It doesnt matter whether youre going to the hospital, the pharmacy, youre seeing rising prices. Yeah. Prices have been rising dramatically for many, many years. We dont see an end to that. Most patients have insurance traditionally. They havent been exposed to the full price of care. Just a fraction of what it actually costs. Providers keep raising the costs and passing it on to the employers. The patients have to know it hits their pocketbook. It pays for them to shop around. You can get a good price in health care. Not everyone charges a whole lot. You have to shop around. Gerri of course. Weve talked about bending the cost curve. I think its been bent by breaking our wallet. Its really tragic. I want to talk about good rx here for a second because this is an exciting new proposition for folks out there. Tell us how it works. Sure. Good rx basically takes Prescription Drug prices at pharmacies across america as well as all forms of discounts that consumers can easily do and brings them together in a website or mobile app. Gerri we want to show folks exactly what this looks like. Take a look at this. Most people have no idea that drug prices vary. The exact same drug 10 here is 150 at this pharmacy. I had no idea. Its crazy. But heres how to fix that. Good rx finds prices and discounts on every prescription. Go to good rx. Put the drug name. Instantly find savings at virtually pharmacy in america. Gerri thats a proposition youll save people on Prescription Drugs. I have to tell you, i thought. Hmm. Heres what happened to me. I take five allergy names. Its about 140 bucks. I plugged in my zip code. The drug i wanted. I came up with a price of 149. 90 pief. I jus149. 95. I went to a different pharmacy. Why is there a difference between pharmacies that might be a few miles away from each other . Yeah, consumers assume theres a guy in a white coat who has a list. All pharmacies are the same. The reality is whether you have insurance or you dont. Pharmacy prices vary dramatically. Especially with generic drugstores. With a little bit of research. Going from pharmacy a to pharmacy b, you can save 50 or more. Gerri jeff. I want to go back to you. Your company, all it does is does the same thing, but in a broader arena with hospital costs. Major costs for testing. I want to show folks a comparison of a patient on a ventilator in washington, dc. Washington University Charges 115,000. Providence hospital, 53,000. Is there a big difference in care here . Whats going on behind these numbers . Yeah, typically theres not any difference in the quality of care that any patient or doctor could measure. Its just raw price variation. As you mentioned one example. A more garden variety example, if a patient needed an mri or colonoscopy. Just down the street it might be 3,000 or more and 500 in another building. Its the same thing for Traditional Health Care Services as medication. Surgeries, imaging. Cardiac testing. They have three times to five times higher prices at one building versus another. It pays to shop around. Gerri im wondering, my big fear, i was going to have to foot the bill for all my allergy meds this one drug, selloff for my health care plan. Should i still use your site if i have coverage . Yeah. I mean, the amazing thing is that especially with 2015, more and more americans are on High Deductible Health plans. Theyre on the hook for most of the their Health Care Costs throughout the year. Thats when a product like ours helps. When you can use a product like ours, you can be in control. As opposed to being a victim of whatever prices a pharmacy charges. Gerri we feel like were the victim of whatever price they want to charge us. Is it on our shoulders, jeff, to do the smart shopping, make sure were making the comparisons. It seems its a diy world. Patients will benefit themselves. The Health Care System is incredibly complex, and its not fair. And thats unfortunate. And, once again, if you can get the exact same thing for 500 at one place and 3,000 at another, certainly worth it to do the diy, do your homework when youre scheduling for your care, ask how much its going to cost. Make sure its not more than the fair price. If its way higher, call around. Like you did for your own allergy med, try a different provider, you can often save significant amounts, half or more is very, very common. Gerri the good news here is a site like good rx is preventing people from doing Dangerous Things like cutting down their prescription to save money. Thanks for coming on. Good to see you. And now we want to know what you think. Heres our question. Are drug prices artificially high . Log on to gerriwillis. Com. Vote on the righthand of the screen. Ill share the results. And in the 11th hour last night, the house passed a 1. 1 trillion spending bill to avert a Government Shutdown. It lies in the senates court with a vote that could happen at any moment. Guy benson. Guy, good to see you. Thanks for coming in. What do you make of this bill . 