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Is Health Insurance the Biggest Scam in America? · The Unsexy Businessmen

• Alex Skinner: Welcome to another edition of the Unsexy Podcast, where we go over the unsexy side of everything. I am Alex Skinner, as always joined by my brother, Aaron Skinner. Today, we are talking about something that is near and dear to both of our hearts, both literally and figuratively, health insurance. Health insurance, think, I'm not going to bury the lead here, is one of the greatest scams, almost all insurance, but one of the greatest scams perpetrated on the American people. I guess you could say the world, but some places have better health insurance than other health insurance. I want to lead off with a little story. I was 31 years old. I had just become, maybe I was 32, only God knows. I had just become a VP of client services and I needed to hire an employee. This person was going to be an account director that managed people underneath him and then managed a bunch of accounts with the team that he had. So I was, or she. in the interview process, you know, we were fair. But it came down to two people. One dude was freaking awesome. Probably like 28 years old. Another dude was like, had some credibility, he was definitely my second choice and was in like his mid 40s. So I was going to go with the 28 year old, we came and we made him an offer and he said, can you pay me $10,000 more? My boss told us no. So then I had to go to my backup, which was the 45. the 45 year old. Interesting thing about this 45 year old, he was like a marketing consultant and had multiple clients. And so would ask him regularly, like, don't, like, why do you need this job? Like why, like, what are you doing this for? And over time, you start to get your PNL, your profit and loss, and you see how much this person costs to employ. And even though he was making not a ton of money from a salary standpoint, he was triple the cost of every single other team member that I had. I was like, what the hell is going on here? He had recently married, remarried, and she had four kids and he had four kids. All nine of them were put onto our health insurance. So wait, am I doing that math right? All nine and then plus himself. So there were 10 people, 10 people that were on his health insurance that was making that cost so high for me. And then it hit me when I saw that number, I'm like, ⁓ and usually like the health insurance number doesn't kick in for like, usually like two to three months, I feel like is when I finally would see that number. I went, ⁓ this guy literally is just working here to save money on overall health insurance costs because. Aaron Skinner: No, that would have been eight, eight, so there would, okay. Alex Skinner: He's making enough money elsewhere and getting bitched at by clients, annoying, slow paying, low paying clients was worth not having to pay the thousands of dollars he would have had to pay. Were he not covered by somebody else? So do I think there is a problem with our health industry, our health insurance ⁓ at large in the United States? 100 % end of podcast. Don't need to talk about anything else. It's just, it is a problem. Aaron Skinner: Yeah. Well, well, I think the biggest issue. Well, and so you're saying, yeah, there's other countries that have like ⁓ better like health insurance programs or whatever it is. The thing about that, though, if you the as always, the very little research that I've ever done into other countries, ⁓ health care systems is even like the the free ones suck. Alex Skinner: I honestly have no idea. They might, I have no idea. Aaron Skinner: Like everyone's like, I got to move to Canada because free health insurance. Yeah. And then you need an MRI and you have to wait like a year before we can get an MRI or you can't go see your doctor for four months because the whole system just, just sucks in general. And it's because you got to, got to make your money. I don't have a solution for, for this. My, my personal thing is we pay like $1,500 a month for like, what's supposed to be like, mid tier health insurance and it still covers nothing. Um, I think our deductibles like $10,000. So, and we're relatively healthy, so we never hit that deductible. And if we ever get close to it, um, it's because of like, I got a like shoulder surgery a few years ago and I don't even think that hit the deductible. Uh, even with, with the shoulder surgery that I had to get it. So you're just paying into something that you almost never use. And then when you do need to use it, you're still paying. Like I think the solution should honestly be, and I'm sure there's people that do this, is just like taking that $1,500, put it into some sort of a savings account or high yield savings account. And then when you actually need it, you could just use that money. Like you're describing an HSA. Like I get that. But like the problem is you still need to have your, what is it like the crazy, what's like the crazy insurance? Like if you