NEXT VIDEO ROUGH CUT (and a favor to ask)! Aug. Progress Report
Added 2022-08-26 22:04:53 +0000 UTCTL;DR: I have a very rough cut of my next video, and you can watch it now! And if you find any glaring inaccuracies, I would be extremely appreciative if you told me before I finish it up and publish it!
VIDEO HERE: https://vimeo.com/743578733
PASSWORD: highdeductiblehealthplan
Hey remember that video I've been working on for the past two months that is all about Health Insurance Terminology? I'm still working on it! As I mentioned in the Novelty Instrumentalist stream earlier this month, it took me about 7 different filming days to get all the footage I needed, and I ended up with ~115 gigs of video (~5.5 hours).
I have finally whittled it down into the skeleton of the final video, which will end up being around 27 minutes. And now, for the first time ever, I'm letting go of my need for everything to be absolutely perfect before showing it to the public, and I'm giving you access to that REALLY rough cut in order to ask you an extremely big favor:
Please let me know if I've bungled it.
Look, I've checked and rechecked and rechecked this script a dozen times to make sure I'm being factually correct while (hopefully) being entertaining, and now I can't even tell where my blind spots are. So if you know a lot about health insurance, or if you're really good at fact-check-googling, I would be extremely grateful if you give it a once over.
If you find any glaring inaccuracies, feel free to send me a message via Patreon, or you can just leave a comment on this post!
(And if you'd like to look through the script while watching it, I've attached it below. It's not word-for-word exact with the current video, but it's close, and it links to any specific articles/websites I reference!)
OH YEAH BEFORE YOU WATCH IT, you should know:
This is the full video, but is a rough cut in every sense of the word, that means...
- it has no music (but I did commission Louie Zong to help make some very fun corporate stock music to go behind it)
- it has no graphics (but I've put some text in to explain what graphics will go in some important areas)
- it has no sound effects
- it has no color correction
- the audio hasn't been leveled correctly
That's all stuff I need to take care of now that I've chosen the best takes and put it in the correct order. I've been thinking of this as a sort of spiritual successor to Unraveled, and that's why I'm producing it the same way—do all the basic work and then polish the heck out of it over the course of the next week or two.
Thanks so much for being patient with me on this video! I really really really don't want to screw this up, since I know I have a large audience, and this is a very important topic for Americans!
OKAY NOW FOR THE OTHER PROGRESS UPDATE STUFF
tbh my life has just been this video and pitch meetings for the past few weeks.
Karen and I have been pitching a show we wrote while also fitting our filming/editing work into each of the random gaps we have between meetings. But things are going okay enough on both fronts, so here's hoping we have good news to share in the near (read: before the end of 2025) future!
THANKS FOR READING THIS. I'M GONNA GET BACK TO EDITING NOW.
EDIT: Just a note to say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR INPUT! This is extremely helpful. I've started rewriting/adding some pop-ups for the final video, and I'll be filming them soon. If you have any other urgent errors to fix, please send me a message via Patreon just in case I'd miss it in the comments here! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Comments
With per diem of course. And adjusted for inflation in New York
Rumikub
2022-09-26 03:38:31 +0000 UTCHour
Rumikub
2022-09-26 03:37:35 +0000 UTCOMG aren’t these words on here so great??! I’ll do your bidding for dollars an
Rumikub
2022-09-26 03:37:26 +0000 UTCLove the video overall, and also I'm so glad you still have that amazing chair painting.
Kegan Cunningham
2022-09-10 06:49:28 +0000 UTC12:07 There should be multiple Brians coming in and mocking your decision to keep COBRA, all talking over one another
Kegan Cunningham
2022-09-10 06:41:32 +0000 UTCI think it would be funny if at 3:32 when you toss your glasses you use the exact same sound effect as when you toss Pumpkin Cowboy away (CRASH SFX)
Kegan Cunningham
2022-09-10 06:31:42 +0000 UTC(I privately asked Louie, and he is planning on releasing the soundtrack to this on Spotify and Bandcamp! He also did not realise you had talked about it on here)
Well-Spoken Rambler
2022-09-05 11:10:51 +0000 UTC(Reposting this in the comments in case someone misses the edit!) Just a note to say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR INPUT! This is extremely helpful. I've started rewriting/adding some pop-ups for the final video, and I'll be filming them soon. If you have any other urgent errors to fix, please send me a message via Patreon just in case I'd miss it in the comments here! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Brian David Gilbert
2022-08-31 18:22:07 +0000 UTCBroke all my rules and watched something pre-release... and glad I did. The context I bring is Australian healthcare which is closing on a crisis but is still primarily public (i.e. social... socialised/socialist for you Americans. This means we all are happy to pay a bit so we are all healthy... there are benefits to supporting each other. Seriously.) But literally nobody is talking about the impending Aus healthcare crisis, particularly re: having access to a personal GP (General Practioner/Family Doctor). Conservative/right wing politicians in Australia always look to the USA for healthcare ideas, I think because they see $$$ for themselves (But they don't hold gov now, phew!). I suspect/hope this vid will get a lot of traction in the USA because it presents as 'edutainment' while simultaneously showing the evils of a healthcare system which is ostensibly almost entirely privatised and profit based.
