Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 10-09-25_THURSDAY_8AM

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

10-09-25_THURSDAY_8AM

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausordrilling.com. Join me in studio is Marla Estes. Marla is an interesting person. I was talking to her off and on, off the air over the last few weeks, and she and Rob Schloffer used to do a lot of work together, and they kind of separated out, and they're still trying to accomplish the same goals.

You know how it's so difficult to, talk with one another sometimes, especially when it gets into the political. And we don't really want to talk about the political right now, but it's like, how do you get yourself, I guess Marla, would it be safe to say that how do you get yourself ready to talk to someone else is really? I would say that's what I'm doing. And when a person who interviewed me a few months ago said that he thought I warmed people up, which I like that idea. And he said he felt very safe and talking about things with me too. So it's really good feedback. Yeah. Well, I'll just do a little bit more of your bio before we get into this just to be official. Now, Marla has a background in psychology, which is

appropriate to what she's doing here. And she founded building bridges in 2017 to address political polarization. Not that we have any of that here in the state of Oregon. But what she does is that she teaches skills and habits of mind that help people overcome barriers to understanding one another, actually cutting, you know, cutting the wall between us, I guess, so to speak, and recognizing the validity in opposing views, rather, and engaging complex problems with openness. So needless to say, she has a high lift that she is, you're working really hard in this world. And her work helps foster curiosity, humility, and connecting across the divides. And I think we can use more of this. And by the way, on the 29th, you have an upcoming class on

this and it's discussing how to build a bridge. Right. It's called How to Build a Bridge. It's online and you can find out through my website, Buildingbridgers.com. And it'll be about a 45-minute presentation and then another 45 open for discussion and Q&A. And it really is to help people understand also the state of polarization. Many people don't know that there's about 500 organizations working on political depolarization or bridging in the state, in the U.S. right now. So there are people working on this, and I feel like I come in at the very basic, more personal level to teach people to notice their own biases and to understand that their perception

of the other isn't actually what it is, you know, that we're not seeing people accurately because we're being so ratcheted up with our polarization and stereotypes about the other side. Yeah, so you mean not everything is what either Breitbart or MSNBC says about everyone. Yeah, and to that point, it's kind of interesting because people will say to me, well, I've listened to both Fox News and MSNBC, and I said, so they feel like they're getting well-rounded. I said those are both outrage machines, and there's other people who are more, they're able to give credit to the other side and criticize their own.

and that means to me and a journalist that's really they're thinking for themselves. You know, and it's really hard. I have to tell you, it is really hard. I've even told you I'm a man of the political right. I make no bones about that. But I find myself trying to force myself to not automatically knee jerk on a lot of things because I know that I've been programmed for my tribe, you know, that kind of thing. And I think part of it, and it's not like I'm not patting myself on the back, but you just realize it after a while. as you read the vitriol on both sides of it. We've got a lot of hate going on here, a lot of hate, people just hating each other. And I told you off air that when I call my poor sister, who love my sister, but we have not been able to find a way to talk because I don't want to talk politics,

and that's all she does. And she says, I'm disappointed in you, Bill, because you voted for a man who is trying to kill my children. And it's like, okay, you know, where do I even go with something like that, right? Where do you move forward? Well, that's what I found early on with my work with Rob. We started dealing with, we did issues like we'd take immigration or free speech and we'd look at it from the left and look at it from the right with no point of view of our own. I mean, we have our points of view, but that isn't what we were teaching.