got into a accident, it's going to be like $500,000 for all your medical bills. What's that like the catastrophic, catastrophic sort of thing, catastrophic coverage ⁓ is maybe the way to do it. But the, it's just, I've heard just anecdotally just story after story of people that when they try to, Alex Skinner: ⁓ right. Aaron Skinner: use their insurance. They can't like insurance companies literally have people on their payroll to deny. Yes. And to deny services. Like that's the, the, to try and find some sort of thing in, in your, in your insurance contract that makes it so they don't have to actually pay for whatever procedure or whatever you're trying to do. And so that's, that's your pride. Just Alex Skinner: prevent you. Aaron Skinner: sum it all up anyways, just there's like the fact that they have those people on their payroll to deny your claims just shows where they where they're coming from. Alex Skinner: Yeah, there's one story of this guy named Eric Tennant in 2025. He was denied treatment for cancer multiple times because it was not medically necessary. Eventually, the insurer reversed because they got a bunch of media pressure and people being pissed off at him. But his health had declined so much that he wasn't eligible for the procedures that he was going to get. And then he died last year. So it's crazy because it's not just that they are denying coverage, they're denying necessary coverage at that then eventually leads to your death. This entire time you've been paying it. There's another story that I saw where it's like someone didn't read what their insurance covered and did not cover. And so she didn't know, ⁓ someone named Tracy Edmonds, she didn't know that her breast cancer, she did not have radiation and chemotherapy for the health insurance that she had been paying for. And so she exhausted her benefits very, very quickly and then was unable to get the the treat well that's not true was unable to pay for the treatment herself because now it was all out of her pocket for that chemotherapy and so to Aaron's point like we have tons of people who who have like experienced these stories like in our own lives and like in and then obviously like those stories that I just shared right now where You kind of understand, and maybe this is gonna be like a hot topic, maybe this is like a hot topic two years ago, like you understand why someone would kill a healthcare CEO. Like I'm not saying that that's okay, I will never condone murder, but also you're just like, man, just imagine that happening to anyone that you care about. Like I think it probably pissed off people talking about it right now who don't even know those two people that I just mentioned. But if you, I just think about it with my kids all the time, if they're like, all right, we're gonna deny it. ⁓ We're gonna deny Teddy. this health care like first of all, thankfully I'm in a position where I there's a lot of things I could do with my own like with my own money to like solve that problem, but it should never have to come to that like it shouldn't just be like well, the good news Alex is you've saved really really well you have these assets these assets these assets that you can use because there are tons and tons of people who don't have any of those assets and are essentially just like okay. Well you have to die and like it's crazy like essentially since Trump has been stripping the ACA ⁓ for those of you who don't know what the ACA is. Now we're at the most underinsured total number of people that we've been at in the health insurance age, would say. Obviously health insurance hasn't been around the entire history of the United States. And so now there are people who are just like, well, hopefully I don't need it because I can't afford to pay for it and I think I'm healthy enough that it's not going to matter. And that's... incredibly sad, to like Aaron's point, like how do you solve this thing? I know that this isn't working and hasn't been working for a really long period of time. There would have been no need for Obamacare if that were the case. There would have been like, it wouldn't be like this thing that people are talking about in politics in the political sphere all the time. like having gone through like, I often view this from the financial standpoint of things, and it's only getting more expensive. So the average worker in 2024, the median household income was $83,000. And the average contribution for a worker was 7,000. So about 8 to 9 % Aaron Skinner: Yes. Alex Skinner: of what you are making is going towards your health insurance. And that doesn't even hit on how much it costs to the employer. The average employer cost was $24,000. So if we want to bring this back to the unsexy business ⁓ side of things, there's a reason small businesses struggle more and more as time goes on because they can't offer those benefits because it is so incredibly expensive. you're talking, and this is the thing that's really frustrating like as a business owner or even when I was managing