Nick Maniatis
2022-08-31 11:51:58 +0000 UTCI finally got the chance to watch the video and again with my partner who used to work for private ambulance dispatch. All looks good and makes sense, and 100/10 would watch again. Also way to gloss over the security Dalek at the Kaiser (unless those are common now??? Does everyone have security Daleks???)
Emily C. Martin
2022-08-31 04:54:38 +0000 UTCEnjoyed the rough cut tremendously - thank you for sharing it.
Paul Barth
2022-08-30 03:20:02 +0000 UTCLoved this rough cut! My only thought is for the sections where you explain a lot of acronyms in a row, a lot of them are circularly referential, so it might be good to leave up the meanings of each one in text overlay/pop them up as they’re mentioned. Not sure if you were already planning to do so but it was definitely a struggle in those sections to remember what HDHP stands for while also learning FSA and HMO etc.
Lizzy H
2022-08-29 16:03:02 +0000 UTCA note on FSA: you CAN roll over up to a certain amount from the previous year; you used to have to spend it all or lose it but that changed several years ago. I'm not positive what the current amount is, but I know in the past I had to spend enough to get it below $500 by the end of year to not lose any. May also be worth noting you can spend FSA money on over the counter stuff like first aid kits, bandaids and feminine hygiene products as well as glasses and contact lenses (things not covered by health insurance!) because I didn't know that when I first had a FSA until I was desperately trying to spend money out of it so I didn't lose it. Obviously you have to save the receipts from those purchases to send in so you can be reimbursed which can be a pain but worth it
Cecelia
2022-08-29 14:41:55 +0000 UTCand aged exactly 65
rionsanura
2022-08-29 14:05:56 +0000 UTCI don't know anything about American health insurance, but I am utterly delighted by the little pumpkin cowboy on your laptop!
Vincent Briggs
2022-08-29 13:02:07 +0000 UTCthis video educated me and also made me feel so validated to hating the US healthcare system
Arran P
2022-08-29 01:28:14 +0000 UTCI remember in the process stream for this video (and a quick doublecheck for myself) that the Nebraska eligibility site does indeed include all the ages that there are, but pedants in the comments are going to point out that the eligibility range your audio says (over 65, under 18, or an adult from 19 to 64) excludes people aged exactly 18
rionsanura
2022-08-28 23:30:47 +0000 UTCThe video sounds largely accurate based on what I know. Do you mention in the video that you're only/mostly referring to the federal marketplace (but most things still apply to other types of coverage)? It might be good to do so if not. I mention because some things (such as the dates of open enrollment) won't necessarily apply to non-marketplace healthcare plans. My OE is Oct 1 - 31st, because healthcare is spooky.
Merina
2022-08-28 00:19:52 +0000 UTCas someone your same age, your "unraveled" series changing from video games to health plans speaks to me on a deep, deep level. Can you do IRAs vs Roth IRAs next? :)
Merina
2022-08-28 00:19:23 +0000 UTCi should clarify that this video is already reverberating so positively and thoroughly in my mind and it's SO good and i appreciate it so much and it might be one of my favorite things you've ever done and i'm only commenting with potential perceived flaws because that's what you asked us for.
