American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, Preborn
>> Walker Wildmon: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And The majority of The time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, The pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say The keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are. We quit.
>> Rick Green: Sacred honor is The courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
>> : This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's edition of At The Core Once again, this is American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with you. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Green. And, it's good to be with you on this edition of today's program. Well, let's turn our attention to The scripture and then we'll turn to our guest that we have in studio to talk about one of our upcoming projects.
Acts chapter four is where we are this week, looking at verses
Acts chapter four is where we are this week, looking at verses one through four. Now, as they spoke to The people, this is in reference to Peter and Jon. Now, as they spoke to The people, The priests, The captain of The temple and The Sadducees came upon them being greatly disturbed that they taught The people and preached in Jesus, The resurrection from The dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in custody until The next day, for it was already evening. However, many of them, that have heard The word, believed, and The number of The men came to about 5,000 that heard and believed in The teachings of Jesus through Peter and Jon. And, The essence of this is that, The disciples and The apostles were willing to be not only arrested, but many of them, most of them martyred for their faith. And so as believers today, we ought to be able to endure or be willing to endure The same, persecution and, cost that The early church endured as well. That's Acts chapter four, looking at verses one through four.
Every year, Hour of Intercession hosts a Ten Commandments project
Well, speaking of The scripture, every year, during The summer months, we have what's called a Ten Commandments project that we allow youth to participate in all around The country. It's an excellent time of scripture memorization. And The reciting of one or multiple, parts of The Ten Commandments. And so Pastor Joseph Parker, host of The Hour of Intercession, heads up this project each year, and he's with us now. Pastor Parker, welcome back.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Good to be with you, Walker.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, this, project has been several years in The making, and we've had each summer we have dozens, if not over a hundred, depending on The year, young people participate in this challenge, this Ten Commandments project, this Ten Commandments challenge. So this year, coming up in June, give us a little bit of The backgrounder.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Okay. Well, you know, The project overall is ongoing. Just The speech challenge in particular is The part that is from year to year, The commandment changes. And of course, it involves The putting together of a speech. And of course, it's been a fun project, but at The same time, a serious project. You know, I think of The fact that The two states very wisely passed legislation that The Ten Commandments should be placed in classrooms. I think it'd be good for all The rest, The other 48, to do The same because, this is not just a nice Sunday school project. It's a discipleship issue. And The fact is we literally have young people dying for lack of knowing Jesus. And there's so much toxic stuff going on in our culture. Our kids need to know that. They need to know Jesus Christ, and they need to have The word of God planted in their lives. And, you know, The Ten Commandments contain The moral framework of The biggest issues we face in our culture.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen.
Ten Commandments Project Speech Challenge is for youth ages 7 to 17
Well, each year, as I mentioned, we have young people that go through this, and we encourage parents or grandparents to help out and, kind of shepherd along their children in this effort. but each year you give a specific, one of The Ten Commandments you give as kind of The focus of The project and The speech. So tell us how this is going to work, The couple, action items that young people need to know here.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Well, there are three different parts to The project. The speech challenge in particular, just to share a little bit about The details of that. The time frame is June 1st through The 30th, and that's The time frame in which young people can submit a speech. This year, it's The second command. You shall not make for yourself any graven images. In other words, have no idols in our lives, found in Exodus 24. And The young person can do The speech themselves. They are welcome to get their parents to help or another individual that will help them. Or if they say, well, can you help us? We'll help with The speech too. And some might think, well, why would you help them? Aren't they supposed to do The speech themselves? Well, actually, often we may have young people that they're not able per se to do their speech, but when they read them and present them, it's filtering through their mind and their heart as well as they always will learn truths about The Scriptures when they participate. So either way, that works. In June, again, first through The 30th, is The time frame for them to, submit their speeches. Again, The goal is that we ask that you put together a speech from three to five minutes in length. Although we accept any link though. But, we ask that you record it on your cell phone or another recording device. Send The recording to faqafa.net again between June 1 and June 30, or to my email jparkerafa.net and with Ten Commandments Project Speech Challenge 2026 as The subject line, if you have any questions, just call us here at AFA 662-844-5036, extension 381. And we're inviting youth ages 7 to 17 to participate in The speech Challenge. and again, if they have any questions, they're welcome to contact us. But it's been a fun project. Last year we had 57 speeches. Each year we have, different numbers, but all of The speeches are good and they share truth that our culture needs to hear.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's right. It's The word of God and it doesn't return void. So this is for children and youth age 7 to 17. We're asking for, a written and then ultimately presented in a video format, three to five minute speech. And of course we encourage parents, grandparents and others to help The youth in this project. It can be a family project, if you will. And as Pastor Joseph said, it teaches, The young people The word of God, whether they have help or not. it's very, very beneficial, to have them recite The scripture and come up and think through their own speech, through this Ten Commandments speech challenge. So this is going to go on The entire month of June. We'll collect them, we'll pick, a couple, winners or top contenders there at The end. And Pastor Joseph, everybody, last year, all participants received a Ten Commandments T shirt bookmarked and a free shipping coupon. Is that going to be The same? This year will be The same.