The Daily Signal - #502: A Conservative Vision for Health Care

Episode Date: July 11, 2019

Top Democrats have moved way beyond Obamacare and are now pushing Medicare for All—a single-payer, government-run program. Surveys show that Americans like the sound of Medicare for All until they learn what it would do. Daniel recently spoke with Grace-Marie Turner, a leading health care expert from the Galen Institute. She unpacked what’s wrong with Medicare for All and shared a conservative alternative. Today, we play that interview. Plus: Did a top U.S. soccer player lose a World Cup spot because of her Christian beliefs? Kate and Daniel discuss.We also cover these stories:-President Trump announces alternative plan to gather citizenship data-ICE prepares to launch raids on illegal immigrants with deportation orders-House panel issues 12 subpoenas to Trump aides and associatesThe Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, July 12. I'm Kate Trinko. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, top Democrats have moved way beyond Obamacare and are now pushing Medicare for All, a single-payer government-run program. Surveys show that Americans like the sound of Medicare for All until they learn what it would do. I recently spoke with Grace Marie Turner, a leading health care expert from the Galen Institute. She unpacked what's wrong with Medicare for All and shared a conservative alternative. Today, we'll play that interview. Plus, did a top U.S. soccer player lose a World Cup spot because of her Christian beliefs?

We'll discuss. By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encouraging others to subscribe. Now, on to our top news. President Trump wants to know how many citizens there are in the United States. After the Supreme Court shot down his first attempt to defend putting the citizenship question on the census, which will be done in 2020, sending, it back to the lower courts in urging the Trump administration to offer new reasons as to why they wanted the citizenship question on the census, Trump has decided to go a different route, issuing an executive order. While the citizenship question won't be on the census itself, Trump is ordering the Commerce Department to determine the number of citizens in the United States in a different way.

Well, President Trump hosted a social media summit at the White House Thursday aimed at addressing bias and censorship among tech companies. The president spoke of his own experience and suggested that Twitter has manipulated his Twitter following. A number of months ago, I was at a certain number, you know, many millions, and then all of a sudden I was down over a million, and then I came down, I said, what's going on? And you checked Dan and you said, they say they are doing adjustments. They say they don't like some of the people. And I don't have the fake. You know, a lot of people buy people. I don't want to do that.

Because first of all, if I did it, it's a front-page story all over the place. But I know a lot of people. There's no question about it, because I see some numbers that are phony numbers where they have these, you know, many, many millions of followers. I say, there's no way because nobody has any interest in these people. They have no, now, Herman Cain, they have interest in, okay? But they have no interest in these people. They're playing games. They're playing games. James Woods. I don't know James, but he's an interesting guy and he's a conservative guy. And he's a straighter. He's tough. But when they want to take him off and other people like him, many in this room, some in this room, it's a very, very bad, it's a very bad thing.

And among the many lawmakers in attendance was Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, one of the most outspoken members of Congress on tech bias. Here's what he says. said. The establishment media, the fake media, they say, oh, there's no censorship in social media. That's all made up. That's all fake. You and I know that that's not true. You and I know the truth is that the social media giants would love to shut us down. They would love to shut us up. They would love to shut him up more than anything else. And we can't let them. And that's why we need to step up now. And I think we need to say to them, here's the deal. Google, Facebook, Twitter, they've gotten these special deals from government. They've gotten a special giveaway from government. they're treated unlike anybody else.

If they want to keep their special deal, here's the bargain. They have to quit discriminating against conservatives. You agree with that? No more. No more discrimination. It's that simple. The New York Times reports that ICE will begin raids of illegal immigrants on Sunday,

focusing on those ordered to leave by a court. The Times reports, quote, the officials said ICE agents were targeting at least 2,000 immigrants who have been ordered deported. some as a result of their failure to appear in court, but who remain in the country illegally. The operation is expected to take place in at least 10 major cities. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy addressed it in a press conference Thursday. These are individuals who have crossed the border in recent years and either received a deportation

order from a judge or failed to appear before court. This isn't just picking something out. We are a rule of law country, and this is following the rule of law. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also spoke on it, beginning by reading language she keeps, to inform presumably illegal immigrants of their rights if an ICE official shows up. As ICE deportation warrant, an ICE deportation warrant is not the same as a search warrant. If that is the only document ICE brings to a home raid, agents do not have a legal right to enter a home. If ICE agents don't have a warranted, signed by a judge, a person may refuse to open the door and let them in. An administrative order of removal from ICE or immigration authorities is simply not enough.

