The Daily Signal - A Decade After Obamacare Became Law, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers Is Working to Fix the Issues it Created.

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was supposed to cut premiums, reduce the uninsured population, and provide the option to keep your plan and your doctor, but it has fallen short in all these areas.  “We have 30 million Americans today that will tell you that they cannot afford their health insurance,” says Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers on today’s podcast. McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., joins the show to share how lawmakers are seeking to improve our health care system, bring medical costs down, and remedy the issues created by Obamacare.  Also on today’s show, we remember those who have given their lives to defend our freedom with President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day speech delivered from Arlington National Cemetery. Plus, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about how one California church is meeting both physical and spiritual needs during COVID-19.   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 Tuesday, May 26th. I'm Robert Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we talk with Representative Kathy McMorris-Rogers about how Congress is seeking to improve our health care system, bring medical costs down, and remedy the issues created by Obamacare. We also take a few minutes to remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives to defend our freedom. Yesterday was Memorial Day, and in honor of that sacred day,

we share a portion of President Ronald Reagan's 1986 Memorial Day speech delivered from Arlington National Cemetery. Plus, we read your letters to the editor and a good news story about how one California church is meeting both physical and spiritual needs during COVID-19. But before we get to today's show, Rob and I want to tell you about one of our other favorite podcasts called Heritage Explains.

That's right. Heritage Explains is a weekly podcast that explains all of the policy issues we hear about, in the news at a 101 level. Hosts Michelle Cordero and Tim Desher mix in news clips and music to tell a story, but also bring in Heritage Foundation experts to help break down complex issues. For example, how can our economy recover

from COVID-19? Can we prevent voter fraud? Or what is actually happening with the food supply chain? Heritage Explains offers quick, 15 to 20-minute explainers that bring you up to speed in an entertaining way. You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Google

play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. We even put the full episode on YouTube. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. I am joined by Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rogers of Washington State. Representative Rogers, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. You have and are doing a lot of work on the health care issue in America. So let's start by talking about Obamacare. You know, it promised so many things to cut premiums, reduce the insured population, provide the to keep your plan and your doctor. However, these things have not come to fruition.

Can you just explain really what some of those key issues are with Obamacare? Sure. It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare was signed into law. I was here in Congress when that law passed 10 years ago. And when you look at, when you fast forward 10 years and look at where we are today, unfortunately, we have... we have 30 million Americans today that will tell you that they cannot afford their health insurance.

One out of six Americans say that they struggle paying for health care. And unfortunately, the promise of Obamacare has not been fulfilled. People lost their health insurance plan of choice. We see skyrocketing rates continuing for small businesses and individuals in particular. And people continue to need health insurance and they need affordable health insurance. And that's why it's so important that we move forward with reforms that are going to ensure that everyone has access to quality and affordable health care. Absolutely. Now, Congress was unsuccessful in appealing the entirety of

Obamacare. They were able to repeal the individual mandate portion through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. And then the Texas versus Azar court decision came down in December of 2019 in which Judge in Texas ruled that Obamacare could not exist without the mandate and therefore was unconstitutional. Now this case will be considered by the Supreme Court this year, but until then the Trump administration will continue to fulfill the law. But what are your thoughts on the Supreme Court case, the Texas versus Azar and what will happen at the Supreme Court? Sure.

Well, we are anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act, on Obamacare. I believe that we need to be prepared. My goal is to ensure that America continues to lead the world in having a health care system that is going to ensure that everyone has access to quality and affordable health care. I was pleased to see the individual mandate repealed. I voted for that. I believe that more freedom, more free market solutions are what we need in our health care system. Right now in Congress, we are working on legislation, bipartisan legislation as a matter of fact that would bring down prescription drug cost and do it do it in a way without government control we are addressing surprise billing i believe that america must lead the

world in health innovation and breakthroughs this is the way that we're going to help bring down health cost but also improve people's quality of life and uh and also help our economy so there's a lot that we could be doing right now that we should be doing to ensure that people have access and have affordable health insurance plans that will meet the needs of themselves and their families. Yeah, that's so great and so critical. I'm really glad you brought that up because I wanted to talk about the cost. You know, cost is such a big deal and it so often feels like people don't really even know what their health care plan does cover or, you know, when they walk into the hospital, they have no idea what the bill is going to be walking out.

