you have to watch this tomorrow. so hard to believe. have a great night and "the willis report" is coming up next. gerri: hello, everybody. tonight on "the willis report." millions of facebook and google and other accounts hacked and we will show you a new way to protect yourself. also, the global epidemic that no one is talking about and no one is prepared for. new information about dementia. and is this a bad or is it really a new goal? we are watching out for you tonight on "the willis report" ♪ ♪ gerri: welcome to "the willis

report." governments unfinished business tonight. gaping holes exist in obamacare's backend that is not seen by consumers. the infrastructure to actually enable consumers has not even been built yet. herewith the latest is doctor scott gottlieb with the centers for medicare and medicaid services. he provided key testimony on this very issue today. this is so disturbing. so the idea here isthey have been built, but they don't enroll anybody. so you go in, you find a plan, and god willing, you can pick one, but you can't actually pay for it. how much of this website is unfinished? >> they said 40% is unfinished. it is hard to believe that they have launched this without finishing it. what they said they were going to do is finish it this month.

but they have had to work the front end of the website. right now, they don't have a system in place that allows the payments to get transferred to the insurance company. so the insurance companies, come january 1, are not going to be able to get paid. and it raises all kinds of questions. gerri: will it function? will it work? are people going to get to their doctors offices, get the care that they need, and then be told that you don't have a coverage? at the end of the day, this puts consumers in a bad place. people who need care, the people that obama says he wants to help. between a rock and a hard place now. >> even if you actually make it onto the insurance companies docket, they might might not be able to get the money to provide you that coverage and what the

white house said last night, two nights ago, is that they will backstop the insurance company and basically guarantee the payment and now what the insurance company is doing is developing this and the government is going to make those payments to the insurance companies. but they are not sure how they will do this. gerri: estimate what they think they are owed? are you kidding me? do you think the irs allows me to do the same thing? do think that people i do business with say, pay me what you think you owe? no one does that. that is crazy. >> it is hard to believe. the assumption is they will estimate what they owe and if they estimate too high, they will reconcile that later. but that could work for the large insurance companies. especially those that will have a hard time making those

estimates. gerri: i don't even like the sound of it. and we had that number wrong in the first place we could discover, that you owed it to times that, meanwhile, the small insurers go under because they don't have the cash. it is shocking to me. are there any estimates when this website will be done? >> it will take months. people are saying that it is a two or three month project and 40% of the website, you know how long it took them to not build this effectively the first 50% of the website. gerri: we talked a lot about this, what you sign up for, the coverage might not have your doctor in it, it could be a small choice. give us an example to helen merrill this is. >> in california, the nearest urologist in one location is

80 miles away. the planet has nine dermatologists, none can perform complicated surgery for skin cancer, about 100 miles away. and a county with 260,000 people, there are a lot of narrow network plans and it's really a throwback to the old hmos that people reject it. what the administration is saying is that we think we made a bad choice for the ppo options, and they traded away the deductibles. we actually think that you are better off than those that might have provided this. gerri: i want you to get me back to the idea that these computer systems are not completed. and then if you can get coverage, you may find out and sign up, and then you will get into the system and find that you don't have the kind of

doctor that you need. ultimately, doctor, where it is going? what happens next? and how do we resolve these issues? >> there are a lot of consumers who think that they signed up for coverage and do not actually have it. it could be upwards of 30%. i am being told only about 10 to 15% have paid this premium. so the number that you are seeing on who has enrolled in the plants, large portion will not be enrolled, not only because they haven't signed up, but some of them just won't go through and pay their premiums. medicare is talking about doing a paper reconciliation, and so they have tens of thousands of pieces of paper, asking if you can reconcile the people that have signed up through health care.love with the records that the insurance companies have and i don't know how they are going through all that paper. gerri: that is incredible. it's like going on amazon or

google or anyone of the private sector websites, that works beautifully. and now they are going to turn over paper documents. >> they could be getting 50,000 paper applications and have to reconcile those with their own records. gerri: doctor gallia, thank you so much for coming on. fascinating information. well, from one ridiculous thing to another. 2 million stolen passwords on a hacker server. the popular website that you probably used. our next guest is here. we really appreciate your time. i want to go or what happen in the marketplace today.

