In some cases the healthier people might be paying more. At some point, they may be a time when there is a car crash or they have some kind of problem and will need that kind of coverage. Host david in frederick, maryland. Caller hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I have some very quick points. I do not like the armtwisting and the lies that have been coming out of washington. As a young guy, that just bothers me. That is not the way to get my attention. The advertisement do not sway me to get insurance. My next point is that i am a tax repairer. I have to have multiple background checks. The navigators are able to take very confidential information and they do not have to have background checks. Can you speak this dusty to that last point. Guest this is something that republicans in congress have raised, that navigators do not have to go through background checks. Some states have passed laws with different requirements. This has been discussed. There is a lot of information that navigators get. They go through intense training. These are people who have been trained and vetted and are there to help people. Host david said he was not sure if he is going to get insurance. What is the consequence if they do not want any part of it . Guest this could be a big problem for the marketplace. Lets say the percentage of young people stays exactly the same. There has been a lot of researchers that do not think we will see the kind of death spiral that some people are fearing. That is where premiums continue to go up and that scares away healthier people who think it is not a good deal. Every year you see higher and higher premiums if you are Healthy People. What people have said is it is not going to happen here. There are a lot of protections in the law. There is a requirement that everybody buy insurance. Subsidies encourage people to buy insurance. There is some financial protections. The government covering the sickest cases and sharing the losses with insurers if necessary. And there is a protection so that plans to get a lot of Healthy People will pay to those that get a lot of people signing up with very high cost. All those protections help quite a bit helping the marketplace from turning into this death spiral. There was any sting analysis put forward by the kaiser foundation. They found if the percentage of young people stays the same, about 24 , premium costs would go up, the cost including premiums and profits would be about 2. 4 more than the insurers revenues. That is a problem certainly. Insurers have a typical 3 4 profit margin. They can make it up the next year with slightly higher premiums. If the number goes up next year, 33 , then it is even less of the consequences. Is a little more than 1 . It is something to watch. We might see slightly higher premiums next year. It will not turn into a catastrophe. Host jordan is on our line. Caller hi. Good morning. And a lot of people i talked to said they are worried about the security on healthcare. Gov because of hackers. I know there were hackers who testified in congress. I just wanted to get your comment on that. A lot of people said that is the reason why they are not signing up for it. Guest this is something that did come up in congress. There was a lot of concern about this. The former chairman of the committee brought this to peoples attention. A concern was that healthcare. Gov was certified by temporary security basis. The administration said they were will protect peoples information. They do this all the time with medicare. They have gone through different credentials to make sure peoples information is protected. Host i want to ask about congress and what their role is likely to be. The house has taken a number of votes repealing the Affordable Care act. What is the next frontier . Guest we are going to see continued attacks. This is something that is not going to end. Republicans controlled the house and we will see additional votes. This will be a big issue in the election. I am sure we will see quite a bit of campaign rhetoric. Host dan is calling in from california. Caller good morning. I am calling from hawaii. Aloha. I wanted to give the president much praise on obamacare. Whats the difference between the v. A. Healthcare and obamacare . Guest they are very different systems. The v. A. System is so much to the british system. What we are seeing with obamacare marketplaces or exchanges is private insurers like blue cross, blue shield or aetna or cigna, any of those Companies Offering private insurance that is government regulated. People choose among those plans and decide which one to buy. The insurance does have to conform with a lot of different requirements in the law. It has to meet certain requirements about the benefits and about how much of the cost is covered. You have seen that in the regulation in which there were four different tier levels. In terms of the quality of care at the v. A. , i think it varies by hospital. There had been complaints about the v. A. System but a lot of people say it provides essential care for them. Host so none of us would impact them. Guest if you get your care from the v. A. , you will continue to do that. Host michael is 56 years old. Caller hello. Thank you for taking my call. I got hurt about 20 years ago in a coal mining accident. I had to go on disability. I am on freedom blue, which is out of medicare. I have had eight major surgeries. Every time i go to the hospital now, i have to wait. I had a real bad ekg. They wanted to do a stress test right away. They made me wait a week. They increase my deductible. They we have a young child at home. My wife special care we went away Health Care Service agent. They extended it to june, they said. We qualified for a silver plan. They said that we could continue to pay our premiums, which went up 18 more than what the increase was in our benefits. I cant see where this is beneficial to us at all. That is what my comment is. Guest you said you could qualify for a silver plan, but the cost is 18 more than what you are paying now . Caller right. So far. We will not know until june. It is in 8020 split. But she goes in for a hospital visit, we will have a deductible of up to 6,000. With my income and our circumstances, that could bankrupt us. I dont know where anybody state farm or progressive with auto insurance. They think they have insurance, these young kids, but they really do not. They did not pay upfront. You think you are covered, but you really are not. The falsehood in that. Freedom blue, they took my oxygen away from me. They said, we really did not take your oxygen away from you. It will cost you 30 per month. I cannot afford 30 per month. But they really did take it away from me because i cannot afford 30 per month. So essentially, they did take away from me. Guest outofpocket costs are a big concern for people. The deductibles on the marketplaces are pretty high compared to what you would see in employersponsored insurance. 