rionsanura
2022-08-27 21:57:49 +0000 UTCoops, pressed return. 2, small nitpick: to me, "goes hand in hand" means something closer to "varies directly" or "correlates" rather than "varies inversely" or "has opposite patterns" which I know you explain that hi-deductible=low-premium and vice versa immediately after saying it, but it's still SLIGHTLY confusing to me
rionsanura
2022-08-27 21:54:35 +0000 UTCI have two things to say that might be smol confuses from the video (I totally get why you concentrated on the regular common acronyms even though I still don't know which kind of plan an ACO falls under): 1. Open Enrollment doesn't just vary by state, it varies by EVERY PLAN. The state marketplace might be consistently at inconvenient holiday time, but if you wanna get a job plan, it could be some other specific weird time. If you have a student plan, it could be even another weird time. I was talking to my friend about this and apparently for one particular university there was like a WEEK at the beginning of the semester that you could enroll and that was it.
rionsanura
2022-08-27 21:52:51 +0000 UTCYES! EVERYONE READ MY FRIEND TIM'S BOOK
rionsanura
2022-08-27 18:40:48 +0000 UTCIt all sounds accurate to me and no specific notes or complaints. I mean, aside from the general complaint about our healthcare system and how bad it is for very nearly everybody involved except insurance companies. Patients, doctors, ambulance teams, hospitals. We pay more per capita by far for worse care nearly everyone agrees is broken. Not even factoring how many health problems get worse because someone can't afford treatment, thus overall costing the whole system more when it becomes critical. Ok rant over sorry. One thing I do not personally know, but am generally interested in, is about how exactly max out-of-pocket spending works, though you did touch on it briefly in the video. I assume the lower it is has the same effect as deductible, massively increasing premium. Just not positive how much it is even worth looking at. Just checked mine and it is nearly $7,000 so if I ever need to hit it I'm probably pretty boned anyways. Edit - OH! Also would love to know if there is a clear way to know when deductible/OOPM reset. Is it the same time every year, depends on plan, or does each claim fall off exactly one year later? Might be important to some others too.
necr0
2022-08-27 16:34:03 +0000 UTCNot an expert, but based on my own recent experience helping my mom switch to Medicare this sounds accurate. My mom is highly educated and in pretty good overall health and she was still ready to tear her hair out most days trying to work through the bureaucracy and what it all actually means. I'm sure you've done tons of reading and research already, but highly recommend "Health Justice Now" by Tim Faust to anyone who wants to learn more about healthcare reform in a more accessible way.
Allison
2022-08-27 15:26:05 +0000 UTCI really liked this overall! The catastrophic plan description is, I think, intended as a joke, but could be understood by viewers seriously. The whole point of those plans is that they protect you against catastrophic health events -- high deductible, but then kick in for the big expenses to prevent you from going bankrupt. I think the OH YEAH WE NEED TO HAVE INSURANCE THAT'S JUST DESIGNED TO AVOID OLD TIMEY CHARLES DICKENS POVERTY is kinda a helpful insight. For open enrollment, I think there's a missing insight here -- insurers are trying really hard to avoid adverse selection, so allowing you to change whenever is bad because it means that you could be on a catastrophic plan until 30 seconds before you got prescribed a super expensive recurring prescription, and then switch to a no-deductible plan to avoid that cost. (Yes, there's also lots of obfuscation, too.)
David Kasten
2022-08-27 14:55:17 +0000 UTCIf you really want someone to split hairs over this, I think pretty much all of those acronyms are actually initialisms (because you pronounce each letter individually e.g. HPO, instead of as a single word e.g. SCUBA). That said, I think that’s an extremely pedantic point which folks are unlikely to care about, as evidenced by the fact that I’m boring myself even talking about it
Well-Spoken Rambler
2022-08-27 07:47:59 +0000 UTCI love this so much -- my friend and I love to talk about the absurdities of healthcare and other unbelievably convoluted systems, and so I'm definitely planning on sending the final video to her.
spacecadet
2022-08-27 03:24:32 +0000 UTCIs your video complete and accurate? Summary missing. Seriously, I'm not an expert either, but looks great to me. I also really enjoyed seeing the rough edit, and will enjoy seeing the final version in a while with all the differences!
Peter Garver
2022-08-27 03:23:46 +0000 UTCNo inaccuracies noted here! I’d love a touch more (if it fits) on what that out-of-pocket max really is — I find that very confusing, especially when your plan has 2 or more people contributing to the max (there’s an individual and family max, not sure what counts for which max). Also, I learned the hard way that dental plans operate with a reverse out-of-pocket max, as in, they cover x amount per year and then… just… stop paying anything. All-in-all, I work as a dietitian/wellness coordinator for a small business (the insurance scene is no better from the healthcare provider’s point of view, by the way) and you better believe I’ll be sharing the final video with my colleagues during open enrollment this year (which for us is inexplicably in April, not November??)! It’s already hilarious as a rough cut and does a fabulous job of explaining all the nuttiness this system contains.