2 million people getting passwords stolen, it's really disturbing, but i do understand that most of these folks have passwords like 12345 and password and password one. at the end of the day, don't you have to be a little bit vigilant about how you use these websites? >> we definitely do. it's hard for people to make good and strong passwords and keep them protected. gerri: you always have to bring a lot of common sense to their.

>> everyone from teenagers to grandmother's are going online. gerri: everyone is doing it, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, there was another big breach that we haven't talked a lot about. jpmorgan chase, more than 450 pk card users, and this is interesting because these are pre-paid cards. and it's been very controversial but these would be used for payment because they have these on him and they are pretty expensive. so what do you thing? >> i think that the issue there isn't so much the card as the that companies have a hard time stopping hackers. it's really an asymmetric problem where every day they

have to make sure that the digital doors and windows are locked. and they watch for that one time when they know will work where they have been careless and that they can attack it and the losses can just be staggering. gerri: when you say asymmetric, what do you mean? >> i mean that every day these countries have to spend all this effort making sure that everything is protected and that hackers can wait around doing nothing day after day after day until the one time that someone has made a mistake. gerri: there you go. you have a solution to this, what is your product? >> we have products and is is a card that lets you go online and shop and interact without having to give up the most critical information that is often used

to take advantage of these data breaches. that includes your credit card number in your phone number. gerri: i am confused by this because doesn't someone have to have a record of who i am? >> they do, and we know who you are. what it is is basically when you go online and your shopping online and it gives you a choice that you never had before and that is to mastercard. and with one click, it will transform your existing creddt card in conjunction with the issuing bank into a mastercard, which is a credit card donation lasts for a month and a limited credit card is only worth the amount of that purchase, so it is something the make your purchase with and you are done and what happens to that number after that purchase is over, it can be lost or stolen.

gerri: what an interesting product, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. gerri: we have more and more this hour. we are still waiting to get a plane ticket and why the number of dementia cases is getting worse not better and they look at your health after the break coming up.

gerri: a new report of a global dementia epidemic. alzheimer's disease international sounding the alarm that by 2050, the number of cases of dementia will triple. with more on this, the president and ceo of the new york city chapter of the alzheimer's association. thank you for being with us. these numbbrs are disturbing. why are they going up? >> the current report, some of the developing countries where we have not had this access before. gerri: a lot of it is in regards

to the developed world. >> the baby boomers, which is the largest cohort this country has known is aging and we're expecting that there are many americans, 20 million americans they can have alzheimer's. the important thing is that there is at least one caregiver and you have to double that number to understand the impact it will have on families. gerri: i think everyone has been @%uched. so we know what the toll is, if you know people who have had at, are we prepared for this? how many people will have this? >> we are looking in the next 15 years, 60 million americans could be thick with alzheimer's or taking care of someone who does. we are in no way prepared, we don't have effective therapies for medical professionals or

research funding. we are not prepared at all. gerri: cures would be great if we had enough money for research itself. right now we are spending about a half billion dollars a year, 1.2 early dollars per year in order to put into this. in addition, we need people to participate in clinical trials and you can't do can do research in this country without individuals participating. most peoples who have alzheimer's or over the age of 85 years old. therefore, people participate participating in the trials makes it harder to predict. gerri: the numbers are escalating in the cost is escalating and do you have estimate of what it will cost? what will it take to take care of these people? >> we are looking at an astonishing number of $1.2 trillion. by the year 2015. this country will have to spend us to take care of the people

who are ill with this disease. every dollar that we invest in research and resources for care, we will pay it off in the future. we don't put the money in today, we've also lose the interest of young scientists that are interested in this area of expertise, but they will walk away from this because they can't make a living. so we need to help them help us and we need a lot of people to help us. gerri: thank you for your time. that is scary. the white house is pushing coogress to do something about the nation's income inequality. next, we answer the question, how do you do that. the best way to find travel deals as you head through to christmas. ♪ ♪

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gerri: have you got your plane ticket for christmas yet? we show you how to do it without breaking the bank.

gerri: the holidays can bust any budget. i notice myself, especially the ticket to get your christmas destination. here we have the ceo of farecompare.com. thank you for being with us. we appreciate you hanging in there with us. >> no problem with. gerri: we will get to the weather story in a second. but asking you about plane tickets for the holidays. are they more expensive right

now, and what can i do to cut the price? >> well, last year was pretty expensive and we are seeing extremely high prices, typically 20 or 30% more than other connecting flights and we are seeing much higher prices on the weekends, the weekend before and the weekend after christmas. gerri: i am traveling on christmas day itself and that is the way to go if you are buying a ticket. >> yes, that has been the cheapest day. not only is it fairly cheap, but it's the cheapest around the holidays and then you get the added benefit of the airport being quite empty. gerri: let's talk about new york and l.a. flights. cross country. i see what i'm going to pick right there.