Families belong together. Everyone in our country has rights. Many of these families are mixed, status families. We hope the president would pray that the president, will think about this. The House Judiciary Committee has approved a dozen subpoenas for aides and associates of President Trump, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The committee voted 21 to 12 on Thursday to approve the subpoenas, which will allow the committee to dig deeper for information about alleged Russian interference and hush money payments

in the months leading up to the 2016 election. Other individuals being subpoenaed per USA Today include Trump's former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and David Pecker, CEO of the company that owned the National Enquirer, which admitted last year to helping Trump with a hush money payment. Committee Chairman Gerald Nadler said the committee, quote, will not rest until we obtain their testimony and documents, end quote. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the committee, said the subpoenas were, quote,

another trip down an empty road. In an interview with the Washington Post published earlier this week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez implied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have a bit of a racist attitude, telling the Post, quote, but the persistent singling out, it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful, the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color, end quote. Via CNN, here's how Pelosi replied. I said what I'm going to say in the caucus.

They took offense because I addressed, at the request of my members, an offensive tweet that came out of one of the members' offices that referenced our blue dogs and our new Dems essentially as segregationist. Our members took offense at that. I addressed that. How they're interpreting and carrying it to another place is up to them. But I'm not going to be discussing it any further. Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff had recently tweeted and then deleted a tweet referring to more moderate Democrats that stated. They certainly seem hell-bent to do to black and brown people today with the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s, end quote. Meanwhile, when CNN followed up with Ocasio-Cortez, here's what she had to say about Pelosi.

Just worth asking why. Do you think she has racial animates? Is she racist? No, no, absolutely not. Absolutely. Well, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats reportedly tried to seize a British oil tanker on Wednesday, but then backed off under threat from a nearby British warship. Fox News reports that the incident occurred in the street of Hormuz, just off the coast of Iran,

in one of the world's most important commercial waterways. The five Revolutionary Guard gunboats reportedly left the oil tanker without any conflict after the British frigate, HMS Montrose, arrived on the scene and threatened to open fire. Fox News also reports that a manned U.S. reconnaissance plane was flying overhead. The incident comes one week after British Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar, which they believe was in violation of European Union sanctions by supplying oil to Syria in Iranian ally. In response, Iranian President Hassan Rwani vowed that Britain would face repercussions. American officials blame Iran for six recent attacks on civilian oil tankers in the region.

A church in Florida is paying off medical debt for 6,500 people having raised 72,000. Quote, it's one thing for us to say God loves you. It's another for us to show that. That's from senior pastor, Dan Glenn, of Stetson Baptist Church into land Florida, and he was speaking to the Orlando Sentinel. That 72,000 enabled the church to pay off a whopping $7.2 million worth of medical debt, due to how hospitals manage debts, they don't see much chance of ever getting paid. Well, up next, Grace Marie Turner explains why Medicare for All is wrong for America.

Tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger government, become a part of the Heritage Foundation. We're fighting the rising tide of homegrown socialism while developing conservative solutions that make families more free and more prosperous. Find out more at Heritage. I'm joined now by Grace Marie Turner. She is president of the Galen Institute, which is a free market think tank that studies and advocates health care reform. Thank you so much for joining Grace Marie. Thank you so much, Daniel. It's pleasure to be with you. So there's ongoing debate on health care in this country, and you've been right in the middle of that debate. On the left, we've seen a Medicare for All proposal. On the right, you and your allies have advocated what's called the

health care choices proposal. And I want to get to that. But first, if you could address some of the claims coming from, you know, folks like Senator Bernie Sanders who have the so-called Medicare for All proposal, can you just give us a quick rundown of just what's wrong with that? You know, I think that one of the reasons that Medicare for All is gaining some traction, even though most people want choice with health care. They don't want the government to be involved, to run everything, and tell them which doctors they can see or not

and what procedures are available. But it's gaining traction, I think, because so many people are so unhappy with the current system. They can't afford their premiums. Their deductibles are so high, many of them people feel they might as well not be insured. Their copayments, their surprise billing, the fact that they're paying for all of this,

and then they still feel that they can't access the time, doctors they want because the networks are so narrow. The hospitals aren't in their networks. I had a state senator, Bryce Rees from Fredericksburg, Virginia, wrote to us that he had said that he had a constituent right to him saying that there's one choice of one plan in the small group market for him, for his family, and the premiums are $4,000 a month. And he said, there's no way I can afford that. That is more than my mortgage. what are you going to do about it? And so that really, I think, shows how angry and frustrated the American people are with the current system.

