The power and importance of health insurance and access to finding it today

Trying to educate folks about their health on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour at Costas Inn, Nestor welcomes his lifer Dundalk High friend Theresa Battaglia and former editor colleague at The Baltimore Sun Andrew Ratner to learn about the power of Maryland Health Benefit Exchange for all citizens.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

oyster, maryland, maryland health connection, crab cake, friend, insurance, health insurance, crab, people, eating, obamacare, wife, andy, years, teresa, worked, week, essex, employees, health benefit exchange

SPEAKERS

Andrew Ratner, Nestor Aparicio, Theresa Battaglia

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

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Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. I got the these were for my my press passes from the Capitol center. The strings that held them on. We’ve been doing capital center chat around here for about an hour. Leonard came by. Kevin Leonard, Raskin and Kevin Leonard both came by. Have this cool book. I have all my ticket stubs here. I’m worried about getting mugged on the way home and somebody takes my Rolling Stones ticket stub would freak me out. Nobody gets mugged in Dundalk, especially when I got Dundalk people around me. The Maryland Health Connection has come to the forefront for me because I was at a crab cake festival with my friend Doug Butchie over in my old neighborhood, king, King Avenue, boomy temple, right by what was properly called Essex Community College, Dr Curtin, I just would call it community college, Baltimore County, and I saw Teresa. Teresa and I are the oldest of friends with the high school together. Earn her sister. Don’t make me cry. I’ll do the same to you. We’re giving away Maryland lottery tickets at her having a crab cake oyster tour, a convergence. And this bills games going on. I’m worried about it. This Orioles staying is going on, and it’s going to continue to go on, hopefully a little longer than we are. So I wanted to bring you out. And part of being a cost today is a little awkward, because we consider and talk about the games and do all of that. But I’m like, no, no, I want to do some long range kind of conversations we could run, in case the Orioles don’t play too long next couple weeks. And one of it is, I ran into you, and I see you guys do these, what is costumes you wear? That

Theresa Battaglia  01:35

all started with Mako, because the Mako Summer Conference was all about, like winter time and all the things you can do throughout Maryland throughout winter. But you’re at Ocean City. Ocean City, you’re going to have crabs, and you’re going to have maybe the Old Bay. Of course, Baltimore’s known for Old Bay, so our team at the Maryland Health Connection, Andy was a snowman. I’ve never

Nestor Aparicio  01:59

been a mascot. I’ve dressed for Halloween. Yeah? I’m, yeah, I am this close, and maybe you want to join me. Okay, I’m gonna do a roper romp.

Theresa Battaglia  02:07

Roper romp, yeah, okay, okay. I love that. I

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Nestor Aparicio  02:10

have a kimono. I don’t have the red hair, but I have some beads. I’m gonna, so I’m gonna do that. So that’s my next I love it. Outfit. I mean, Halloween. So Halloween, you know, you know what? I mean, you get all this coast play stuff. I’m gonna do a rope or rom so that’s gonna be the closest I get, okay, but I’ve never been a mascot. I’ve never worn a mascot suit. That’s

Theresa Battaglia  02:31

why at Mako, it kind of started. We all were having fun. The Marketing Director at Maryland Health Connection, Betsy Plunkett, was a horse because, you know, as got its beautiful ponies, and so we decided to have a crab costume. And then another colleague, Amy Barley was the horse, obey, no Betsy was the horse. So, you know, not like it was a contest, different. So we were disappointed. We thought we had one of the best costumes as a group, and we thought that our booth was represented Maryland. I

Nestor Aparicio  03:06

mean, I’m with you. I

Theresa Battaglia  03:06

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mean, we had, you know, do you

Nestor Aparicio  03:08

make? Oh, so I want to introduce Andy too, because we’re old school too. Okay, yes,

Theresa Battaglia  03:11

yes, yes. So that’s where it all kind of came. And then that the crab cake challenge. I’m like, you gotta work. We gotta work. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  03:17

I mean, here’s the thing, like, I’ve known you all of my life. We went to high school 40 years right now, right? And only Hall of Fame I’m getting into, so I’m gonna brag about it, huh? Yeah. DHS, 85 by the way, pro hearts having that reunion.

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Theresa Battaglia  03:30

We gotta, yeah, do that November the ninth. Yeah, yep,

Nestor Aparicio  03:34

I’m in. Okay, I’ve already, I’ve told him I’m Phillips in. He’s got my 50 bucks, Halliburton, Halliburton avenue for the portrait where my first girlfriend lived. Oh, so I see Teresa, and we’re eating crab cakes. And I was like, trying to get on a yoga mat, and I didn’t want to have, like, and I was trying to get an oyster. I had been to Conrad’s up in Perry Hall, had an oyster there. And I’m like, I don’t, like, today they’re gonna bring me oyster. I don’t want to eat too much because I’m not doing that. And I’m like, Maryland Health Connection. I’m like, is that Obamacare? And you’re like, Yeah, and I’m like, you know, I need to learn more. Leonard left. He’s my Republican. We all have one as a friend. And you so, you know, when it comes to Obama you say Ronald Reagan, it conjures up all of these thoughts. So the name Obamacare for it for better or worse, or whatever. You know what I think about. My mom died years ago. Medicare, Medicaid, screwed up, screwed up my deeds, screwed up, like didn’t get the right advice, all of that as a grown up, and it’s one of the things about Leonard. But then, like, my wife’s diabetic, and she’s had this job 35 years, and her biggest fear in the whole world, after almost dying twice and having really good insurance, really good employer, millions of dollars. It cost to save my wife’s life. It would have wiped us. I remember out it was already way taxing in every mental, physical people get sick and they have major medical things. That is something for everybody driving a car, everybody with insurance. Do you have enough? We talk about that all the time. My friend Pete Raimondi is gonna be on here talking about that from your insurance, just but like, you’re at the root of it that, like, let’s say something that in my wife and had to go get my own insurance. Let’s say something happened. My wife’s employer, Verizon. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Nothing will work. But where does a regular person? Where would my son? Where would anyone be able to go to make sure that if they got leukemia, if they had a catastrophic, unplanned, horrific thing happen to them, to make sure it doesn’t wipe out everything they’ve ever worked for, and let alone that they get the right care and drugs that they need? I can tell you the first person being an advocate for my wife. My wife almost, almost died. You know, like being out in front of all of that, it’s just really, really important. So I want to give you guys some oxygen. And Andy, welcome aboard Andrew Ratner’s the Chief of Staff for the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. That’s a lot to say. Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, yes, located on Pratt Street. And Theresa pataglia, she’ll always be Gutierrez. To me,