a P.S. at my previous job is explaining to someone who would be like, hey, I want a $20,000 raise. I want a $10,000 raise. I want to whatever raise. like, you know you're making over $100,000, right? Like, what are you talking about? I'm making $100,000? I'm like, yes, for your family's health insurance, we are paying $22,000 and you make $80,000. And that doesn't include your 401k. Just those two numbers alone, you're making $102,000. but because they don't see it go into their pocket, it doesn't seem like it is real money. And so I think there needs to be a educating of people like. Aaron Skinner: Bye. Alex Skinner: because I think the employers get blamed for this a lot, but really at the end of the day, it is the health insurance companies that haven't been able to figure out how to make this work. Then obviously Homeboy, rest in peace, got killed by Eric Mangione or whatever the hell that guy's name is ⁓ because of how frustrated people are becoming. And I would just hope that it doesn't take getting to more CEOs getting killed for people to start looking for other options to like make this work because I don't want that. And I don't think anybody in their right mind wants those types of things happening. Aaron Skinner: No, nobody wants that to happen. But the like, how does the health insurance like industry make it work? They're already making it work. They're making a lot of money. They're doing exactly what they want to do and make billions of dollars a year and screw people over. Like, like if you were to ask them like, hey, how can we make this better? They're like charging you more. Like that's what is it like? That's how it is. That's the. it's working great for them. Why would they change anything? And in fact, they do the exact opposite. They do, they push legislation through that makes it. ⁓ so if you file for bankruptcy, it doesn't include your medical bills. Like it's that, that it's the same thing with, with student loans. I believe if you file for bankruptcy, those student loans still carry on with you. So they, they've designed the system in a way where If you get into debt, there's no way of getting out of it and you're just screwed forever. Yeah. It sucks for those people without the financial recourses to be able to take care of like basic everyday health needs. And there's enough stressors in our life where that shouldn't be one of them. And it will probably always be one of them because like we say in almost every podcast, like companies don't care about you. They really, really don't. They can have all these. fun, cool commercials during half time of the Superbowl, ⁓ that they spend, know, what $30 million for or whatever it is. And, but when it really comes down to it, they, it's, it's a business. That's, that's all, that's all it is. I don't know what type of legislation would have to be put through in order to fix some of this, but you're dealing with companies that are worth billions of dollars that have all of these politicians in their pockets because they donate to all of their campaigns. And so they don't want to lose that money. They therefore they don't change anything that's actually going to help the American people. And it's like that we talked about in the last podcast or one of the podcasts before is like politicians will say whatever they need to say to get elected. That doesn't mean they're going to do what they said they're going to do because it almost never happens anyway. Alex Skinner: any of those things. Aaron Skinner: I don't know, dude. I don't know what the solution would be for that. I would, I would, I mean, we could do caps on things I think would make sense. mean, the, ⁓ like, especially for like diseases that affect lots of people, like diabetes or, ⁓ like certain cancer medications. And then I know you could get pushed back like, well, do you know how much money it costs to develop these, these medications for, know, or these treatments for like, they have to make their money back. And if we put caps on it, then people aren't going to come up with these innovations. Like, but we, have all these charities. What am I donating? When, when, ⁓ when the, Walgreens asked me to round up to cancer, ⁓ found whatever research, where's that money going? Where's that? Where's all this money going? That's, that's, that's supposed to be for cancer research and all this stuff. it actually going to research? I don't know. I was outside that I always say no, and it's not to be a Dick, but like, listen, I, I have my, my charities I donate to personally, and I don't need Walgreens taking credit because no, happens at the end of the year. And this is like all the good, not just Walgreens, all these companies say round up so you can donate to a blah, blah, blah. They're just doing that. So then at the end of the year, they could do a press release like. Taco Bell donated $40 million to, you know, hungry children. Like, no, they didn't. All their customers did. That's who donated all their money. It's such a scam too. Don't do