>> yes, you have a high six hundreds coast-to-coast. and you are looking at sort of the low three hundreds and high two hundreds and then for the shorter flights, low one hundreds for the weekdays and high 100 for the weekends. gerri: weekday flights 350, and then take a look at a local our local flight under two hours, san francisco ballet. it's a puddle jumper, 195, weekdays 115. you can really save yourself a lot of money if you know what you're doing. and i want to talk to you about this awful storm that you have raging in texas. how intensive is list, and is it affecting travel? >> it is right at 32 degrees and

so for folks in dallas just don't know how to drive. for air travel, it's deicing of the aircraft, which takes an additional 20 to 30 minutes. we have already seen them cancel over 700 flights a day and they are canceling already 400 flights tomorrow. and because so much traffic is going to cause this heartburn over the weekend. >> even if you are coming in from los angeles, because a lot of the traffic flows through here, there will be lots of delays. most of the cancellations will be in dallas and laguardia tomorrow. it is just going to be tougher for folks in the dallas area. gerri: looking at pictures across the country, it will take a really big storm.

stay safe and we will enjoy talking to you again soon. gerri: thank you. the holidays are at a time when we are supposed to be kind to one another. some say that sentiment could be lacking. in tonight's top five. number five illinois. this observation was based on 600,000 customer service phone calls over the past year. number four is louisiana. so much for southern hospitality. and number threes new jersey. i accepted this. if you have ever watched an episode of the sopranos, i am sure you would bet your money on the garden state. number two is maryland. and i could see that would be an issue. however, the state listed as the most commonplace state that

swears is ohio. the buckeye state. in the meanwhile, washington and the carolinas were named the most courteous date in wisconsin was the least. and why hospitals are charging more. and what about income inequality? is that the governments job to pick the? the debate and your reaction is coming up next. real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understandhe connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 70% of our mutuafunds beat their 10-year lipper erage. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus

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gerri: the haves versus the have-nots. pivoting this under his watch. here we have a scholar from the manhattan institute and fox contributor with us. let's start with you. this is the defining issue of our generation? >> it should be part of this, which is social mobility. we have people stop, we are not seeing them move with opportunity in america. and that is the a real issue. what the president was talking about was a cover for his program and the real problem is that getting people in the middle class -- it is about the economy and economic growth and we are in a time of great social and economic upheaval and instead we have this normal political field.

gerri: how much could be solved by a growing economy. >> no one really cared because the middle class and the poor were doing well also. but that is the key is getting the economy going again and i completely agree with that. gerri: focusing on three issues, this would eliminate the problem of income inequality and the first thing is minimum wage. and as you know, there are a bunch of minimum-wage workers protesting that they want more money, $15 an hour. but there are numbers out today that show that if you raise the minimum wage to $50 per hour, you would lose 20% of the nation's workers or 450,000 people. is raising this the solution?

>> it is a symptom of the problem. because people are trying to live on seven or $8 per hour and a part-time working economy rather than having real jobs. a lot of this goes to what the president didn't say, it goes to the corruption in washington and the crony capitalism, whether it is unions and corporations and others that can rig the rules for their own benefits. all of the things that we are not doing for our economy. the missing stimulus money, where is all about? the billions and trillions that we are spending on education and not having any effect. in government isn't working. but we don't entrust how to be in a in a new economic society and that scott said, this has been going on for decades. gerri: to your point, income inequality is growing. 1992, the share of income by the top 5% in 2002, comparing and

contrasting. that is not a big change. >> i think that the preponderance of evidence is that income is at the top half versus everyone else over the last two decades. whether that's a problem or not, it is completely unclear when you actually read all of the research that is done on it. and the other point i would make is that within the bottom 80%, the vast majority of the american population, income inequality has grown since the 1980s and in a lot of ways, that is the part that maybe we would be worried about. >> let's talk about one thing that has changed. after the 50s and 60s, when we had productivity, we have the most productive workers in the country and in the world. and in those days productivity