Theresa Battaglia  06:03

I am Teresa Gutierrez Battaglia, just in case, Hispanic. There you go. There you

Nestor Aparicio  06:08

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go. Right on Small Business Outreach Manager, which means she’s my friend. I saw both of you at Mako. Good to have you board. I want to make sure, I don’t know if I have you in the shot, and I didn’t look, but yeah, you’re here. You’re here. Welcome them in. They have cute shirts. See, I had to cost this thing in. But I’m just trying to get people organized. How are you very good? Tell everybody your role and background with knowing me, because you came up to me and talked to me. We were out at, I believe we were at a Mako event, and my boy, Jason seamers band, was playing bad with names in the other room. And I ran out, and you guys were kind to me, and my wife had chicken wings waiting for me the other side, chicken tenders, because it’s fagers. But yeah, I mean, this is, this is an important segment for me. Yeah.

Andrew Ratner  06:47

Teresa said, I want you to meet my friend Nestor Aparicio. And I said, I think I know Nestor. I worked at the sun for 25 years and worked in every department except the one Nestor worked in so I think I worked all the way around working features, I was an editor and features, I was an editor on every section. Ed Hewitt, did you work

Nestor Aparicio  07:07

with Ed Hewitt? I did work with Ed Hewitt. Wrote every headline on all my concert stories, and got a kick out of me and Ed. Love, love the Dodgers. Ed was a Dodger guy, and Ed’s son I ran into at a Pappas in Hunt Valley recently, you know, the sun reunion thing. Chris Zhang was on the show this week because of the 40 year anniversary of the News America and zanger, I mentioned that every beer I had before I was 21 tasted like that. Natty bow, zanger bought me my first legal beer. Yeah. He bought it hammer jacks, the night that bad English played on October the 14th, 1989 bad So Neil shown Jonathan Cain, oh yeah, the great. John Waite, you know.

Theresa Battaglia  07:49

So this was the place to go to. It

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Nestor Aparicio  07:52

really is small to more dude, right? Like you and I worked. I worked at the sun from January 6, 1986 until January 15, 1992 so you were there from when the when 85 to 2009 so the whole time I was there, you were there super What were you doing 86 when I got there, I was 17, my parents had to sign the permission. So did you? Were you in the union?

Andrew Ratner  08:12

I was the editor in Anne Arundel County.

Nestor Aparicio  08:15

I walked the picket line in 87 did you do that? Well, I was her management, okay, but the

Andrew Ratner  08:21

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only time I walked the picket line is when I was covering technology, and they gave me a tom tom. And I was a drummer all my life and played in the Penn State marching band, so the greatest thing I could have gotten was a tom tom, and enjoyed that afternoon

Nestor Aparicio  08:41

was the chant, share the wealth, share the wealth, that I did it so I’ll be I’ve told this story one other time. And my friend, Carol Mason, you’re out there. You know, I love you. I met a really pretty girl on the beach in Ocean City in that summer, 87 and the reason I met her and befriended her, we’ve known each other forever, and she wasn’t my girlfriend. She’s my friend’s girlfriend. You know, after all, said and done, she’s grandmother and travel in the world. She my friend. But I met her during the sun strike, and I remember this because they gave me strike duty, and they was, like, four hour shifts or whatever. And I said, Look, man, why don’t just come down here and do like, all day, two days in a row, because they all told me, like, this strike’s not gonna last long. This is gonna be like, two weeks. And I’m like, summer 87 I was 19 Warren to chase girls at the beach, was in June. Like, our strike date was always June 1, right? All I saw was senior week extended. You know, 87 we gotta raise 85 right? So I’m like, just let me walk the picket line for two straight days. I put my like, 20 hours in, Emily, like, you’re good for the week. I got the car yesterday afternoon. I was in Ocean City for five days. They called me, said, strikes over. I’m like, I’ll see you Sunday night. Perfect timing, but my parents had to sign the permission slip for me to join the. Baltimore, Washington newspaper. Go, I was 17, so you know, so all these years later, you are running this Maryland Health Benefit Exchange for anybody out there, give me the elevator speech, other than Obamacare, which has a whole political implication, specifically in Dundalk, where Johnny Ray Sally might be walking in here at any moment that it has a different this is for this is serious business, and that doesn’t make me a Democrat. It makes me a it makes me an American and a citizen and someone that has seen this effect. None of us think we’re gonna need the health insurance we need until your wife comes in and the doctor pulls the curtain and says you’ve got leukemia, and it’s the worst kind, been there, done that, you know, wrote, rode that train, and the last thing you need to be worried about is if you’re gonna lose everything you have because you’re

