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single payer

California Rejects Single Payer, CNN Soap Opera, Lame Law School Demands

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Listen to “California Rejects Single Payer, CNN Soap Opera, Lame Law School Demands” on Spreaker.

Chad Benson is in for Jim. Join Chad and Greg as they breathe a sigh of relief for California as the legislature pulls the plug on single payer health care legislation – for now. They also suggest the sudden departure of Jeff Zucker from CNN is not just about his failure to admit his extramarital affair in a timely fashion. And they roll their eyes as law students at Georgetown University Law School demand a cry room and reparations in the form of pizza after they were offended by a conservative professor’s tweets about the Biden criteria for choosing a Supreme Court nominee.

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What Medicare for All Will Really Cost You

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Listen to “What Medicare for All Will Really Cost You” on Spreaker.

Presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are vowing to abolish private health insurance if elected president and have all Americans get their coverage through the federal government.

Projections suggest such a plan would cost $32 trillion over the first ten years. Warren plans to pay for that with a two percent wealth tax on the super rich.  Sanders admits he would raise taxes on the upper class and the middle class, but both insist their plans will be a net positive financially for American families.

But is that true?  Would the tax plans raise even close to enough revenue to pay for this new entitlement?  National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp says they won’t and so does the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget.

The CFRB says to make ends meet, lawmakers would need to enact a 42 value-added tax on consumers, a 32 percent payroll tax split between employers and employees, a 25 percent income tax surcharge on all Americans, or require everyone to pay roughly $7,500 to buy into the federal health care program.

In this podcast, Sepp details the devastating effect such tax increases would have on American families and the U.S. economy.  He also addresses the possibility that the government will just let our debt pile up even higher and faster.

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Baghdadi Bites the Dust, Rahm Is Right Again, Throuple Trouble

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Listen to “Baghdadi Bites the Dust, Rahm Is Right Again, Throuple Trouble” on Spreaker.

Start the week off right by joining us for the Three Martini Lunch.  Today, Jim and Greg celebrate the U.S. forces who tracked down and eliminated Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader responsible for some of the most heinous and grisly murders, rapes, and oppression we’ve seen in recent times.  They also pile on the Washington Post for offering a much softer headline and obituary for al-Baghdadi than was appropriate.  Jim and Greg are pleasantly surprised to see liberal political street fighter Rahm Emanuel begging Democrats to stop pushing Medicare for All.  And as California Democratic Rep. Katie Hill announces her upcoming resignation, they explain why this story is disturbing on virtually every level.

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What Americans Don’t Know about Medicare for All

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Listen to “What Americans Don’t Know about Medicare for All” on Spreaker.

A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 51 percent of American adults favor a Medicare for All approach to health care. But 58 percent also oppose abolishing private insurance and even more oppose paying more in taxes to pay for single-payer health care.

After all these years, why is there such a disconnect between what Americans think they support and what they actually support once they know the facts?

In this podcast, we ask Galen Institute Pres. Grace-Marie Turner about this discrepancy and what she thinks about new reform ideas from the House Republican Study Committee.

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The Public Option Charade

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Listen to “The Public Option Charade” on Spreaker.

Some Democratic presidential candidates want to enact a single-payer, Medicare for All health care system operated by the federal government. Others want to pursue a public option that Americans can enroll in that would compete with private insurance plans.

And while supporters of the public option approach say their plan would allow Americans to stay with their private coverage, is that really true?

Phil Kerpen of American Commitment says the public option guarantees that we will end up with a single payer system – and probably sooner rather than later. In fact, that’s what it was designed to do.

Listen to the full podcast as Kerpen explains why a public option would inevitably lead to single payer, how the insurance companies played both sides in the Obamacare debate, and whether Republicans are ready to defend a competing plan.

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AMA Rejects Single-Payer, Tax Jeopardy, Shameless Virginia Dems

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Listen to “AMA Rejects Single-Payer, Tax Jeopardy, Shameless Virginia Dems” on Spreaker.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss the American Medical Association rejecting call for single-payer healthcare system. They’re also disgusted as prolific “Jeopardy!” winner James Holzhauer faces a massive tax hit courtesy of the state of California. And Jim and Greg discuss how Democratic voters in Virginia are returning a scandal-tarred candidate to the state legislature and how Democratic politicians are cozying up to Gov. Ralph Northam and his campaign money again.

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The Medicare for All Myth, Booker’s Bogus Gun Grab, Who’s the Hateful One?

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Listen to “The Medicare for All Myth, Booker’s Bogus Gun Grab, Who’s the Hateful One?” on Spreaker.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the USA Today editorial writers for pointing out Medicare for All would rip more than 100 million Americans away from coverage they like and run up a cost that even government economists can’t figure out.  They also slam Cory Booker for demanding a ban on “assault weapons” and refusing to say whether he would jail gun owners who refuse to give up their weapons.  And they unload on Pennsylvania Democratic State Rep. Brian Sims for filming himself harassing people peacefully praying outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and even offering rewards for his followers to identify the people he’s intimidating.

