states to be able to be the ones to define what health coverage is, have the flexibility, especially in the medicaid program to be able to respond to their vulnerable populations. the president mentioned, the practice of defensive medicine, wastes billions and billions of dollars every single year, and we need to make certain that we re addressing that as well. the president talked about a glide path, an appropriate transition to this new phase for health care, for our country, and that s important as well so that nobody falls through the cracks. buying across state lines, insuring across state lines. the president talked about this on the campaign over and over. american people understand the commonsense nature of purchasing across state lines, and it increased competition, and we need to make certain that that happens, and then addressing the incredible increase in drug prices. there are three phases of this plan. one is the bill that was introduced last evening in the house of repre
individual mandate, but and there s a big but here they have incentiveized people to keep their health insurance plans because if you cancel your plan and you go restart it, there s a 30% surcharge that the insurance company can charge you. there is an incentive here. if it s not a mandate, there s a financial incentive to keep your coverage. it also restructures medicaid, and millions and millions of americans got health insurance through medicaid health benefits through medicaid thanks to the affordable care act or obama care. that s right. 11 million people got medicaid under obama care. the concern here is that the republicans want to take away federal funding for medicaid. they want to get rid of those enhanced subsidies for that program, and as a result, the state will have to make up for the shaortfall. the problem is most states don t have the money to coverage that, wolf, so again, there s concern that medicaid participants will not get the kind of coverage
whenever i can bring a distinguished pennsylvanian to washington to hear a speech like, this especially someone who has served our country, i want to do that. bringing in joe mcgrathas significance because of what he s done for our country. in this case, given his own circumstance because of his health issue and his daughter having health issues, i hope he will keep his promise and not block grant medicaid. it s bad for people in rural cities and especially bad for individuals with disabilities. do not block grant medicaid and i will fight this to the end of the earth. i want to ask you about something that happened in your state. there has been this wave of bomb threats called into jewish community centers, more yesterday.
trump voters who are on obamacare and are not real happy with the idea of losing their health insurance. so they have a hard time getting from here to there. what the president is going to try to do is say look at gm and these other companies that are bringing their jobs, they ve already brought their jobs back since i ve become president. they planned to do it before he became president but he ll try to take credit for that and i think he ll be successful in striking that optimistic tone. chris, you have to separate the question of obamacare. obamacare itself is bleeding. and it has been bleeding for many years, as you know. so the body of it is dead and needs to be replaced. with regard to medicaid, that s a separate issue. your previous guest in fact talked about the two options available to the republican majority now with regard to medicaid. that s a serious political dilemma for some republicans. but as far as replace and really repair, the american public has
into medicaid by obamacare and then change the system going forward so they can select a plan that best meets their own need. for those states that opted into the medicaid program, give them a block grant and have them administer the program. i thought it was interesting to listen to the president on fox and friends and he said he d give mysehimself on messaga c orr c-plus. clearly he knows his approval rating is underwater, 40% approve, 48% disapprove. do you see this has a chance for him to shift and bring more people in. he is planning to revive our economy, and secure our borders.