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: And, just so that you know too, along with that Part of The project, a couple other parts. One is sometimes you have young people, they don't choose to be a part of The speech challenge, but they just simply memorize The Ten Commandments. If, a dad or mom or a grandparent just has. If their child memorized The Ten Commandments, all we need for them is a phone call. They call us and tell us The shirt size, their child has recited The Ten Commandments and, and their mailing address and we can mail them The T shirt. So if they choose not to be a part of The speech challenge, they can still participate in that. And The last part, of course, is where we invite churches or ministries to do a four week community outreach, similar to vacation Bible school, where you teach The meaning of The Ten Commandments to a group of young people. And you know, again, Walker, one of The things that it would be humorous if it wasn't quite so sad. Many times you have adults that think they know them, but it's very common that in churches actually including pastors too, if pressed to say, can you recite them? Many times people can't.
>> Walker Wildmon: So good to memorize. Definitely not in order. Well, you know, even if you can kind of take a few minutes to think of all of them. But getting them in order is important as well.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: And along with that though, just The fact that those basic truths are truths that they're in The news every day. The abortion issue, The fact that young people killing each other, suicide, there's so many other issues that were, sexual temptation out there. So these aren't just again, nice Sunday school project issues. These are issues that we live with every day. So helping young people to get The basic foundational wisdom of The Word of God in their hearts is a very wise and important goal for us. Discipleship. Wise as The church.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. AFR.net 10 Commandments spelled out in text. AFR uh.net Command 10 Commandments spelled out. We'll link to that in The show notes and keep talking about this through The month of June. Pastor Parker, thanks for coming in.
All ten Ten Commandments are applicable for daily living today
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Thank you, Walker.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's The Ten Commandments. And as Pastor Parker mentioned, when you look at The Ten Commandments, all of them, all ten are applicable for daily living today. For daily godly living. When you look at The Ten Commandments and then you run that against, or, run that with, The teachings of Jesus in The NewSong Testament during his ministry on Earth, it is fully compatible. The two are fully compatible. And so The Ten Commandments, while in The First Testament, are very much applicable for Daily living for The NewSong Testament believers today. Looking at The Ten Commandments there. So that's our Ten Commandment speech challenge. Great time of year. And we love getting those speeches in, those written speeches in as well, and seeing young people memorize The word of God.
I was playing with my oldest son in a game of pickup basketball
Speaking of young people, I've got a humorous story I wanted to share today before we wrap up this first segment. And so my son, and I don't often share family stories, but occasionally I do. And when I do, they're usually pretty humorous. And Bobby doesn't even know this. He's going to get a kick out of it. So I was playing my oldest son, who's going to be nine in June. I was playing him in a game of pickup basketball in The driveway. And of course it's completely an unfair advantage that I have. being 5 foot 10, I don't know, he's less than 5 foot. And The reason I was playing him is because he's still working through how to lose well, how to lose well. and so I play him every once in a while in basketball and other things just to help see how he handles getting beat. And so he and I were joking, having fun playing basketball. And nonetheless, things spiraled a little bit and I said, look, you need to go take a break, all right, go take a 10 minute break and come back and we'll pick this back up. So he goes into his room, takes a 10 minute break, mom sets The timer. And while he's in there, this is my oldest son. And by The way, during The game I had one of my younger boys, as The referee, which Luke was calling him The umpire, but he was The referee, which is The proper term. Umpires, baseball. But, so nonetheless, Luke was upset with me, his dad, who had an unfair advantage and was beating him in basketball. And he was upset at The referee as well, who was his younger brother, who I, assigned as The referee position. So my oldest son goes in his room and gets a little note. I've got it here in studio. He gets his little note and he basically begins writing. He writes me, he writes my son and I up, my younger son, one of my younger sons, he writes us up, basically gives us a ticket, a citation for how he just didn't like how things were going. It was just unfair advantage is what he called it. So I'm going to read this, write up here whether you want to call it a citation, a ticket, a pink slip, whatever you want to call it. but The headline, The title of this report is 32 year old quote, unquote, dad reaching over me. That's The title of this citation here. So I'm The dad reaching over my son, beating him in basketball. And then he underlines below that. Worst umpire, he means referee. so his younger brother's worst umpire he's ever seen. and then he put two options, multiple choice, two options, fair or not fair. And he crosses out fair and circles not fair. So The citation equals not fair. That's The final report here. He grabbed a little tab, stick it, note beside it, and just added another time that this is The ticket for The worst umpire. And then on The bottom of The sheet of paper he wrote, please circle, which is your choice. Which he did. It's not fair. So this is not fair. Life is not fair. The basketball game's not fair. And my 32 year old dad is reaching over me, dunking in The driveway, basketball game. So I got a kick out of that. We didn't actually find this till this morning. We were digging around and my wife's like, what is this? And so my son, while in his room, for his ten minute breather, he managed to write, his little brother and I a citation for The unfair advantage we had in basketball. Oh, man, this is good stuff. So there's a lot of life lessons you can learn in sports and playing with your kids and, patience and unfair advantages can be learned as well. So I hope you, you gotta laugh out of that as much as I did.
