← The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast
The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast
Special Guest Andy Schoonover: What if your burden was actually your calling?
00:42:41
Special Guest Andy Schoonover: What if your burden was actually your calling?
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- [00:01]
A
Funny story about that really quick is they thought he was going to die. So his whole family came around and his wife was next to him. He woke up out of the coma and the first thing he said was, hey, guys, guess what? We're pregnant.
- [00:16]
B
No matter who you are, life can feel like a roller coaster. But it's so much better when we go through it together. Welcome to the Candace Cameron Bureau Podcast. This podcast is not about me. I made it for you. I'm here to share open conversations with my friends about life's challenges, celebrations, and everything in between. Today's conversation is a special one because I rarely do one off interviews. I love giving you a longer series where we can go deep into stories that my guests have to share. And you keep giving me feedback that you really like, having seasons where you can follow along over several weeks. But today I do have a special guest for you. When I heard his story, I knew that I wanted you to hear it too. Andy Schoonover is the kind of guy who loves helping people and he's built his life around it. He saw a problem that a lot of people have with out of control medical costs and decided to do something about it. Please welcome my special guest, Andy Spoonover.
- [01:25]
A
Thanks for having me.
- [01:26]
B
Yeah. Welcome to the podcast. It's so, so great to meet you. I, I'm really excited about what you're going to share with all of us today, but I would love to just have you tell me a little bit about yourself and your family.
- [01:42]
A
Yeah, we've got three girls. We can, I can tell you more about the. My oldest, but my firstborn actually passed away about 10 hours after she was born, which is a big, huge part of our, of our story. And then I've got a nine year old and a seven year old. So they're third grade, first grade, ready to get out of school, ready to start the summertime.
- [02:02]
B
Yeah.
- [02:02]
A
But yeah, live in Austin, Texas and you know, building a company to try to help people manage these crazy, crazy medical expenses.
- [02:09]
B
Yeah, that's so great. And how long have you been married?
- [02:13]
A
Going on this is like the trick question for males, right? Like, how long have you been married? What is your anniversary? We have our anniversary coming up. Been married 12 years. 12.
- [02:22]
B
Oh, fantastic. That's great. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing all of the stories and one of the things we do in the podcast is take listener questions. So I would love to start with a listener question. This is from Amelia, who wants to know, how do you find your calling in a career? I I think I'm going to answer this first, because I feel like your answer is going to be a really great segue into what you are here to talk about. So, Amelia, how do you find your calling in a career? There's probably a few different ways to go about it, and I imagine that maybe, Andy, your story will probably be different than mine in terms of finding your calling in career. I kind of look at the talents that God gives us and where also where he's placed us within our lives. And obviously, in a career, you want to find something that you enjoy doing and that you love doing, because it doesn't feel like work when you enjoy what you get to do. And. But I really found my calling in knowing that I wanted to be an entertainment. And over the years, as my faith strengthened and grew in my relationship with Christ, I realized that no matter where I am, I can use my career, my job, as a way to influence others for the gospel of Jesus. And so I really found what I like to do and then said, how do I get to do this in a way that honors Christ and shares the gospel with them? So now I make movies that share faith content and make a podcast that talks all about Jesus. So it was just really putting the two together for me. What about you?
- [04:18]
A
I love that. I think that sometimes we expect our calling to be, you know, up on the mountaintop and it's glowing and it's obvious and things like that. I think. I don't think it always is. I think in oftentimes today culture, we look for our calling as something that's like, what makes us happy.
- [04:37]
B
Right.
- [04:37]
A
You know, and I actually think that we should go from the other perspective, which is, like, what really burdens our heart, you know, and. And you can find some real purpose and calling and going after something that burdens your heart. So if there's a ministry that burdens your heart and you're a cpa, then maybe consider using God's talents to go after what burdens your. Your heart. You know, I can tell you, and oftentimes I think that calling. Your calling, you know, may not be in your profession. You know, I think we're called in our profession to glorify God in whatever that we do.
- [05:11]
B
Yes.
- [05:11]
A
But I think oftentimes it can be in a ministry or it can be in a. With some other thing outside of work, but you're just at work for eight hours a day glorifying God in whatever you do, whether it's the CEO or the CPA or the janitor.
- [05:23]
B
Right.
- [05:23]
A
But maybe sometimes the calling is, you know, outside of, of work, so you can use your skills there too.