6,000 is not unusual. The healthcare law does offer some protection from what we previously saw in the individual market, which is the group we are talking about here. You compare the deductibles that are offered here, 6,000 is common. The healthcare law caps those at 6,350. The individual market before the healthcare law was not regulated this tightly. When you talk about bankruptcy, people really could go bankrupt because they might be faced with 100,000 in costs. That is not allowed anymore. That is the good news. The bad news is that the deductibles can be pretty hard for people, especially people in your situation. I think that those are concerns that are being heard. You mentioned earlier that in the system, younger people or healthier people are subsidizing Health Care Costs for those who are older or not as healthy. If you are in the pool of younger, healthier people, what is the benefit for you to sign up . Guest it is the law. You are required to sign up for some kind of insurance now. There is that. The other thing is that you just never know in life when you will be the person who gets in an accident or who gets a diagnosis for a disease that you did not know that you would be getting. You are buying protection. There are a lot of people who say, i would rather spend the money on something else. It is a little bit harder to make that argument to people. Certainly, people, younger people have a lot of interest in getting return on investment. The investment the return is there, but it is a little less tangible than something that you i cannot tell you how heartened i am to see so many people that want to be here this afternoon to talk about nato. I will be perfectly honest, i wasnt afraid that we were not going to be able to attract such a strong interest in this topic, because frankly, america has been kind of asleep for the last several years on nato. When we have this opportunity to the general, we said we need to do something to start to reinvigorate an alliance that is still fundamental to americas interest. It isnt something that we talk , and it is not something that is a central focus our security deliberations. Once was, but americans ultimately were rack medic and we go where the problems are immediately, yet we should be looking at the fundamentals of the resources that we have with us. This alliance is the most important fundamental resource we have. We are very fortunate that we have political leaders let me just say that people say nato is the most successful military alliance in history. Ultimately, it it is a Political Alliance that has a direction. Ultimately it is about the coherence of our political agenda, this transatlantic political agenda, that is the foundation of the success of this alliance. That means we have to link the foreignpolicy dimensions in the security dimensions of this alliance. Am so very grateful that senator mccain and senator murphy were willing to take time. Their votes are starting at 5 30, so were going to press right into this, but i do want to say how grateful i am to them for their leadership in the senate, their leadership for our country, and their presence this afternoon to help us launch the series. I dont know which of these two brilliant women are going to start this, but with your applause, would you welcome and thank them. [applause] thank you to everyone for coming today. Senators, if you could turn your mics on, im dr. Kathleen hicks. I run International Student program and im pleased to be here with my colleague who runs a program here at csi s. Let me begin with a very open ended question to both of you. We will start on the outside with senator mccain. Nato is approaching yet another summit. We are at a crossroads, as we always say, but this time we certainly have one in terms of the afghanistan mission. There are significant concerns about where nato is going in terms of the funding. Theu. S. Is rebalancing to specifics. With all these different factors at play, what are you seeing that gives you the greatest hope and concern with regard to the alliance . Think of myg to greatest hope. And john hamry who ive had admiration and appreciation for for many years. He had Humble Beginnings on the staff and has fortunately for forgotten that experience and gone on to do great wings, and im so happy to be here. Probably the greatest hope is the fact that it remains a inclusive i think we have reasonable. Andidates for growth of nato i think it remains a force for stability in the world. Despite ourthat complaints that we have that are justified about the amount of funding, and im sure we may talk about that in the future there are only two countries, poland and norway, that have increases in spending. It still remains one of the most remarkable and enduring phenomenon of the 20th and now 21st century. Worldople all over the look to nato as both a model and an inspiration. Any other alliances i think will we based on that model. I greatest concern . To spending. We also go back i think to reluctance on the part of nato, which is a reflection of the countries that they represent, of getting involved anywhere to do anything. Appreciate what happened in libya, and i think it was quite impressive that we were able to take out Moammar Gadhafi without committing troops on the ground. Syria see what happens in motley to aom number of other countries throughout the middle east, and we see frankly our secretary general seems to