WCI #492: Who Profits from a Broken Healthcare System?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is The White Coat Investor Podcast, where we help those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street. We've been helping doctors and other high-income professionals stop doing dumb things with their money since 2011

Jim Dahle (0:16)

Welcome back to the podcast. Hope you're having a great day today, whether you're on your way to or from work, walking the dog, working on some chores, working out, whatever you're doing today. We're glad you're here. Without you, it's not much of a podcast. We've got a great interview today. We've got Jordan Grumet here today. So we're going to use one of his quotes for our quote of the day. He said, whether we accept it or not, doctors and patients are both pawns. We've been weaponized against each other while third parties tiptoe into the bank vault and empty our safety deposit boxes. We'll be talking more about that quote and what it means later in the interview. But before we get there, I want you to know how much we appreciate what you do on a daily basis. It is not easy work. And I'm reminded of that every time I go into the emergency department. I was there yesterday. I got crushed. There were so many patients. I think 12 patients checked in in like 45 minutes. And so I ran all day. It's a hard job sometimes. And I'm dealing with a whole bunch of people on one of the worst days of their lives as I know you do as well. So thank you for doing that.

This episode is brought to you by KeyBank. For six years, White Coat member-benefit partner Laurel Road has been part of KeyBank. As of March 16th, that partnership becomes even stronger as Laurel Road is now officially under the KeyBank brand. With the transition to KeyBank, the same tools and services you rely on now come with enhanced resources and support and the same great experience you trust. WCI members can continue to enjoy the benefits and financial resources they always have with even more support from KeyBank. To learn more and for terms and conditions, please visit whitecoatinvestor.com/keybank.

Hey, here's a freebie for you. We talked about the importance of having a written financial plan frequently, but many people tell me they don't know what that actually means. We help you make one in our Fire Your Financial Advisor online course, but if you want to know what needs to be included and see an example of a plan, you can go to whitecoatinvestor.com/plan and download a financial plan template that you can use to build your own financial plan.

All right. Let's get Jordan on the line and get started with this interview.

My guest today on the White Coat Investor Podcast is none other than Jordan Grumet, who I hope is not unknown to most of you. He's been on the podcast before. He's spoken at WCIcon multiple times. He's coming back this next year in Orlando. He is a doc, he is a blogger, he is a podcaster, he is an author. He's got a new book out we're going to be talking about today. Jordan, welcome back to the White Coat Investor Podcast.

Jordan Grumet (2:49)

Thank you. This is one of my favorite places to come and chat about everything healthcare and wealth.

Jim Dahle (2:55)

Well, for people who don't know you and admittedly, not everybody has listened to every podcast. Give us the brief rundown of who you are, maybe outline what you've done in your career so far.

Jordan Grumet (3:06)

My story is a simple one. My father died when I was young. He was a doctor. I'm like, I'm going to save all the problems in the world by becoming a doctor too.

I did so and quickly burnt out. Then I was lucky enough to encounter you. You sent me a copy of your book because I was writing a medical blog at the time. I learned all about financial independence. I said, boom, this is for me. I was actually pretty much there because my parents had modeled great financial information for me.

I started to build a world outside of medicine. I slowly left medicine, started blogging, podcasting, and eventually writing. What I'm so excited about today is I've spent a lot of time talking about why I left medicine because it wasn't fulfilling my sense of purpose. The piece that I've never talked a huge amount about is why I thought the system was so broken, and that was the other piece of my burnout. With The Healthcare Heist, I'm now talking a little bit about why our healthcare system feels broken and what it's doing to doctors and patients alike.