Andrew Ratner  10:49

sick. Yeah, it’s, it’s one over a lot of people in the 10 years plus that it’s been around. And in fact, one time I had to do an event about eight years ago,

Nestor Aparicio  11:00

I gotta get you better on Mike here. Come on up here. There. We go. All right, go for to

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Andrew Ratner  11:03

do an event about eight or nine years ago at a bar in Parkville, and it got so contentious the outreach that they had to escort me out of the bar. But I don’t think it’s like that anymore, because people have realized the value of health coverage, and there’s probably close to a half million people in Maryland getting health care through Obamacare, either the expansion of Medicaid, or the more than 200,000 people who get private plans through Maryland Health Connection, many at low cost, because they get this was expensive

Nestor Aparicio  11:38

as hell in the day, and I haven’t had to look for insurance through all my wife’s illness, I’ve been a really healthy guy. God bless, right? I mean, I must get killed in Houston too. I don’t talk about it, but, I mean, I almost got hit by a car in Houston. Just walk in the street, a car, like, stop a foot short of me. Woman wasn’t paying attention, almost killed me, right? Like, I mean, I was in the middle of street. I was helpless, like, you know, so like, I’m thinking, if that happened, I had, at least have insurance, and, Lord knows, I get hit in the head and I’m a vegetable the rest of my life. My wife’s got to care like I’m 55 man. I’ve seen all of this happen. Two people in Dundalk, Essex, Towson, uptown, downtown. Rich people, poor people, black, white, east, west, male, female, at any point, let alone every awful thing that’s going to happen to all of us, we get older, dementia, breakdowns, knee surgeries, all the stuff that would happen, all of this, anything involves a hospital’s real expenses.

Andrew Ratner  12:28

Anybody really, anybody who’s had sickness in their life and has been in the hospital for a few days, if

Nestor Aparicio  12:34

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you have it, you’re the most fortunate person in the room. Yes, you really are. My appendix burst, and I was over church home Hospital in 1986 I had two insurances. I was at the sun, and I was still my parents covered my dad’s coverage at the point, and they fought, I’m trying to think of the names of those brands in 1986 but they fought over who was gonna pay for it. And I had full insurance on both sides, and I had to wind up getting rung up. And then I had a son, young trying to figure that out. I’ve always was employed by that kind of an employer. 1992 I went independent when I took that buyout at the sun, and I had to figure my own insurance out for that 11 or 12 years, even with my company, when I have former employees that defecate upon me on the internet, because I never set up some huge insurance. I didn’t have the wherewithal to do that in 1999 at turn century, I would go into a room and say, I got 12 employees, and lot of them had insurance through their spouses, and that made them better for me in every way, because it was really expensive for me as an employer, to think about it, it would have put me out of business. It just would have it. Would have I, you know, it really was prohibitive so and every and I wanted to provide it like Starbucks, in these companies that were 20 years ago saying we can provide health insurance for our I mean, every employer wants their people to come to work with peace of mind. It’s it. That’s why I brought you on. Because I, I don’t know enough about it. The creation

Andrew Ratner  14:01

of the Affordable Care Act and the creation of maryland health connection was for all those people out there who don’t have insurance through their employer or through their spouse’s employer, or through some other program, like Medicare or a Veterans Program, I’m

Nestor Aparicio  14:17

through my wife, right? But if I were to get divorced if my wife something were to happen, if you just whatever, she different job. Her biggest thing about her job, she’s 33 years in. She gets offered buyouts in the middle all the time in her company, right? Like, and she’s 52 and she’s out God, healthy and beautiful, you know, right? Yeah, yeah. And, and I think to myself, like, all right, there’s gonna come a point where she doesn’t want to work and do this. We don’t know what that plan is. And this is the plan for everybody, sort of like that on the other side, because she’s management too, and pensions and like all that stuff or so Bethlehem Steel and my mom got $50 a month the end of her life, right? You know what I mean, nothing, and Angela’s got the baseball team. But you. I would just say for for regular people who are rolling with that insurance right now, or saying I can’t afford it in the way that, as an employer, I felt that pain of being able to do that. I don’t know where you know, literally, if tomorrow morning I had a different situation and I had to get insurance, I remember the old days, you had to call, do we cheat them in how and it was, blew this across that and over there. And, you know, all these permanent day like, all of these names, and I’m like, I’m pretty healthy, man, you know what I mean? Like, I hope I don’t need it. Well, car hit you. You know, you know anything, right? I don’t. Where does this begin? Where would one begin if

Andrew Ratner  15:40

they’re in that situation, they just have to go to Maryland Health connection.gov/find, help, and we have a call center. We have brokers throughout the state in your zip code. We have navigators, as they’re known in every region in the entire state. Free help for you to help you sign up, and the financial help available to people can make plans, sometimes at no cost at all, or maybe 11 bucks for a family of four, making, you know, a certain amount of income. Yeah. I mean

