

Well, now before I came across the story, now the story is that eating too fast. This is Leslie Weinberg from the Center of Behavioral Health at the Cleveland Clinic, said it takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to communicate to the brain via a whole host of hormonal signals that it’s full. So when people eat rapidly, they can miss these signals and it’s very easy to eat beyond the point of fullness. And here’s the thing that’s a little, it’s not a giant concern, but it’s a concern. People who eat quickly are likely to swallow more air, which could lead to bloating or indigestion and not chewing your food properly can compromise digestion, meaning you don’t get all the nutrients from your food and uns chewed pieces of food also get stuck in your esophagus. Well, luckily haven’t had that happen. They also say that people who eat quickly have the highest risk of obesity while slower eaters likely not to be as obese or obese. Now I know the other day we took a long trip, the three and a half hour drive, I actually, I was eating a sandwich and I tried to chew like 50 or 60 times just to make the sandwich last and see if I can go a mile on one bite. And I didn’t quite get to it because as much as I chewed I could, I couldn’t get the mile and even going, I like-

Chris Faddis (02:05):

That 60 milepost milepost per bite.

Bob Sansevere (02:07):

Yeah, per bite.

Chris Faddis (02:08):

Yeah. I think it’s interesting when you think about how our European compatriots or whatever, I’m saying the wrong word, but when you think about how our European friends eat, they eat a lot slower, a lot smaller portions. Now of course they eat things like pasta and bread, but it is interesting. You always wonder when you eat over there and you gain 10 pounds, they’re all fairly fit. I mean, one thing, they definitely walk a lot more than we do. Their towns are smaller and they can walk to everything. But I mean, you think about that and a lot of it is sometimes I think it’s also coursing. Like if you go to a nice dinner where you get your salad first and then it takes a while, you get that naturally spaces it. But if I have food in front of me, it’s really hard not to just keep eating it. So I’m with you. I struggle with that a lot.

Bob Sansevere (03:02):

I mean, as my mind, I would be an obese octopus. I’d be shoveling it in with all eight of my tentacles to keep that food going. And the toughest one must be to me, the slow eaters have got to be elephants. They do it with that long note thing of there. What do you even call that thing of theirs? Their -?

Chris Faddis (03:26):

The tusk?

Bob Sansevere (03:26):

No, the tusk is there. Comes out of ’em. I can’t believe this. We can’t come up with what the elephants,

Chris Faddis (03:33):

We need to go back to the zoo apparently.

Bob Sansevere (03:35):

Yeah. Elephants. It’s not an arm. Elephants. What is that thing? All right, I’m going to come up with it and we’re going to, I’m actually Chris, I’m typing in elephant body parts. I can’t come up with a darn thing. It is. Well, there’s the mounted the trunk. Of course

Chris Faddis (03:52):

The trunk,

Bob Sansevere (03:53):

The elephant’s trunk. All right. Anyway, they must be slow eaters would be my guess because by the time they get that long thing down to pick it up and they’re picking up a peanut at a time. But that’s not me. I am shoveling it in.

Chris Faddis (04:07):

Well, it’s also interesting that you said they said you shouldn’t eat within 20 to 30 minutes. I don’t know how many American families actually sit down for more than 20 to 30 minutes.

Bob Sansevere (04:17):

No,

Chris Faddis (04:17):

We’re pretty intentional about having dinner together. But honestly, I think we’re typically telling everyone to hurry up by 30 minutes.

Bob Sansevere (04:24):

Yeah, pick up the pace. Exactly. And then, okay, now I have a friend that I worked with when I worked at the Associated Press, which is where the story came from back in the eighties. I would be done and he’d still be eating his second or third bite. And it’s not like he was a slow, slow, he just was a slow eater. He didn’t chew like a hundred times. He just took his time eating. And it’s maddening. My wife is like that too. I look up and she’s, her plate is more than half full. And she said she likes to enjoy the meal and then she likes to enjoy whatever drink, whether it’s a diet Pepsi or a cocktail or a beer on the table. She likes to savor those. I want to eat and get going. I don’t like hanging around. But anyway, that’s just me.