Well, what markets did Obamacare mostly affect? It was the small group in individual markets. The bigger the government, the more problems we have in those health sectors. And so I think people need to understand that the solution is not bigger government. But I think because Medicare for All is seen as a simple utopian solution. You can go see any doctor you want to any time. You don't have to pay any premiums. There'll be no deductibles.

There'll be no copayments. Everything will be free and it will all be wonderful. And people think, oh, great, how do I, how do I get that? And so I think this sort of utopian promise. But you'd think the American people would wake up to that after the promises that were made for Obamacare, where President Trump, President Obama said every family was going to save $2,500 a year on their health insurance premiums. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. All of those promises are completely gone out the window. And by the way, I was in the gallery the night that Obamacare passed, the House Gallery. And member after member, Democrat after Democrat was saying, finally we're going to get, to universal coverage, we must pass this to get to universal coverage. None of those promises held up. We still have 28 million people without health insurance. And so I don't know why people are listening to those utopian promises. I think part of it is that people are saying, well, but Republicans failed to repeal and replace. So let's let the Democrats try it again.

So I think there are many, many problems with Medicare for all. I've talked too long here. But we need to first join the American people in recognizing, yes, we know you're hurting. We know that the situation is worse than it was 10 years ago before Obamacare passed. But the solution is not more and bigger government, which is what Medicare for all delivers. Which brings us to your proposal, the health care choices proposal. Give us a rundown of what that would do. do? What does it require, first of Washington legislators, because I know there's a lot for states, but what is Congress to do under this proposal? Well, the heritage has barely been just a fabulous

partner in helping us create a new generation of health reform. But there are a hundred conservative groups involved in this conversation. We're just getting ready to pose, hopefully, on the Daily Signal, a piece about taking this effort to the next. level. And Washington needs to get this started, but states are where we need to, where the solutions really lie, because there's just not one solution from Washington that's going to work for Maine or Montana or Missouri. Every stage is so different. And even in the middle of those states, there are so many different needs between urban and rural and places where there are pockets of, you know, a particular, maybe more people with diabetes.

So states need to be able to take that on. But what Washington needs to do is say, we understand that states need resources to be able to, for example, help people who have preexisting conditions, who have chronic conditions that need extra help in being able to get the care they need, which Obamacare, by the way, did not do. It just threw them in the same pool with everybody else. Everybody else's premiums went up, and the people who most needed the most vulnerable people

actually have the biggest struggles in getting care. And so our plan says we're going to provide the same resources. This does not add any money to the deficit, the same resources that are now going to insurance companies to fund all this Obamacare insurance, and instead create formula, grants to the states so that they have resources to both provide coverage in a way that they deem is most appropriate for people who are in lower income categories, for people who are

vulnerable, for people who need extra help in purchasing insurance, and also have an incentive to help their small group and individual health insurance markets heal from the damage that Obamacare has done. It has decimated those markets, which is why Senator Reeves' constituent in Fredericksburg, Virginia, had a choice of only one plan. Half of the people around the country that are on Obamacare plans don't have a choice. They want a choice. And they're told, this is the plan you have to buy, take it, and leave it. And an growing number are saying, we're not going to buy that plan because we can't

afford it. And so this plan would provide resources to the state. It would give them an incentive to get their markets back in order. It would get rid of many, if not all, of the regulations that were so crippling to the insurance markets at the state level and let the states decide what kind of regulation they need to protect their constituents to make sure that they have the markets are functional, but they have the resources to help the people who need help. So if that were to happen, I mean, you would probably see different states doing very different things. You know, Massachusetts and Illinois, we'll do something really different from Arizona and Texas.

What do you think those differences would look like? Do you think states would start having their own, quote-unquote, single-payer system? I mean, I know California has considered passing single-payer. Do you think that would happen? Well, we can talk about that. Actually, we have guardrails for these formula grants. Much like when welfare reform passed in the 1990s, there were guardrails about how the money could be spent, because we don't think that a single-payer system is the right thing for America.

So half of the money would have, if the state accepts this formula grant, at least half of the money would go toward the purchase of private health insurance. So that would be one of the criteria for the grant. They'd have to demonstrate that. They'd have to demonstrate that half of it, at least, went to help people in lower income levels to get care. Some percentage of it would have to go to help people who have chronic conditions, pre-existing conditions of most vulnerable people to provide extra support for them.