be compelled every morning to get up and tell the world that under no circumstances will nato be involved in anything. I dont know where he got that disease. And it does worry me about the viability of nato in whether they will ever again intervene. Im not saying that nato should intervene in syria. Were are 8000 people who asked medically cleansed, and that move the president of the United States and nato to an agreement. In retrospect, and there is a hell of a debate in the senate. The last few days, 11,000 people have been documented to be tortured, murdered, starved to death, and there hasnt even been a comment, much less any concern, on the part of our european friends and nato partners. That is pretty disturbing to me. You for having me as well. It is really an auditor to be here with senator mccain in my therole as chairman of subcommittee on foreign relations. Im learning a lot from john and others. Againt endeavor to recite what senator mccain has laid out as the success is here. This is the model for common defense. It is not a coincidence that there is still a long line of nations seeking to join nato, because it still offers tremendous benefits. Think the greatest overused word in washington diplomatic circles is pivot these days. Still, when there is trouble anywhere around the world, the first place the United States turns us to our nato allies, and they are the first respond. I would add a couple of additional concerns to those that have been raised by senator mccain. Clearly, funding is at the top is thelist, as willingness of european nations, given tight budgets, to step up to the plate and make the resources available. But i will add two new ones, which is first the issue of integrating our counterterrorism work into the mission of nato. We have seen obviously a major dustup over the revelations regarding u. S. Surveillance techniques, but it is frankly i think forced us to talk a little bit about what our true Counterterrorism Partnership is going to be, whether it will on individual bilateral bases, or whether it can be a more central organizing premise of nato Going Forward, which also speaks to the second challenge. Greater ability to speak with a common voice on the issue of National Security and defense. It is likely going to become even more problematic for the United States to figure out anther the proper venue for individual conversation about the future of National Security as that are housed in nato or in the ee you the eu. The ability of this triumvirate to figure out a strategy moving forward is one of the challenges and frankly an opportunity as well. To bring going capabilities to unite that maybe right now are not available to us when we are simply talking through nato. Can i just make a comment . Lot,ire senator murphy a and he and i shared a memorable experience not long ago when we went to ukraine and were present and watched 300,000 people for a country that is free of russian influence and can be part of the european community. I dont know whats going to happen there, and things are very tenuous, but it was a remarkable experience for us to be able to see that incredible outpouring of people in whether that is like it is today here. Notwithstanding the somewhat tortured history of ukraine with nato and the eu, the desire of the ukrainian people to have a european facing future is a manifestation of the success of both the eu and of nato. You want to talk about the success that nato has delivered, it is present on the streets of kiev and throughout the ukraine today. It is notse you, about joining the you. It is about being a european nation, whether be the music, the culture, the economy, whether it be getting rid of corruption, its because they are making that desire hasfested in a way that already sacrificed a rather large amount. You both take me beautifully into the next question, which was going to be ukraine. Senator murphy, in december you were speaking to the protesters and you said you are making history. If you are successful, the United States will stand with you every step of the way. How does the u. S. Tangibly support ukraine during these difficult days . I would like your reflections on this, and what we have been witnessing over the last 2448 hours. Senator mccain, you mentioned the growth of nato enlargement. Secretary clinton said in chicago in 2012 that chicago would be the last summit which is not an enlargement summit. There is real concern that the summit in wales will not address enlargement. Georgias nato signal to , to ukraine, to those countries that do want to come into nato, but yet nato politically is exhausted and may not see where enlargement fits into the picture . I would welcome your reflections on both ukraine and enlargement. I have had a fairly short diplomatic history, but ive never seen anything like what i we had theternoon. Chance after speaking to about a half million to a million people, then had a meeting with a small group of some of the Young Leaders of the movement. As senator mccain said, it was really remarkable. This is largely a nonpolitical gathering, a group of largely young people, but frankly representing a crosssection of ukrainians who just want control of their government. A feeling that there will is expressed in the halls of leadership, that there is clean government, that it is not just a means to enrich political leaders and their friends and cronies. It was a remarkable place to be. The question you asked is what does the u. S. Do here . I think we have to admit there are limited tools that the United States has an there are some expectations that the United States is going to deliver the salvation for the ukrainian people. That may be too high a bar, but there are definite things we can do. We can speak with a clear voice, and we have done that in this that this situation haps better than in others. Our assistant secretary was on the ground as soon as it was probable to do so. Senator mccain i were there to deliver a bipartisan message. Begun to use some fairly serious diplomatic tools like visa restrictions that may send an even clearer message to the regime. Unanimity of sentiment coming from the highest ranks of the u. S. Government has had