1. 1 trillion. Sure is big. Should this thing move along. Get it done. First, ill say happy friday and merry christmas. Great to see you. Start on a happy note in this segment. Look, this bill is not perfect. Lets put it that way. I dont know anyone who is really super enthusiastic about the bill. People on both sides of the aisle, very unhappy with some of the elements of the comprise. This funds the federal government almost all the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. About the next ten months with one narrow exception will come to fruition or come to a head in early 2015, which republicans can use as leverage to defund or block some of this executive immigration action the president has taken. I dont think anyone is looking at the crom ni nibus is what theyre calling it. Its a flawed piece of legislation. Gerri just to fill in the details on what might matter to consumers. Obamacare is funded. No pullback on funding the Big Health Care bill that was the president s signature legislation. A little bit of nibbling around the edges. Of course, they want to agree to a spending bill that defunds the entirety of obamacare. Thats why we had the Government Shutdown last year. But republicans have managed to nibble away and cut back on some elements of obamacare spending within this particular bill. For example, they cut funding for the rationing board, known as ipab. And blocked funding for these socalled bailouts or risk corridors for obamacare. They sort of were able to draw some blood on obamacare, but theyre unable for a a number of reasons to go for the kill in this piece of legislation. Gerri and ipab is panel that makes decisions on what gets fund and what doesnt. Those are important obamacare pieces. I know theres conversations about the piece of legislation that goes to the banking. Senator Elizabeth Warren was active on that. What was the last word on that, guy . Well, it stayed in. There are a couple of things. Conservatives will be happy that republicans were able to extract some spending cuts to the epa. Significant cuts to the irs budget. A few wins for conservatives. The biggest win in there for democrats that republicans are unhappy about is the Democratic Party gets a serious say in the level of funding for the federal government for ten months. They just got kicked out of office. Heres sort of the level that will be spent at the federal level, it was set last year with the Paul Ryan Patty comprise. Some conservatives who have argued. Hey, we should start afresh in 2015. And set a new baseline for spending because the democrats were defeated at the polls. Gerri doesnt this rebound negatively to republicans. No matter who was in the wrong, if things dont get done, it seems like the general public blames the republicans. Certainly if you look at polling in regard to a shutdown that looks to be averted, that generally does hurt republicans, even if its not really you can make an argument its not their fault. If we have a similar fight sometime next year, youll at least have a United Republican Congress up against the president who will be potentially vetoing bills and that sort of thing. Its a cleaner method to go down that route. Elizabeth warren, she was hopping mad about what she said is sort of gutting a provision of doddfrank she was behind. She was threatening to play sort of the democrats version of ted cruz this time around. She just couldnt get the vote. Gerri that was fascinating. Well hear from woman again. Guy, thank you for coming on the show. Have a great weekend. Still a lot more to come this hour, including your voice. Your voice is important to us. Thats why during the show, we want you to facebook me or tweet me gerriwillisfbn. Send me an email at gerri willis. One north dakota congressman is warning obamas war on coal could leave us in the dark. You could face higher prices because of the president s energy policies. Youre going to want to hear this. Stay with us. Gerri criticism is mounting against obamas war on coal. Our next guest published an alarming oped detailing how epas energy push will slam consumers bottom line. Republican congressman kevin cramer of north dakota. Hes a member of the House Committee on natural resources. Congressman, welcome to the show. I have to warn you, im the coal miners granddaughter. Tell us specifically what it is about obamas plan that is harming americans bottom line. Well, there are a lot of things. Thanks for the opportunity. Im the son of an electric lineman. I understand electricity from the consumer side. A lot of people do not. We, i think, in our country have gotten in a situation when it comes to the war on coal where were all fighting the war on one side or the other. My oped in the journal talks about is not be the coal mining jobs as important as they are. Or the low price of electricity as a result of