Yeah, you're bringing it forth in your group, though. Right, to educate. I mean, that was, but what I saw, and we did it for about two years pretty intensely. And what I saw is that people would get so triggered and defensive and kind of double down. So not for, for some people it was useful, but for a lot of people it was counterproductive. So I thought, I want to get them ready to talk about things. And notice, like one of the questions I ask in a group is how many of you have. never been wrong. And usually everyone laughs, but one person will raise their hand, you know, and we laugh some more. Yeah, we laugh about it, yeah. But this is the thing. Before, you kind of have to be able to admit you're wrong or acknowledge that you're wrong before you can change your mind about something. And that's hard. It's super hard because also that a lot of it is about shame, I think, which is like a week-long workshop right there. But it's this whole, idea I thought before we can cultivate some humility at least we can't be able to have these

conversations because also being right gives us the false security of being safe and our nervous systems love to be right even if we're wrong well I also think that you know and you know being right also I think in our mind almost gives us a moral superiority too I think that that's another aspect of it now of course I'm just talking about you know I'm just exposing my own biases when I will say those kind of things, but I think it's just human nature of sort, isn't it? That's, I think you've hit the nail on the head. And a lot of this, some people don't believe in human nature. Some people do. But I think we're wired as mammals. We're wired for survival. And so if we ignore that part of the equation when we're making policy or making

organizations or anything, we're missing a whole big piece of it. And the fact that, that you can say what you said is where the first thing is catching ourselves in the act is realizing, oh, that's what I'm doing. And it's funny about bias because we can see other people's really easily, but not so much our own.

Well, self-awareness is always difficult. It is. It's painful. And also the other part to what you were saying is by merging with tribal think or us versus them think, we feel secure. And the thing is, it was important to be with the tribe. The tribe was your safety. The tribe was, you know,

and of course, what do we have to do? We have to fight the other. Now, this is not about politics, this building bridgers, you know, that or, you know, that you're doing. But it does have something to do with the challenges where we find ourselves in politics right now, which I think it is, why I think it's so important, you know, to maybe, you know, look at these kind of classes to be more open and you know you try to get to the point where it's like all right you really hate what I just said if someone will write me and I say okay but am I actually wrong on this if so why and me asking someone the same thing those are hard things to do and at this point we really do have to concentrate on doing the hard things I guess well I think so but part of the

problem is getting people to buy in. Like, what are the reasons that someone would want to learn to bridge or depolarize? There's religious or spiritual or humanistic principles. Like, we are all one. So how do we live that? Does inclusion just mean the parts of people that we like and agree with us, or does it mean everyone? And the other things are personal enrichment. Like, I feel personally from having done this work who knew at the beginning that I'm so much more personally enriched because I have more capacity, even in interpersonal relationships to just not see things as black and white, not take a moral high ground, things like that. And then thirdly, it's pragmatic. Like we are not going to be able to do work together unless we get

over this to polarization to some extent. And so for me, I've met people on both sides who say, well, I don't think bridging is a good idea. I think my side has to win. And I said, even if your side is 100% correct, which I don't think anyone is or any group is, it's not pragmatic. Like how we're going to do this every four, eight years is just switch regimes. Yeah, we switch regimes.

And the idea of your regime coming in then is two. crush, is to crush and vanquish, you know, over the, the people who were hitting you with the baseball bat. Exactly. You know, and bear in mind, you know, we are wired for us versus them, but we are also wired for collaboration. So how can we nudge the needle? And I think, and I found through my work, at least on an individual level, that's the

way. Like, I don't deal with macro level issues. politics or politicians issues it's just not it's frustrating it's nothing i well nothing i can do about it but um but you but you know okay so if you're if you through being a bridger or or working to develop more of a bridging of a bridging side of your of one's personality uh you know it could be helpful in in many sort of situations but i will bring politics into this in in in one respect, isn't one of our challenges why we are so polarized that our politics is involved in and doing much more and involved in many more aspects of our life than it ever used

to be? It used to be very, very limited, you know, contact that most of us ever really had with the political. It just didn't happen much. And as bureaucracies and as everything has gotten larger, more intrusive, more powerful, then, you know, it's getting harder and harder to bridge because that system is going to just chew you up and eat you out, Marla. I'm just bringing up an example of what might be driving some of this polarization. If everyone was staying in their lanes, we wouldn't have this problem. Well, and the other problem, which is really a huge problem, is the 724-365 news cycle. So back in the day, we had our 6 o'clock nightly news or whatever.