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Nestor Aparicio  16:17

the stigma on the name Obamacare and the stigma on the political ramification to this, to me, it’s, it’s not even about, like, how that gets positioned on cable news. It’s just more like, what’s the affordability and that, here’s the thing that I love about it. And for people that urinate upon the government or whatever, this is the government saying, we we need you to be insured. We want you to be insured. We’re gonna we’re gonna help our citizens have this piece of peace of mind. That’s the reason my wife get my I don’t think my wife gets out of bed in the morning and works for the money as much as she works for the insurance, because she’s diabetic, and she’s almost died twice, right? And she’s gonna be a diabetic as long as there’s diabetes. And when Biden stands up and says, We’re gonna lower the cost of insulin. I’ve seen how people get gouged. We have Canadian friends. Doesn’t break them. They don’t go to bed every night talk socialism, all you want and all that, but they don’t go to bed every night as a diabetic wondering where their insulin is going to come 10, 1215, years from now, and whether it’s going to break them the way Americans, especially poor man. I mean, this is really where I get into this, the real dei of equity, inclusion and fairness. This to me, I was a guy that did all right, and I didn’t know where to turn for insurance, and I was a healthy 30 something before I was married, and it cost me enough, and I wasn’t sick, and I didn’t have pre existing this and and lifelong that right and afflictions. But I live with that every day with my wife’s it scares the out of us, right? For both of us, tell me what we would do. We would go there. We would say, all right, my wife’s no longer employed by the run meet. Do I get a you know, old friend like you to help me? Sure, absolutely

Theresa Battaglia  17:57

so. If you are looking for health insurance, there’s a couple of things. Open enrollment is November the first through January the 15th. So if you need health insurance, that’s the time. And actually now is the time to go to our What

Nestor Aparicio  18:09

if you needed it April. What do you do? Wait? You have to wait. No, if you need it today, no, if you didn’t, yeah, if you need it today, go to

Theresa Battaglia  18:14

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our website. If you were on what does open enrollment mean? Open Enrollment set time period that you’re allowed to go and change, right? Okay, right, right. Change your insurance. But you

Nestor Aparicio  18:25

can sign up anytime you can sign up for if I sign up now, I can this time next year that that open enrollment to time and say, Hey, any more of this or less of that? Right? Right? I had a baby, or I had something

Theresa Battaglia  18:35

changed, matter of fact. And you can get health insurance with your own health connection a variety of different ways. If your insurance, if your income level changes, or you’re unemployed, if you have a baby, move to Maryland, turn 26 and you’re off your parents health insurance, then you come to us, any young man that

Nestor Aparicio  18:52

worked for me that had that circumstance, right? It was all, you know. I mean, he had that 20 he worked for me before he was 26 and then after, yes, and you know, part of being able to do that well.

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Theresa Battaglia  19:01

As a matter of fact, my daughter, Catherine, she is on my health insurance plan. She now works for the Baltimore County Health Department, and we both received a letter that said she’s gonna be 26 in January. She’s gonna have to get her own insurance. So fortunately, she’ll get health insurance through the county, but if she didn’t, then she would go to Maryland Health connection.gov,

Nestor Aparicio  19:20

what this is a real life thing. Everybody knows this. I really only have one employee, you know, like Luke’s my guy now, right? And blue forever. Luke lives in Pennsylvania. Oh, does he? My business is in Maryland. He conducts 97% of his business in 90 Well, I mean, works from his house, I guess, some what. How does that work? Okay,

Theresa Battaglia  19:39

so this is where the small business aspect comes in, and I’d like to speak about that, since I’m the Small Business Outreach, okay, the business needs to be licensed in the address needs to be in Maryland, but my business is, yes, but you can so

Nestor Aparicio  19:55

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he could get maryland health insurance through me, because his business, because his employers, in Maryland, even though. Pennsylvania resident,

Theresa Battaglia  20:00

that’s right. So as the small See, I’m learning real stuff. I

Nestor Aparicio  20:04

knew I would, and I got Oysters Rockefeller too. I’m not going to get into that until I finished insurance. So

Theresa Battaglia  20:09

as far as my job, I want small businesses to know that we’re there to help them too. Okay, not only for individuals and families, but small businesses coming off a pandemic. You know, we know it’s very expensive and it’s hard to get employees. You train them. You want to retain them a lot of times. I mean, it’s the first thing you ask when you go to a job interview, what kind of benefits can you offer? So through the small business, and that

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Nestor Aparicio  20:30

was always devastating for me, right? Because it was really

Theresa Battaglia  20:34

right. So if it was 20 years ago, it was really brilliant. If it if it was around Maryland, health connection for small business was around back then, you would have been able to go to our website, set up an account, which is simply your name and address, and find assistance, as Andy had said, and that you just put in your zip code. And all of the brokers that are trained through the Maryland Health Connection, they’re authorized brokers that in your area will pop up like a GPS, and you scroll through and see which one you want to start a conversation with to say, what do I need to do? I have four employees now, if you have less than 25 employees, you would possibly be eligible for federal health care tax credits. Most likely you would be so you would get tax credits for two years, and once you would file your taxes, you can help pay the premium. So you would pay a certain percentage for your employee, employee, and then they would pay the other percentage. Plus, as a employer, you would have the chance to pick either the employee choice. There’s options there. So you would select whichever insurance company. We have four different carrier when we

Nestor Aparicio  21:38

offer the insurance internally, and just so expensive that nobody wanted it. And I looked at it and said, Oh, my God, I I know what I’m paying them, and I know what I can do, what they and it just, I’d like to think, is it more sensible? I mean, I know it’s not cheap, and I know inflate, like I know what medical costs are, right? But is it, and you speak to that. I mean, is it, does it feel more reasonable, or people really saving money, especially small businesses, like classes, like places like this? Literally?