that. It's just a roundup thing. Whatever it was going to be, save all that money and donate to whatever charity you actually liked. Don't let them get the credit for, for all of your hard work. No, fuck those people and fuck those companies. All right. Alex Skinner: We donated. There's a one of the places that I went, they had people like, because normally what you have is on the screen, it'll see like yes or no, right? Like, ⁓ yes or no. And like, it's just very like you. So it's very easy to just click no, because no one's paying attention. They started having the person ask because they found that as the per like, if a person was asking you directly, you didn't want to look like an a-hole to towards that person. Also true. Aaron Skinner: Mm-hmm. is, is someone's behind you or someone's behind you. Like, is like, that guy didn't want to donate to. Alex Skinner: I got so good at saying, I would always just say, no, thank you. I always made sure I added a thank you because then they knew that I was polite. ⁓ because good golly dude. Aaron Skinner: Well, because one of the charities that I do donate to is the St. Jude's and the every once in that comes up and I am always glad when it does when I'm in that situation, like, do you want to round up for St. Jude's like already donate? I already donate. But like, do you want to donate another 72 cents? I was like, not in your name. I don't. I'm not going to give you credit for that. Fuck you. Like I just it's so, so stupid. Like you guys have tons of money. Donate your own money. Why are you going to donate my money? Alex Skinner: I already do. Aaron Skinner: so could take all the credit for it. Douchebags. Alex Skinner: I mean, it goes, I mean, I think it goes back to like what you said initially about like healthcare companies in general, it's just like, because it's working really, really great for them. And it makes them look good. It helps their bottom line, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because at the end of the day, these are businesses. They don't care about you. They don't care about people. So it's what it is. When I was looking up different stats and figures, I'm just like, holy crap. And just so everybody knows, the percentage number where I was like, ⁓ so people are spending eight to 9 % of their income on, what is that called? on health insurance, that number will be to 10 % by this year and is just going to continue to go up because there is no end in sight for it. Because what I've noticed, and this is just like an all thing in politics, like for whatever reason, people are just like, like they just don't pay attention. How do I say that differently? Where it's just like, it'll resolve itself. This thing will resolve itself and it never does. Aaron, I actually do want to re-answer one of your questions that you had from a couple of weeks ago where it was, hey Alex, how do you feel about GLP-1s? After doing some research on it, I'm anti them because it costs me a lot of money. This is what's the main driving force right now in increases for healthcare are GLP-1s, people getting prescriptions for that. Instead of whatever works for you works for you, say fuck you, go to a gym, go spend 10.99, 9.99 and figure out how to lose weight ⁓ on your own, you fat fuck. ⁓ Aaron Skinner: Are they getting subsidized? that why? Is like the government subsidizing those? Alex Skinner: No, it's because so many people want them and they're so expensive. so like health insurance will cover it. like, so for example, let's say I don't have these numbers in front of me, like, all right, the cost to you for your GLP ones is is thirty dollars because you have this insurance, but the insurance company has to pay the extra one hundred and fifty on top of it or whatever it is. And then because so many people are wanting that right now, insurance companies are having to. Aaron Skinner: Mm-hmm. Alex Skinner: are having to offset that cost in other places to other people. Because to be fair to insurance companies, obesity is that horrible thing that is going to cost people tons of money because you'll have heart problems, you'll have strokes, you'll have all of those different things that will happen. So I'm sure from their part, it's like, well, if we can get this fat ass. to not be a fat ass anymore, it's worth doing that because long term will save money on that individual, but for the healthy individuals who aren't fat asses, they're gonna have to pay for that. ⁓ Aaron Skinner: Yeah, but it to a counter to that would be the amount of money that is spent ⁓ by people because of obesity is probably far outweighs and I ⁓ and I say that I'm say that on purpose outweighs fat outweighs the the amount of money that's spent on GLP ones. I'll give you the GLP one ⁓ shakedown instead of spending. This is probably gonna get us like kicked off of YouTube. Alex Skinner: on obesity people. Probably. Aaron Skinner: ⁓ Which is great to say right before I say it so they can see what I'm about to say. Don't buy it from... I'm