Yeah, Uncle Walter told us what was going on and then we turned it off. And it was great. But the problem is, well, there's a lot of problems. But one of the problems is that you can only fill up that much time with repetition. So people are hearing the same things over and over again. And in my opinion, like a lot of times, it's not so much misinformation, but semi-information. So people, news agencies are giving a lot of times the truth, but only one side of the story, one part of the story. And we're hearing it over and over again.

It reminds me back in the day, do you remember the milk cartons with the missing kids on them? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So every morning, you'd be sitting, eating your cereal with this, you know, picture of a kid. And you felt like, you didn't realize it, but it felt like these missing children were more prevalent than they were, even though you were seeing the same boy's picture. And so it's this thing, if you hear something over and over again, you're, first of all, we've got a negativity bias to scan for danger. So we're at heightened alert. Sure. And we're thinking, we're feeling that things are more prevalent and happening more often than they actually are. So that's another big problem of how our nervous systems are constantly on alert from all these, this news and social media, too.

Man, talk about a cortisol overload. Exactly, exactly. So some of the things, two of the things that my long-term students usually say are that after all the coursework, they're less triggered and they're more comfortable with not having an opinion about everything. and they find it a big relief. They can say to friends, you know, I really don't know enough about issue X to have an informed position because that's what I found in my own.

And Rob was a huge help in this. He really educated me and opened my mind. And I was so, I voted blue at the time. And I didn't, I wasn't political. Now I'm politically homeless. But even him exposing me to ideas that weren't like sanctioned by my tribe, I would get in hot bathtubs, you can ask him like four times a day because I'd be shaking so hard.

So I really understand firsthand how difficult opening your mind and even opening your heart to other points of view can be. So that's a really important thing to understand with this whole aspect of depolarizing. And if someone had, the reason I got involved is the day after the 2000s, 2016 presidential election, I woke up with a voice in my head saying, you've got to do something about the political divide, which was laughable. I didn't know anything about anything. And I realized, then I met Rob and we started doing this work together, I realized how really ignorant I was. And I think this is part of the problem with people staying in their silos, their echo chambers, and their limited amount of perspective, their lack of viewpoint diversity within their news feeds. Um, they, people mostly have very strong opinions, self-righteous, moral high ground about things they don't know enough about. And is this what you're trying to do? Now, you're not trying to all of a sudden turn us into little, you know, mindless peace bots. Are you? I mean, I know it sounds funny to say that, but it was just like, ah, okay. Yeah. So you want to kill me? Okay. You know, you're not talking about that. We're not talking kumbaya.

No, no, no. That's something else. But I want to do, okay, if I had a magic wand, I would help people relax their nervous systems enough to be able to take in much more information about what's really going on. I don't like the words truth or reality anymore. Those words have been tainted. But I think what's going on, like most of us get too triggered and fight or flight to be able to take in opposing ideas. You know the other thing, Marla, that I think is driving a bit of this, is that the speed and the intensity of the news and the feed and the cycles and everything else, it's not to a human scale. And you get to the point where you are emotionally exhausted because you don't have time to sit down and actually examine the evidence and think as much as you should. It's like, do I have time to think? And I think that is, what I think or believe, as the case might be, that that's another major problem that the greater society has. It absolutely is. I found a really great news source called Tangle.

Readtangle.com. It's called Tangle. And this guy really lays out the hot button issues, gives background, gives three views from the right, three views from the left. and then he and his staff that are very mixed politically kind of a give their take. And it's a very balance. They're not, they give credit where credits do, criticism where criticisms do. And a lot of people take my classes really love that because they feel like they're not being manipulated.

They're not being sensationalized. And they can really trust that they can see how to think about things with all kinds of perspective. Okay. Tell us about this class coming up, though. What are you hoping to accomplish in? And this is online. What does it cost? It's a sliding scale beginning at $10.