this wonderful fuel source or the incredible global advantage we get. Its about the system of, you know, power and moving power through our grid. And a lot of people maybe dont know how close last winter and what yall call the polar vortex what we call a winter. How close it was to collapsing because theres not enough base, you know, load power produced by reliable coal to maintain the grid. So people are having to shed voluntarily and sometimes the utilities themselves are having to shed electricity or demand. And demand, high demand is the sign of a strong economy. We shouldnt be apologizing for it. Gerri absolutely right. At the heart of obamas proposal here, he wants to reduce our Carbon Emissions by 30 . This is an aggressive goal, and, frankly, my belief is, if you want to make some impact on emissions, you should go to china or one of the third world countries producing a lot of this. Whats the actual impact of making that if we were actually to cut these emissions by 30 , what happens . Well, first of all, i think its an arbitrary number. We had a hearing on the Science Behind this plan. Its called the green power plan. It affects existing power plants. To replace the loss of the coal power, they have ideas like, were going to have one and a half efficiency gains for the next year. We dont know if thats possible. Replace it with natural gas. I like natural gas. Its a low cost abundant fuel in america. Theres not a system to deliver the natural gas. Gerri we have a problem with that in the northeast, getting it here. Yeah. You have to deliver them by pipelines. Gerri right. Exactly. I want to tell folks, if you want to know whats going on with this economy, north dakota has the worlds lowest unemployment rate. 79 of their energy is generated from coal. Tell me what happens to this winter, sir, if we continue down this road. Are we at a danger of spiked prices and low availability. We have a danger of both. Coal is a base code, as a fuel source is reliable. The price hasnt gone up as decades. The price of natural gas goes up and down. If you have to buy, for example, on the spot market, you have to pay whatever the market price is at that time. Its a very high volatile price. You look at all the other things it affects, i mean, low cost electricity is one of the top ten every year of characters i characteristicsn where a ceo will put its next plant. It has a lot of impact on our competitiveness in the global marketplace. Gerri you have to tell us whether you voted for the budget bill last night. I voted for the omnibus bill last night for all the reasons your previous guests talked about. Nobody loved it. Everybody found something to like and want to like. Thats sort of the art of comprise in divided government. I look forward to a clean slate when the republicans come in. Gerri come back to the show. Were eager to hear. Thank you. I love the opportunity. Thank you. Gerri the latest development to a story weve been aggressively following, nhtsa has tried and failed. Aaa tried. But takata is sticking with its plan for a regional recall when it comes to the deadly exploding air bags. Automakers taking things into their own hands. According to the Detroit Detroit Free press, representatives from the Ten Companies impacted by these recalls including honda, mazda, toyota met in a Michigan Hotel room. Theyre trying to convince takata to issue a nationwide recall. In a joint statement, the automakers said several more meetings will likely happen before any action is taken. Wow. That story just goes on and on. Well update you. We wrap up our week long in financial moves. Is it legal, what options do sony employees have in the wake of this hack attack. Can they win . Our legal panel weighs in coming up. You make me wear my bike helmet. You taught me never to run with scissors. And to follow the swimming rules. You tell me to stay away from drugs. To always buckle my seat belt. So why do you keep a loaded gun in your drawer . How safe is that . You ask them to follow some safety rules. Now, theyre asking you. In fact, theyre counting on you. Never let your gun get into the wrong hands. Remember, always. Lock it up. Visit ncpc. Org gerri after last months massive Sony Pictures hack attack, comprised employees Sensitive Data including salaries, Social Security numbers, birth dates, could sony employees sue . Fox news analyst bob massey. And legal analyst wendy patrick. Wendy, ill start with you. Do employees have grounds to sue here . Absolutely, gerri. A number of different theories. Everything from the basic breach of contract theory. We expect our employers will protect the information we give them. Two, personal tort actions. We have classaction lawsuits on the one hand all the way to individual suing to things like negative things like emotional distress. Intentional emotional distress. The list goes on. Lots of lawsuits. Gerri bob, do you agree . Not 100 