not a doctor. This isn't health insurance. Go buy it from the gray market. Like I have a buddy who gets ⁓ red at true tide, which isn't even a... ⁓ It's a GLP-3 and it's not even available ⁓ through the official makers of it. Alex Skinner: You Aaron Skinner: and you can get it for like a fraction of the price if you just go do some research. Like you shouldn't be spending this much money on Ozempic or on what are the Manjaro, Manjaro, Manjaro or ZipBound or whatever, whatever the GLP ones are, GLP and GLP2s are out there. Dude, do some research. You can get these so much cheaper on, on it's called the gray market, but ⁓ you know, also don't listen, don't listen to me. Alex Skinner: We'll add a link. Aaron Skinner: We will not put a link in the description below, but do some research. You can get stuff so much cheaper that is is that is tested and is just as effective. It's literally the exact same thing, except it doesn't have the logo on it. That's all it is. Alex Skinner: Well, I think, I think what we're talking about now is going to like personal accountability. Like part of this too, like don't get me wrong, insurance companies want to make as much money as possible. do agree with that, but also we're an incredibly unhealthy people. We're an incredibly unhealthy people, myself included. Like there are horrible, terrible decisions that I have made when it comes to my health. Not as bad as the people who are costing, ⁓ insurers tons and tons of money is like you mentioned like with the obesity thing like take some personal like accountability and responsibility like even at like my most unhealthy I was not obese because I still I had some like semblance of self-respect where I was like Okay, I'm not gonna get like I don't know if it was because like we grew up in the house that we grew up We're like wait, like being fat was shamed so often because of like herbal life and stuff like that, but I never wanted to be And I think I've shared this with you before like what? me onto my health kick was how do I think I've told you this personally what got me onto my health kick was like seeing a family member and just being like I don't I can't let that happen to me like I do not it was it was it was Aaron it was Aaron it was I saw Aaron I was just like yeah the one time I was like I should have taken a picture and we need those before and afters ⁓ Aaron Skinner: Just say it was me. Just say it was me. When I saw Aaron with his shirt off one time. Alex Skinner: But do you know what sucks about this too? I'm doing sorry, side note, everybody, I'm doing 75 hard because Darren brought it up. was like, I'm going to give this a try. And I'm like, I'm like taking pictures. I'm like, I sure hope because I don't look bad right now. like I'm just like, this is decent looking stuff. I'm like, I sure hope the 75 hard like makes me look significantly better so that we have like good before and afters we can use because. Aaron Skinner: Mm-hmm. Just get out. Alex Skinner: Cause I'm just starting to see the outline of an AB just starting to see just a slight outline, which I hadn't seen in a while. ⁓ but anyways, taking like the personal responsibility, like do something about your life. Aaron Skinner: haha Alex Skinner: And I know people are going to make the excuses of like, well, it's just so much easier to buy McDonald's. We're just so much easier to do this. And it's so much easier to do that. And like, yeah, I know I never said it was going to be easy, but you can definitely do it. You know, it sucks. It sucks food prepping. It sucks when I have to make every week. I'm like, all right, cool. Let's 15 pounds of chicken for the week. Honestly, it really is not that bad. takes like, I'm like starting to complain about it. It's like, it takes two hours. It takes two hours and Aaron Skinner: No it's not. It saves you time. Alex Skinner: It takes really though, cause that's brining it, making it taste good. it really only takes me about 30 minutes, like really of like amount of time that I have to work on it. It's 30 minutes cutting it, cooking it, et cetera. So I, I, yeah. And that's for a week. Like, so I don't really empathize with anyone who's like, ⁓ I'm working 80 hours a week. ⁓ I got this and this and this and this and this and this this. I'm like, have your kids do it. Aaron Skinner: And that's for a week. Yeah. The, well, the other thing, the other thing too is like for a long time, it, people were going to McDonald's and Taco Bell and fast food because it was cheaper. It is not cheaper anymore. Dude, I take my, if I take my kids to like Chick-fil-A or whatever, it's like $50 fucking dollars. Like you want to know, you want to know which food I can make for $50. And I know food prices in general are, are going up significantly, but, and that's probably why the fast food is more expensive, but you could make, Alex Skinner: Also true. Aaron Skinner: You could make so much food, especially like healthy food. Because if I had to guess Alex, your food prep for the week, if you're