Okay. So it's really affordable. So it's very modestly affordable, and you're trying to tone down the cortisol coursing through people's blood. Exactly. And I want to give them different statistics like there's a group called More Uncom and that have done two really good things. studies, one of which is called the perception gap, and it shows that a significant amount of people on each side deem the other side as more extreme in their positions on certain issues than they are. And that really hits me because we're, most of us, many of us are making

really strong moral stances, like unshakable, based on misperceptions. is um is that true though is that true there there are times that i'm looking at um and of course i will bring politics into this because we talk a lot of politics on this show i know this is not what you're going to battle on your on your on your class but you take the you take the issue of abortion as an example you know if if you have that fervent belief that um that you are killing an unborn life when this is being done. How could you not then extrapolate that and put a moral judgment on to, let's say, the political side of the world that is pushing that? Let's say, how could you not, how could you not, you know, do that? How could you, in other words, how do you

bridge, you know, bridge that kind of divide? Aren't some worldviews just completely incompatible with one another? I would say not every bridge can be crossed, but you're reminding me of a story and I can't remember, I want to say it's like eight years ago, where there were two groups of people who got together pro-choice and pro-life. And they were trying to just work this abortion question. They couldn't do that. And I think, I wish I had better recall, but I think either all of them were Christian or one group was Christian.

Anyway, they could never agree on abortion, but what they all agreed on is that we should, should try to avoid abortion. So they got together a community project on giving out birth control. And I know that's controversial too with some religious ideas, but it also is kind of dealing with reality. So I think there's some ways it's not about meeting in the middle or compromising or agreeing to disagree. Sometimes if you work, and I don't even want the word work, apply yourselves to exploring something together. You can get some out-of-the-box thinking or

if you're not, if you're just, if you have goodwill in your conversation and you're not so much trying to convert somebody. But you see, that's a very important focus right there, if you have goodwill. And I know a lot of times in the political world, I would dare say there's not necessarily goodwill. Oh, totally. That's what I hope to also.

So lately I've been showing, well, the last couple of years, one Wednesday a month, I show bridging films or videos. And a lot of times I'm showing things about an issue or about positions. And what we do is we don't talk about, then we don't get an discussion about the position, but we talk about how we felt watching the others in the movie speak. So did you get triggered? Did you push back like, oh, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about? Or is it like, wow, I never understood that?

And a lot of times, what happens are both the sides are very humanized. I think when you start seeing people as people versus who they voted for, and that, I think, is the essence of my work. I want people to stop hating others for who they voted for. Because, like, I've met conservatives that are pro-choice. I've met Democrats that are totally gun rights amendments. We are so nuanced. Another guy who was on the Trump campaign who was for all open borders.

Like, we think, because we shortcut, we're geared to shortcut, and it's handy if you buy the same toothpaste every time. But it's not so handy in dealing with the political world. So how can we come to people with fresh eyes? How can we kind of bracket our, and you're, I've heard you on, you know, off, not now, but here and on the phone, like, catching yourself, like, that's your bias. And that's where it starts. And it's not, we're, there's nothing morally wrong with having a bias.

that's how we're wired, but being able to see it and then enter, let enter in some viewpoint diversity. Viewpoint diversity is the only way to counter one's own confirmation bias. And we all have them. We all have them. That's why we need other points of view, too. So we get a better picture of the whole thing. All right.

Marla, I really appreciate this. Marla Estes and put the information up. How do you sign up for the building, build a bridge or how to build a bridge? How to build a bridge. Okay. You go on to Building Bridgers, Bridgers, with an R.com, and you go under events, and then there'll be links. And it is October 29th at 6.30 p.m. our time. Okay, very good. And this is going to be an online meeting.

Yes. Right. So anywhere you are, you got the web. Anywhere. Now, before we take off here, we had mentioned that you and Rob Schloffer, who I respect greatly too, Rob ended up going off into the education direction. What happened, you know, it wasn't a schism, but it was just kind of like knowing that there were different things that you were, that you were more interested in? Was that it? Yeah, I think that it was so great working with Rob and he's changed my life in incredible ways.

But at one point it seemed like he was better at like this education part. He should have been a university professor. And I was more on the, you know, reading the room psychology part. Yeah. And it seemed like we were both kind of, we were trying to do it together. But I think, and I think he would agree that it both, trying to do both of those at the same time kind of yoked us into not going further with our own strengths. Does that make sense? Yeah, that does make sense.