(05:09):

I got to move over to something about, because you are, of course, you’re an expert in the field at Solidarity HealthShare solidarityhealthshare.org, president and co-founder as we mentioned. But I came across something that your group had sent out and it says, when looking at who to blame for America’s outrageous healthcare costs, many people point their fingers at drug makers insurers or the middlemen between them. The group overlooked in this, however, is America’s hospitals, which take in 1.5 trillion in fees or took in 2023. And that’s according to the most recent government figures. That’s unbelievable. 1.5 trillion. But that’s not as unbelievable when you understand that you could get a box of Kleenex. The hospitals have charged like 200 bucks for something like that, which is Brad Hahn told me that years ago, one of your fellow co-founders. I was stunned by that. But then again, maybe we shouldn’t be stunned when they have pricing like that.

Chris Faddis (06:12):

Yeah, I mean since 2000, I mean the hospital pricing has soared by 250%, which I think you and I would both agree. I think if we do the math that far outpaces inflation.

Bob Sansevere (06:24):

Oh God, yes.

Chris Faddis (06:26):

And on top of that, you’re seeing things, I mean, we’ve talked about this before, Atlanta, you can get a colonoscopy for $435 or you could pay $7,000 for it. Same tests, same outcomes. Why is there such a drastic increase? Over 1600 hospital mergers took place between 2000 and 2020. So that’s one of the things that we’re seeing is what is this happening that from 50, what was it, 58% of hospital claims to 81% as part of those mergers. So you see these massive growth across the board and on top that they’re not just inflating hospital crisis. When these hospital systems name a major hospital system in the country, when they buy up medical practices from doctors, whether they be primary care, OB, pediatrics or specialists like cardiologists, when they buy up these practices, they drastically inflate the pricing because they’re able to charge a place of service fee that’s higher than an independent practice because they’re owned by a hospital.

(07:37):

And so they are drastically driving up the cost across the entire healthcare spectrum across the board. So this increase of 250% doesn’t even include the increase of cost in their independent practice or the practices. And the doctor’s offices, the clinics, the outpatient surgical centers, all of the other things they own in the value chain is not included in that 250%. So it is massive. This is exactly why we are in the problem we’re in. And unfortunately the government incentivizes it. We have rules in our Medicare laws that allow them to pay a higher price for practices or facilities owned by a hospital than they can pay a practice that’s owned by Dr. Joe down the street.

Bob Sansevere (08:23):

And what’s outrageous about this, we got Elon Musk and DOGE. There needs to be, and I know that Robert F. Kennedy is the head of Health and Human Services, but there needs to be a DOGE slash health and hospitals just to look to make sure people aren’t getting screwed like this. I mean, that’s what they really need to start batting down on a lot of these hospitals because there are public hospitals. But are there private ones getting subsidies too? Well, even if they’re not, they’re still getting paid by Medicare and other private insurers. So yeah, they’re making money from the government with their pricing, and I don’t understand how it’s been allowed to get so far out of hand and out of control. What is a reason for that? Why did no one crack down on this? Is a great lobbying being done?

Chris Faddis (09:09):

Yeah. Well, yeah. The hospital lobby spends, I think it’s somewhere between 30 and 40 million a year just on Capitol Hill.

(09:16):

So, that tells you something. There’s actually been some efforts even this year to, for instance, that rule I just talked about saying that you get to pay one doctor a different price than another doctor based on who owns the practice. That rule, there was efforts to try to get that rule changed this year and it was thwarted. And several people on the congressional, on the hot side have said very clearly that clearly many of their counterparts are funded by a hospital lobby. So that is part of the problem. And that’s on both sides of the aisle, Bob. It’s, it’s not Republican or Democrat issue.

Bob Sansevere (09:50):

And, it’s a big issue. And which brings in Solidarity HealthShare, solidarityhealthshare.org. Check into it. Great alternative to traditional healthcare. And what you do is when someone gets a bill, if there’s a dispute about it, because you pay an amount immediately very quickly, what you feel is fair, and if the hospital or provider disputes it, you have a third party that negotiates for you. So you take it out of the hands of the individual to worry about it and they’ll get a much better rate, A more fair rate is the best way to put it. So check it [email protected]. Chris Faddis and Brad Hahn and Dr. John Oertle, they co-founded this and it’s been, I’m a fan because of my family has had it for a number of years. So Chris, thank you so much. We’ll take a quick break. The BS Show’ll be right back.

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