Live friday at 8 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Listen wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Towelcome Kimberly Leonard her desk. I want to start with the news that the obama care premiums are set to fail. The Trump Administration has taken so many actions that sabotage the law. Premiums are going down for midlevel plans by about 4 next year. Know that more Health Insurers are entering the marketplace, and we know it is happening because of a variety of factors, one of which has to do with the Trump Administration authorizing funnelsnce, which federal funds to states so they can use those dollars to help them lower premiums. That helps lower the premiums across the board. Hill, arday on capitol hearing about obamacare, about the Affordable Care act. It sabotaged the trumpet ministrations attack on health care. You explain what the democrats in charge of that hearing were pointing to . The democrats have been very focused to really bring forth obamacare, the Affordable Care act, to say that they are defenders of the law, and particularly it is really popular parts, including its rules protecting people with preexisting conditions, allowances for young people to stay on their Parents Health insurance until the age of 26, and they wanted to point out that the Trump Administration has a lawsuit that they side and with republican states to law se invalidated, and that is a lawsuit that we are expecting to hear about any day now. They also point to actions the trumpet ministration has taken. They have reduced the amount of time that people can sign up for plans. The Trump Administration also stopped authorizing different payments that go to insurers. Marketing for the health care laws. They reduced the budget around that. They reduced the budget around what are called navigators. So they have this long list of complaints that they wanted to put forward. Definitely a political hearing and an opportunity for them to say to people and voters, here is what the Trump Administration is doing. Host one of the biggest complaints is the individual mandate as part of the public and tax bill. Concern that that would be a death blow to the Affordable Care act. How did that turn out . Guest it doesnt seem those predictions have turned out because a number of people on these plans has remained about the same. One of the things to remember about these plans is that there are millions of people who do get subsidies to pay for them. Downif premiums go up or large portion of people that are really shielded from increases or decreases just because the federal government takes in so much money for them to pay for their premiums. It doesnt apply to everyone. This is something the Trump Administration likes to point out. If you are an individual making more than say 50,000 a year, you are looking at probably paying full price for these premiums. People that ends up being a third of their income or even half. And its important to remember that how much people pay for these plans depends on a lot of different factors. Where they live, how much their income is, whether they smoke, and their age. All of those different pieces play into their ultimate premium prices. Host health care is our topic for the next 25 minutes for the washington journal. If you have questions on that very broad topic well take your questions on phone lines for republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Start calling in now. Kimberly leonard. I want to come back to that court case moving forward seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care act. Explain the argument that the administration and those who have signed on to that case are making there. Guest what they are doing is they are actually using the tax law you were talking about earlier that zeroed out the fine on people who are uninsured, known as the individual mandate. And what they are doing is they are saying, the Obama Administration once argued that the fine was essential to making the rest of the law work. Now that its been zeroed out they say at that means the rest of the law cant function. There were Republican Attorney attorney generals who sued to invalidate the law. And the Trump Administration sided eventually with the states to say that they believed the entire law should be thrown out. That affects a lot more than 209 Million People who have been who has gained Health Insurance under the law. It also would undo protections for preexisting conditions. T would affect different Prescription Drug pricing pieces. It really would reverberate across the Health Care System if the law were to be struck down. Guest hoip that case moving through the judicial system. If the Affordable Care act is invalidated, republicans this week have come up with a new health care plan, this from the conservative Republican Study Committee. Explain who they are and why they put out a health plan this week. Guest they have 147 members. It was a little bit surprising they were releasing a health care plan. A lot of the strategy for the Trump Administration and frankly for a lot of republicans on the hill has been not to provide an alternative for health care but really to point out the flaws that they see within what democrats on the far left are proposing in terms of medicare for all. What they have done is they have introduced a plan that recycles a lot of the same ideas they had during