Yeah. Yeah, because I remember I would get your emails, you know, in my email box and just like, okay. Yeah, I remember Marla, Marla and Rob used to be together. It's like, what happened? Yeah. And so I just always wanted to ask. Yeah. All right.

Well, it's great getting a chance to meet you in person. And by the way, how to build a bridge. October 29th, we'll get that information up on KMED.com, too, including your website. Thank you. Great meeting you, by the way. You too. I've loved it. And thanks so much for having me.

Yeah, and good luck at, you know, trying to, like I said, increase the conversation, and perhaps a little less dehumanization would be pretty good. Yeah. Because we still have to live with the humans that are being dehumanized. Yeah, exactly. Thank you so much. Thanks, Marla. It is 838, KMED, KBXG.

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Early evenings at 8. Chaos. News Talk 1063, KMED. You're here in the Bill Myers Show on 1063, KMED. It is 841. Hey, Lauren, how you doing here? Sorry, I was just talking to you just a moment ago, but I'm going to give you a quick wrap. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you wanted to talk with Marla a moment ago.

but we were talking about finding ways to talk about things we disagree with with one another. It's hard sometimes, I would imagine. Especially from my perspective as a retired pastor, 44 years, when it comes to faith and how I could ever talk with a Muslim about he wanting to kill me because I'm an infidel. I'm wanting to win him to Christ so he knows everyone as his eternal reward. There's a difference there from what she said, I think. So anyway, I don't want to criticize any.

And, of course, I'm just talking to you, not on the air, I guess, or am I? Well, no, you know, you're on the air. You're on the air. I appreciate that aspect of, you know, see, this is the real human, this is the real human experience and the challenge that we find ourselves in. And even though Marla admitted in our talk, though, that there are some bridges that you can't cross. Yeah. And I don't think there's any way to bridge this.

those certain divides, like of what you had mentioned, the worldview is so incompatible. There's just no way you can make that happen, okay? You got it. That's my point of view. Yeah. So work with what you can, I guess, is what you can, and try to avoid what we can't. I guess that's the way to.

Good luck on that in the political world, that's for sure. Darned straight. I appreciate the call. Thank you for that, okay? It is 842. This is our moment. Vote yes on Measure 15238. Hi, I'm Nick Card. And I'm Kevin Stein.

Measure 15238 will help fund Creekside Quarter, a once-in-a-generation project that adds a conference center, luxury hotel, more parking, and a stadium to the Medford downtown area. It's a smart investment for a thriving Medford. It will bring an estimated $752 million in great jobs and $1.69 billion in economic impact.

It will support local businesses and bring more tourism to Medford. Measure 15-238 is not a property tax, and it's not a utility bill increase. It's an additional 2% increase to the fee that visitors pay when staying in Medford hotels and other short-term lodging. That means it's paid for by visitors, not Medford. Visit creaksidequarter.com to learn more. Medford, this is our moment. Vote yes on measure 15-2-38. Paid for by Creekside Quarter Pack number 24432. from the KMED News Center. Here's what's going on. The Oregon State Police are asking for the public's help, trying to find a vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian. It occurred September 30th on Hogue Drive in Selma in Josephine County.

Investigators responded just before 9 p.m. and found a 62-year-old man in the road. They determined he'd been hit by a vehicle. Witnesses say a white forerunner, or similar with a black canopy, was seen speeding from the area, reportedly drove past the scene to the crash again several minutes later. It may have have front end damage and a broken windshield. A day after visiting Portland Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Noam told President Trump, Oregon's governor and Portland's mayor are, quote, absolutely covering up terrorism in the streets. During the visitor staff asked the Portland police to create a perimeter around the ice building along with a free speech zone to channel protesters to certain areas. Timberline Lodge is raising prices and they say Oregon's broken recreational