One segment down, one to go on Make America Healthy initiatives
All right, folks, this is At The Core One segment down. We've got two left. in The last segment, we'll have a, special guest with us, Dr. Jon Oertle He's with America's Health Share. He'll be with us in The last segment to talk about The Make America Healthy initiative and what all has been going on on that front coming from America. Health Share. So we'll be back in a few minutes. Stick around.
Tim Wildmon: We are announcing two tours coming up in 2027
>> Tim Wildmon: Hello, everyone, I'm Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. Hey. We are announcing two tours coming up in 2027. March of 2027, we're going to Greece and we're going to Italy. The Greece tour we call The Footsteps of Paul. And you're going to follow The footsteps of St. Paul in The country of Greece. And then The Italian tour. The tour of Italy, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome. We're calling The Make Lasagna Great Again tour. And these are coming up in March of 2027. And if you want to read all about them, The itinerary, The cost, everything you need to know about these tours coming up in March of, Greece and Italy, go to tours.afa.net that's, t o u r s.aca.net we're going to have a lot of fun, a lot of good fellowship, and see some of The most historic and iconic sites in The world.
>> : At The Core Podcasts are [email protected] now back to At The Core on American Family Radio.
States across the country are redrawing congressional districts ahead of midterm elections
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Well, speaking of unfair advantage, which was The humor story I told in The last segment, you'll have to go back and listen about my oldest son writing, myself and, one of my younger boys, his younger brother, a citation for The unfair advantage that we had in our pickup basketball game in The driveway yesterday. So it was quite, quite The The laugh that we got out of that. But speaking of unfair advantage, gerrymandering or redrawing congressional districts has been in The headlines in recent months because various states, both red and blue, are going back to The map, redrawing congressional districts to give each party favor, depending on who controls The state legislature. Well, this started out, it originated in Texas. As far as this cycle, Texas was The first to begin redrawing congressional districts. But blue states, including Virginia and California also, began racing to redraw their congressional district maps in light of this upcoming midterm election. But nonetheless, The consensus was just a few months ago that Republicans didn't stand a chance in The midterms. Republicans in Congress, that is, in The House, didn't stand a chance in The midterms because of this, map redrawing and, because of The historical, unfavorability, or, historical midterm, curse, if you will, for lack of a better word, that The majority party typically has. Typically The person, The party in The White House loses The Congress. I think it's only been defied, that historical precedent has only been defied twice since The 1950s or The 1960s. so nonetheless, The consensus going into The 2026 midterms that it would just be an absolute miracle for Republicans to keep control of The House of Representatives. That's what we've been talking about on The program. You know, what would it look like if you have Hakeem Jeffries and The Democrats back in charge of Congress? What would that look like? Obviously, it would be an unmitigated disaster. Impeachment, 3.0, et cetera, et cetera. Well, boy, has The story turned and The Democrats really spoke too soon. Now you have a couple things taking place. The first thing that took place recently is The Virginia State Supreme Court struck down The Virginia, redistricting map for a couple reasons, but basically they ruled it was unlawful, unconstitutional, how they went about redrawing The congressional maps. So Virginia, instead of flipping, to being basically 6 to 1, I believe Democrat, controlled in The congressional delegation. Now it's going to remain with, The Republican majority in The congressional delegation. Then you go down to Louisiana. This was at The at The Federal supreme court, at The U.S. supreme Court. The U.S. supreme Court struck down a Louisiana redistricting map that relied on ethnicity, on race, on skin color, to draw their congressional map back in 2022. And then you've got Texas and Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. And now Mississippi's got a special session. All these red states are rushing to redraw their congressional district maps. And it's looking like, Republicans could pick up 10, 15, 18 seats because of these redrawn district maps and because of The Virginia court ruling that struck down their newly drawn Democrat favored congressional district maps. So that's The background, or that's what's going on. That's The latest on that front. And this is just backfiring, on The Democrats because Democrats wanted to make a big scene about this, whether it be in California or whether it be in Virginia. They just made a point that, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna gerrymander, we're gonna redraw these districts and we're gonna take down Trump, we're going to impeach Trump, we're gonna take back The House, we're gonna harass him and make his life miserable for The last two years of his presidency. Well, boy, that is backfiring as we speak. So I'm going to play a couple clips here and then we'll keep talking about this. But this is a Newt Gingrich, former House speaker, obviously going back to The late 90s, or mid to late 90s, talking about, how, this gerrymandering and this redistricting has backfired on The Democrats. And it's because President Trump and The Republicans are, at least for this time, playing for keeps. They're playing to win instead of playing to lose. Clip 2.