- [05:28]
B
Yeah, that's a great answer and totally, totally agree with it. So tell me about. You had a burden in your life and that has turned in your calling. What was the burden? Yeah, life.
- [05:45]
A
You know, there's been a one big burden, which is, as I kind of mentioned, my. My wife and I got married and within one year of marriage, we moved. My wife got pregnant, and then we found out at our 12 week ultrasound that our daughter, her name is Grace, had a fatal condition and that she wasn't going to live. And so the doctor walked in and said, you know, terminate and try again. And from our perspective was like, no, that's not what we're going to do. You know, we're going to let this life play out in whatever way that God intends that life to be. And so Grace lived for 10 and a half hours before she, before she passed away. And as you can probably imagine, being one year into marriage, which, you know, the first year of marriage is already hard, trying to figure out how to live with each other and love each other. Well, and through all of our, you know, strange things that we do, also losing a child, you know, we went through two years of, you know, what felt like hell on earth and just trying to keep our marriage together. And so we actually felt that, you know, in that moment, we feel burdened for people going through really hard marriages. And so to follow up on your question, you know, we find our calling oftentimes in, you know, marriage ministry and loving on those, those people who have, you know, really tough, tough marriages. And we know the enemy hates marriages. You know, it's the closest thing to our relationship with Christ on earth is those marriages and he hates them. And so, so much spiritual warfare there that we felt called to, to love on, on people. And that was, you know, that was our big burden on life. And then fortunately, you know, we have another healthy. Oh, go ahead.
- [07:14]
B
Well, it's really interesting because I, I assumed when you lost your daughter you were going to say we wanted to help those who have suffered the same. Losing a child. And yet you're the burden was her marriage.
- [07:30]
A
Yeah, it was, it was. We actually started a little nonprofit to help those families who were going through that. So we were definitely burdened for that too. But ultimately what I think came out of that was just the Lord placed on our hearts. Like, man, marriage is really hard. And you guys went through probably one of the hardest things that a marriage has to Go through. Yeah, you made it out on the other end. You know, I think in those situations, like you either come closer to the Lord or farther away, you know, And I think that when marriages have trouble, they have that same path that they have to decide which to go down. And so we're trying to get couples to be like, you know, go this way, you know, like your true peace and joy is in him. And as I mentioned, in this modern day age where we're constantly seeping, seeking that dopamine hit of happiness, oftentimes we see married couples go, I want to be happy, I want to be happy. I was like, no, no. Joy is found down this road, you know, and we have now, you know, our testimony of being like we are on the brink of divorce and only testimony, only through the Lord do we, do we feel like we made it through. And now, you know, we want to share that story with, with you. So, you know, that was, you know, the big burden on life. Thank, thank you Lord for giving us two, you know, healthy girls. We have a nine year old and a seven year old after Grace. And actually Grace's birthday is in two days. And so it's a really sensitive time for us this time of year, as you can imagine. But yeah, I mean, the other little one that kind of led me to what I'm doing today was my, my little one who was one at the time, she kept having fluid build up in her ears and would pop her eardrums. So as you can imagine, the little one year old was screaming bloody murder all day long. And ultimately the ear, nose and throat doctor was like, hey, we just gotta do this little procedure, stick tubes in her ears, it'll drain the fluid out, she'll be fine, you know, and we had insurance at the time and you know, we did everything right. We went in network, we, you know, followed all the rules, all the insurance rules. And at the end of the day, the insurance company said they wouldn't pay for that procedure and it ended up being $8,000.
- [09:35]
B
That is mind boggling.
- [09:36]
A
Yeah.
- [09:37]
B
What are the types? What were the reasons that they gave you?
- [09:39]
A
They said it was medically unnecessary. I'm saying, hold on a second. Like the day before she had this, she was, couldn't sleep, screaming bloody murder. The day after, she was totally fine and a normal human being. Our ear, nose and throat doctor said he was seeing some scar tissue build up in her eardrums. And so he's like, we have to get this done. I'm like, if an ear, nose and throat Doctor says it's medically necessary. What right do you have, insurance company, to say it's not medically necessary?
- [10:05]
B
Right.
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A
And so we had to stroke an $8,000 check to pay for this procedure.
- [10:09]
B
And you fought with them, I'm assuming, as much as you possibly could do.
- [10:13]
A
Two rounds of appeals, and at the end of the day, they're like, nope, we're not paying for it. And I was bewildered.
- [10:18]
B
Unbelievable.