doing what? Chicken, what else? And rice? Alex Skinner: Chicken, honestly, it's just like chicken, dude. Like my food is just chicken and then like, I eat a lot of oats. I'm all about. No, no, no, no, no, it's 20, it's about 11, no, it's about $22 worth of chicken for an entire week and that's what Katie eats, that's what I eat and then the kids. Yeah. Aaron Skinner: So just chicken. Is it $50 worth of chicken that you're cooking at once? No, it's definitely not. For a family of four, $22. And so. Alex Skinner: Well, just so everyone knows, I am keeping like financial stats right now. ⁓ So last year our average, and this is a little bit biased. I should make this like our grocery bill, but this also includes like going out to restaurants, going to fast food, blah, blah, blah. And I think fast food should be included, but last year our average like food expense was $1,400. So far this year, and this is with me slipping up a couple of times, is at $1,300. So we are currently saving, and this is what food price is going up this year, we're currently saving $100 a month, and I know if I stop fucking up, that number will go down. Aaron Skinner: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. That's it. Again, it just it comes like like you said, it comes down to personal accountability and what's important to you. And yes, the thing is, like I want to make extremely clear there, there are definitely things that you could be eating perfectly healthy, working on doing everything. And there's still ⁓ diseases that that can get you like we're not saying that like this isn't like like a end all, beat all. If you do this, you never have to worry about the doctor, but Alex Skinner: Yeah. but I'm still gonna be that guy who's just gonna say like, yeah, but that is such the exception, not the rule. like, yeah, yeah. Aaron Skinner: Exactly. No, I agree. That's what I'm saying. That's exactly what I'm saying. It's, but the, if we're talking odds here, if you want the odds to be in your favor, eating healthy and, exercising are going to increase your odds of living. Like that's just how it is. It's not going to increase. It's not going to decrease the odds of some. It's not going to decrease. It's not going to decrease the odds of some stupid. Alex Skinner: That's a scientific fact. Aaron Skinner: teenager or person texting while they're driving and getting and hitting you head on but it's it's all the all your health markers are going to be be so much better and just in general you just feel so much better so that's how you could stick it to the healthcare industry don't ever have to use them but the problem is that here's the still the problem you still got to pay for it that's I come back to by our original statement like you still have to pay your premiums and so that's what sucks Alex Skinner: not need them. Yeah, seriously though. But as Trump is rolling back, like the ACA stuff, it's now becoming less and less illegal not to have insurance. So, instead of getting, so essentially what the ACA thing did was like, we are going to, if you don't have that health insurance form that comes through, you're going to have to pay a higher amount of taxes to offset you not having coverage. He's starting to roll that back, which is going to allow for people to once again not have health insurance, like I am healthy enough, which is Aaron Skinner: Yes. Yes. Yes. Alex Skinner: obviously going to screw people like it's going to screw people who are paying for it ⁓ in the long run because those people will still get like Aaron said like you can be taking care of yourself. Teen is texting and driving hits you. Now you need that care and we are paying for it anyways. ⁓ Crap where was I going with this? But, and also what I want to encourage people to do is start a podcast. Start a podcast where you're talking about health and accountability, because then you will be even more accountable to it. I have been so much more like on it since we've started talking about these health things. I'm just like, well, now no one's going to trust a fatty saying these things. No one's going to like, so you have to do like, now I have to do these things in order to have any sort of validity or credibility like with it. And all I can say though is like, I was talking with my therapist yesterday. Hope you guys don't mind me talking about it. It really does come down to like, just making things habitual. Like I haven't worked out this consistently since before my son was born. So November to now. Aaron Skinner: Yeah I don't. Alex Skinner: And even though I had a slip up in late January, I still kept working out because I had built up three months of what you might call it. like, all right, the diet fell back a little bit, but then the diet started to become more and more consistent where I could just jump right back into it. Even after like, ⁓ I just got Taco Bell three nights in a row or like whatever the fuck it was. And then other things like start like, so like, just start doing the little things. So