>> Newt Gingrich: We haven't seen this kind of nationwide power struggle since Thomas Jefferson, destroyed The Federalist Party between 1796 and 1812. The Democratic Republicans, as they were called, and now The Democratic Party, The longest existing political party in The world, Jefferson went after destroying, literally destroying The Federalists. The word gerrymander comes from The last stage of that fight, when Eldridge Gerry drew a map in Massachusetts to try to preserve The Federalists. And somebody said, boy, that district looks like a salamander. And somebody else said, oh, no, that's a gerrymander. that's where The word comes from. So that's The only other time in American history that we've seen The mobilization of everything. I mean, California is involved. Democrats didn't mind when California wipes out Republican seats. They loved Virginia wiping out Republican seats. All of a sudden, The institutional tide has turned. And this is why Trump is such a historic figure.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is why President Trump is such a historic figure, is because he's willing to fight to win. And that's what's happening here. Because this gerrymandering, which is what The term has been known as, and actually goes back to The first time this occurred as far as redistricting. The gentleman, I think his last name was Jerry. So they, either last or first name was Jerry. So they started calling it gerrymandering. But nonetheless, it's redistricting. That's what this is. This is redistricting. This has been going on for hundreds of years, a couple hundred years. And, it's fully legal, fully constitutional. Of course, it does matter how you go about it. There are guardrails and going about this redistricting. But nonetheless, The state legislatures have broad discretion to redraw congressional maps. Now, where Louisiana went wrong, Louisiana went wrong because they redrew The congressional maps based on people's skin color, based on ethnicity, which we're not supposed to be doing in this country, is setting up congressional districts based on The skin color and ethnicity of The folks within The congressional district. So, that was blatantly illegal, and state U.S. supreme Court said, so, Virginia just dropped The ball. I mean, they were just completely sloppy and how they went about The process, and that's how it got struck down in Virginia. But this has been going on for a long, long time. This isn't new. Both parties do it, all right? Both parties do it. So it's fair game. And, Republicans are playing to win here. And I absolutely love it. I absolutely love it. And Mississippi needs to follow suit. They've got a special session, special session coming up in a couple of weeks, and they need to redraw our congressional maps and stop all this nonsense where we're drawing The maps to basically give seats to The Democrats, because that's what's Happening here all. Ah, right. Let's be honest. This is not Republicans. They've done this some. but generally speaking, The party that really draws The craziest maps are The Democrats. And they've got to really, like, cherry pick and draw these. When you look at a state, Democrats draw these crazy maps where they, like, jump from one county to another and it looks like you're zigzagging or you've got a kid, like on a coloring sheet, just scratching all over The sheet. That's what their congressional maps look like. That's how hard they have to work to get a Democrat, elected into Congress through some of these congressional districts. If you look at, for example, I would just encourage you to look up Illinois, look up their Illinois, look up their congressional, map. It's wonky. It just doesn't make sense how it's drawn geographically. Same thing with Louisiana. You've got a congressional district that runs like, almost The entirety of The state, running kind of at a diagonal. I believe it's from east to west, running, north, east to west up The state, almost across The entire state. And The reason they draw it like that, it makes no, it makes no geographical sense or really demographic sense other than The fact that this is how you get a Democrat congressional seat is you draw it like this. And, so Republicans are finally going back to The drawing board and going to make some smart moves on The redistricting, on The redrawing of The congressional maps, and it's backfiring on The Democrats big, big time.