out. So could you explain a little bit more about yeah what Congress is doing in order to bring those costs down? One of the most important things that Congress needs to do to bring down the cost of health care is to ensure transparency. We need transparency within our health care system and I am I am pleased I'm proud of the leadership of the Trump administration that is moving forward with transparency within the health care system. We need to make sure that when the doctor

and the patient are making healthcare decisions that they also know what the cost is going to be. And right now that is hidden and what happens is that then you have skyrocketing or you have unknown cost associated with a particular procedure. So the way that you empower doctors and patients is by ensuring that there's transparency. But the way that we're actually going to bring down health insurance cost and healthcare cost is also to bring transparency to the system. That competition and that transparency is one of the keys to bringing down the cost of health care. Absolutely. Now, while yourself and many on the right want to see government kind of pull back its hands and lessen involvement in health care, you have progressives on the left that want kind of full

overtake of the health care system, and we're seeing that advocated in Medicare for All. Can you just explain a little bit about what Medicare for All is and the effects that it would have on our nation. Medicare for all is really a government takeover of health care, health insurance. It is a socialist approach to health care in America. And socialism may promise free things, but I would submit freedom trumps socialism every day of the week. And in health care, we do not want a government takeover of our health care system. You know, I often hear the stories.

My district borders Canada. And Canada has a government-run health care system. There is a mom right now in Canada that is fighting cystic fibrosis. She's on a waiting list for a lung transplant. She's in a hospital, and her medication, the medication that saves her life is being denied her through their health care system. That is not the future that I want for America. The future that we want for America is one in which America is leading in curing diseases

and new treatments and breakthroughs and not having the government decide whether or not you get that particular drug or treatment. Yeah. And what about innovation? I mean, if Medicare for All was implemented in America, would we see a rise or a decrease in innovation in our health care system?

When you look at countries that have a government-run health care system or socialized medicine, you do not see the innovation within their. health care system. America has led the world in health innovation and breakthroughs over the last 60, 70 years. This is the country that has been investing in the research and bringing more life-saving treatments and procedures and prescription drugs to market. America is leading the world. And just think about what that impact will be moving forward. If we could even delay the onset of

Alzheimer's, for example. If we could delay the onset of Alzheimer's by five years, it is estimated that it would save us $370 billion. And you think about that, that's just a delay. Think about if we could actually come up with a cure for Alzheimer's, the impact that that would have on health care costs themselves, but also on improving people's lives, increasing our quality of life. We want America to continue to be a country where people can take those ideas that they have for breakthroughs and new innovations and do something with those ideas. We don't want socialized medicine that doesn't invest in that kind of research. You know, we, I feel like increasingly hear this rhetoric that free health care is a right. What's your response to that? Well, I would, you know, again,

socialism may promise a lot of free things, but it doesn't often make good on those promises. So unfortunately, those that are promoting Medicare for all or socialized medicine will say that health care is a right. They will say that they're promising that you're going to have health care. But when you look at the outcomes, when you look at the actual countries that have moved in this direction, you see people that are on waiting list. You see, I hear the stories regularly of people in Canada that have to wait hours, if not days in the emergency room. The, the access to the life-saving, the life-saving, life-changing treatments are limited. You have the government deciding whether or not you're going to get medicine or not. That is not the future that

we want for America. America has been founded upon a free enterprise, a system that encourages free, freedom-loving people to make those best decisions for themselves, believes in the competition of ideas and empowering individuals to make those decisions, not the government making those decisions for you. Absolutely. And as you mentioned, you have been working on bipartisan legislation that really will help our health care system. So could you speak a little bit just to your optimism for the future and for healthcare looking forward? Well, yes, I think the future is bright. We are on the verge of amazing breakthroughs. Nearly every disease group, every advocacy group that comes through my door is excited about the breakthroughs, about the

research that is being done right now and the potential of America leading and curing disease and improving people's lives. And so we need to make sure that we continue to invest and we continue to lead. From a legislative perspective, I am encouraged right now there is bipartisan support for price transparency, for example. The Trump administration is leading from an executive position and we are working on legislation that will bring price transparency, that will empower the doctor and the patient to make those best decisions for themselves.

And we'll also bring down the cost of health care. In the Energy and Commerce Committee, I'm a senior member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, we have passed legislation, bipartisan legislation that will bring down the cost of prescription drugs without government mandates and controls. We're working on ending surprise billing. This has been a huge issue in recent years, and we are moving right now on legislation for that and we're working on Cures 2.0. We passed 21st century cures three years ago and we're working on Cures 2.0 that will really make sure that America continues to lead on curing diseases.

Here at the Daily Signal, we want to make sure you and your family are receiving the most accurate information about the coronavirus and how to prevent it. Here's an important message from U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams to parents, explaining how we can talk to our children about COVID-19. I'm a dad myself, and it's important that you talk to your kids about coronavirus because we know that sharing your feelings can help lower your fears. One of the things that I tell parents is to share age-appropriate information with your children, because knowledge is power.

