Transcripts For CSPAN2 Tonight From Washington 20130730 : vi

Important contributions of senior negotiators on both sides. Particularly both of whom released the and stood strong in the face of criticism at home and whose unwavering commitment may belong to these talks possible. I look forward to beginning work with them tonight. Going forward its no secret that this is a difficult process. Its no secret that many difficult choices lie ahead for the leaders in the negotiators as we seek reasonable compromises on very tough and complicated and emotional and volatile issues. I think reasonable compromises have to be an effort and another negotiations will be tough, but i also know that the consequences of not time could be worse. To help the parties navigate the path and avoid its many pitfalls, we are very fortunate to have on our team on a daytoday basis and at this crucial time as the u. S. Special envoy for israeli and palestinian negotiations, insisting martin indyk will be important. It will be, as his deputy, and as a mere advisor to me, it will be Frank Lowenstein who has been working with me on this process since the beginning. In 2. 5 hours, a deficit reduction in the economy and then after that senator john mccain eulogizes his late conrad including retired chief officer george but they. The first lady reflects the United States and what we are supposed to do today. We as was to be mother in chief and to navigate that if the president is supposed to be out of state and out of government, is the first lady supposed to be the ideal fashion as to, is she supposed to be the mother in chief or the first help me, at the same time, if shes going to be first help me, just understand what is going on in the administration and what is going on in the country and she must understand her husbands local agenda. So you cannot really separate for the first lady presents herself in the conflicting expectations that the country still has poor working lives and working mothers. Consumer conversation on first ladies, historian and need a black and Richard Norton smith and others talk about the role of first lady and its move from Traditional Home and family to activism on the half of important issues and the transitioning from public back to private life. Objects, new Health Care Law and how it is being implemented and what it is decide content designed to do. The first of the program of the series of discussions focusing on health care. From washington journal, this is a little bit less than 2. 5 hours. We are focusing on the federal Health Care Law and we kick it off today with a series and we are joined by three Senior Correspondents who helped to guide us through the law. First up we have mary agnes carey. We have jay hancock, thank you as well. Both have been at the table before. We are also joined by sarah varney. Thank you for being here you can call us at 202 5853881. What with the original goals of the law . To have more people covered in to make the Health Insurance covered more than it currently does. We are talking about copays, deductibles, preventative screening and mammograms for women. There are no more lifetime limits on coverage which means if heaven forbid someone had cancer, there is no lifetime limit on recoveries. Also seniors have seen the costs go down for prescription drugs. So several of those benefits are already up and running. As we look at costs, what we know . There are concerns of adding additional benefits and some of these coming in for this exchange, enrollment starts october 1, either run by the states or the federal government and states. So the cost picture continues to emerge. If we look at the elements that have changed so far, these are for people who currently have Insurance Plans. He mentioned adults up to age 26. Closing the medicare doughnut hole is also on the list. It is significant. Because over time it has left them until they hit eight catastrophic gap. It has left them until having seniors are covering 20 of their costs in 2020. Many of whom were on fixed incomes or many who dont have a large income to begin with. This has been quite helpful for them. We are also seeing things like coverage cannot be canceled. Sumac wreck. This had been a problem several years ago. Then he wouldnt have this front element. Some people potentially lie. If we were actually talking about cancer treatments and an Insurance Company actually had internal departments that were set up to find errors on peoples applications. You can see that this person actually had acne when youre 16 and you had your appendix out and he failed to note that. So you could say he had a couple of highprofile cases where people were in the treatment and lost their coverage. We saw couple of weeks ago when the Obama Administration delayed implementing the and enforcing Large Businesses and having to venture their employees. It was significant because it was one of the major pillars of the law, which is youre going to get everyone insured and one is expanding medicaid for poor folks and the other is the individual mandate. Everyone over a certain income has to have Health Insurance. The other was employers are obligated to cover this or pay a fine and the delay was seen as a setback for obamacare for republicans it is very difficult to implement this will lock one of the things that is going on with this law is the number was passed in 2010 and it was supposed to be for years to implement it in with all of the challenges, it squeezed the time to implement. The time to get all this out, the rules kept coming out, the rules are still coming out, even as we are sitting here today. Employers were trying to figure out how they were going to