The 2020 census was an absolute disaster for Republicans
But let's talk, about a separate side of this beyond just The simple redistricting. Let's go back to The 2020 census. All right, now, this is scandalous. What I just talked about is just pure politics. It's raw politics. Whoever runs The state legislature in The governor's mansion, they can redraw these maps. And, either you like it or you don't, but it is what it is. They have The authority to do it. But where there's been an injustice was in The 2020 census. This is scandalous. And I'll tell you where it's going to end up in 2030, likely. But in 2020, under The incoming, Biden administration, The Census Bureau, and this was The outgoing Trump administration. And of course, you had Biden coming in, in 2021, January of 2021. But The U.S. census Bureau, technically under President Trump, but this was his final year in his term. They ran The census in 2020, where you redelegate or ah, reallocate The congressional seats depending on population. That's how our 435 US House member seats are broken up by state is based on population. So for example, if you lose a certain number of people in your state, well you're going to lose House seats in another state, wherever they migrated to, are going to pick up House seats. That's how it's done every 10 years according to The US Census Bureau. All right, well what happened in 2020? Well, we had Covid. All right, we had Covid. And in The years following Covid, in The 24 to 36 months following Covid, you had a mass exodus by The millions. When you add up these multiple states away from blue states that is Illinois, NewSong York, California, et cetera, into Republican controlled red states that is Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee. And so immediately following The 2020 census, really as it was being counted, if we want to be accurate, you had a mass exodus of millions of voters moving to these conservative controlled states. Well, most of those folks weren't counted accurately according to The 2020 census. Secondly, The illegal immigrants were some of them being counted during The 2020 census. Well, where are most of The illegal immigrants? Well they're everywhere. But The large population, The large kind of concentration, if you will, of these illegal immigrants are in places like California because they have safe haven there in California. And so all of that to say that The current apportionment of congressional seats is really not accurate and consistent with where we stand today and where we even stood, let's say two years ago, three years ago, shortly following The 2020 census. So The 2020 census was at The end of The day an absolute dispute disaster and The Republicans got The bad end of The deal on The 2020 census. Let me read a post from Steven Miller who summarizes it very, very well. He says a reminder that decades of lopsided pro Democrat gerrymanders, flawed census data, The illicit inclusion of non citizens for apportionment, and districts illegally drawn based solely on race. The The Democrats have enjoyed a cushion of at least 40 extra improper house seats. That's according to Chief Policy Director of Domestic Policy at The White House. Steven Miller puts it very, very well. So basically The Democrats have had somewhere between a 30 and 40 seat cushion on The House of Representatives that if The congressional maps were drawn in a manner that actually makes geographic sense. Secondly, if our census data was accurate and didn't count noncitizens, and then thirdly, if we didn't have Democrats and blue states drawing, congressional districts based on skin color. Then we, would have Republicans would have somewhere between a 30 and 40 seat difference in The House of Representatives. And this is not a far fetched, hard to believe understanding here, because when you look at, for example, you look at The county by county vote in The 2024 election and you have The vast majority, I think we're running like 85 plus percent of counties in The US that vote Republican, that vote majority Republican in The presidential cycle. And you look at this map of The US and The vast majority of counties are Republican. The entire US Is basically red. And then you've got these little blue dots in these urban areas like Atlanta, Memphis, etc. And then President Trump wins not only The popular vote, but an overwhelming majority of The Electoral College vote. Then you look at The county by county breakdown. It's not hard to understand that The Democrats are in a minority here. They're in a minority here when it comes to The congressional delegation and how these congressional maps should be drawn. And so kudos to The Republicans for showing a little bit of backbone in these state legislatures, a little bit of courage, and going back to The drawing board and telling The Democrats, hey, if you guys are going to play this game, we'll play it too, and we'll redraw our maps and we'll box you guys out by 20 seats. And good luck retaking The House of Representatives. Two can tango. Two can play this game. And we're gonna play it to win. That's what The Republicans are doing at The state level around The country, whether it be Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Texas, etc. And it's a no brainer. It's a no brainer. you just don't need Hakeem Jeffries and The Democrats, The crazy Democrats in charge of The Congress in 20. 27. January of 2027. So that's The latest breakdown. But The moral of The story is that The redistricting fight is backfiring on The Democrats bigly, bigly to where they're talking, that they would be, you know, there's like a 5% chance of them retaking The House of Representatives now because of these redone districts. So we'll be back in a few minutes. Stick around. I was like, oh, wow, this is real.