percent. First of all, what they need to do, they need to mitigate. Historically trying cases for 30 years, gerri, people end up in the courts because the other people put their head in the ground. Sony has not handled this correctly, so this promotes anger and resentment. Here you have a lot of people. The question is will this be formed as a Worker Compensation claim . In other words, most states, when you sue in order to sue your employer, theres an exclusive remedy saying you can only put a claim for negligence. Theyll have to get around that. Theyll have to show that the actions of the employer were either grossly negligent or punitive in nature and had a reckless disregard for the employees, then they may have a claim. Its not that easy not as easy as having all these claims. But believe me, theyll do what they can. Gerri my understanding is that california has some of the most strict employee information disclosure laws. Right . So does tv to be workers comp . Is there another remedy . How do you do that. It doesnt have to be workers comp. If, in fact, there was this basic negligence standard, this is far above and beyond. I mean, this Sony Pictures scandal, this most recent hack attack, as you aptly put it, is a repeat performance for sony. And thats problematic. You would gerri what do you mean repeat performance . Six months ago they settled a classaction lawsuit a little different had to do with hacking. Although you ca you can say, it dealt with the playstation customers and this is their own employees. The bottom line is, there should have been safe Cyber Security that was being practiced for, you know, from the time that lawsuit was initiated. I think we can go above and beyond just mere workers comp. Okay. Now all right. Wait a second, wendy. And you i are both litigators. What you just said is what i said. What im saying, theyre going to have to dig into, how do i get around this . If they could show that sony knew or should have known, if they could show that they had any way of prior knowledge, they didnt do the right safeguards for this to happen, then they can gerri target. Michael stewart. How many cases of all the companies that have faced hack attacks . Whats your response . No doubt. No doubt. Listen. What im saying, its not a slam duck. Oh, yeah, ill sue them for this and that. You know what will happen. First it has to be certified by the courts. Thats not as easy as it used to be for america. Number two, whats going to happen, youll have this this is lawyer talk unfortunately. Sorry. Gerri tell me the real thing. Theyll be filing their motion to dismiss and all that stuff. Veers need tstuff. The bell rings everyone gets paid. Not that easy. Gerri it really doesnt. I have to tell you, sometimes the negative repercussions are big, big, big. Bobby and wendy, thank you for coming on. Merry christmas to you. Like wise. Gerri good news for those of you looking to give the gift of an iphone. Listen to this. Walmart is slashing the price of the iphone six to 129. The six plus to 229. Fifty bucks off for the 16 gig models. Walmart also applying the discount to samsung five. The sale runs until february. Big question, how much product will they have on hand . We dont know the answer to that one. We wrap up our users guide with a way to get your budget ready for 2015. We have the ultimate guide. Stay with us. More turmoil on wall street as stocks and sharply lower as Oil Prices Continue to drop. Down by more than 300 points and a rollercoaster ride does not make it easy to keep your household on the budget. Dont spend your holiday is over of spreadsheet but my next guest has a good way to budget your finances in their new year to get real results. Our special users guide is a vice chairman and author of the of book automatic millionaire. I think the word a budget is a bad word nobody does everybody thinks they should if you think i will spend my weekends with the spreadsheet to you are crazy but people dont think they work. But what works is realigning where you spend money. We see thousands of clients every year and thousands of prospective clients we have to get them to a savings rate that is 10 or more. Gerri you say there are certain pots of money to go a certain place. Savings, housing, if you make sure you spend the right amount you dont have to watch every nickel and dime because you do the right thing. Savings is to present . The good beginning number pay yourself first. A lot of people do less than that but if they save 7 our goal is to bring that up because of the good things happen when you pay yourself first. Look at the tender said no. And figure at the budget look at housing. Gerri nobody pays 35 percent on housing is far more. In manhattan but to get that number down what can we do . Refinancing, reducing the mortgage so they have extra money to save. Gerri the other point instead of having to cars you have one . Look at transportation