- [10:19]
A
I was bewildered. And as I started doing research, what I found is one out of every five medical bills are denied. One out of every five. So you have a 20% chance. And I was one of those five. You know, and I. And I've been incredibly fortunate, but. And to pay that $8,000. But what I also found is that somewhere between 200 and 250,000 families every year go bankrupt due to a medical expense, even though they have health insurance. So they have health insurance and it's still making them go bankrupt. And so, yes, I had a burden for that. I mean, like 250,000 families. Now, it wasn't nearly as much as the burden I had for, you know, my daughter, obviously, but like, you know, my. The daughter who passed away. But like, this one was like, man, you know, there's something that goes on in your heart, and I feel like the holy spirit places thing on your heart to be like, you've got the skills to go and try and fix this. And so ultimately, you know, I went to my wife and we called our insurance plan. I said, we quit. We're done. So, you know, we looked at each other's like, we're uninsured. And we're like, okay, so where does that. Where do we do with that? You know? But ultimately what we found is we started paying these medical bills just out of pocket. And we know pediatrician, whatever. And we walked in, we were like, hey, we'll just cash pay it. And they're like, okay, we'll give you a 40% discount.
- [11:40]
B
Going to say it's usually less than you do pay out of pocket.
- [11:43]
A
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so we're like, hold on a second. Like, you can pay less if you don't have health insurance. And they're like, yeah. And we're like, well, why? And they're like, well, because with health insurance, I got to get it pre approved, and then I got to get billed, and then I got to wait for my money. And they're like, look at all these billers back here who are just paid to bill health insurance just to get paid. The doctor spends on average 16 hours a week. Fighting with health insurance plans to get paid. So anybody listening? Do you imagine fighting with your employer for two days a week, which only allows you to work for three days a week? Like, what if I gave you all five days? You know, and, and so that's what, in essence what happens if you just pay them directly.
- [12:23]
B
Right.
- [12:24]
A
They don't have to deal with any of that administrative burden.
- [12:26]
B
Right. I do have a few doctors that do not take insurance that I currently go to. And that's the reason that they've told us that they can't actually do the jobs that they want to do and help the amount of people that, and give the time that they want to each patient because they spend so much time on paperwork and insurance and having to wait for approvals and have to like, get enough people through the doors each day in order.
- [12:55]
A
Yeah. To get their conversation like eight minutes now.
- [12:58]
B
Right.
- [12:58]
A
You're like, what can you say in eight minutes? You know, it's one of those things where you don't have enough time to talk about lifestyle issues. What are you eating, are you working out, what is your sleep habits? Like you don't have enough time in those eight minutes. And so therefore these doctors want to deal with your symptoms. And so instead of going into what really could cure you, at the core it's a pharmaceutical solution. So that's why we get pharmaceutical solutions to problems that could be solved with lifestyle solutions.
- [13:30]
B
It's just a band aid.
- [13:32]
A
It's a band aid and ultimately band aids break off. And that's why we have, you know, the average person going into Medicare now, I think has two and a half chronic conditions. 40% of our population is either diabetic or pre diabetic. They're Band aids to what ultimately needs to happen. So our system is just crumbling and
- [13:51]
B
it, and have you found that it doesn't really matter what insurance companies you're going through, that they all pretty much practice the same way.
- [14:02]
A
Yeah. Ultimately is because, you know, what I see is perverse incentives. And so people think health care is really, really complex. And I say, you know, I can break it down pretty easily. Right. You have the buyer of health care, which are these health insurance companies, they're the ones paying for it. They're the buyers. They actually want the price to go up. And people don't understand that. But the Obamacare 15 years ago basically said insurance plans, you can only make a certain percentage of your premium as profit. So not to get into too many, like business details here, but if you're to make math easy. If your premium is $1000, their profit can only be $150. So how do they grow their profit by 10% from 150 to 165? Well, your premium has to go up from 1000 to 1100. They actually want to see prices of health care go up over time. And so that's the buyer, the seller is the big hospital systems. They want the price to go up. So when you have the buyer of the service and the seller of the service both wanting the price to go up, the price goes up.
- [15:05]
B
And so that's why we're paying for it and then not even getting the care that we need or are wanting in return.
- [15:12]
A
Exactly, exactly.
- [15:14]
B
So I've noticed that I've had a lot of friends open up GoFundMe pages to pay for their medical bills. And you know, my heart is happy when those bills do get paid and people rally. But typically it's for someone that you know or a loved one or it has to be. It is such a dramatic story that people's hearts are, are pulled in that way. But tell me what you have found with trying to, trying to pay for medical bills through GoFundMe or any other sources.
