Radio America Online News Bureau

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Clock Wars, Inflation Gut Punch, Schools Not for Learning?

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Listen to “Clock Wars, Inflation Gut Punch, Schools Not for Learning?” on Spreaker.

Rob Long is in for Jim. join Rob and Greg as they cheer efforts to end changing the clocks twice a year and get a kick out of the fierce rivalry between activists trying to put an end to time changes. They also groan as inflation swells at the worst pace in more than 30 years. And they listen to another radical whom Loudoun County, Virginia, paid half a million dollars to stress that schools are no longer about learning.

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Strong Economy Spreading Prosperity

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Listen to “Strong Economy Spreading Prosperity” on Spreaker.

Tuesday night President Trump touted historically low unemployment rates in a litany of categories. He also says his tax cuts are creating economic opportunities in struggling communities and that he wants to give parents the option of moving their kids out of failing schools.

Near the beginning of his speech, Trump noted the unemployment rate is the lowest in 50 years. He also stated the unemployment rates for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, veterans and the disabled are at all-time lows. Unemployment for women stands at the lowest rate since the early 1950’s.

So how much credit does President Trump deserve? National Review Online Contributing Editor Deroy Murdock says Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks are a big reason that employers are growing and expanding. And he also explains why Democrats refused to applaud good jobless data.

In addition, Trump says his tax cuts are spurring wealthy Americans to invest in previously neglected communities through “opportunity zones” and that is giving residents of those areas the chance to find good jobs and bring stability to their neighborhoods.

Finally, Trump made a strong push for school choice, highlighting the story of Janiyah Davis, who is trapped in a bad public school in Philadelphia. Trump awarded Davis an opportunity scholarship during his speech and challenged Congress to pass legislation that would give one million other kids the same access to better schools.

But what is the real story on opportunity zones? How do they work and what impact do they really have? And how big of an issue is school choice to parents who can’t afford to move their kids out of failing schools?

In this podcast, Murdock discusses all these questions and more with Radio America’s Greg Corombos.

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‘Health Reform is Not Dead’

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Grassroots activists and state officials are making another push to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, and a leading figure in the effort believes there is a 50-50 chance it can get passed before the midterm elections.

“Health reform is not dead,” said Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner, who has been working with other activists to revive the effort ever since the Senate failed to advance legislation last summer.  They plan to hold a press conference outlining their reform principles this coming week.

“Next Wednesday afternoon, here in Washington, with a number of governors, state legislators and others,” she said.

Turner says this new approach builds upon a last-minute effort by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., that would move much of the authority to make health care policy out of Washington.

“It’s based upon the chassis of Graham-Cassidy with block grants to the states but with a lot of refinements that make this a much better bill,” said Turner.  “We need to move resources and authority back to the states to heal their health insurance markets that have been broken by Obamacare.”

What would her preferred legislation actually look like?

“Basically we’re saying this money that’s currently going to insurance companies, dumping more and more money into Medicaid, these sort of open-ended entitlements.  Let us turn those into a block grant and distribute that money among the different states and give them more flexibility in how they spend that money in order to provide better choices for health insurance and lower costs,” said Turner.

Turner says there would still be federal subsidies associated with the plan to help people afford private, commercially available health insurance.  There would also be funds for patients facing chronic illness or major events like organ transplants.

She adds that the individual market was badly hurt by Obamacare, despite endless promises to the contrary.

“We actually have no more people covered in the individual market today than we did before Obamacare passed.  We spent all this money.  We have turned our health care system upside down and no [additional[ people have private health insurance.

“Yes, there are more people covered (overall), but the great majority of them are on Medicaid which, as we know, is a terrible program for people,” said Turner, noting Medicaid patients have a terrible time finding primary physicians who will see them and certain specialists are also almost impossible to get.”

She says legislation grounded in the ideas she is pushing would open many more doors for patients.

“People need the option of private coverage, quality coverage, that gives them not only access to coverage, but actually access to care,” said Turner.

But will activism among the grassroots and the state level get Congress to take up this issue so close to Election Day?

“We believe the Senate is going to take our recommendations seriously and hopefully we’ll be able to move this forward.  We think there are a lot of forces that are going to bring them back to health reform this summer, even though they’d really like to do something else,” said Turner.

Turner is also buoyed by the news that the Senate will remain in session for most of August and is confident Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring the issue to the floor if he knows there are 50 votes to pass it.  Republicans would once again need to approve the reconciliation process for the debate since there is no chance of getting 60 votes for the legislation.

