Page 24 - Risk Pool News Today

Your reassurances to moderates who [ inaudible ]? >> i think were making good progress. were going to go when we have the votes. thats the decision well make when we have it. something tells me youll probably be the first to know when that happens. i would argue that this is a bill that a moderate would more likely want to support. some people were concerned about ehbs. ehbs were taken out of the bill. essential health benefits were taken out of the earlier drafts but theyre back in. theyre in t...

Health insurance. but under this new amendment there can be waveers so insurance companies can charge different premiums to different people. for instance, if youre really sick, youre going to get a high premium and of course if youre really sick youre probably not work being you dont have any money so you kabcant get insurance. >> thats not the way it works, greta. i would respectfully disagree with your analysis. we have a high-risk pool proposal that weve put in so that everybody in a specifi...

Risk pools, that people can buy down the cost. youre building to get into one of the pools. in essence, the insurance and the pricing gap that could occur. >> many of these risk pools have been tried in the past and most have been deemed unworkable. do you think we can come up with a better risk pool now? >> they have worked. i would use mainl as an example. so again, all were saying is lets be more transparent in the process. right now we have with profound health care needs. ive had eight town...

And stateare the ones that are going to ensure and many states like mine have tougher ehbs than what we have at the federal level right now. >> but correct me if im wrong, does this not give insurance companies the opportunity to jack up their rates on people with preexisting conditions? because insurance companies -- >> no. >> stakeholders, are their employees and shareholders, not the american people. >> the answer is no. no waiver can be given unless certain goals are met, certain criteria ar...

Im glad to hear that. now, this high risk pool, ive seen numbers 120 to $130 billion. where is that money coming from? >> well, its coming from the federal government. ive been told a number is $115 billion over ten years, but its to help, you know, what were trying to do is get lower premiums to the individual person, more choice through a market approach where different companies compete for your business and the kind of coverage that you actually want. >> all right. ill go with your number, 1...

The need of the country. so i do give poor marks for the discipline at the white house, high marks for how theyre executing the day-to-day operations. >> were going to come back to that. lets get into some of the things hes trying to get done that he hasnt been able to do yet. a deal to overhaul health care policy in america appears to be getting a bit closer. conservative members of the freedom caucus came out in support of the new agreement. the new amendment is an attempt to appease some cons...

While those are the changes in play, the moderates are not on board yet. i just came from a closed door meeting. they are not sold on this plan yet. its a positive step forward but were far from out of the woods in this process. it will keep going, brooke. >> and cover it, you will. phil, thank you so much. next, the u.s. senators are now arriving at the white house for this briefing on north korea in this rare, surreal scene. weve got that for you. also, the white house today laying out the...

Make sure it happens. whether it is this friday or next week or the week after that, i can tell you, real reform is coming. its a matter of days, not months. so, im very optimistic well get it done in the right fashion. >> martha: what happened last time was that the things that made the moderates happy made you folks unhappy. now that you are happy, are the moderates unhappy again? some of the states will have the ability to charge people with pre-existing conditions for further health care and...

All americans as well the bill that we passed lower their premiums. that is with the freedom caucus has been standing for from day one. we believe the original bill didnt go far enough. this new waiver allows for not only the states to be able to tailor made it come as the speaker was income a to wave out of the obamacare mandates. it was also a freedom caucus amendment that put this high risk pool that was going to drive down premiums. some of the modeling we have done actually means that well ...

The premiums for the average person when you create a high risk pool and subsidize those premiums for those patients through a different pooling. >> unfortunately, it hasnt happened on a nation basis. we havent been able to do it on a national basis ever will. >> thats why we think these amendments, especially the palmer amendment, important, because we get a chance to do what happened in maine on a national scale. >> i think were going to find that maine is not representative of the problems th...