- [15:50]
A
Yeah, I mean, GoFundMes, I think the last number I saw was under 20% of those GoFundMes actually get funded. And so you really do have to rely upon your social media networks and things like that. If you have a hundred followers or something on social media, you're not going to be able to get, you know, that that paid for or you have to have a story that really tugs at your heart.
- [16:08]
B
Right.
- [16:09]
A
Well, there's a lot of medical events that you know are significant, but don't, you know, tug at people's hearts. And so I don't think that's a viable long term option. However, I will tell you it did give me inspiration for what we're doing now. You know, instead of having to go on your social media page and try to get, you know, people ginned up to do this. What if you had like a community of 30,000 people who would be willing to fund you in the case of something really big happens? You know, and I think community is a lost thing in our society.
- [16:41]
B
It is, right?
- [16:41]
A
I mean, our online communities are basically our communities now and it's all. You all see the good stuff, right? So we were thinking like, if we can get a bunch of people together to fund each other's needs so that they now have the money to go and pay their doctors in cash directly. You're going to get way better prices. You don't have the health insurance middleman. We're creating a community. I get to help Candace directly with her medical event as opposed to sending it to UnitedHealthcare every month. So I know that, you know, XYZ person in Idaho is pregnant. I'm gonna send them money for their pregnancy. And so that's what we ultimately have done, is built this community of 30,000 people who are funding each other's healthcare expenses directly as opposing to have this health insurance intermediary. And we've funded that 42,000 times.
- [17:29]
B
Incredible.
- [17:30]
A
And 99.9% of the bills that we asked the community to fund are funded as opposed to under 20% for GoFundMe.
- [17:39]
B
Okay.
- [17:39]
A
Remember the stat I just told you,
- [17:41]
B
Crowd health, by the way, we have
- [17:42]
A
the name of it. No, I'm just. I get excited about what we're doing, so I'm jumping ahead.
- [17:47]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [17:48]
A
So, you know, I was inspired by, you know, GoFundMe, some of the health shares out there, the Christian health shares, there's the Amish that do things like this. There's actually really cool communities in Kenya that do this, all built around the community. And I said, if we can take the best of all of what these people are doing and put it together, we could have a really great solution for people to get their medical bills paid without the need of having health insurance.
- [18:12]
B
Got it.
- [18:13]
A
And so that's.
- [18:13]
B
And so are you still paying the out of pocket prices you're paying.
- [18:17]
A
Yeah. You're paying out of pocket prices as opposed to health insurance prices? You know, I'll give you an example. There is.
- [18:23]
B
Please.
- [18:23]
A
You know, in. I had. I. I went to the. To the cardiologist because I had a little heart concern. It ended up being a pinched nerve. It was no big deal. But he said, hey, we needed to get a. The scan done. And I was like, okay, great. Where can I get it? He's like, right down the hall. It's like 200 bucks if you pay in cash. I was like, great, I'll go down. So I got the scan and I posted it on X and I said, oh, I got the scan for $200. I think it was a great discount or whatever. And some guy reached out to me and said, I had that exact same scan through an insurance company and it cost $5,000.
- [18:56]
B
That is unbelievable.
- [18:58]
A
So you went from 5,000 to 200? I think it was 200, 225, something like that. Just by paying directly. Like that's how big the differences are here. We just put one up on on X this morning where if they would have paid in health insurance for a life flight. So a really big deal, right? $80,000 for a life flight, a helicopter for an hour flight. We got it down, we, we negotiated it down to I think it was like 13,000. So it goes from 80,000 to 13,000. I mean that is the difference in ripping out the middleman in this equation and let people, people just be a community and fund each other and and pay the doctors the way they want to be paid.
- [19:40]
B
So how long has crowd health been around?
- [19:44]
A
Yeah, 20, 21. So we just had our five year birthday and congratulations. We've done this, this bill thing 42000 times. Our members we just put up, our members have saved $77 million by joining crowd health versus what they would have paid for with insurance. So we're sucking $77 million out of the medical industrial complex out of these insurance companies and giving them back into the pockets of these numbers. Our, our. I went and just to see curious what the Affordable Care act plan would be for me, my wife and my two girls and it was fourteen hundred dollars a month and it was eighteen thousand dollars for my deductible which means I'm paying thirty plus thousand dollars before the health insurance plan pays. A dimensional with crowd health this month I'm paying $465. So a third I'm saving a thousand dollars a month by doing this by just paying the doctors.