the previous repeal and replace actions, but they have also kind of used it as a way to say, well, if the courts were to invalidate the a. C. A. Or heading into 2020 here is our conservative vision for health care in this country. Host a few of the provisions in that, your screen now for our viewers. The proposal to establish federally funded state administered guaranteed coverage pools. Repackaging some existing funding for a. C. A. Premium subsidies and Medicaid Expansion to fund state administrative programs. Health savings accounts, tending legislation that provided protections to americans with jobbased insurance to people in the individual market. Just some of the points put out by the Republican Study Committee on that plan. Taking your phone calls on the Health Care Issue with Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner this morning. Chat with loni out of washington, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. I was curious what kimberly carries for insurance out of curiousity. Im a vet and i have to use vet care. Its not that great. Host i dont know if you want to talk about your own insurance. Guest i have an employer plan like a lot of people in this country. About 160 Million People. Employer plans are very popular across the u. S. They do have a broad range of benefits, particularly for large companies. Thats the kind of Health Insurance i have. Host some Democratic Candidates wanting to make changes to the ability to have employerbased plans. Can you talk about the democratic pryry field and the universe of plans being proposed right now . Guest there is a pretty broad range of proposals that have but really do question what the role of private Health Insurance should continue to be as he look at the next area of health care reform. You have candidates like joe biden who would like to boost the Affordable Care act, but also give people the option to buy into a government plan if thats something they choose. Then you have Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who say, no. That would not be adequate. We need medicare for all. What they mean by that is that private Health Insurance would cease to exist and that everyone would be enrolled in a single government funded plan. And all hospitals and doctors would continue to operate privately. Those are the different measures that are on the table. Host new york is nefpblgts gary, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have a comment and a question for miss leonard. The comment is that we have heard the myth for years that the canadians and the british, for example, hate their national Health Care System, but many of us for years have asked cspan, since those countries speak english, why dont we have a simple hookup and find out what the truth is . But over the years cspan has always refused. So that kind of tells me about the socalled host im not sure what you are referring to. You are saying we should open the phones to canadian residents only and get their thoughts . Caller absolutely. Absolutely. Host its an idea. Ill bring it up. Caller not only canadian citizens, but talk to people up in canada such as miss leonard that represents the press up there and find out what the truth is. Host let you explain what the Washington Examiner is so the caller knows about your publication. Guest we mostly cover domestic policy, but i have done stories looking at what other countries are doing. One thing thats important to point out is that the single payer systems in some of these other countries are very different than what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing for medicare for aufment they are looking at a much more again benefits package where people would not have to pay anything out of pocket for their Health Insurance. Other countries thats not necessarily true. Other countries there is also still a role for private Health Insurance. I agree, i think its important to hear from people who reside in these other contrifments host an interesting idea. Dave out of michigan. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Kimberly, i have a question the other former caller had it spoke a little bit about it. It seems to me like this country is having a problem getting everybody onboard if im not wrong. Canadian people seem to be they are all in. Y that i mean if you have an address, shouldnt be be accountable for certain amount of health care . If you have a student loan, part of the on to loan thats for your student loan . The canadians are on the right track it seems like, but it seems like we got to get rid of these copays. Host could he pays. Guest one of the things about copays is some of these other countries do have them. They are smaller and dont have the big problems about out of pocket medical expenses. We report here. But they do economists see them as a way to make sure people arent seeking unneeded health care in certain cases. People argue about what that means. Certainly there is a problem with people delaying health care because they are concerned about how much it will cost. Then when they do seek care, its much more expensive because they are in an emergency situation. Host on medical expenses lets talk drug pricing and efforts by this congress to lower drug pricing. Guest there is a bill in the house now that was introduced by House Speaker nancy pelosi that would allow the government to negotiate up to 250 