Andrew Ratner  22:08

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Yeah, it must be, because the enrollment is higher now than it has ever been in the 11 year history.

Nestor Aparicio  22:13

It wasn’t working right? People would just be going to the old days. That’s right. Well, I mean, I would have people call it F like this, and this just all these names and stuff you see on TV and college football games, they’re all offering something, and every time they offer was just sort of like, well, that’s nice, but that’s, that’s four seasons, you know, for what I can do and what my small business AM, radio, you know, like, I’m, you know, wasn’t a Rockefeller, even though that’s Oysters Rockefeller, you know, wasn’t a Rockefeller thing. You know what I mean? And I know like I worked at the sun with you. We thought they were all rich Bag of Donuts and stuff, and then that thing went to hell in a hand basket. Now look at it that I should tell you this while I have you here break K Fabe with you. When I left the sun on that buyout, 1992 my dad, he had dementia, but he was so he died so pissed off at me because I left the sun, because he thought I was going to get a gold watch. He thought, he thought I would have insurance for life in his right, I mean, a job and, well, my dad stood in soup lines. And, you know, it’s reason he went up in Baltimore, because he was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1929 no food in his stomach, like, literally after the war came here. It’s how I went up here. It’s how the south dun duck was built, Essex was built. Yes, all people like my father in the in the 40s, in the 50s. And by the way, we’re doing a show two weeks from Friday at Pizza John’s on the 11, celebrating my birthday, Leonard’s birthday. Yeah, it’s not so I’m a labor too. When’s your big one?

Theresa Battaglia  23:38

What’s your day? October 4. I’ll be

Nestor Aparicio  23:40

well, Luke said, so, well, they listen, come down on the 11th to Pizza John’s in Essex. You’ve been to Pizza John’s? Oh

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Theresa Battaglia  23:46

my gosh, yeah, right.

Nestor Aparicio  23:48

I mean, Dundalk people don’t go to Essex for much. I gotta kill the Essex people. They know that. Brett, you know that’s coming. You know I love you. Oh, we’re gonna be there on the 11th. We’re sorry, Essex, sorry. I’m on the Patapsco side of Dundalk, so i i watch myself

Theresa Battaglia  24:01

over here. Oh, yeah, that’s true. Yeah. Spares, point two,

Nestor Aparicio  24:05

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I got my eye open. I see red, white and blue. I make, make sure it’s American, not the Patriots. You make sure it’s right. But you know, I would say, from my own historic perspective on all of this, like, it’s just been an expensive it was almost like you don’t if you don’t need to do it, you don’t want to broach it, but you have to have it. And how many people are uninsured?

Andrew Ratner  24:28

Before Obamacare, there were about three quarter of a million people in Maryland without health insurance. Three

Nestor Aparicio  24:34

quarters a million. How many people were in Maryland? 4 million? 5 million? How many people?

Andrew Ratner  24:38

6 million? 6 million. Okay, so now it is down to about 350,000

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Nestor Aparicio  24:43

people, still 6% I was gonna say 4% 6% of

Andrew Ratner  24:48

the state doesn’t have it. Some of them are, maybe a third of them are undocumented immigrants who are not allowed to buy insurance. Insurance through Maryland Health Connection. Next year, in 2026 they will be, although not with financial support from the state. Another third might be young adults who are walking the walk, who feel that they’re healthy and don’t need it. But as you said, things can happen, and you know, you cannot predict. That’s

Nestor Aparicio  25:22

a real pitch for you, right? And these are younger people, maybe not be in college and getting hit over the head on a campus, right? Absolutely, workers, that’s

Theresa Battaglia  25:30

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gonna be unexpected. So life is unexpected,

Nestor Aparicio  25:33

very unexpected. You know, we’ve

Andrew Ratner  25:35

done, we’ve done Maryland’s done a great job in the last year getting young adults aged 18 to 37 enrolled because the state put together some money that would be an extra 40 bucks average to cut down their monthly not in paying for I mean,

Nestor Aparicio  25:53

you’re constantly incenting that, that lower 6% to get in that’s right for their own benefit, for the honestly, for the benefit of society. Well, like, really, I mean, we, you know, we need insurance. Well,

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Andrew Ratner  26:07

you make a great point. And I think, you know, people said, oh, you know, I liked it in the old days. My first question to them would be, I guess you weren’t sick then, right? And they would often say, that’s right, I wasn’t sick, right? And the second thing was, if you get struck, if someone got struck by a car and didn’t have insurance, they didn’t leave them in the intersection. They could take it to a hospital. They get treated, they get stabilized. And before Obamacare, we were all paying for that care. That uncompensated care is much lower by hundreds of millions of dollars than it used to be.