like they become habits and there aren't little things. know that they're like big changes, but like doing that makes getting back into something. Once you've fallen off, like a way slower thing like this. ⁓ who cares? Like I had some visitors. I had a visitor that always throws me off of my game. Like whenever this person visits, my health just goes really, really shitty. I start drinking, blah, blah. Like name all the things you want, but it only took me a week and a half to get out of that thing and back to like where I was before. Whereas normally what would have happened and has happened in the past, like I just go on this really, really dark, sad road for like months until I, until I get to the point where I'm like, ⁓ shit, what have I become? So like doing these habitual things will build up like almost like a Aaron Skinner: Yeah. Alex Skinner: almost like a muscle, like honestly where it's like, ⁓ I can just get back. It's not as hard to get back into this thing again. So start doing it. Aaron Skinner: Well, then the nice thing about that too is I got back from vacation and I didn't want to be restricted while it's on vacation. I wanted to be able to eat whatever I wanted and I still, I guess, and I ate whatever I wanted. I mean, you get to a point where you're not overeating as much as I would have a year ago on vacation just because you're just not as hungry. So that's another added benefit, but I still gained some weight ⁓ and didn't feel as energetic as I normally do. And you remember like, ⁓ man, before I left on this vacation, I felt so much, I had more energy, I whatever, blah, blah, blah. Just by maybe your emotions were better as well. and so it just gives you that added motivation. Like you said, like I got to get back to where I was. And it took probably the same time. It probably took ⁓ a week of like just kind of eating whatever, ⁓ on vacation. Probably took me a week of just getting back into my routine, ⁓ to be right where I was before I left. And so that's, that's the nice thing too is what did I say? My routine, your routine should be your, your baseline should be a healthy routine. And I like, I like that. I like getting back into my, actually was telling my wife that when we're on vacation, she's like, can't get, I can't wait to get back so I can get back into going to the gym and just back to my, eating habits and knowing that I'm doing the right thing. And, ⁓ yeah, that's all it is. Like you, you want the exception. Cause I think you should, you should, you shouldn't be like, you shouldn't be like, I'm only going to eat healthy and I'm never going to eat pizza ever again. Like, no, you still should be able to have a good time. talk about this in one of my videos. Like I still have pizza every single Friday cause we do movie night with my kids and we order pizza and we have some pizza. I don't eat an entire pizza. I have a couple of slices and that's satiating for me. but the, the, again, the exception to the rule. you are still for the 95 % of it eating healthy and doing it you're supposed to do. I remember when I used to do P90X, know, 15 years ago, Tony Horton was what he was just like, he's like, you don't have to, he's like, listen, you work really hard. And if you want to have a scoop of some low fat ice cream, you can do that. was like, a scoop? The fuck you talking about, Tony? I want to eat a pint of unhealthy ice cream. I was like, that's what I have to look forward to is like some jello with whipped cream on top of it, which I actually, that is my sweet treat that I have almost after every meal. It's actually, this is sugar-free pudding jello and a sugar-free rice pudding. That's really good. And I look forward to it every time. It has like hundred calories for both of them with Alex Skinner: of fat ice cream full fat me baby Aaron Skinner: the whipped cream on top and it's delicious and I look forward to it. So find those little treats that you like. What is yours? Yeah. Yeah. Probably still those. But again, find what you like that you can work into your, into your diet. That's good. Like I have, ⁓ these are really good here. I'll do a shameless plug that isn't a plug so you don't get paid for them. Alex Skinner: sounds better than are rip van wafers, which are good. Like it's just like they're like wafers with like dark chocolate inside. Got to get that fiber. Also true. Aaron Skinner: This isn't even their best one. It just happened to be the closest one. That little, I shouldn't pull that up. ⁓ these little bear bells. I've been calling them barbells forever. ⁓ they're protein bars. I got them at GNC. They had a deal where it was buy one, get one half off. Cause usually stupid expensive. ⁓ they still are. But, ⁓ I have like one or maybe two of those a day and they're really, really good. The really good one is the cookies and caramel. ⁓ my God, dude. It's like. Alex Skinner: Oh, I don't even know what those are. Where'd you get those? Aaron Skinner: It's like you're eating a candy bar. It's so good. So good, even my kids