It's also important that you reassure your children that they will be safe. And then finally, help your kids understand how they can be part of protecting their family and their community from coronavirus by washing their hands, covering their cough, and getting enough sleep. Rest is best. On May 26, 1986, 1986, President Ronald Reagan visited Arlington National Cemetery just outside of Washington, D.C. to deliver remarks on Memorial Day. We thought you would enjoy listening to his speech today. Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes, and to pray that no heroes will ever have to happen.

to die for us again. It's a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It's a day to be with the family and remember. I was thinking this morning that across the country, children and their parents will be going to the town parade, and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks

and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe they'll have a cook-out or a day at the beach, and that's good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember. Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here. Men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the grates of the military, bull halls, bull halls, and the Admiral's Leahy, father and son, blackjack Pershing, and the G.I.'s General Omar Bradley, great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things. Here in Arlington

rests a sharecropper's son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Lewis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight, and he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, I know we'll win because we're on God's side. Audie Murphy is here. Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. But what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly? When he radioed for artillery support, and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, wait a minute, and I'll let you speak to them. Michael Smith is here and Dick Scobie,

both of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn't wild but thoughtful. The mature and measured courage of career professionals, who took prudent risks for great reward, in their case to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They are only the latest to rest here. They join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee. Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on Holmes dissenting in a sordid age. Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he

wrote, at the grave of a hero we end not with sorrow at the the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight. Well, all of these men were different, but they shared this in common. They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn't do for it, and they loved with the sureness of the young. It's hard not to think of the young in a place like this, or it's the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen, the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It too has majesty and more. Perhaps you've seen it, three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There's something wounded

about them, a kind of resigned toughness, but there's an unexpected tenderness too. At first you don't really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they're supporting each other, helping each other on. I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall, and they're still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam, boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home. Boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war. It was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march.

They learned not to rely on us. They learned to rely on each other, and they were special in another way. They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age. They stood for something, and we owe them something.

Those boys, we owe them first a promise that just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither ever will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and perhaps a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges,

and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong. That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist

and strong enough to protect it where it does. That's the lesson of this century, and I think of this day. That's all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace. A peace it has earned. Thank all of you, and God bless you and have a day full of memories. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda.

In the Agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our industry. depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online, as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in the Daily Signal's Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Walter Williams column entitled, Rotten Education isn't preordained, Dom R writes, the federal government has no business in public education.

You can correlate the decline of the quality of public education over the last 50 to 60 years with the increase in federal involvement. Leftist mentality has turned public schools into social centers, more concerned with social engineering in indoctrination than with providing a sound education. And Ed Roussel left a five-star review on Apple Podcasts saying, new to listening to this podcast, but the format is perfect. The subject matter and questions asked by the commentator are relevant, and they give the guests all the time they need to answer without interruption. Very refreshing and educational. Thank you. Your letter can be featured on next week's show. So send us an email at Letters at DailySignal.com. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. You know, one of the things that we have all become so aware of during COVID-19 is our

innate human need for community. And New Season Church in Sacramento, California, is working hard to meet that need while still keeping that social distance. Pastor Charlie Rivera is the campus pastor of New Season, and I spoke with him last week because I wanted to know more about the work that they were doing to hand out food, diapers, baby formula, and other goods to the people in need in their community. The church has partnered with an organization called Heart of Compassion to distribute food that has been donated and give away 150,000 diapers, and 600 cases of baby formula that were also donated. But beyond just helping to meet those physical needs, I learned that New Season is really trying to meet the spiritual and emotional needs in their community as well right now.

With every delivery of groceries or diapers, they rate a special note of encouragement that they put in those bags that are the items that then are delivered. And when they, deliver those goods. They say that they often find themselves standing out in the yard or on the porch of that individual and praying with them for hope and encouragement. Pastor Rivera told me that, quote, when the church is closed down, that does not mean that the caring stops and closes down as well. The building might be closed and it might not have the opportunity to have people in, but that does not mean we'd stop caring for the people and stop doing what we're called to do. We're called to be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. The church is even offering drive-through communion and prayer right now

while making sure that they're maintaining those CDC guidelines, but also just giving the hope that people really need right now. Pastor Rivera said at the end of the day, the thing he wants his community to know is that in your crisis, in your need, we want to be able to be a part of that need and help ease off some of that pain. Wow, it is just so awesome to see how generous people are being right now. And in this season, I think that's something that we have to keep in mind is those opportunities to be generous and to be those helping hands and feet for others. And so thankful for the work of New Season Church and so many others that are doing this kind of work. Well, we certainly are, Virginia. Thanks for much for bringing us that story today. We appreciate

and we appreciate you closing this show every week with a good news story. Yeah, well, it's certainly certainly a good way to start the week and a fun way to just keep our focus right now. It certainly is. And we're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurpochet Audio Network. All our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcast. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the Daily Signal News.

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