was shared between the people who produced it, labor, and capital. this includes all the gains in productivity and all the people lose their jobs and all of them are going for the financial not being shared by the people that are producing it and that is a real problem. gerri: what you say about that? >> we have to become a more important part of the economy, and i think a big part of the story is that for a number of years, as a society, we had this male breadwinner model and we all know that. gerri: i think this is what the president is getting out. we need to move from the money that the wealthy people have and give it to the poor people and i want tooshare some numbers and

get your reaction. 11000% poverty is up and it's up over the total budget. and so you must have a lot more poor people and you look at populations at the poverty level and today it is only 16% of the population. >> that is what we have, 19 to 16% is a failure on a massive scale. >> whether it is this, education, or infrastructure. >> i would just disagree a little bit. it often excludes a lot of the anti-poverty programs and that we have tried to use. >> the numbers are through the roof. one in six americans are now

getting food stamps. the numbers are massive. >> this includes the development of having people become want dependent as opposed to opportunity. by the way, i don't mean opportunity where they did work for nothing. my problem is with both sides. >> we need better paying jobs and people being able to advance and that is the result of the failure to grow our economy, which is supposedly about helping people get in the middle class and this is all about redistribution policies. and the republicans are all about one thing, how to enrich top people. that is the way that the public views them. gerri: scott, giving you the last word. are the presidents policies really redistributing wealth? is that is what it's all about?e

about the top 5%. but i think the problem is it's easy to reduce this by giving money to people but in economic boom times, it is a lot harder to increase upward mobility from the bottom and i think a lot of republicans are getting really interested in new approaches to expanding upward mobility is. clearly the model on the left is part of this. >> would really like to see and so would a lot of the voters, to actually see if they have empathy, as opposed to this, which doesn't work at all. >> there are a lot of folks on the right, including paul ryan, who are really interested in the anti-poverty agenda and mobility agenda and i think you'll see interesting things over the next few years. gerri: scott, thank you for coming in. it's an interesting debate and conversation. now we want to know what you think. here's our question tonight. should the government provide

income equality or the equality of opportunity. log onto gerriwillis.com and vote on the right side of the screen i will share the results at the end of tonight's show. coming up, a special series of segments next week. we will be drilling down until before the end of the year and giving you some concrete how-to strategies to help you manage your money along the way. plus, a week from tomorrow we will be taking your questions with another special call-in show. you can e-mail me at gerriwillis.com and please join us on next week at 6:00 p.m. eastern for a special user's guide to your taxes. it is the year end edition. i'm coming back, are these coins a good investment? $4000 is the average cost. why are costs rising so much?

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gerri: emergency rooms are profit centers? here with more, a professor of orthopedic surgery at duke university. i can't imagine why would cost thousands of dollars to get stitches. what is going on? >> emergency rooms tend to be one of the most expensive places to get your health care. and so if you have a smaller or nonurgent issue, will you will pay more. you also need to remember that there are four things that go into the cost of this when you

get care at an emergency room. the first is the actual services that you get for specific needs and the second thing is that health system takes care of underinsured patients. gerri: let's talk about the cost first. and i will get some examples here. california pacific medical center, charging $2029 for three stitches. and $3335 for five stitches. jacksonville florida, mercy hospital in miami, 3000 for six stitches and this is unbelievable. you made the point that it could be a mistake. but i might get injured in the middle of the night. my primary care physician is not

hanging out in the office waiting for me to come to him. it is not my fault, it is a system's fault and why are they charging so much for this? >> sticker shock is going to happen. but you have to keep in mind that when you go to a hospital emergency room, you are not only paying for your own services, but for the fact that that hospital takes care of medicare and medicaid. gerri: so they charge me more because they can get from a? >> the cost of caring for those patients is equalized amongst all of the patients. we want a transfer it to people that have deeper pockets and that's not necessarily even me, that's my insurer enact that is correct. gerri: this is interesting. a hospital called the california pacific medical center.