- [20:42]
B
So what about if you have pre existing conditions? Yeah that's a huge thing with insurance companies as to whether people cover things or not. So how does crowd health deal?
- [20:51]
A
Yeah, you can we welcome you in with pre existing conditions. The only challenge that we had in the beginning was we had some know a bunch of people unfortunately who had knee replacements and they jumped into the community, they got their knee replaced and then they jumped out and we just said look we really want to build a community here.
- [21:07]
B
Right.
- [21:08]
A
And so you can come in with any preexisting conditions you have. We'll help you find really good rates for those. But you are out of pocket for that for the first two years and then the community will help thereafter. So it's like you have to be a part of this community to do this. And so it's not perfect for everybody but you know the vast majority of people it works, you know really, really great. So our number one expense is pregnancies so lots of babies, you know I had a weird. I don't know how this will resonate with your audience or not, but, like, we had a really interesting stat from a few months ago that we had 18 babies born at crowd health of. We call them crowdies. 18 crowdies were born and 17 of them were not born in hospitals.
- [21:51]
B
Oh, wow.
- [21:51]
A
They were born at home or birthing centers. Like we, we. We give you. It should be your option. It should be your choice. Health insurance doesn't typically pay for things outside of the hospital, but it's like you should have the choice to have your baby wherever you want to have.
- [22:04]
B
So you can still choose if you want a midwife or if you do want to go to a doula or go to a hospital and have a doctor that you can, yeah, in a sense, pay out of pocket. But with crowd health.
- [22:14]
A
Exactly. You can go wherever you want. So there's no networks. Given you're painting in cash, there are no networks. So I don't know, like, when I, whenever in it passed, I had went. Bounced from one insurance to another. My wife is like, you know, is. Is my OBGYN in it, is the pediatrician in it, is, you know, all these things.
- [22:30]
B
Right.
- [22:30]
A
And now it's like, you can go to whatever obgyn you want. You can go to whatever pediatrician you want. And so it gives you total choices on where you, where you go and total freedom in that.
- [22:40]
B
So I know you, you've. You've already talked about this, but can you explain in even more detail some of the biggest differences with crowd health versus the insurance companies or GoFundMe or some of the other.
- [22:53]
A
Sure.
- [22:54]
B
The other companies that are out there doing similar things. But you talked about how you took the best of everything and put it into crowd health.
- [23:01]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think the incentives are everything, you know, and somebody said, I think it was Charlie Munger said, show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome. Right. And so it's like, show me the incentives. And so we wanted to align incentives with our members. And so instead of paying a premium to your health insurance plan, you know, they make their money. A thousand dollars of premium, $850 worth of cost. They make that $150. We just think like, well, that's weird because you want premiums to go up and you want your. Your incentive to deny bills goes up also so you can maximize that profit. That just didn't seem aligned with us. And so we're just a subscription fee. And so you just pay us a subscription fee. You know, once, once a month and you get to be a part of the community and then a second time will, will charge you a second time to help somebody else out directly in the community and that goes directly to them. So we thought that was important that you know exactly where your money is, is going. So that's one of the big differences between us and all the other.
- [23:58]
B
Can you even choose or do you, does crowd health still choose where you know who that is for you, or can you see someone's need within crowd health and say, I want to contribute
- [24:08]
A
to that person's Right now we, we allocate a specific situation to you, but if you tell us like, hey, I want to do pregnancies or I want to do whatever, then we can help. You know, sometimes, you know, allocated properly, but typically it's just a round robin. So it's like whoever was asked for this back is, you know, then we move her up and then we go back in line. So it's, it just makes it fair and even.
- [24:29]
B
Yeah.
- [24:30]
A
You know, and I think ultimately, like there is such a huge difference in prices. You know, you can get a colonoscopy for $1200, you can get a colonoscopy for $5000. Like there's a huge range. Sorry to use that example, but no,
- [24:44]
B
I'm actually due for my colonoscopy.
- [24:48]
A
We'll find you a good place to go if you want to reach out to us, you know, but ultimately, you know, I was actually looking at some of the Christian Health shares too, and what I found was, is that they were actually pointing people to higher cost places of, of doing things. And so interesting. I was like, man, like, we've got to figure out a way if we're really going to drive down price, how do we get them to, you know, really great docs at a really fair price.
