[S2E21] From Cannes: The Rest of the World Posts the Price. America Won't.

Walking the streets of Cannes, France a week after the film festival, Vincent Catalano had a thought that stopped him cold: every watch in every luxury boutique window had a price. You knew exactly what you were getting into before you walked through the door. Healthcare in America? Not a chance.

In this short solo episode recorded while on vacation, Vincent delivers a raw, unfiltered dispatch from several weeks traveling across the UK, France, Italy, and Switzerland. What he saw was a different relationship between governments, citizens, and healthcare costs. One that made the American system's opacity look less like a quirk and more like a choice.

This isn't a policy lecture. It's a question Vincent keeps coming back to: what exactly are we protecting, and who are we protecting it for?

In this episode:

• Why every luxury store in Europe will tell you the price and American healthcare won't
• What four weeks across the UK, France, Italy, and Switzerland showed Vincent about cost and access
• The real tradeoffs between the NHS model and the U.S. system and why the U.S. version isn't winning that comparison
• What would happen if employers gave each employee $1,000 a month instead of handing it to an insurance company
• Why price transparency, access, and not being “sold-to” every minute of the day aren't radical ideas. They're the baseline.

About Vincent Catalano:

Vincent Catalano is the founder and CEO of CLEAR Healthcare Solutions, bringing over 23 years of experience in employee benefits and healthcare consulting, including a senior role at Arthur J. Gallagher. As host of the CLEARly Beneficial Podcast, he cuts through the complexity of the American healthcare system to bring brokers, HR professionals, employer decision-makers and C-suites the real conversations that matter.

🎧 Listen to the podcast here or on your favorite platform:

• Substack: https://clearlybeneficialpodcast.substack.com
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast

Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Clearly Beneficial Podcast, the show where we rip off the band-aid and explore the future of healthcare, benefits, and the people driving innovation in the industry.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

So there's something about traveling that uh gives you some freedom, gives you some perspective, and allows you to just think differently about your life and experiences if you just open yourself up to it. So walking along in Cannes, France, and you know, we are all connected somehow. But what does that really mean? I mean, we're here to live and talk to people and get to know people. And there's something I love about travel is this like, you know, my wife jokingly says, I just adopt people all the time, and that's great. I mean, we just get to meet people and talk and share experiences, and that all comes home to healthcare. You know, when I think about what's going on in the US in healthcare, where everything that we talk about in healthcare revolves around it being a business. Okay, new products, new new drugs, new, you know, hospitals advertising, you know, everybody doing this stuff to drive business. I mean, and then at the end of the day, none of us know what it costs. You know, when you go into a store here in Europe, even in the expensive ones, even the watches are displayed in the windows, have a price. So if you're gonna go buy an expensive watch, you know what the price point is before you walk in and buy it. So that to me is is kind of like healthcare. Is healthcare just an expensive watch that no one wants to put the price on? And I think that's the truth. We, you know, buy insurance, we hope that we never have to use it, but if we do, we hope it covers everything we need to do. And I think that's all backwards. I mean, here in in Europe, and whether it was in the UK or France or Italy or Switzerland or everywhere I've been the last four weeks, you know, there's some concept of the government playing a role in keeping costs down and keeping costs transparent, or in the UK not having a cost at all. Okay, is there problems with it? Is there wait times? Is there all these things? Sure. But I don't think any of those problems are any worse than what we have here in the US relative to denials of care, uh non-transparency, there are wait times, you only get to see your primary care doc for you know 10 minutes if you're lucky. So, you know, everybody wants to worry about oh, we can't have a unipair or single-payer approach to healthcare. I mean, what are we thinking about, people? You know, I think about you know, if an employer had the opportunity to give each employee a thousand bucks a month instead of taking that thousand bucks and giving it to an insurance company, what the hell? I mean, what are we thinking? So, anyway, just those are just some random thoughts as I walk along the boulevards here in uh Cannes, France, uh about a week after the uh the film festival, and uh just wanted to uh plug you in to you know some thinking. You know, think differently about healthcare, think differently about what we as Americans demand or should demand about healthcare, and it's price transparency, it's access, it's being treated fairly, it's not being sold to every minute of the day. And if you notice, whether you're on Instagram, I know my my Instagram for my my the podcast, clearly beneficial, you know, it really is amazing how much stuff gets sold to me via Instagram. And it's it's mind-boggling what what what's happening today. So it isn't about it isn't about you know being sold to, it's about getting the right things for you, care, and making good decisions. So are we all connected? Absolutely. Should we look around the world and see how people do it differently? Absolutely, and we need to move forward in this country. Have a good one. This podcast reflects the personal views of the host and guests, not their employers or sponsors. See you next time.