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Dems Launch ‘Medicare for All’ Push

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Listen to “Dems Launch ‘Medicare for All’ Push” on Spreaker.

House Democrats are launching a serious effort to create a single-payer health care system branded as ‘Medicare for All,’ but a leading health care policy expert says the idea is a Utopian fantasy that is unaffordable and will lead to far worse care.

Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner joined experts from multiple perspectives testifying Tuesday before the House Rules Committee.  Chairman James McGovern is an enthusiastic supporter of eliminating private health insurance and tasking the federal government with running health care on the U.S.

“People aren’t going to lose their healthcare with Medicare for All.  You would actually get to keep your doctors and go to the hospitals you currently have.  The only difference is you wouldn’t have to deal with insurance companies,” said McGovern.

Turner told McGovern we’ve heard promises before about keeping doctors that were not true.

But while three House committees are pushing forward on Medicare for All, Turner says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems less convinced it is a good idea.

“Even Speaker Pelosi has been reluctant to get behind Medicare for All, I think because she sees how incredibly disruptive this would be to our health sector.  Everybody, except people in the VA and Indian Health Service, everybody else would lose their coverage.

“That means 173 million Americans with coverage through the workplace would lose their coverage.  People on Medicare would lose Medicare because this will be a new program replacing it.  People on Obamacare, people on the Children’s Health Insurance Plan; all of that would be wiped out,” said Turner.

In addition to imploring lawmakers to have less government involvement in the health care sector, Turner says a single payer program is impossible, with estimates suggesting a $32-38 trillion price tag over ten years.  She says Democrats are promising excellent care, quick access, and low costs and Medicare for All simply won’t achieve those goals.

“That’s not the way the world works.  Resources are limited.  Doctors will leave.  We can’t afford the Medicare program we have now.  In other countries, we see the vulnerable, people who are the sickest are the ones who are put at the back of the list for care.  That’s not the kind of system we want,” said Turner.

Listen to the full podcast to hear what Turner detail what life is like for patients in single payer systems and what approach she thinks would bring us quality, affordable, accessible care.

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Medicare for All = End of Health Care Choice

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Listen to “Medicare for All = End of Health Care Choice” on Spreaker.

House Democrats are now formally pushing the “Medicare for All Act of 2019,” which would put an end to private health insurance, but a leading health policy expert is warning that government-run health care is more of a nightmare than a dream come true when it comes to your health care options and access to prompt care.

Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner says this is the Democrats’ version of repeal and replace, noting they are not trying to shore up the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, but are instead blowing it up in favor of a government-run health system.  She says eliminating private health insurance only weakens the consumer.

“You wind up eliminating choice.  Your only choice is the plan that the government offers,” said Turner.

The plan Democrats say they all want is put all Americans into the Medicare program, which currently provides care for Americans 65-years-old and older.  But Turner says Medicare won’t look the same when you throw more than 300 million people into it.

“If you have all Americans on Medicare at rates that are often below the cost of physicians providing that care, you’re also going to change the program for 60 million Americans on Medicare, who are going to have a much harder time finding a physician to see them,” said Turner.

Turner says the program will essentially become Medicaid for All, meaning the poor reimbursement rates for physicians will lead to fewer doctors staying on the job and seeing fewer and fewer patients.  She says some doctors now only get a few cents for treating Medicaid patients.

If government-run care were to become law, Turner says lobbyists would be flooding Washington to make sure their particular treatment is covered.

“We think we have lobbyists here now.  Wait until everyone being paid in the health care system has to argue to have their service included in this one government-run plan,” said Turner.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Turner explain why hospitals could close for months at a time each year if the U.S. adopts a single-payer system and why cancer patients and other people with major health problems would suffer the most.

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Health Care: NYC to Pay for Care, House Dems Pursue Single Payer

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Listen to “Health Care: NYC to Pay for Care, House Dems Pursue Single Payer” on Spreaker.

Just days into 2019, Democrats are already making a their push for much more government involvement in health care.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio says his city will spend $100 million to cover the medical costs of 600,000 uninsured residents to primary care physicians and specialists.

De Blasio says his program is not insurance, so what is it? How much will it really cost, since even Democrats admit $100 million, won’t be enough? And what will the impact be a few years down the road?

Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner says New York City residents will encounter a very complicated system that will use a person’s income to determine what gets paid for by the city and what residents must take care of themselves.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Kent.) is asking the Congressional Budget Office to report on the impact of moving all healthcare costs onto the federal government.

Turner also says this move is proof that Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, is a failure and would add massive costs to taxpayers.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Turner’s full assessment of both endeavors and why more people are not really covered under Obamacare than had health insurance before that legislation took effect.

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