It would go through the CHIP program, the Children's Health Insurance Program, so there would be automatic life protections in it. The federal money could not be used to pay for abortions. And I think importantly, it would also get choice to people who are stuck in private, in public programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program to give them a choice of private plans if they want them. They may have a choice of an employer plan, but they can't afford their share of the premiums. They should be able to devote some of that, whatever their allocation is, to be able to buy a private plan.

And it would give much more freedom to many more people. But each state is going to figure out how to do that. Some of them may create an HSA-like account. Some of them may decide that they really want to focus on the people who are cost the most, 80% of health care costs come from 5% of Americans. And so if you really focus on the people who have the greatest number of health needs, you can lower costs for everybody else. And we've actually seen that.

Heritage had a wonderful paper on state innovation by Ed Heislemyer and Doug Badger that talked about seven different states using existing Obamacare money through a different waiver process to lower premiums by providing extra support for these vulnerable populations. And by lowering premiums overall, it drew more people into the insurance market. Instead of Obamacare, which is driving people out like this dad from Fredericksburg, Virginia, that can't afford a $4,000 a month premium, it's bringing them back in by lowering premiums and doing a better job of taking care of people who have extra health needs. Do you expect premiums would start to go down if this passes?

That's such a great question. Actually, we have modeling from the Center for Health and Economy, which is run by former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Aken, that shows that the health care choices plan would lower premiums by up to a third, and that coverage would remain at least level. And remember when the Congress is trying to pass their earlier... repeal and replace law bills. CBO mistakenly but nonetheless made the headlines saying 22 million people were going to lose coverage if this past. It wasn't true if people would voluntarily leave because there was no longer an individual mandate. Now that the individual mandate penalty

has been repealed, we have a more neutral playing field. You can really see what would people do? Well, if you lower the cost of something, more people are going to buy it. And, because states would have greater flexibility to reform their markets, to take better care of vulnerable patients, they would be able to lower their premiums and draw more people back into the health insurance market. Obamacare is driving people out of the insurance market. Instead of bringing people in, the high cost,

because it's so poorly structured, is pushing people out. We've got to reverse that, and the health care choices plan does that. lower premiums, greater choice, and more people with coverage. So this really is the consensus plan in a conservative world. Many on the left will say, you don't have a plan. Republicans don't have a plan, but this is the plan that you've helped develop, so our listeners can respond to those talking points.

But to that point, yes. People, when they say you don't have a plan, first of all, makes me crazy because we've been working on this for, I don't know, a year and a half, and it's a very well-developed plan that continues to evolve and grow all the time. Yes. But there's not one answer. There's not one, okay, Medicare for all, slogan, Utopian, we're just going to give you all the care that you want for free,

and we'll worry about how to pay for it. We believe in markets. We believe in federalism. We believe in states being able to try different things and see what works, based upon a lot of experience that many of them. and have, and that's not one answer. And so it's harder to explain, but it's the right answer for America, because that's the way our economy works, that's the way our government works, and that's what people want.

They do not want to be shudged into one government plan. They want choices. They want to be able to contact their state legislators, and to be able to contact, to be informed with their governors, to help shape the plan that works for their state. Well, I think that's a great place for us to leave it. Grace Marie Turner. Really appreciate your time today. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? If you want to understand what's happening at the court, subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast, breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court.

Honestly, take a second and, like, step back and almost have, like, that outer body experience of just, I'm being invited to play the game I love for my country. There's an emblem of the U.S. flag on your chest. Like, that's huge. Then days before the event, it was announced that the team jersey was designed to honor the LGBT community. Jaline again turned to God. I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn't my job to wear this jersey.

And I gave myself three days to just seek and pray and determine what he was asking him to do in the situation. to do on the situation. In the face of opposition and social media backlash, Jaline withdrew from the games with the support of her teammates. I'm essentially giving up the one dream, little girls dream about their entire life, and I'm saying no too.

It was very disappointing. And I think that's where the peace trumps the disappointment, because I knew in my spirit I was doing the right thing. I knew that I was being obedient. And, like, just because your obedient doesn't make it easy. That's Jeline Hinkle, a woman's soccer player describing why in 2017, she stepped down from a woman's soccer team playing for the U.S. in two soccer games. Namely, Hinkle wasn't okay wearing an LGBT pride jersey.