comply with the law and they have to be in compliance starting january 1. The administration decided that we will give them a years break. We can all take a breather and try to figure how we are going to do that. I was actually at a seminar for employers that was done by Southern California. And it was eclectic about this. This was a week before it they made this announcement and he had this list of dates and by october 1 you have to give a piece of paper to every single employee, know what package they will offer and they were going to have to update their Computer Systems. Many of these employers did not have Computer Systems to track this to the level that they needed to. This was a man that i was talking to and he now said im having to buy a 100,000dollar Computer System on top of this. It is very believed, he was so glad he had more time. Now he has until next year. This october they do actually have to send out notice to their employees. If they have to buy insurance as of january 1. He has until next october to offer up in the moment was employees. Kaiser health news has launched a partnership today to explore the federal Health Care Law. I guess, the stories like usa today, the washington post, it can be part of this news. We are part of the Kaiser Family foundation which is known for its Health Policy research and all nonpartisan. As you mentioned, our stories to run and partners throughout the country. The editorial independence element means that the newsroom looks and works at all of the newsroom so it worked throughout our careers and we have decided we write them and pitch them to partners throughout the country and it is important to note that neither the Kaiser Family foundation is affiliated with the assurance that it implements. Okay, lets take some calls. Judy is joining us from work, illinois. Caller hello. Host go ahead, youre on the air. Caller and love your show. I am noticing right off the bat that a lot of them lawyers talk about this. I have been employed since 2009. It went from fulltime or parttime work in a lot of areas. And i just found this in the last 35 days. What im finding is a lot of them was actually trying to avoid getting fulltime hours even though the demands of fulltime work. They are actually going to the point where they are writing people up. To meet the demands of their customers. What can you do to report it. I think employers should do the american thing. They should get in if its just the same. They are trying to hide the so they dont have to pay. Guest one point to be made is that if your employer is asking you to work more than 30 hours a week and not paying you were not asking to pay for what you are putting in, that is against the law and they are not solicited. And you should talk to your supervisor about it. If you dont get any sense action and i talked to the Illinois Labor department or its equivalent. I dont know the exact name. The other point to be made is the big one, which he notes something that is a that of a trend going on and that is a the number of parttime jobs has been growing and this is given something of a talking point republicans because they claim that the growth of parttime jobs and the relative lack of growth in fulltime jobs they blame it on obamacare. And they employ people for over 30 hours per week. We are trying to give employees is under 30 split we are talking about. The question is will the economists blame the growth in parttime jobs on recovery from the recession and general and there is something going with globalization has to do with it. Many republicans are blaming it on the Affordable Care act. We will be watching the job numbers in the coming months as he was going on. Here is a story that was recently filed. Host this has indicated that we have in recovering from a bad economy and he expresses relief about the decision to enforce the portal tracts requirement for Employer Health Care Insurance we will talk about what this means for employees with me talk to jonathan. Caller i believe it was 20 or 26, up to the age that they would have an employer cover you as a student. Once you turn 18, time to get your own coverage for your own health care. These kinds of things. So its like i have health care until 26 years old under my mothers plan. But theyre not really allowing kids to be accountable to get their own jobs and their economy going for their own health care. I am 17 and i really want to know what you guys thought about it. Whether you agree or disagree that this is covered under the plan. Host you have a game plan for when you turn 18 years old imap we plan to continue your education or get into the workforce . Caller i plan to get a secondary education. You know, it might be difficult for me to afford my own health care, but that is part of life. To find a way so that i can afford my own health care. Host take us to this under 25 cut off and what it means. Guest the reason behind this is that so many Young Americans that were getting out of college with the economic slowdown were having difficulties getting the job of finding a a job with coverage. So that is why this provision was created. It has helped millions of Young Americans get covered. I think the callers concerns are ones that have been echoed on capitol hill. This adds expense that these individuals should go out and get coverage. And the Health Care Law does have larger deductible plans as kind of a larger deductible for individuals but he may find a good policy for him when it is time for him to go into the Health Insurance world. So there will be options for younger folks. They are called the young invisibles in the Health Care Law and there will be options for