liability system is to blame. Timberline's liability insurance is going to increase 160 percent bill london cam ed this is a fox news alert i'm terese crowley signed and sealed now the delivery of peace between israel and hamas in gaza brokered by president trump israel spokeswoman shosh pedrosia the final draft of phase one was signed this morning in egypt by all parties to release all of the hostages and the idf will then redeploy to that yellow line we mentioned which will lead to the military controlling and holding about 53% of the Gaza Strip. The hostage release expected Monday. Prime Minister Netanyahu says President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Democrat Senator John Federman tells Fox. I think it's entirely appropriate to celebrate this. I thank God this terrible war is going to end. And these poor souls kept underground for over two years can come back home. With bipartisan rancor ramping up in the U.S. government shutdown day nine. America is listening to Fox News. This hour of the Bill Myers Show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing. For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit fontana roofing services.com.

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And I'll tell you if you're getting ready to turn 65 or if you're already involved in Medicare, boy, there is a lot. There is a lot to unpack and stay knowledgeable about, I should say. And Melissa Molasco joins me in studio. Melasco or Melosco? Malasco. It is molasco. Okay. Malasco.

Great. And you are insurance agent and, of course, registered investment advisor. Yes, and a financial planner. I've been servicing my clients with their retirement needs and their health care needs for the last 25 years. Yep, 25 years you have learned a lot and you still have all your hair. So that's good. You haven't pulled it out. No, I mean, this year is going to be very difficult for Medicare Advantage because of the Inflation Reduction Act.

There have been a lot of cutbacks. And so the companies now have the burden of taking care of the prescription drug costs above $2,000, where before in 2024, everyone was given allowance and there was the donut hole. The Inflation Reduction Act now has eliminated what's called the coverage gap or the donut hole. And so now the burden for paying for people's prescription drugs above $2,000 is now being placed on the insurance carriers. And what is happening, Bill, is that that is affecting the medical portion of people's plans.

So it's going to be a very hard year. Yeah, and this is why you're putting on this Medicare Advantage Fair. Yes, so it'll be at the Rogue X on next Tuesday, the 14th. The doors will be open from 9 to 3. We will be holding breakout sessions every hour so you can learn about Medicare Advantage. All of the different carriers, with the exception of Regents Blue Cross, who is no longer going to be offering a plan to new members in our area, will be there in order to provide information about the plans.

Now, you are, of course, Futurity First is hosting this. This is your company, right? It is. This is our fifth annual. And every year, you know, like you were talking about pulling out here, we think we maybe shouldn't do this and it's so much work and energy put into it. But every year, we actually stop ourselves from deciding not to do it and realize that the community really needs this.

So we really do it as a community outreach just to be able to service our clients and then the people in the area to be able to come and gather information about how Medicare Advantage works and all of the different plans that are available. Everyone is going to start getting bombarded by commercials now with advertising plans that are not in our area. So we want to make sure that the resources are there so you can understand the plans that we have available. How many are actually available if you were to look at the overall? supplemental plans in our particular area. So the Medicare Advantage plans are Aetna, United Health Care, Well Care, Regents Blue Cross, which is keeping their current members but not offering new plans and then Atrio. And what now?

Atrio. Atrio. Is this a situation where, and I'm sorry if I'm, you know, I'm dealing with my mother's issues right now, trying to figure out, you know, sometimes her plan. She's 85 and doing this and has kept the same. plan for a number of years but is the are the plans you're talking about different from what the prescription drug plan does maybe that's where where i'm getting at what's the difference here so you could either have traditional medicare with your part a and part b and then a stand-alone

prescription drug plan or you could have medicare advantage which is technically c and so when you have medicare advantage you have your a and your b and your d all rolled into one medicare steps out of the picture, transfers your responsibility over to a private insurance carrier. Got it. And they manage your care. All right. And sometimes people have said that Medicare Advantage doesn't give you a whole lot. Is that true?

It's what people have complained to me sometimes about that. If you have a lot going on, it might not be such a good thing. Do you help people understand what works best? Yes. And the reason why Medicare Advantage is enticing is that the premiums are really low, if not zero. Oh. And so then you really would only pay your $100,000. $85 a month for your Medicare Part B.