Nestor Aparicio  26:40

Well, that was the design of the smart people that put Obamacare together, right? Like, the idea was this was happening, and I know that was a big part of the pitch was like, we can’t have uninsured people walking around. Then there’s the plague. You’re uninsured, you don’t go and get checked, right? Because you don’t have the money to get checked, and you’re sick as hell, and you get other people, like, all of contagious diseases are real thing in our society. I

Andrew Ratner  27:03

think that’s contributed to the growth in the last couple of years, not just in Maryland, but around the country. I’d say that, you know, millions more people are on these health exchanges in every state in the country, because I think they saw something that happened and they were like, You know what, I can’t play around with this. It’s

Nestor Aparicio  27:20

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the reason I don’t hug Teresa, because I’m, you know, I’m on Howie Mandel, but I’m,

Theresa Battaglia  27:26

well, I have a bag for you inside you have goodies,

Nestor Aparicio  27:28

because I want to get you guys, I got to get some oysters too, okay, but before that,

Theresa Battaglia  27:32

I just want to say to the Maryland Health Connection, you do have preventative service care for free. So you can go to your doctors, you can get immunizations. You can get, you know, hospitalization, things that like that. People think, oh

8

Nestor Aparicio  27:44

my gosh, I can’t afford it if you don’t have insurance for these folks. Yeah, that’s all I can say. Mental

Andrew Ratner  27:48

mental health coverage as well. Mental

Theresa Battaglia  27:52

so you know, come to the Maryland Health connection.gov, check out our website. We you have free help. Brokers are there, even with small businesses. Brokers are there to partner with them, to get them their employees enrolled, to get them start a dialog with them, and start a dialog with a broker. See what you can afford. We’ll make sure that it’s affordable to you and your employees. All

Nestor Aparicio  28:11

8

right. Andy Ratner is a Chief of Staff at the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. She and I were colleagues at the Baltimore Sun back when it was awesome. Theresa battaglia is here. She’ll always be Teresa Gutierrez. To me, she was girl I had a crush on, but she was too old for me, and I wasn’t, and I was, I was, I was, you

Theresa Battaglia  28:26

did I didn’t know there was an oval team. Come on,

Nestor Aparicio  28:31

crush on. You too old for me, though, Small Business Outreach Manager, you knew me when I was set you knew me when I was 13. I knew you. Yeah, yeah. You were, like, too old for me at the time. You were, like, class 84 I was class 85 Yeah, that’s

Theresa Battaglia  28:45

not that much older. And

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Nestor Aparicio  28:49

I got my Van Halen ticket subs here. All right, so you’re giving me a Maryland Health Connection hat for small business. This

Theresa Battaglia  28:55

is how to wear that, buddy. Well, I

Nestor Aparicio  28:57

give you, did I give you a Maryland lottery ticket? I got to do that. I

Theresa Battaglia  29:00

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want a winning ticket, though. Well, if I win, we’ll split it, promise.

Nestor Aparicio  29:05

All right, look how many I’m straight up. Do you want 3332 or 31 there’s only one answer to that. You’re getting 33 because Eddie Murray, there you go. There you go. Well, thank you, buddy, and I’m not gonna give you 32 for OJ Simpson, I’m gonna keep that back. Yeah, absolutely. 29 for Marlin. Humphrey, bdn plates are

Theresa Battaglia  29:23

great. A bunch of goodies in here for you. And Jen,

Nestor Aparicio  29:25

so, be kind of yourself. Be kind to your health. That is your that is your slogan. That’s

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Theresa Battaglia  29:29

right, all right. And then, of course, you know, hand sanitizer and stuff like that. Because I know you mentioned how I mean down. Jeremy,

Nestor Aparicio  29:40

I went to the oyster recovery event last night. All right? And anybody knows me knows I’m a fist bumper. Don’t take it personally. It pisses off 30% of the people, they get offended. Look, and I’m like, Look, I just don’t like and if you’ve touched a lot of people, I really don’t want to touch. I know that’s my thing. I get you. So I’m at an oyster event outside, and I walked around for three hours, hair out. Are eating this, eating that, drinking this, talking that, doing this network and oyster. And I saw scunny Sun fin for the first time. Scunny sun maybe an oyster stew. I took a picture and did a video that was day 21 you’re about to do day 22 with me right here. So I would tell you this. So last night I met the oyster. Do we have anything else I have to promote? Are you done with me promoting you good have I said everything because I want to do my oyster today’s day 22 of the Maryland oyster Tour presented by our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions. One 800 clean water. They keep my water clean, and the oysters keep the bay clean. That crab cake over there. Andy, yeah, I’ll give you a bite of it. Don’t worry. I’m sure. So without the oysters, there are no crabs because there are no crap. I get, Jenny, bring me a crab, but I don’t, it’s too messy. Don’t do it once you say that out loud to Greek, I’m getting five. I will get they’ll have a dozen on the table now. So oysters keep the bay clean, and liberty pure solutions, keep my water clean my well water. If you’re northern Broadway County where you got well water, you need people like Liberty pure solutions, also our friends at Jiffy Lube, getting us out on the road and out on the road, and curio wellness and foreign daughter powering up our 26th anniversary today’s day 22 of the Maryland oyster tour. I think maybe 23 either way. But I was with Finn last night, who was the son of Scotty, not your mama, just say Scotty. And I told him my dad was his dad was my heart, yeah. And I showed him some old pictures. We’re gonna go to Nacho mamas do the crab cake tour in a month. But I’m doing the oysters every day. And last night, I’m down in the front, and you

Theresa Battaglia  31:30

want some lemon on there, you do a little, you

Nestor Aparicio  31:32

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know, I don’t do lemon on the go. Put it on there. Let me see we got do that up. So last night, I’m walking around, and they got oyster farmers from this and that, and all these people are around. And a fallen pine and they had the beer. People were there. My friends from state fair were there. My friends from the Beaumont fatleys. I helped Amy bring her crab cakes in. Then I took one. Stephanie Palo took two. I’m telling on her, because I hung out with her all night. So I’m eating oysters all night. I didn’t eat all I had, like, two oysters. I’m eating food all night, and I’m fist bumping. Fans are coming up. Orioles Raiden jewelry, oyster tour, oyster recovery. It’s important. We got to take the spat and get the shells, put them, you know, all that stuff. And then I saw Ben Cardin, right? So I’m gonna put this down. It’s heavy as hell. Oysters are breaking my back. That thing weighs 100 pounds. I’m sweating holding it up so the best oyster can Pete hear me, or Mr. Cut, the best oyster I’ve had so far, I’ve had this oyster. I love this oyster. Oh yeah. Have you had the spinach? Gosh,