- [25:11]
B
So do you recommend doctors specifically to where people live?
- [25:15]
A
Yeah, I mean, if you reach out to us, what we do is we say we've got all these members in your area, they've gone to this great doctor, they thought he or she was amazing and they have a fair price. And so, you know, if you want to go to them, you actually have somebody in the community that's gone there. We had a woman in Austin who tore her ACL playing pickleball. And so she went to the hospital and the hospital's like, yeah, you tore your acl. Here's the in hospital orthopedic surgeon. And they were going to do it for $25,000. She called us. She felt so bad. She had only started, like two or three months before. She's like, I'm so bad. I'm sorry. You know, like.
- [25:49]
B
Right.
- [25:49]
A
Like, no big deal, but would you consider another doctor in town who, if you pay him at the point of care, would do it for $11,000, so a $14,000 difference. And this doctor does a bunch of the athletics or the joints for the University of Texas. So he's like, awesome, great, top notch, probably one of the best. And he was willing to do it for 11 if he just, you know, you paid now as opposed to billing through health insurance. And so that's a perfect example where she's like, I need a great orthopedic surgeon in Napa or Phoenix or Austin or wherever. You know, we most more than likely have really great doctors there that somebody else in the community has gone to and has a great experience with.
- [26:32]
B
That's so great. Can you tell me what some of the most common questions that you get asked about crowd health?
- [26:40]
A
Yeah, you know, we are conditioned to think that we need to have health insurance from little kids, Right. And so most of the questions we were like, what about the big one, right? Like, what. What happens if something really, really big happens?
- [26:54]
B
Right.
- [26:55]
A
We had a guy in Montana who was out fishing in bear country. He had a. A.44 in his holster on his. On his chest. He caught a fish. He leaned down, the gun fell out of his. His holster, hit a rock perfectly, went off and went into his calf, out the back of his calf, into his thigh, out the top of his thigh, into his chest and out the back.
- [27:16]
B
Whoa.
- [27:17]
A
And so. And then you had to get life flighted out. So a helicopter had to land in the middle of the stream to get him out of there. He went into a coma when he got there. Funny story about that really quick is they thought he was going to die. So his whole family came around and his wife was next to him. He woke up out of the coma, and the first thing he said was, hey, guys, guess what? We're pregnant. His wife was 12 weeks pregnant, and they hadn't told anybody. Can you imagine, like, the crazy whirlwind of emotions that you're going through at that moment? Anyway, that was a million dollar, close to $1 million bill. We negotiated. We have a team of negotiations, people on our side. We negotiated that from almost a million to like 225,000. We sent it out to the community that was funded like this. Easy to do with 30,000 people. We've had dozens and dozens and dozens of cancer cases, automobile accidents, heart attacks, like all of those big ones, NICU babies, you know, we just had twin NICU babies that just got out and, and those bills got paid for. So they're always asking about like, what about the big ones? Yeah, but the cool thing is like, you know that you're helping those twins NICU babies, like your money's going directly to, to their mom and dad, which is such a cool thing as opposed to sending it to, you know, Aetna or whoever and you have no idea what they're using it for. So it's pretty.
- [28:32]
B
I love that you sound like these are all your friends.
- [28:35]
A
I know I get emotional about it.
- [28:37]
B
It's. But it's really incredible. It just tells me how much you care, how invested you are, how meaningful this is and that your heart is after helping people.
- [28:47]
A
Yeah.
- [28:47]
B
I love hearing these stories.
- [28:49]
A
I asked the team like a year and a half ago, I said, you know, like, what would happen if somebody else who's got a lot more money than us, like Google or somebody wanted to replicate and you know, what would make us stand apart, like what would allow us to survive. And one of our people said we legit love our members, you know, and, and that's where while we're not a faith based organizations, back to our calling question. Like, I want to glorify God by truly loving our members. Well, and it's a. Love your neighbor in an industry that. Man, haven't we like sucked the humanity out of healthcare? You know, because.
- [29:26]
B
Yes.
- [29:26]
A
You know, health insurance is this. I don't know. I won't go too far down that road. But like it's, it's like one of those things. There's like, I don't feel a lot of love in health care.
- [29:34]
B
No. I mean as a, as a parent who now has three adult children who are now, I mean, one of them has one more year on our health insurance, our family health insurance. But that's a great concern of mom and dad looking for your now adult children to do you have a job that's going to give you insurance. Where are you going to buy in insurance if you don't? And what are they going to cover? What are they not. And what if something happens? And what about when you have babies? I mean these are all the questions I'm asking for my kids at this point too. And making sure that, that they're covered. And it's a scary feeling as an adult.