like them. I don't let them eat them because they're expensive. Get your own fucking Bear Bells. Yeah, we have a ton of candy. Dude, have you seen my pantry? It's just like filled with every, it was our dream growing up, Alex, that pantry, filled with candy, filled with every single snack you could think of. Not a temptation for me. It's there. It's kind of nice just having it there. Alex Skinner: You go go eat a Snickers Aaron Skinner: You got to get rid of all the, all the temptations, not tempted because I know it's there and I know I can have it if I want it. I don't want it. You always want the stuff that you don't have. And so for me, it's just like, I'm, have a, I have a freezer filled with ice cream. have a, ⁓ all the, all the snacks and treats and cookies and everything you could probably imagine. Never not never temptation. Mainly because like we talked about before, I know if I ate that, this is funny. Like, I thought this was a podcast about health insurance. Alex Skinner: Well, it still is like we're talking about how we take the responsibility for our actions so that we don't screw other people over. Aaron Skinner: It is, it is. But it's, it's, ⁓ my point being is just like, you just have to, you, after you eat like something super shitty and over-processed, ⁓ you never feel good. You always feel crappy. And so I just always, I'm always telling myself that if I ever do get tempted, which at this point I really don't, ⁓ I was like, if I eat that Snickers that's in there, like it's going to taste really, really good for Alex Skinner: few seconds. Probably, yeah, probably like 30 seconds. Aaron Skinner: few seconds and then I'm just gonna be like, ⁓ why did I eat that? And so that's just always think of what is this going to be like after not just that dopamine hit for the minute that you're eating it. ⁓ Alex Skinner: What's kind of cool is like a lot of people are I think give flowers where flowers are due, even though I don't 100 % agree with everything that he says, but like the make America healthy again thing, I think is kind of working. I don't think I've seen as many people taking care of their health. And maybe it's just like, it's what I'm getting fed and the content that I want to see, but like even like anecdotally in conversations where people are, we're not drinking anymore. Like, like the, the United States, like the, young people have given up alcohol. And obviously there's like probably still people drinking, but like it has made me go like, ⁓ shit. alcohol was my cigarettes. you know, growing up, it's just like, we know cigarettes are bad because Whole Lady, obviously the greatest commercial of all time. Like, no, I'm not, not this is your brain on drugs. Not that it's Whole Lady. That made me not smoke cigarettes. ⁓ Aaron Skinner: Yes. Yo, the, the old, ⁓ this is your brand on drugs just made me want to have breakfast. Like eggs. That sounds great. Yeah. Alex Skinner: Made me want to curl up on a couch with what was that chick's name? She was delightful. so like people are like making healthy choices. Doritos had such a PepsiCo had such a bad Frito-Lay a bad year because they had been increasing their price on Doritos. Like they have to drop them because so few people are buying them. And I'm just like, that's a good like it's one of those things that piss you off. Like, ⁓ so you could sell it for less. This goes like to the health insurance stuff again, too. But like Aaron Skinner: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Alex Skinner: It's once people stop having the demand for it, that is when ⁓ that is when you start to see real progress. So. Aaron Skinner: Yeah, when the CEOs Alex of all these fast food companies have to go on and show them eating their product and how great they are. That's when you know shit has hit the fan. Like even millionaires eat this food, even though it's just like a tiny bite that McDonald's one did. I like that's when you know things aren't going well when they're, when the higher ups have to pretend they like their shitty food. Alex Skinner: It's a good sign for everybody because that is these are like those are the things where this is like why I've always been a fan of I don't know that much about it, but a fan of just like Japanese and Eastern culture in general because they care about the whole not the individual, which I know there's some sadness to that because then well, what about the like doesn't the individual have rights like I am much more all about like if this is going to be better for the collective, I would much prefer us doing wherever that thing is and Maybe that's what was growing up in a really large family where I have that word. You can see when the person becomes too individualistic, it causes problems. So I'm happy to see people making much better choices in 2026. Aaron Skinner: Yes. Yeah, me too. Yeah, keep eating healthy. Alex Skinner: Yeah, keep it up everybody. If we will, we will chat with you all next week. So have a good one, be healthy and we'll see you later.