Theresa Battaglia  32:38

now this is it looks like a meal. They’re huge. You’ve never

Nestor Aparicio  32:41

had this year. No, I have this is gonna be the best thing you’ve had this month, I’m sure. And I’m not look at that. No offense. Everybody costs us. I love them. But I’ve been out looking for oysters different ways. 26 days. 26 so I’ve had oyster Stuart Riley’s. I’ve had shucked oysters at Conrad’s. I’ve had fried oysters at fadelies. I had fried oysters last night. Jerry Edwards made some fried oysters. Fiona,

Theresa Battaglia  33:01

you feel pretty good. Feel pretty good all the oysters letting

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Nestor Aparicio  33:04

the pencil baby. So nonetheless, you need health insurance for that too. So and well, I’ll get to Angela Ulster Brooks and Larry Hogan and running for office later. But last night, I’m walking around. And my favorite place this month’s place called Federal House, not a sponsor, nice people. It’s on the square in Annapolis, down at the foot, like where it floods all the time. Is it a new place? Nah, it’s been 100 years. Literally, it’s been a million years. Elegant, stately. Went in, okay, and he always recovered. People said they have a really cool oyster. Should go down and check it out. And they’re part of the program. So I wanted to support them. My wife and I went down Annapolis with my dear friend Ray Bachman. Went over to Mike’s on Riva Reva on the South River, where he’s DJing and fighting cancer health insurance. Ray and I went there and I ordered this crab ceviche, oyster, so raw, oyster with ceviche, like cilantro, jalapeno, onion, tomato and crab, Maryland crab and a crab claw. So it has a crab claw. Picked it on the oyster. Sounds like a piece, and it looks like, yeah, it looks like a meal. They were there last night serving it. Oh, wow. So I had already told Damien last week on the air, I’m like, no offense to your oysters, but this is a you got to have this now. I’m bringing Dami trays of it from because they’re all waiting. It’s a cherry event, and I took it over. And every Donny at the Beaumont and Kirby, my friend at State Fair, they were all eating. They’re like, Oh my God. I’m like, Dude, I told you. I made the video two weeks ago. It’s the best thing I’ve had all month, and it was there. Was there, and I was about to leave, and I looked over and there’s Ben Cardin. And you know, Senator Cardin’s been great to me, great for citizens. He’s a good man, and we’re losing him in politics. He’s moving on, but he was there doing the senatorial thing and doing the senator thing, and he loves me, right? I. So he turns around, you know how he could be. Hey, what tour you want? What are you eating? Crab cakes. You’re eating oysters. What are you doing? And I had him on last month at Mako, and he knew I was doing so he What do you want? You’re up to something. You’re doing something. I said, Senator, I’m doing the oyster tour. Yeah, how many days in Are you? I said, 22 that’s pretty good Cardin, by the way. Yeah, do that pretty well you do so. I said, so he came in on me, and he went like this. Oh, the Germany thing. And I should, no offense Senator Cardin, but he shook hands with everybody. And now I’m like, I went over to stay for Kirby. I need, I need so I need some so you have pure Ellen. How was it last night? I walked around everywhere. Well,

Theresa Battaglia  35:43

this is pocket size, so I shook hands

Nestor Aparicio  35:44

with Ben Cardin, and I took him over to the Federal House. And the woman there lit up because she recognized him, you know, oh yeah, I’m like, Look, I told Senator Cardin, this is the best thing here. And he schmooze the rump. Does what politicians do. And he had it, yeah? And he had a good time. And then I went looking to shake, get my hand cleaned off. I know what you mean. I know exactly so, so that’s what so here, but I’m not so germ folk that I don’t love you, and I’m gonna share this. And I know you have health insurance because you’re with so the This is day 22 three, whatever the hell day it is. We’ll figure it out. I’m up 126, have you? Have you ever had oyster Rockefeller? Take one. Take Take whatever one you want. Yeah, I’m gonna take the one nearest me, nearest me, nearest up, because you put a lot of do I love lemon. I hope you do too. So Theresa’s here and Andy’s here. We’re all old friends. I mean, I guess Andy, you’ve known me almost as long as I know Teresa. Then you’ve known me since 86

Andrew Ratner  36:32

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Well, I’ve known you for five minutes, but, yes, yes,

Nestor Aparicio  36:39

known me. No, really, I remember you from the sun. You were an adult. All of you were thank God for that. Well, I thanked all my other editors early in a week for teaching me things. And I would say this to you as a newspaper person, and I would say this to Mr. Rubenstein is going to get a letter because I got my credentials denied for the games this week that y’all taught me well. And I will say this more than anything, and this is a benefit to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, and anybody does anything. The best part of my childhood was the toughness of being from Dundalk, being from a broken home. I understand learning things the right way, learning how to eat a crab, learn how to catch a crab off Bear Creek, right? But more than that, my education I had at the sun when I was around people who taught me fact from fiction. They taught me to fact check. They taught me to edit. They told me that which takes the common that doesn’t, and they taught me the right way to go through life and evaluate I’m in Dundalk, what’s bullshit and what’s not so, and what you guys are doing is so important, you know, so important. Just like the oysters are important to debate learning about the I didn’t how many years old was I when I learned the oysters clean the bay so we could have crabs like two years ago, right? So I’m still learning stuff every day. And I think the thing about health insurance is changes, right? It’s different than it used to be. Yes, and hopefully, God, knock on wood. So many things in life aren’t better. Hopefully we’re doing a better job. But clearly, we have 94% of our population covered. That’s good. That’s good. So do more of it. All right? Eating here. Thank