>> : When this young mom came into a preborn network clinic, she was confused. Confused with nowhere to turn. After meeting with The counselors and seeing her baby on ultrasound, she chose life. If I hadn't saw The ultrasound, it would have been a totally different picture. And I think about this when I look at my daughter, I start tearing up. She would never be here. Preborn is there for moms in crisis, offering love, support and free ultrasounds. When a young mother in crisis meets her baby on ultrasound, life becomes very real and her baby's chance at life doubles. To learn more about preborn's life saving work, call £250 and say The keyword baby. That's £250, baby. Or visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible. Your love can save a life. This is At The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
Bobby says he should play with one arm behind his back in basketball
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The last segment of today's episode here on The Core. Glad to have you with us. Well, we got a few calls in in relation to my funny story about my son writing me a citation for beating him in pickup basketball. And, The overwhelming consensus is that I should play with one arm behind my back. That's what The ruling is on The field, on The court. And so, next time I'll be sure to do that. And Bobby's counter to that is. Well, what if it's still ruled unfair? Well, Bobby, it just is what it is. It is what it is.
Dr. John Oertle is with America's Health Share Ministry
I want to introduce our next guest, Dr. John Oertle He's, with America's Health Share Ministry. He's chief medical officer there. And he's on to talk about their work and also just The health, insurance market in general and how things are trending with The new administration, our relatively new administration over The last couple years. doctor, welcome to The program.
>> Dr. John Oertle: Hey, great to be with you guys today.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes, glad to have you on. And we love having people with insight into what's going on when it comes to The health care and health insurance market. Dr. John leading into this Trump administration and on The tail end of The Biden administration, health insurance premiums were continuing to climb, and this past renewal cycle was pretty brutal. just here at AFA, we saw a 40%, hike in our premium year over year, this, this past January. And so, and I heard, I've heard stories of that around The country as well. So it's a, it's a pretty tough environment and The costs just continue to rise. So give us a little background around kind of what's going on and if you guys are seeing any signs of optimism on this front.
>> Dr. John Oertle: Yeah, great, thanks for that. No, your story is like so many that we continue to see healthcare premiums continue to be able to rise with traditional health insurance. And so 40% is not an abnormal number to see a rise of premium this cycle. I've seen Some even over 50% as far as this goes. So this is across The country that we're seeing this rise. And this is one of The reasons that America's Health Share has continued to be able to see such a rapid growth rate because we are not a traditional insurance and we are a health share, which means that there's actually, there's. With traditional insurance you don't have, transparency, you don't know where your money is going every month. And there's absolutely zero, transparency when it comes to your insurance. And next time you go to, you know, you come to renewal, your rates are just that much higher. Well, America's, there's transparency, you know where those costs are going. It's members giving to other members in times of medical need to be able to, to have an alternative way to share those health expenses. And so we've been seeing this and one of The beautiful things with it is that we're able to actually be transparent, but we're able to actually be affordable as well. And with this model we're seeing a growth that we've never seen before. We're one of The fastest growing healthcare sharing ministries. We were growing at 236%, just within this year. So we're seeing a growth and I think it's because we're really meeting The demand of transparency, ah, affordability and then we're able to actually, we're including things in medical care that you'll never find in a traditional health care plan. And so that's, it's really behind what you know, Secretary, Kennedy and The Maha movement are really doing. And we've been able to actually leverage that because we've been practicing this kind of medicine for The last 25 years.
John Oertle: Healthcare sharing has been around for 40 years
>> Walker Wildmon: Once, again we're talking to John Oertle with America's Health Share, ministry and tell me, Dr. John let's really take this and address some of The hesitations out there because I know folks that are on plans like yours, whether it's through your organization or others, The other options out there, and The reviews I get are very positive from folks that are on these type plans. but for someone who's never been a part of a health care sharing, healthcare cost sharing program like yours, once again as you mentioned, that have been out there for a long Time, decades. This is not a kind of a new offering if you will, but try to dispel some of The concerns, some of The myths about healthcare sharing and make folks understand why what you're doing is really a proven method for many people.