We think it won’t be very hard to get it through the House.  The Senate is really where the focus will be over the next several weeks,” said Turner.

“I’m pretty optimistic.  I’d give it a 50-50 chance, which is a lot more than most people on Capitol Hill would give it,” she said.

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Getting Specific on Repeal and Replace

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An effective overhaul of the nation’s health care laws will require scrapping the most damaging parts of Obamacare, keeping some of the provisions, and giving much more freedom to states and insurance companies to create vibrant competition that will increase consumer choice and bring down soaring costs.

That’s the assessment of Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner, a prominent voice against both Obamacare and the Clinton administration’s attempted overhaul of health care in the 1990s.

The Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature domestic legislation, survived a Supreme Court challenge in 2012.  While the court states that mandating Americans buy health insurance is unconstitutional, the provisions were allowed to stand since people were given the choice to buy insurance or pay a fine.

Turner says the individual and employer mandates need to be the first things on the cutting room floor.

“They do have to go.  The individual mandate, in particular, is the single-most unpopular part of this law,” said Turner, who says there are ways for the Trump administration to kill the mandates without a vote in Congress.

“There are ways through the regulatory process, not even through legislation, that Mr. Trump could basically eviscerate the individual mandate.  But I also expect that to be very much on the chopping block when they do their repeal bill,” said Turner.

She says the employer mandate deserves the same fate.

“The employer mandate is the same.  Even many of the president’s advisers have said that the employer mandate is really relatively useless, except for forcing people to buy – this is me saying this – that is extraordinarily expensive and is driving up everybody’s premiums and deductibles,” said Turner.

But while there has been much talk of full repeal, Trump recently said he would be open to keeping a limited number of provisions that have proven to be popular.  Turner says keeping policies to forbid insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions or allowing adult children to stay on their parents’ policies should be retained.

“The president-elect should have have come out early on, saying, ‘Of course there are some goals in Obamacare that we share.  We want to make sure that as many people as possible have coverage.  We want to make sure that people are protected so that their insurance is real insurance.  The fact that they’re in Obamacare does not mean that they’re bad,'” said Turner.

“They just have to go about a way of achieving those goals in a much different, more consumer-friendly, more market-friendly way,” said Turner.

She also expects Congress to provide a transition period from the current law to those new, market-oriented solutions.

Turner also says federal subsidies should still be available to those buying coverage on the individual exchanges, suggesting many people will still need a hand up even if efforts are successful to drive costs down through competition and choice.

She says subsidies are actually very fair.

“People with employer-based health insurance get huge subsidies worth $250-300 billion a year and forgiving that part of their income from taxes that goes to pay their health insurance premiums.  So people who don’t have that option are being shut out.  They’re paying their premiums with after-tax dollars.  So yes, subsidies are going to have to be part of the equation,” said Turner.

Where Turner really hopes to see big change is the stripping away of the federal tentacles that currently dictate most details of the health care system.  She says that will bring down costs and bring more people into the system.

“It would, as long as they don’t have so many rules that are forcing young people to pay so much more than their likely use of health insurance, which is one of the problems with Obamacare, and so long as you don’t have rules that allow people to simply purchase health insurance when they’re sick and drop it after they get treatment,” said Turner.

Turner says another vital step is to rip away the mandates of what has to be included in a given health care plan and allow the marketplace to decide what’s best.

“I can’t even think of the options that are out there that insurance companies might come up with – and smart actuaries – to give people the opportunity to make the decision for themselves what kind of coverage they need.  Maybe it’s a health savings account.  Maybe it’s a high-deductible plan, maybe it’s an HMO that has more restrictions on it,” said Turner.

“If people can make those decisions for themselves, then the market will be able to respond to them, rather than all these Washington bureaucrats and regulators,” she added.

Decenralizing power from Washington would also put more control in the hands of the states.

“The problem now is we’re all forced into this same strait-jacket of Obamacare.  We all have to buy these hugely expensive products, which fewer and fewer people can afford.  Give the market really an opportunity to provide products that people want to purchase within parameters and some guidelines that make sure it’s real insurance and that people are protected,” said Turner.

Turner says Obamacare is driving people away from a product they want because of the crushing mandates and high costs.

“People want health insurance.  It’s not that you’re forcing them to buy something they don’t want.  They want health insurance, but they don’t want to pay more for their health insurance  than they’re paying for their mortgage, which is happening to many people right now,” said Turner.

Turner says new companies would spring to life when they see an explosion in demand from patients interested cheaper plans that better meet the needs of their families.