Theresa Battaglia  38:16

you. Nestor Aparicio,

Nestor Aparicio  38:17

online,

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Andrew Ratner  38:19

Maryland, health connection.gov,

Nestor Aparicio  38:21

connection, I’m an idiot. I’m sorry. I’m messing up thing. By the way, I’m signing off from Costas because I’m about to eat this thing. This is one of my favorite things, because they’re spinach. People come here for the crab cakes. They come here for the crabs. And they know the legend, and Hoda, who’s retiring and doing something else, and Kathie Lee and goose loved. I mean, everybody loves this place. Mike Flynn, anytime he comes, I will go to Costas. Get crab cakes, absolutely. And I’m like, That’s awesome. Get the cream of spinach when you’re here, if you can’t get get the oysters, right? If you love oysters, get the oysters. Rockefeller, fabulous. One of the great things in other places I’ve had great oysters this month. Little, little things. Um, true. Chesapeake has this French onion oyster that I featured maybe the 18. And also my wife and I. She got dressed up, she looked beautiful before she went to Florida, bought the storm. We went over to the urban oyster in Hamden, and we we did for brunch. Was beautiful, Sunday brunch, and we had an oyster eggs benedict with an oyster fritter. Oh, my God, ridiculously good. I always loved oysters from the time they were squishy, and I ate him at Bullock they first, first oyster I ever had was at the eastern Hall, oh yeah, down at bingo center, next to leg of Chevrolet, right in my neighbor Colgate. And I’ve been eating oysters my whole life. So I’m an oyster guy.

Theresa Battaglia  39:38

That’s why I asked how you were feeling. Because, I mean, you eat a lot of oysters, and you can start them, right?

Nestor Aparicio  39:43

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I just made a fool myself. If that’s not a meme by Monday, I’m gonna, all right, my friends at the lottery were here. My big thanks to Teresa and Andy from the thank you Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. Shorten that damn thing. It Nestor care maybe when I’m president, no, rewrite it. All right, I got spinach in my teeth. That’s the other day. You get spinach your teeth. Save it for later. Just means it was really good, and they gave you too much. It’s excellent. Um, Kevin Leonard was great to meet with this capital center book. I want to tell everybody to go out to Laurel, Laurel, Laurel history.com, is where to get it, capital center book. And of course, Leonard came by and we talked about the capital Center as well as Alex avec and looking older than him. And I hope that I’m not aging do this playoff thing and the whatever the ravens are gonna do here. Yeah, gotta worry about losing to Washington in two weeks. My God Almighty, long as I can make that Duran Duran concert on 28 it’s gonna be a good month. My birthday is this month. Teresa’s birthday. All good people are Libras, because we’re like, balance. I’m so balanced. I’m going to Essex from Dundalk on the 11th. We’re gonna be pizza John’s. I will have scratch offs in the Maryland lottery. I’m gonna be done the oyster tour by then, so I’m gonna have pizza. Okay? I’m not doing a pizza tour because that other goofballs, I think next summer that my wife came up with this next summer, I’m gonna do August again, because the state’s so Maryland, so beautiful. Put me in a Maryland Health and put me in your gear, okay? And I will drive the whole state next August, Maryland’s beautiful. In August, sounds good. And what I’m gonna do, my wife came up with this crab soup. I’m gonna do crab soup every day. Love it in August. Great idea. We’re gonna come up with some reason to do

Theresa Battaglia  41:26

it. Yeah? Cream of crab vegetable. Well, it’s

Nestor Aparicio  41:30

like a crab cake. Like, this is right? A lot of people would say this is their favorite crab cake. This is a Costas crab cake, people in East this is probably your favorite because you’re done. Girl, right, yeah. And then I have the faithless people and the Coco’s people and like, Pat don’t have them all. They’re all

Theresa Battaglia  41:46

completely different, right? And

Nestor Aparicio  41:48

you’re allowed to have your favorite and still say that’s a damn good grab cake. And I’m glad I came to Dundalk Absolutely. And, you know, I would say that for anybody, this is a damn good look. It’ll always be my favorite Look at that. Well, there you go. I mean, this is always sort of my first to me. This is a home crab cake, and the east side always tastes like my mom to me. Right? No, right. There’s one place in Annapolis that makes him like my mom. But Davis, they what? She fries them like hockey pucks. Okay? Yeah, you know me. They would fry this for me. They know I want it fried but crunchy, but doesn’t look as nice. It’s not, it’s not as jumbo lump it all chi that they do over here, but I’m gonna eat it. Crab cake. Tour, any oyster tour intersect. I still have two oysters left. I’m gonna fight Teresa for that. My thanks to everybody. Go ravens, go Orioles. My thanks to the Maryland lottery, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, curio wellness and foreign daughter. And our friends at Royal farms. Really powering up Luke, because he’s doing double duty this double duty this week, hopefully for the next month, be the noise. Be the noise. Let’s go ooze back for more from Costa. Stay with us. You.