them. But if those arent there, this is sort of a tax top to help kids getting out of college who need coverage and clued those who need this, they are very happy to have it. It was a study that i did a story on a couple of months ago. We are asking the obvious question and having this tattoo from catastrophic issues. And of course it does. It looked that things that send you to the hospital bar none, poisons, traumatic brain injury, things he has to go to the hospital, before this provision was implemented and what they found was there was something around 100 and 7 million was uncompensated care and was not being paid out by Insurance Companies. So the question worked for a lot of legitimate economic reasons. Students were left uninsured and they would have gone to the hospital and would have been sued for claims or the hospital would have a clean that was uncommon. Host is set in the Washington Times today that republicans pushed obamacare funding. 39 of those polled said repeal the Affordable Care act come out obamacare, 36 that expand or keep it. So where are things that in terms of where the fight of this law. Guest it is continued. It is routed, it is very intense we are going to have the 40th vote to repeal all or part of the Health Care Law. This particular vote will focus on defining the Internal Revenue service from having any implementation efforts in the health laws and we know that there is the irs, the department of labor, the Health Health and Human Services department to implement the law. I think that we be a lot of good things for them and continue to fight the law despite the fact that there is a Supreme Court that upheld most of it and democrats kept the senate and white house in the november elections. They can republicans feel that the health law is not good for america or jobs. But they are very devoted to this, not only in these standalone messages, but as we work towards the continuing resolutions beyond september 30. Including the debt ceiling on the Health Care Law every front that they had. Host we thank mary agnes carey, libby casey and jay hancock and sarah varney for joining us. Lets take the next call. Caller good morning and thank you. There is a lot of information in regards to taking advantage of this. Will this be dissolved and i guess that my confusion is will this continue . Guest Medicare Advantage of reimbursements, the Medicare Advantage plans to cover seniors is being reduced overtime. They are trying to eat allies with the government pays for secret Service Versus Medicare Advantage and the program will remain. You talk about supplemental coverage. That is used most often with medicare coverage. Also stays in place. Guest i would add that a lot of people have been predicting a decline in Medicare Advantage coverage because of the funding reductions. We are not seeing them anywhere and Insurance Plans. Despite reimbursement reductions host david from new jersey. Caller hello, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. What we have been encountering is for two years we have been unemployed for the same period of time. I have gone to the health and Human Services website to get a feel for how the Affordable Care act was forgetting insurance. I dont want to bash the program but it seems that msn that i dont want to publish the numbers. They dont want to talk about the monthly premium and how much it will be. As gold and silver and bronze package that they will have heard it so hard for the consumer to wrap their hands your hands around it. So what i have done is to go through new jersey Blue Cross Blue Shield and im hoping for the best. Im hoping for the 240dollar premium a month that they are offering for this basic plan. I am only doing that because i dont have one of confidence right now sharing information that i need. Im not in a position to afford this. A relatively high income earner in the last few years and im in a position where really have to take basic insurance. I dont really have a question. Its more of an observation. Does anyone want to add to that . Host you have anything to add . Guest one, yes, it is obligated. However, in a few months if everything works as it is supposed to or close to the way its supposed to, a lot of things will become clearer. New Jerseys Health exchange and help exchanges is are these online exchanges in which this go on for coverage. If the software is designed right you will be able to go on their and actually get a really clear idea of what your choices are in the plans and what the plans are going to cost. As open october 1. People like you have until march 31 of next year to sign up for them to get coverage and comply with the mandate. One other quick tip is to go online cool obamacare subsidy calculator. This is something that are colleagues of the foundation to put together. It is just a great tool that will show you not only what coverage is available, but what kind of subsidy will get based on her income to help pay for those 240dollar premium. If youre unemployed, you almost certainly qualify for the city. So check that out. It should give you a bit more information than we have right now. Host should he wait to try to get his plan until october 1 . And he will actually be able to go into one of these exchanges. Guest that is a great question. If you havent bought a plan and signed a contract already, wait until october because that is when the subsidies become available. They are not available right now. If you have bought the plan already, you are doing the responsible thing by being insured. You will get help if you a little bit. Host our guest is from the Kaiser Family foundation and you can see it here. It is a way to plug in