Senate GOP Health Care Repeal Effort Collapses.
CUOMO: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faces a tough decision today. Does he go forward, does he call for a vote on the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, but probably won't go his way, or does he admit defeat? Which is also going to come a big political cost. But the reality is, they don't seem to have the votes to pass it, even with a simple majority, 50 plus one, because three Republicans have come out against him. Let's discuss with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. He's a CNN contributor and one of the architects of Obamacare. Zeke, let me put it right to you and what we hear as a defender of Graham/Cassidy. There are people -- not the majority but about 7 percent of this country who gets insurance through the individual market, who believes that the mandate and paying for all of the weak are rocketing their costs. The big premiums have gone up for them. The deductibility has gone up for them, in terms of what they have to pay out of pocket. And something like Graham/Cassidy, that releases the onus, the responsibility of having to have my insurance be a function of everybody else's will lower their costs and they like this idea. What do you say to that group of people?</s>EZEKIEL EMANUEL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, typically, there were a group of people who, before the Affordable Care Act -- and if you repeal the mandate and exchanges in the Affordable Care Act would be better off. They tend to be people who are healthy, and young and fairly well off. So, actually, making a good income. Their insurance premiums would go down because we do what's called experience rating there. They pay based on what their anticipated costs are. But the whole point of insurance is to pool a big group of people and lower everyone's costs because it's more predictable and you know what the costs are, Chris. And the best thing is not to do what Graham/Cassidy tried to do, which was to slice up the pool, the group of people you insure, but to people put as many people as possible into one pool, healthy, young, and older and sicker. And that will actually lower, on average, the costs for people. But, you know, it also goes to a larger point, which is we need to keep health care costs come down. For the last six years since passage of the Affordable Care Act, health care costs have moderated. Unfortunately, lots of people have seen their deductibles go off and the employers are shifting more of the costs onto their workers. And that has to reverse.</s>CAMEROTA: We heard that last night. So, there was a CNN town hall about health care. And you, being one of the architects, obviously, of Obamacare, I just wonder what your reaction is when you hear stand up as this one audience member talk about how much they've been hurt by Obamacare and how it was not as billed. Let me just play this for everyone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell my daughter tonight how you plan to absolutely guarantee her that she will never be subject to exorbitant premiums?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obamacare was a huge lie to the American people.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Medicaid expansion is cut, what protections would there be to ensure people suffering and dying from addiction would continue to have access to health insurance coverage for treatment?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Considering the scant marketplace options in my state, what would you do for health insurance if you were me?</s>CAMEROTA: Zeke, hold on a second. That was not the one I was hoping for. I want to stay here from the woman that you heard there who said Obamacare was a big lie. She goes on to talk about how it was misrepresented. So, maybe we have that one? OK, listen to this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obamacare was a huge lie to the American people. Our insurance premiums did not go down. We did not get to keep our insurance plans. We did not get to keep our doctors and our taxes did not go down. Have you taken the time to listen to us, who are trying so hard to convey our message? We can no longer afford to pay so much so that so many can pay so little.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. So, Doc, what do you say to her about all those broken promises?</s>EMANUEL: Well, first of all, about all those broken promises are accurate. The Affordable Care Act has done some remarkable things for people. First of all, it limited total out-of-pocket costs that people would have to pay. Those are high limits but it does prevent people from going bankrupt and that is, I think, an important protection. And that's true for everyone. The second thing I would say is, look, one of the problems of the affordable -- that has emerged after we passed the Affordable Care Act, is we needed some fixes. We recognized we needed to fix some things in the marketplace and the exchanges to bring premiums down. We needed to guarantee the cost-sharing subsidies to have reassurance so that if an insurance company had super high expensive people, it wouldn't affect everyone's premiums. We also needed to get more insurance companies in rural areas and uncovered counties by maybe reducing their taxes from the Affordable Care Act. There are a lot of fixes that can be done. Unfortunately, we could not do that because Republicans would not pass some fixes. Everyone hurts for people who are paying super high premiums and we need to keep health care costs, hospital costs, doctor costs down to actually reduce those premiums. Those are essential elements. And, hopefully, we can now focus on the very practical measures to actually save money and that will reduce premiums and address that lady's concerns.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean, look, you know, if this fails -- if Graham/Cassidy fails, it's up to Congress to fix the things that are broken.</s>EMANUEL: My worry is they're just going to move -- we've got to move on now. We can't do health care. We need to do something bipartisan and not rush it. Do it behind close doors the way Mitch McConnell did. You have a total of five hours of hearings by the Republicans. Democrats had many more. We can actually work this out if we try to work in good faith. I hope that Senator Alexander and Murray actually make progress on shoring up exchanges and bringing premiums down. They have some ideas and they should push forward now.</s>CUOMO: They're working on a bipartisan basis to do exactly that.</s>EMANUEL: Yes.</s>CUOMO: That was halted because they want to fight for Graham/Cassidy first.</s>EMANUEL: Right, the bipartisan basis can go forward.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Ezekiel Emanuel, thank you very much.</s>EMANUEL: Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. President Trump is facing criticism over his response of the devastation in Puerto Rico. What the president is tweeting about is under scrutiny. So, we'll show you what he's focused on this morning.