$32,000 for a hard x-ray. if you have a procedure to remove your gallbladder, $25,000. this is the one that gets me. the codeine pill is 25 bucks, versus 50-cent at walgreens. are they just hoping that we will never notice this? anyone who looks at this concede this problem. >> absolutely. i think what the hospitals are trying to do is to bring more transparency to the issue. there is sticker shock and inflation and there are things that you will start getting after you get your care to these health systems and you will start seeing the itemized ills and how the prices are dramatically different. they're trying to obtain the cost of going to the pharmaceutical companies and trying to negotiate for cheaper

pricing from them. gerri: it can't happen soon enough. >> absolutely, it's a big problem. gerri: doctor, thank you coming on tonight. we had a name wrong earlier, it was mercy hospital in michigan, not miami. before i leave this topic, the five most expensive hospitals. chester medical center, north bay, and heine university hospital. take a look at those, maybe one of these is in your neighborhood. but those are the most expensive hospitals in the hospital country. we have more coming. stay with us [ male announcer ] here's a question for you:

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gerri: a virtual currency taking the market by storm. the bitcoin. being ranked higher than gold. gold closed today at 1233. sean ,-com,-com ma i understanding you you are not a

fan. >> i am not a fan. right now you have nothing. you have a digital currency out there and hold nothing and you have nothing. gerri: we have a full screen. yes, that is what we call a crash. inchon come i want to play with your little you little bit here. because today there was a common from a fellow named david wu, who is a strategist at banc of america. and so they say that bitcoin has their potential for growth. if he were on? >> he is either wrong or off on

one that will happen. when he is doing is taking something like a western union type of model in making this essentially like a western union and seeing what it can be worked out at fair value. and they're about 21 million bitcoin at this point and this includes what he thinks it will be work. i think the bubble is about to pop. gerri: there's a bubble with everything. take a look at this list of bubbles. housing bubble, 2007, the question is, are you just not pro-because you think the prices are too high? or are you not pro-because you think there is no real value there? >> it's a little bit of both. >> they crashed hard, they leave a lot of her people along the

way. but the second one is -- right now can be regulated or really track that well. and so a lot of money laundering can happen and not the government's biggest fear. if they were to allow it to get too widespread. the governments won't be incentivized and they're not going to let their financial institutions do the same. but china is putting this through their banks. gerri: that's the question that i have about this. who will allow this to be developed in this country? it's not going to be the facts. were they put the kibosh on this? >> yes, the dollar has enough trouble of its own without having a competitor to it. it does have its own problems. but at least with dollars you can go to the grocery store and buy milk and eggs and bread and whatever can try doing that with bitcoin and it won't happen. gerri: think you're coming on

the show. we will be right back with my "two cents more" and the answer to the question of the day. should the government provide quality or equality of opportunity? stay with us. honey, did you get e toaster cozy?

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gerri: president obama is urging congress to raise wages and secure the social safety net. he says the growing income gap is the defining challenge of our time. should the government provide income equality of opporunity? here is what some of your posting on my face to page. obama's solution to income inequality is to make everyone poor. you will always have differences in creativity and work ethic. an opportunistic society, not an entitlement society. i agree, and served as mayor reid. opportunity quality is the american way. it is my belief we cannot close the gap, however is best to allow the people the freedom to take the necessary steps to move out of their socio-economic

status. we'll assess the question on gerriwillis.com. the percent said income inequality. 97 percent of you said equality of opportunity. and here are some of your e-mails. danny from alabama says, i do not believe what thing president obama's says. rich from idaho agrees. i have never trusted anything president obama has said are done since it came into the limelight. robber from california says, love "the willis report," but not a fan of the president. the insurance companies raised premiums to almost every year. we need to let the insurance country -- company sell across state lines. and finally tonight, you know, we don't often comment on this business network about the passing of an international statesman, but nelson mandela's death today is different. the example he set in his life is a marvel to millions. lange was in prison 26 years for fighting his country's apartheid system. more than that, he forgave his

jailers, his powerful example of redemption and grace was noted by president bush and obama tonight. in no wise young woman i know add this to say. i've got a lot of work to do. i do, too. that's my "2 cents more." thank you for joiniig us tonight. ♪ lou: of the nation's largest unions bankrolling in organizing a protest that they tried to promote as a fast-food working strike an attempt to double the minimum wage to a fast-food workers raising their pay to $15 an hour. tonight we will have the story of how much the liberal media decided, is certainly no better, to take the service employees international union's dramatic but phony strike story and run with it. there were quite a few. i'm lou dobbs. ♪ good evening