Annette Langan
2022-08-27 01:43:35 +0000 UTCAs a non-expert, I think the only secret to healthcare that I've learned over the years is to befriend your company insurance agent (in my case, only applicable to a group policy offered by a private business). Whether it was something as simple as disputing duplicate bills, getting a prior authorization, or figuring out why I receive a new EOB every month (Explanation of Benefits), getting help from the insurance agent who manages the group policy for my workplace has been a sanity-saver for me. That said, a joke about "informed consent" care might be a silly anecdote to add. It's particularly fun to deal with because despite its name, "informed consent" basically applies to only the treatment, not the actual healthcare system giving you the treatment. Unrelated, I've heard marrying to get TRICARE is one way to win the healthcare game, but that's a whole problematic issue on its own.
Aimee Goodwin
2022-08-27 00:56:48 +0000 UTCWanted to point out that “hearing” is almost always lumped in with vision and dental as “bodily functions we don’t cover”.
Kristin Daniel
2022-08-27 00:41:24 +0000 UTCGreat work! This is a really great overview of an obscenely complex system. I definitely plan to share the finished version of this with my sister since she's about to start her first job out of college and she'll no longer be on our parents' insurance. Nothing stood out as wrong to me, but in the HSA section, it might be worth mentioning that two states (California and New Jersey) don't recognize their special status, so you have to add HSA money back in when you file CA or NJ state tax returns. I spent a couple of extra hours on my taxes this year trying to figure out how to tell California about what ended up being less than $3 of interest on my HSA. If it weren't for the fact that my employer contributes a sizable amount to my HSA (that essentially makes the practical deductible of our HDHP equivalent to the deductible of the higher-premium PPO they offer us), I would probably avoid an HDHP entirely just to avoid this complication.
Jen
2022-08-26 23:29:22 +0000 UTCLooks awesome! I didn't notice any innacuracies, though I'm also no expert. You definitely gave a lot of awesome resources though so I'm sure that can absolutely help!
Rachel Frankland
2022-08-26 23:29:09 +0000 UTCI'm no expert, but I feel you've done a good job at covering the subject. I'm still getting used to the American health care system and even though I have coverage, the level of frustration that comes with it is larger than I expected. I'm covered through my spouse's insurance, but because his employer seems to switch insurance providers every year, some years my meds/exams are covered, other years they just refuse to cover some of them for reasons I have yet to fully comprehend. This system is ridiculous and so convoluted.
Oddity
2022-08-26 23:00:53 +0000 UTCMmk, I am no expert, but pretty much everything I have heard in the video is 100% accurate to how I understand insurance after bumbling through it all myself. The only things I could think of were little details where I've experienced differences but I think might be 100% specific to a certain insurance provider or employer. So all in all, I loved it (and the humor shone through in the rough cut, so I can't wait for the final version).
Jonnie Z
2022-08-26 22:52:00 +0000 UTCThis looks great! I enjoyed the cackling floating head. I'm by no means an expert, but didn't notice any glaring errors.
brainstrain
2022-08-26 22:50:07 +0000 UTC12:00 another coin in the fool jar
Well-Spoken Rambler
2022-08-26 22:24:24 +0000 UTCI'm Australian, but I bet a lot of people are going to find this video really useful. I'll still watch it all. Sorry about your country!
DwindleBunny
2022-08-26 22:15:19 +0000 UTCOh well at the very least, 1:35 I can say for sure is 100% accurate
Well-Spoken Rambler
2022-08-26 22:13:02 +0000 UTCNot gonna lie, I'm starting work with a new employer next week and have to weed through health care plans, this is like, exactly what I need right now.
Jonnie Z
2022-08-26 22:10:40 +0000 UTCWill give it a look-over to see if I can spot anything, but no promises! Also, of course it’s gotta have the corporate pop sound if it’s an Unraveled spiritual successor. Of *course* it’s gotta. Tangentially, do you reckon Louie’s likely to stick those songs up online? I’m trying to decide whether they’d belong to the Giant Unraveled Playlist Of Songs or not.
Well-Spoken Rambler
2022-08-26 22:10:28 +0000 UTC