>> Dr. John Oertle: Yeah, great. Yeah. Healthcare sharing has been around for 40 years and it's been a cost effective way to be able to, to take care of one another's healthcare bills. one of The beautiful things when it comes to what we're doing though is that this transparency aspect. So when you actually, when you pay your monthly premium in a traditional healthcare, you have no idea where that goes. It goes into a black box and you have no idea where it goes with somebody. Like when our members join our ministry, they're paying a monthly contribution amount similar to a premium, but it's a monthly cost. And what this is, is that you're able to actually see where those dollars are actually going and you see that it's actually going to people and not just going to health, insurance profits or going to big pharma profits. And so this is where, when you're able to actually see where your dollars are going and you know that every single month you're knowing exactly what's being shared, what The actual dollar amounts are being shared. It's a very encouraging thing to be able to actually know. I can actually see into these costs, I know where they're going because one of The big problems with traditional insurance that we see is that we don't have any idea where those costs are going. And The really unfortunate thing is, is that this is what they're, they're going to paying big pharma with their pharmacy benefit managers. And so when you start to be able to deep dive on this, it really is a matter of, you know, Americans aren't used to, we, we, we live in free markets and so we know The price of, you know, we know The price of, of ah, a stick of gum at a Circle K or a grocery store. What we don't know is we don't know The cost of health care because there's no transparency. And it's The one industry that's just riddled with fraud and abuse as regards to this. Once you start putting transparency in and you start actually having a community, again The issues are not The actual cost. The issues are The transparency of people actually being able to have The fraud, waste and abuse in The actual big pharma and big hospital, The big insurance industry.
Price transparency is a point of frustration for many people, including myself
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, The price transparency has been really a point of frustration for many people, including myself. And I'll never forget The I've told this story before, but most people probably didn't hear it. there was a local medical. Not local. There was a regional medical system that, I was getting treated at. And I thought, well, I'm just gonna look up what this calls, what this procedure or whatever I was having done caused this test. Test. And they technically were complying with President Trump's first term executive order on price transparency. They were technically. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they were technically complying with it because they did have a tool on their website. But The way they had The tool built is you had to know The codes, like, and there was no code directory. You had to know The codes. And as you know, if you've been in The medical field for any period of time, The codes are so convoluted. There's so many of them, probably thousands. And you have to be like an expert insider in The billing department to know how to code this stuff. And you've got these, like, sub, entities within The hospital system, like these, these, they farm out some of this stuff. Some of these entire departments within The hospital system aren't even run by The hospital. They're run by some third party with The doctors that are 1099. So then they've got their own codes. So nonetheless, I go to try to look up The price and I'm like, I don't know The codes. What are The codes? And I start looking them up. And nonetheless, you get frustrated after 30 minutes. So how is that going? I mean, are some folks actually producing these pricing tools like they're supposed to, or are they still dragging their feet on this?
>> Dr. John Oertle: So one of The great things, because this is happening all across The country, you're right. One, there's you. A lot of people can't get access to those codes. Well, we have that access. We have access to that data. We've been doing this long enough that we are actually an advocate for this price transparency. So with our members as well, I'll give you this example. I had a, I had a case of a, of a patient that came on in wanting to get a nasal polyp removal. The provider was wanting to charge $96,000 just to be able to remove a nasal polyp. And many times people with allergies, his and allergies realize that it's. They need multiple nasal polyp removals every time they need it because they're not actually getting to The root cause, which is another problem in and of itself. We actually shared a root causative analysis. But one of The things that's really important here is that this provider was going to charge $96,000 to The member to be able to say, and I said, we can't do it. We need to be able to go to one of our providers that are, are down The road. We, we, they work and directly work with us. As far as this goes, this procedure with The same procedure with, again, The same code with just a different provider was $6,000. And this is where so this. And with The same outcome. The same outcome. So this is where, when people don't understand, when you don't have transparency, you can get runaway escalated costs. And so for us, it's one of those areas that we want to be able to have you go to your provider, go see The treatment needed, but also we want to be able to support you with The data to be able to make sure that you can get a reasonable cost of healthcare. Because again, somebody that is paying that kind of cost is probably not taking good care of their patients if they're ripping you off that way.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is something, and I understand The free market here, but we're talking about health care. We're not talking about The car dealership. And this is what makes health care. And there is a difference between health insurance and health care. And I want people to understand that, because a lot of these folks that are for like, socialized medicine and stuff, they commingle healthcare and health insurance as if they're The same thing. And they're distinctly not.