expenses it is about 50 in getting rid of one car can reduce that by seven by 5 that is the amount of money the average american needs to double up on the 401k. Gerri ab have a big gift from gas prices. Is helping the average american. The tax laws have changed for next year there is an opportunity for everyone to put more money away into the i. R. A. Or for a 1k. 81 over the age of 50 take advantage of that bomb but. If you get to 23,000 if they stayed the same then over the age of 50. Gerri every year it is bumped up. Talk about automation because if you have the chance you will never see where it has to go. But where did the money go in 2014 . Looked at your Bank Accounts and credit card in brokerage accounts and download download automatically in you can see the money now i can get you to work on a spending plan to put the money in the right place. With a Financial Planner we look at where is your money then we get you on track. Gerri tonight about the markets 260 points down and people are starting to say i have seen the movie before. The bottom line the market has been incredibly strong. So wed be to count blessings it is truly a great time to buy on the debt. The two weeks and december historically are difficult because people take of a taxloss. It is difficult to see this right now dont panic enjoy your weekend have a cocktail. Gerri if you missed any of that great advice to into the willis report on Christmas Eve and we will devote the entire hour to the issue. Earlier we told you how to find the best Prescription Drugs near you and you answer the question. One viewer said i am sure there is some Cost Accounting method but there is no reason prescriptions should cost so much. Gerri a lot of people feel that way. I believe in the free market you have to apply the research and development in the years that takes them to get approved. Like fox business on facebook. So lets get the best advice from the willis report. The best choice of the year. Check it out. Every day is so wonderful then suddenly its hard to breathe now and then i get insecure from all the pain im so ashamed would it be ok if i sat here . I am beautiful no matter what they say is she serious . I am beautiful no matter what they say what ver words cant bring me down new irl words cant bring me down i am beautiful in every single way yes, words cant bring me down. So dont you bring me down today gerri welcome back to the al willis report. This week we had guests giving you much needed device from winterizing your home to the best smart phone at. Here are the best moments of the week starting with wednesday. With sprint and at t and verizon slashing prices to get this all the business. But a small upstart is undercutting all of them. We heard about the company from clark howard. Some of the node Name Companies that are not in the state of mind for any of us are down at 25 a month of the madrid talks, and limited text and of limited data and who knows what the bottom will be. There is the Company Called freedom that offers basic monthly service, not a lot of minutes or attacks but the monthly charge is 0 per month. Gerri so how good is the cerebus . Denigrate question. My favorite of the discounters is republic wireless. Com the cerebus is fantastic. I have tested them thoroughly i have been testing freedom pop it is a working in progress. Gerri and then next night we invited the ceo on and i asked him how he keeps his prices so though. With a focus on using wife by and selfservice and pass the savings on to consumers. But we will find ourselves screaming at the smart phone or the computer to run faster but last night we gave tips on how to get your wireless internet up to speed. It works on different channels that way you get your wifi default settings is what everyone uses so everyone is on the same channel. Use the channel without a lot of other networks. Gerri the scanner helps that . Ltd. Shows the networks and of the channels you can pick another one. Gerri very smart. Use what comes with the router. It sounds like what we should not do. People tell you to enter the it address and to the web browser the but if it comes with the app bay gives you access to configurations and settings as you can change the channel very quickly. Gerri if all else fails, it turned off. If you call someone an to help you that is what they will do. Gerri we have been reading you the user guide one of the biggest pieces of advice using a Health Savings account. Large employers in particular with have Health Plan Options with the Health Savings account and my recommendation if you have not signed up for it you should consider it and find it to the max. Even though there is a premium to pay the cost of the eighth tsa health plan is 20 cheaper than that hmo there are multiple tax benefits and in addition Many Employers particularly large employers find that account and that money can roll over year after