The Big Challenge To "Repeal And Replace" Obamacare
CABRERA: Welcome back. When republicans vow to repeal and replace Obamacare, they expected they face major criticism from democrats. They weren't wrong there, but earlier, I spoke with Democratic Governor Dan Malloy of Connecticut who said there was nothing that could convince him to support this republican effort.</s>DAN MALLOY, UNITED STATES GOVERNOR FROM CONNECTICUT: It will take insurance away for millions of people. It will gut Medicaid; it will cause people to lose their lives; it will cause hospitals to close; it will cause other clinics to close. In - on - I'm in my 60s. If I was to go to the marketplace under this plan, I would have to pay probably about $8,000 more for my coverage. That's what they're doing, folks. Everyone wake up and understand that this is repeal and replace with the emphasis on repeal and really not replace. What they're going to do is make you sicker.</s>CABRERA: So, democrats aren't the only ones who don't like it. Philip Klein, managing editor of the Washington Examiner and author of "Overcoming Obamacare: Three Approaches to Reversing the Government Takeover of Health Care". Phil, thanks for joining us. So, you wrote an opinion piece earlier this week, and you said, "Calling this new reform plan conservative just because republicans created it is a farce."</s>PHILIP KLEIN, WASHINGTON EXAMINER MANAGING EDITOR: Well, basically, this plan keeps a lot of Obamacare's regulations in place. These are the same regulations that have driven up the cost of insurance, leading to the skyrocketing premiums that republicans have been attacking for years. It also replaces Obamacare subsidies with very generous new subsidies. And yet, despite doing -- making all of these nods to Obamacare, it still leaves itself vulnerable to attacks from democrats such as you just heard that they're throwing millions of people off of health insurance and gutting Medicaid. So, it is in a sense, the worse of both worlds, if republicans had actually adopted a true free market plan, they'd be being attacked like - from democrats just as they are now, but they'd be on more a defensible ground. They'd be able to point to a plan that spends a lot less and that drives premiums down that really creates a free market and that really expands choice.</s>CABRERA: So, let's just take a slice of what you just spoke of and that is driving premiums down. To do just that one thing, what is the solution if what is already out there isn't working, and what has been proposed by republicans in the House, Republican Speaker Ryan, isn't working according to what you just said?</s>KLEIN: OK. Well, it's very clear. Obamacare's premiums are high because they force everyone to buy very comprehensive health insurance. Now, they say that's good because it provides more benefits, but what if you don't need that comprehensive health insurance? You're still paying a very high price to purchase more insurance that you need. And that's what's driving young people out of the insurance market and causing Obamacare to collapse. So, the solution is an additional government control. It's throughout those regulations to allow people to purchase the insurance that they want. If they want more comprehensive insurance, they could pay for it. If they don't and they just want a basic plan that covers them and protects them from financial ruin in the case of a major catastrophic illness, then they should be able to purchase that. That's what conservative health care has always been; that's what republicans promised; that's what Paul Ryan is claiming this bill does, but it simply does not.</s>CABRERA: So, what would it take to get more conservative on board the plan?</s>KLEIN: I think that what you're going to have to do is try to attack the regulations, and if not, another option is to move it up the date where they're claiming that they're going to repeal this thing. Because the other part is that under the bill, as written, it doesn't really start to unwind the real spending until 2020, which is a Presidential Election year. And so, many conservatives are skeptical that when I was heating up, that they're going to somehow repeal a law that they have been afraid to repeal now.</s>CABRERA: Now, the Congressional Budget Office still hasn't issued the report on how much this repeal plan would cost. That's expected to happen soon. Does that change the game at all or is it just another speed bump for a bill that Speaker Ryan seems determined to push through the House?</s>KLEIN: I think it's going to be problematic because it's going to re- enforce the conservative criticisms that I set up top, because it's going to show that it's still going to be very costly, because there is $100 billion in various grants to states. They're dolling out probably hundreds of billions of dollars for all of this spending for the new tax credits that they're issuing, and also, because they're repealing most of the Obamacare's taxes, that's going to deprive them of tax revenue.</s>CABRERA: It's not simple, is it? Philip Klein, thank you for joining us -</s>KLEIN: Thank you, Ana.</s>CABRERA: And sharing, really, the one side of this whole argument as we explore all the different pieces to a complicated thing, which is health care in America. Thank you again. Coming up, real love and robots. Can humans find love in a machine? 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