Next year, that is going up to 206, which is quite an increase. Sure. Quite a burden there. So you really only pay your Medicare Part B premium, and then usually your Medicare Advantage plan perhaps could have a zero premium to it and some extra benefits, like maybe your cleanings and your x-rays, a $100 allowance for some glasses, a little bit of maybe chiropractor, acupuncture. So a 24-hour nurse line, virtual visits, an annual physical.

So you do get some extra benefits with Medicare Advantage. And so for the average retiree where they're coming off of their plan from their employer, they're realizing that they're already paying some of the costs. So then having a Medicare Advantage plan where you've got some shared responsibility, and it does give you a maximum out of pocket. Okay. Melissa Malasco once again, and this is Futurity First. and what's coming up this coming Tuesday, October 14th, 93 at Rogue X.

It's the Medicare Advantage Fair. And like I said, the 15th, this all opens up, and you're going to be hearing all about this. People will probably be, you know, sick of it. But it's important because you're saying that the real struggle you were just mentioning to me is that the rates are going up and they're going up hot is what you're kind of implying, right? Yes, because, again, because of the Inflation Reduction Act, then the insurance carriers or shouldering the burden of paying for the cost of the prescriptions where they hadn't in the past. We all looked at it like, great, we're eliminating the donut hole, but then there's adverse reaction to that that's causing the medical benefits.

The maximum amount of pockets can be as high as $8,500 a month, $13,000 for out-of-network. And so the responsibility now, too, for the member to be able to have to pay more, up to their maximum out of pocket is really hard on people. I did want to mention also, if it's okay, SB 330, which is some legislation that was passed this year, that now gives financial assistance, and that financial assistance can be available all the way up to 400% above the poverty level. So there's help available for some people that are having trouble with the increases.

Yes, and I would encourage you to contact our office, Again, Futurity First. We're right on Crater Lake Avenue, right across the street from Safeway. And we can go ahead and help you with getting qualified. You can also reach out to either Asante or Providence. But we then can go ahead and look at some of these plans and be able to help you sort through the plan that you're either already on or that you're looking at and to make a determination whether it would be a good fit for you.

Melissa, would this be the year, that you just don't want to let it ride. Would that be a fair thing to say that you really want to come to this fair and look at all the different plans for that reason? Yes, it really, I can't even tell you how many people I'll call and they will say, no, I didn't even open my packet that I got in the mail. I don't even know what my co-pays are. I don't know what my responsibility is. And, you know, then they'll kind of chuckle and say, I'm relying on you for that. But I really encourage you to look at your plan this year. let's look at what else is available.

Let's look at potentially even going back to traditional Medicare and adding a high deductible plan G, where you would kind of have some of the costs, but we could still keep your premium low. And then, you know, again, a big concern, Bill, is being able to find doctors. We have to be able to make sure that your doctors are in network. And we're not even talking about how long it takes to get the appointment. So that's a different story, right? Yeah. Okay.

This is what you do. There's a lot of information, a lot to unpack there. Fortunately, they had this free Medicare Advantage plan, or the fair, rather, that's going on Tuesday at Rogue X, 9 till 3. You also have a separate breakout session for the veterans, too. We do. We're going to have a breakout session. The Veterans Administration is going to put on a nice little class that's going to talk about

veterans' plans. And I just would encourage the veterans to come to that if they're not. already in the system and figure out how to get, you know, into the plan that the veterans can offer. Yeah, there's a lot going on here. This is not the time to just, like I said, just stick with the plan. It'll be fine. Don't open up the out. No, and we want to make sure a lot of the premiums on the prescription drug plans are going up if they're a standalone prescription drug plan. SIGNA is going up to $86 a month from zero. So if you're on that Medicare PDP prescription drug plan. We really need to find you a new plan. All right. And this is hosted by

Futurity First. It's going to be Tuesday, 9 to 3, Rogue X. We appreciate you coming on. All right. Thank you, Melissa, Melissa, Melissa, Melissa, Lasco. Thank you.