year and is yours to keep even if you leave your job. Gerri and gas prices are giving sales of boost but we have the worst starting with the Energy Compass only 43 percent said they would buy it again then said Nissan Pathfinder followed by hon day. If you missed our vice go to gerri willis. Com and ketchup and coming up next giving santa of little help looking at the hottest toys on store shelves. You park your car. As you walk away, crunch a garbage truck backs into it. So,you call your insurance company, looking for a little support. What you get is a game of a thousand questions. Was it raining . Were your flashers on . Was there a dog with you . By the time you hang up youre convinced the accident was your fault. Then you remember; you werent even in the car. At Liberty Mutual we make filing a claim as stressfree as possible. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty Mutual Insurance gei ls th twoeeks until christmas so what do you do if you were still shopping for the perfect gift . Good housekeeping is here to help with the best toy zero warrants and though holiday issue. This is the big winner a personalize robot and headed to what toys were deemed the best by dozens of the most qualified testers. Show me them must have toy of the year. She is from frozen and comes with spanish and english. The toy testers literally would not let her go. [laughter] and it is actual voice from the movie. 35 at target. Gerri tiers of it is not under the tree. Especially at my house. The modernday dollhouse all pieces are magnetic. So it comes right off. Wait i need a reading light. And look how cute though little characters are. This is a little mitt the recording studio. Nice. Have do you do it . Record your track and it dropped the beets. Added some lyrics. [laughter] this is a device that attaches to the ipad. So use it with the ipad to turn it into a teaching tool. Watch this. Now we will make this so we are interacting like facial movements and we try to mirror the image. But you our practice that this. So coming in on the action we have derek making slime. Gerri it is all about rubber. It is also fine. Let me help you. Go ahead. Look at that. Completely nontoxic and save. Is like the scion skit. Remember the chemicals . I would love that. Wow i feel like a mad scientist. This is cool. This is a favorite of the engineers for you could create circuits so the trick kids into being electrical engineers so you build your own circuit and make music. Gerri i took it apart. Does it go back together . You have to complete the circuit. So when your kid graduates to where they create their own circuit and synthesizer to make the magic have been have been. This is a robot with party tricks. Gerri does it serve drinks . It will serve on a tray and a dance and hand gestures. Gerri i want to see the dancing. Queues a musec. Here he is in full effect amazon price check is the great tool. And we also like shot advisor. Gerri we also spoke to begin had to keep kids safe in and parents need to read labels and instructions before giving the toys and they should be cautious buying the tollways second hand. Choking is a concern with the younger kids. If the peace can fit three toilet paper tube is a choking hazard pergonal looking at stories on fox business. Com. Now more signs of weakness in china that dow was down 275. 6 and. Even stocks and Oil Prices Falling below 60 of beryl a barrel. Now the prices are at fiveyear low. Oil and gas prices pushing down inflation though let the Consumer Price index fell in november. Wholesale gas prices fell 6. 5. Investing 81. 5 million in the Internet Network it gives them a 25 stake in the company by dreamworks. It tailors videos for teenagers now valued at three under 25 million. Those are some of the of hot stories right now. Gerri there are lots of signals about the economy right now that are confusing the labor market is inching to recovery in oil prices at a fiveyear low. Consumer confidence hits the highest point since 2006 just before the market imploded with a Great Recession and you say you are so worried about debt you figure it will dog you all your life. A few of you believe the American Dream is achievable this is why we continue to bring you the best advice to get your financial house in order because consumers are our business. Security and yorkers dont take much of the mayor either. Good night from new york. Neil welcome, everybody. I am neil cavuto. His ears is the fallout from the saudi racial emails the cochairman reaches out to two al sharpton and Jesse Jackson for healing. Ab, multitask to bring a checkbook and i know where this is going and so does the reverend peterson. Good to have you back. I suspect she will have to do more than say she is sorry . No. She will have to pay up been a good fashion. Not just apologizing to the black community they have a history
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