She spoke to the 700 club about it last year, and that's where that clip is from. However, she's relevant again. The Washington Times reported. quote, Jeline Hinkle, a 26-year-old star for the North Carolina Courage professional team, has been called the top left defender in the U.S. game, but she wasn't selected for the national team, a decision that may have had more to do with politics than prowess. End quote. Now, to be clear, there's no evidence Hinkle was discriminated against.

She was given a chance to try out. They said she wasn't a good fit for the team or something like that. as you guys know, I know nothing about soccer, but it is perhaps a little bit strange that perhaps the most outspoken Christian athlete and someone who, I guess, people who know what they're talking about say as a top player didn't make the women's World Cup. Yeah, and the fact that she was a top player made that pretty surprising. I mean, ultimately, we don't know what happened. She could have had a bad tryout or something. We just don't know. But I think it speaks to the issue, you know, in 2017, when she gave up.

playing on the team because of the jersey. I think that speaks to this larger issue. More teams are having pride-themed jerseys and just generally embracing pride during the month of June. And that is really just so different from what same-sex marriage advocates said that was coming before they won this issue. Back when they were in the minority position and when they, before same-sex marriage, they were just saying, look,

is just about incorporating gaze into the rest of society. It's just about accommodating this section of the population. Well, actually now we're seeing that pride and the ideology of pride is infiltrating everything. So you have to be on board with it. There's no way to disagree with it respectfully and yet partake in society. So I think that's really unfortunate that the teams don't see that their players might have conscientious, objections to it and yet still are perfectly good teammates. Yeah, and of course it's not just sports.

I mean, you know, corporations have been quick to embrace this. And as you say, you know, it's not what we were told would happen with, you know, marriage equality, as they called it. And it's very coercive. And I find it very interesting in the sense of like, why is it so important? I mean, I'm just trying to imagine an analogous case. I mean, I guess if like the Dallas Cowboys had to wear like a pro-life. bumper sticker on their jerseys? Like, I just can't think of one. You know, I mean, maybe some

extreme people on the left would say, like, standing for the national anthem. But just generally, it feels like we're making more and more spaces political that don't need to be. And it's troubling. Yeah. Well, and I thought given her story, you know, it was obviously very hard for her to give that up, playing on the team that something she dreamed of all those years. It's something kids dream of. but you know for Christians it's not something that Christians at least if they're reading their Bibles should be surprised by right because Christians are called to accept a real cost to their discipleship and that is something that you know Jesus says count the cost of following me otherwise you're not worthy of me and you know living in a world that doesn't run on the

principles of Christianity means that you're going to bump up into conflict and and like The Bible is super clear on that. But I just thought it's admirable that she carried it out and was so graceful about it. Yeah, no, I liked that sudden she said a 700 club, like something about, you know, I forget exactly. But yeah, she very much accepted her suffering. I think she showed a lot of courage. And, I mean, obviously that was not a popular stand. And it may have cost her the chance to play in the World Cup.

You know, I think it's interesting what you say. I think, I mean, obviously for most of American history, you know, Christians have had it pretty good in terms of comfort and being accepted. You know, with some, there was obviously some anti-Catholic bigotry at points and not bigotry towards some other Christian sex, but for the most part. And yeah, maybe the times are changing. Yeah, and I think elements of suffering like this, and I would think we would all admit, like, yeah, she went through some suffering here as definitely a trial.

That's what actually gets people to listen to your message when you're willing to suffer for it, you know? I was thinking of the verse in Matthew where Jesus says, everyone who has left houses or brothers and sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. And this kind of suffering, willingness to suffer actually proves that she believes that's true about her eternal future. And that's the kind of thing that gets people to perk up and listen, oh, you believe that.

Well, maybe I want to learn more. So I think that's, you know, even though this kind of thing we might, you know, expect this more and more, it is a unique opportunity to speak to those who may not share those convictions. Although I have to say, and I think I've mentioned this to the show, you know, I have one brother who's a Catholic priest. I have another one who's studying to be a Catholic priest. And they have brought up and, you know, not being Protestant, I can't remember the book or the verse. But when Jesus and the gospel is like, hey, let the dead bury the dead come over, don't say goodbye to your friends. father, mother, leave the plow in the field or whatever. I'm paraphrasing wildly, obviously.

And they bring it that passage at times when we're like, so are you coming home for Christmas this year? So not my favorite. But, no, I'm kidding around. Yeah, no, it is part of the Christian message. Yeah. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast,

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