drugs. It has a floor of 35 drugs. What they would do they would essentially use the price that is other countries pay to try to set that price. It has been moving through committees. We have an initial c. B. O. Score on it, but we are still waiting on a final score. That was going to get a vote next week, but i learned just this morning with my reporting that its actually going to get a vote probably in november. Thats been pushed back a little bit. Host why the delay . Guest theres obviously a lot happening on the hill right now. I do think that there has been sort of a tug of war with progressives in the house who would like to see the democrats become perhaps a little bit more aggressive on drug pricing than the current bill on the table. Host for all of Kimberly Leonards scoops and reporting, its Washington Examiner. Com is the website. On twitter shes lendardkl. If you want to follow her on twitter. That drug pricing bill named after the late Elijah Cummings, renamed that bill. It is now the Elijah Cummings lower drug costs now act. Guest correct. All that is because during his time in congress he really pushed to allow the government to step in and negotiate drugs. So thats why they ended up naming it after him. He brought in pharmaceutical companies. He opened inquiries into their practices. Its supposed to be a nod to his legacy on drug pricing. Host Elijah Cummings, his casket will lie in state in stat warry hall coming up in just over an hour, about 70 minutes this morning is when those that ceremony is supposed to begin honoring the delight congressman from maryland. His funeral taking place honoring the late congressman from maryland. His funeral taking place tomorrow starget at 10 00 a. M. Our coverage here today on capitol hill starting at 10 30 a. M. All eastern time. Ohio, republican, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I thank you for having this subject on cspan. My concern is with the drug issues that we have going on. I have been trying to get to change my drug insurance. The current one i have doesnt charge me the same thing twice for a prescription. I would like to get one thats consistent. To me it seems we have spent millions and millions of our taxpayer dollars trying to straighten this out and it needs to be Insurance Company reform not health care reform. If i have one drug that i get and i took a chart on it. The first time i got it was 169. Second time was 30. Third time i got it it was 69. Now i just recently picked it up it was 129. My question is, why isnt it the same thing all the way through . That seems to be the case with all the drugs. With this particular Subscription Program i have. Host thanks for the question. Tell us about your situation. Guest so true. Thats something that we hear a lot. The drug industry has a very complicated of not just pricing but also doing rebates. What you pay at the pharmacy will be different every time depending on your insurance, whether you are covered by a government plan. What the drug industry has tried to do is point people to places where they can get coupons to lower what they would pay at the drug counter. There have been more efforts by lawmakers to say, ok, pharmacists need to be telling people when they go to the pharmacy, look, you dont have to pay this for drugs, go to this website and get a coupon. Thats how they tried to negotiate the way down what patients ultimately are paying for drugs. Host columbus, mississippi, next. Jeffrey a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, sir. Caller yes. The problem isnt the Affordable Care act. The problem when trump came into office and the problems and he governors Republicanled Senate in the states they came in and changed the way that states impose and took out the mandates out of the Affordable Care act. They gutted the Affordable Care act that made it unfair to people that had the Affordable Care act. And now you see how trump is trying to change the Affordable Care act into his care act. And i dont think that thats fair to American People that he would take something that president obama made and try to make it into something that he want to organize and said thats something that he orchestrated and made. Host kimberly. Guest we mentioned a little bit earlier some of the changes the Trump Administration had made to the Affordable Care act. Another thing that i didnt bring up was how they have provided these plans that are retrothan the a. C. A. Plans, known as shortterm Health Insurance. They dont cover preexisting conditions. So they can say to sick people we wont cover you. They can say we are going to charge you xa more than what we would charge someone healthy. The Trump Administration has argued the people who go on these plans would otherwise be uninsured. Because the Affordable Care act does leave out millions of people who are middle class who do not get subsidies, and for them a lot of the preexisting conditions protections, because they cant afford these a. C. A. Plans, are out of reach. Thats the position that the Trump Administration has taken. Democrats on the hill say that what should be done instead is that more people should be allowed to have subdies so that everyone would be able to have moreau bust coverage. Host insured in america, stats from the u. S. Census bureau. The uni shured rate rose by 1. 9 million from 2017 to 2018. The total number of ininsured was 27. 5 mil