- [30:15]
A
Yeah. I.
- [30:16]
B
Not only for yourself and of course there's, I have all Those questions for me and my husband. But then when it comes to your kids, it's like mama bear comes out. And I want to make sure that they would be covered when it's their time and for sure.
- [30:31]
A
And, you know, 25, 26, whenever they come off of your insurance, they're not making, oftentimes not making tons of money. And so.
- [30:38]
B
Exactly.
- [30:38]
A
Insurance is not inexpensive. And so it's like we really can give you a low cost option for health insurance. Our single people this month are paying 130 bucks, 135 bucks, which you can come up with 135 bucks. That's. That's same as your cell phone, basically.
- [30:55]
B
Right.
- [30:56]
A
And so that's way less expensive than the Affordable Care act plan, which is more like four, five or six hundred bucks. And you have this big deductible. So just one more quick story about this, like, loving your neighbor, because I feel like your audience especially like, I. I truly believe, like, God does call us into some, some work. And how do you glorify him in that? And I just, like, I love this part of our business because that is ultimately my heart. We had this one, we had this family in Colorado, and this little boy, I'm gonna get emotional talking about it. This little boy was on a hike with his dad and he fell and he gashed his cheek. So it wasn't a big deal. But he went to the er, he got it stitched up. And so our person internally, you have your own care advocate. So when you join, you get one person internally who's responsible for you, as opposed to a big call center, which doesn't feel very loving to me. So our person called the mom and said, how's he doing? And she's like, well, the little guy's great, you know, physically, but emotionally, he won't go on hikes with his dad anymore. And it's like that's what they did as a family. So our care advocate sent them a little climbing kit that they could put in their living room. So it was like a $60 little mini rock climbing kit. And mom called us back and said, you won't believe it. You know, he's back on his. On hikes with his dad, you know, because that little thing.
- [32:16]
B
So thoughtful.
- [32:17]
A
You know, it's like those little moments that we can, like, really love each other. Well, that, you know, I think that we can really glorify God in that even if our members aren't believers or don't believe in Jesus or whatever. But it's like, man, if you can just show that love in little ways. Like that's the way that we need to glorify God in a non faith based. Most of the people listening, I'm assuming you're working in non faith based organizations. It's like you can do it there too. Like how do you glorify God in those little ways of loving people? And that's how we do it at crowd health.
- [32:51]
B
That warms my heart so much. You have no idea that really truly is loving your neighbor as yourself. And I love that you are sharing your faith in that way. But it is open to absolutely everyone and just taking care of the community around you. So that sets you apart right there and I love it. I. You've tell me the most rewarding thing about what you get to do.
- [33:18]
A
My, my favorite thing is like talking to these families, you know, on a day to day basis and just hearing what they're going through. I mean we just lost an employee last week to cancer and you know like talking to them and like getting to know their stories. My, you know, we had a, we had a family who their dad, like a young family, three kids, wife, dad passed away unexpected. And so like it's like how do you love that family through that, you know. And we sent something out to the entire community and was like hey, like this is not your normal like request every month. Like is there if you have anything else, like we need to love this family well. And I think she raised like 15 or $20,000. Two of our members stepped up and said I'm going to pay for your crowd health for the entire year. And so she's got two years worth of free crowd health, you know, because two other members are paying for it. For that little family. It's like man, like those little ways that you can just love on people going through really hard stuff. I think is, is you know, where my calling is and I think it's probably a part of, you know, losing our daughter and going through it and knowing what it feels like. It's like we can love them well in their, you know, times of, of difficulty. That's where I feel like, you know, I'm called to, to do so. Those are my, my favorite moments.
- [34:44]
B
That is amazing. Thank you for all that you're doing in your family. Like, it's just unbelievable. I want to have a whole other conversation which we're not going to have today. We'll have this off the podcast, but I'm like, how did you even start this? I don't know what you did before this.