>> Walker Wildmon: but when you're talking about health care, this shouldn't be allowed. And when I say this shouldn't be allowed, what I'm talking about is this utterly incomprehensible pricing structure that makes no sense at all. And The fact that they offer different prices for different people, it's like, no, either you're getting The same procedure or you're not. And whether it's Medicare or whether it is, some private plan or whether it's a health care sharing plan, it doesn't matter. Your price should be The price. But. But that's not The way it is. They're pricing The government plan this way, they're pricing Blue Cross Blue Shield this way. And then for your instance, they're pricing you $96,000. And then you go in and say, well, what if I pay cash? And that's a fourth price. So it just shouldn't be this complicated. When you go in to order a burger or you Go buy a car. The sticker price is The sticker price. It doesn't matter whether you're going to get a loan out, whether you're going to pull your credit card out or your debit card or cash. The price is The price. And don't you think it should be The same way with health care?
>> Dr. John Oertle: Well, I certainly think it should be The same way with health care to be able to have a straightforward cost. But I'll tell you, it goes even worse than that because this is where when you actually see things that are, that are cost effective, that are better outcomes for your, for your health. I'll give The example of even ethical stem cells for a knee replacement instead of actually doing a full knee replacement. A good cost for a knee replacement is about $25,000. But you can get injection therapies and we've got providers across The nation that are able to get regenerative therapies, you know, platelet rich plasma, PRP or prolotherapy, or even stem cells coming right from their own body, directly injected and The actual joint to regenerate The joint. And guess what? Now this is actually something that's not covered on a lot of healthcare plans, but we share into it and it's included in Americas. Why? Because it actually is better medicine. And these are people that are actually already doing this nationwide that cost is a couple thousand versus 25,000. And now you're actually having as a patient, you're getting better therapies, better regeneration, now you're back to work sooner. I have other examples, as far as this goes too, where our system is just broken. We have, for instance, I've been involved in oncology for years and when it comes to, I've had people with a traditional healthcare plan who their oncologist says there's nothing more I can do for you because they're not running The data or you're not having additional options. I had a gentleman a number of years ago come and see me where we were able to actually, he was referred to hospice because of a late stage cancer all over The body. And when we actually ran data, we were able to find things that actually were able to evaluate and treat him. Within eight weeks he was completely cancer free. And this was in 2022, he's still alive today, completely free with cancer. So it goes back to these dynamics of saying we are actually, we think we're getting The best health care because we're paying an arm and a leg for it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Dr. John Oertle: But when you actually start to see this you're actually not getting The best care because even with those codes that you talk about, there's codes that we've actually developed with Americas that are actually customized because this is where we've now developed these customized codes to get The very best of healthcare and The best outcomes, using data to be able to treat.
Dr. John Oertle says we need to look at root causes
One more thing. I give this example too because we've seen this with a lot that's going on with MAHA right now. Secretary Kennedy's been talking a lot about microplastics and The issues with microplastics that are in our environments. Well, there was a recent nature study that came out. This was about again, over The course of your lifetime in microplastics, There is about 4800 micrograms per grams of microplastics in The brain. My problem is over The course of a lifetime in your brain that's equivalent to The size of a plastic spoon that's in your brain of plastic over The course of your lifetime, these plastics have issues with your, your neurological system, they've got issues with your endocrine system, your hormones. They can even some of them are cancer causing. So when you start to see this, if we're not looking at root causative medicine to be able to look at prevention and when sickness is going on, let's answer that, that reason why we're sick, we are missing The boat. I am telling you right now. There is no traditional insurance system that I know that actually covers looking at microplastics or looking at even carcinogens when you actually come down with cancer yourself. And so when it comes to Americas, we're also looking at, let's be common sense. And this is what I love about The actual, you know, Secretary Kennedy and The Trump administration specifically supporting this kind of health care is that we're actually starting to look at root causes and we're in support of that. And this is actually included in The actual health care that you get with America's Health Share.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. We got to look at root causes. Otherwise, to your point, we're not fixing The root problem. we're just putting band aids, so to speak, to use a health, analogy. hey, thanks so much.
>> Dr. John Oertle: Really expensive Band aids. Very expensive.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, gold band aids. Hey, Dr. John Oertle thanks so much for coming on The program.
>> Dr. John Oertle: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. He's the chief, medical officer with America's Health Share. And he's right. That's what President Trump and RFK Jr. Are focused on. And that is getting to The root cause of a lot of these illnesses that are costing folks tens of thousands of dollars that could have been avoided in The first place. That is true health care. We'll be back next time.
>> : The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of The American Family association or American Family Radio.
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