She says House Speaker Paul Ryan already has the relevant committee chairmen working on plans to overhaul Obamacare.  However, she says it’s very unlikely that Republicans will try to achieve reform through one massive bill.  Instead, Turner believes lawmakers will pursue a piecemeal approach targeting specific aspects of the current law that need to be changed.

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‘They Know It’s in Trouble’

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Health care expert Grace-Marie Turner says Bill Clinton’s public criticism of Obamacare and obvious infighting within Obama’s own administration proves the U.S. health care system is in big trouble on its current course.

The former president made headlines Monday, when he discussed the big problems created by President Obama’s signature domestic legislation.

“The people that are getting killed on this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies.  Why?  Because they’re not organized.  They don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies.  They’re getting whacked,” said Clinton.

“So you’ve got this crazy system where suddenly 25 million more people have health care and the people busting it sometimes 60 hours a week wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half.  It’s the craziest thing in the world,” said Clinton.

Turner, who actively fought Clinton’s health care reform in the 1990s and the push for Obamacare says, Clinton is on the right track – but only to a point.

“He’s got the diagnosis right.  People are very unhappy with this law.  The longer it’s in place, the more unhappy they are.  He’s clearly hearing from small businesses.  He’s hearing from families who cannot afford their premiums,” said Turner.

However, Turner suspects Clinton’s solution to the problem will only create more problems.

“What he’s doing I fear is teeing up, if Hillary is elected president, even more government control over the health sector.  The American people know the problem is too much government control over health care,” said Turner.

She also says his characterization of what those millions of new people with health care coverage are receiving is badly misleading.

“He’s saying people have health care.  No, they have health insurance.  Ask people how hard it is to find a doctor to see them.  People on Medicaid still have to go to hospital emergency rooms, particularly if they need specialty care,” said Turner.

Turner says the reasons for Obamacare’s failures are obvious.

“The health insurance companies are absolutely in straitjackets.  The American people are being told the kind of health insurance they must buy, soup to nuts and absolutely everything anybody could think of, instead of actually having a policy that may work for them and their families that they may be able to afford.  That’s not a choice they have right now,” said said Turner.

She fears a Hillary Clinton presidency would look to add a public option or some other way to increase government control of the health care system.  Bill Clinton hinted similarly by suggesting those not qualifying for subsidies should be able to buy in to Medicare or Medicaid at a cost that’s comfortable for them, even if they don’t qualify for them.

Turner says that’s a recipe for disaster.  She says the average senior citizen couple pays about $160,000 into the Medicare system but ends up needing more than $400,000 in care.  She says the math of stuffing more people into that system should be clear to everyone.

“The system is not sustainable.  It will go broke.  It will go broke even faster if you put more people on it,” said Turner.

The Obama administration is also reportedly split on what do about insurance companies dropping out of the exchanges and demanding reimbursement in the billions of dollars.  Some in the administration are apparently trying to work around existing law that forbids insurance company bailouts to keep the system alive.

At the same, the Justice Department is also fighting back against court challenges from insurance companies to pay them overdue subsidies.

Turner says this contradiction shows a fierce debate playing out within the administration.

“You have a big disagreement between the political people who want to do everything they can to rescue Obamacare and the civil servants who understand that these payments are illegal.  Congress has passed very specific legislation forbidding any more corporate welfare,” said Turner.

Turner says this public infighting, plus the Clinton comments prove this administration understands the perilous state of our health care system.

“They know it’s in trouble.  We have been talking since the beginning, since before this law passed, about the problems with this law.  It was totally predictable that this was going to happen.  Finally the supporters are saying it has problems.  I think it is a whole other level when former President Bill Clinton basically says the law is a mess and a crazy scheme,” said Turner.

She says it will be difficult to fix the law because the Democrats are only interested in spending more money in a bad direction and Republicans want nothing to do with that.  Turner says real negotiation will have to take place since Republicans will have to be part of the discussions, unlike 2010 when the law passed with support only from Democrats.

But Turner isn’t interested in tinkering with what she sees as a failure.  She wants to return to healthy competition in the health care sector.

“Give consumers choices.  They’re happy with the product.  They’re engaged in helping to make sure that they spend their health care dollars wisely.  And they see the savings when they make smart decisions,” said Turner.

“That’s what we need more of, not more government spending and government control, thinking that somehow we’re going to be able to spend enoughto that everybody can have all the health care they want all the time without any strings attached.  That’s not possible,” said Turner.

 

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