- [35:00]
A
So I'm like, yeah, I. It's back to yeah, like what you said in your answer, which was like, all right, Lord. Like, what skills have you given me? Or what, you know, what talents have you given me? And I love that parable of the talents because it does show. Like, God is giving you skills. Like, go out there and use them to glorify him. Don't dig up a hole and stick them in a hole and be like, you know, and so it just, like, God has given me that skill to go and think of these, like, kind of pretty complex problems and then figuring out, like, okay, how do I build something that's sustainable and viable? And, you know, it's. Candidly, it's not really what I wanted to do, but it was just like the Holy Spirit was like, no, go. And I. I feel like it was through prayer, and I was like, okay, like, lord, is this what you really want me to do? And I felt like he said yes. And so, you know, it just was one of those skill sets that I. That I have. You know, I can't hang a picture in my house to save my life. I don't have that skill set. My brother does. I don't. And so it's just like, what skills he's given you, and go and try to glorify him in that.
- [36:02]
B
Well, you are making such a huge difference in so many people's lives. I'm cheering you on in this whole process. And. And. And I'm just happy to be able to spread the word and share this to all of my listeners. I hope that everyone listening will do the same. We'll look up crowd health and see how it can be a huge benefit to their lives.
- [36:23]
A
Well, thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.
- [36:26]
B
We're gonna. We're gonna finish up with a listener question. We always backend this with another question. This one is from Emma, and she asks, what is your best advice for moms who struggle with wanting to stay home and raise your babies and teach them about God? And another part of their heart is being tugged into chasing certain dreams and aspirations outside of the home? Well, Emma, I relate to that very, very much. I've been in that position. I mean, I had my three kids in my early 20s, and I was also an actor for so many years before that. And my desires for my career never went away. And yet I knew that the most important thing I could do once I had children was to be with them, raise them. And I absolutely think that you can do both. Things it might not be at the same time, or it might, it might weigh heavier on one end or another within seasons of your life. So, you know, I will say, looking back now that I have adult children, that even though those days with your little ones can feel so long, like the days are long but the years are short, and I do not regret one day that I stayed with my children to teach them, to love them, to train them, to help them understand the world and. And become the human beings that they are today. And I, and God calls each and every mother and father to do that. That is our responsibility as parents. And so there is never a day wasted when you pour into your children. And I would, I personally, looking back, would always prioritize that. However, I've never lost a desire for my dreams and aspirations and the talents that God gave me and wanting to use those. But I just, you know, looked at the moment in life, the ages of my children, the time, the investment and weighing out again what's most important. But how can I balance with doing the. Some of these other things? And they've shifted over the years. You know, the time where I didn't do anything but pour into my children and then another time in life where I got to pick that back up. And as I get older and older and I have less time with my kids, I have more time for the things I want to do. I don't think God gives us a timeline on career and raising children in that way or putting off your career. And I might have kind of this half glass full, very positive point of view. I like to think the best about everything in life, but I really believe if you pray about it, you can find a balance in what you want to do. But just ask God and remember that your children in their, their youngest years really, I believe, should be the priority. What do you have to say anyway?
- [39:51]
A
The guy. Non Mom. My. The only thing that occurred to me was, you know, I know the fruits of the spirit, the ones that I have trouble with is, you know, patience, love, joy, peace, patience. And so oftentimes if there's something that I, I want, and it sounds like this person wants to be mom, but also wants to go after these dreams and aspirations, a lot of those things can be like, it's not a no, it's just a nod yet.
- [40:15]
B
Exactly.
- [40:15]
A
And so have patience.
- [40:17]
B
Yeah.
- [40:17]
A
And so maybe you get through that stage with your kids where they go through into kindergarten or first or second or whatever, third grade, and then, then you can go and do your, your great thing.
- [40:25]
B
Exactly.
- [40:25]
A
And maybe through that, God is creating a skill that allows you to go and do that other thing in a more fruitful way than if you were to start it now. So I just think have, you know, peace and patience around. Maybe it's a not yet, not a no not. It's a not yet. So that would be my only.
- [40:42]
B
That was a much better succinct answer than what I said, but very similar points.
- [40:46]
A
Yeah.
- [40:47]
B
And I love that. Well, thanks so much for your question, Emma. And that's it. We're wrapping this show up. That went by so fast. Andy, thank you so much for being here.
- [40:58]
A
Thank you.
- [40:58]
B
And. And sharing all about crowd health. And if you want to learn more about how crowd health is helping other families and could help yours, just. Just go to joincrowdhealth.com and if you want to join a private podcast discussion group, I would love to see you in the Together community. Download the Together Community app and learn how to become a monthly member@canvas.com together. Until next time, Be grateful all day, every day. Candy Rock Entertainment all rights reserved.
- [41:32]
A
Sa.