Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140331

Insurance. Phone lines are now open. For democrats and if you have signed up and enrolled through the Affordable Care act, please call us at 202 5853883. On twitter we are at cspanwj, facebook. Com cspan, and our email is journal cspan. Org. The deadline for most people to enroll for Health Insurance. Exceptions forme major life events, job loss, death in the family. The bulk of people must sign up by midnight tonight. Its take a look at how this is playing out in most papers. From the wall street journal. The website blocked some applicants but do not show major technical problems. Of theumers near the end 2014 open enrollment for obtaining insurance under the Affordable Care act. At the Human Capacity maxes out with too few navigators and other and roll that workers to steer through the application process. Many people were told to try after monday. Our first call comes from new york. That he is on the line for independence. What you think about the Health Care Enrollment . Have heard so much about it since it has started. Know that itle to doesnt seem to be working, there seemed to be more complaints than there are positive. I want to say pete say to people, stop whining about everything that is going on and start voting. Everybody in the government that the people run a government and vote them all out. Say this is the way we wanted. Host do you support this law . I supported for people who need Health Insurance, like preexisting conditions. But it doesnt seem to be working that way. They are taking full sunshine so way that already have it. What is going to happen in the next two years when the federal government is no longer going to pay the subsidies and the states have to pick it up . That is mandated. Lets take a look at another headline from usa today. Next up, in other color from new york. Jane is in webster. Have two things to say. The first one is that i believe i understand that a friend of mine, her daughter had cancer. She died oflf cancer and she was billed for over 1 million. She is trying to pay that back forever. I believe they have put a cap on that. I helped one of my former students get Health Insurance who has never been eligible because she has a learning disability that has never been fully diagnosed. She was put in a special class on and off at school. She graduated but she has never had Proper Health care. I helped to briefly get her teeth fixed through a special education law. Then they just dumped her off. She has never had Health Insurance. She has gone without it. She is in terrible pain but couldnt get Health Insurance. She works parttime. They kept her around part times they would not have to cover the Health Insurance. She hardly has enough food. This is really going to help her. I think people have lost focus and they really need to look and see how other people with the former healthinsurance industry dictating our every move. He raising the rice raising they were raising the price any year anyway. That is all i have to say. Lawmakers weighing in about this deadline. Lets take a look at one senate senator, angus king. He writes next call comes from our line for republicans. She is from lancaster, ohio. Hello. I dont know about the deadline. It is kind of silly. If you are really really poor are disabled, you are taking care of. When i started working i will be 52 my insurance cost me 18 per month when i was 22 years old. The government is doing now, they keep sending me all this stuff to sign up for Different Things but i already have insurance. T, lets look at a love lets look at a couple of other tweets. Why anyone would object doesnt make sense. Richer is Richard Rogers our next caller is michael on our line for democrats. He is calling from new orleans. Caller one of the things people need to understand is that the republicans have made an issue of this before it was even a law. They put so much misinformation out there and i didnt think our people didnt think the people of our country was so out of touch they would fall for it hook line and sinker. This law was designed to help everybody. I had put in a supplemental Insurance Program that set up automatic deductions. Month they went up and up. Then they call and tell me there are no more payments being made. When i started looking into it they realize it was set up like that and it kept going up and up. If the people of this country are so blinded by what people have tried to do and are doing, then we are at fault. Are dealing with is conservative and a red state and everything else. The bottom line is you have a band that is big up there and then you call the people in the wese of representatives, cannot be we talked about senator angus king, a supporter of the Affordable Care act. Tom coburn writes why only 26 of americans now support the law here, that is from senator tom coburn from oklahoma. Line. Is on the she is enrolled through the aca. Caller good morning. Actually i am not enrolled myself. Because i am from massachusetts my son was already enrolled. Because of the aca my daughter had previously been enrolled until she was 26. Under mytely she moved husbands insurance. She moved to South Carolina which is always a concern that my children were going to move to another state. Is disabledildren and one be able to get insurance. Not the way he does here in massachusetts. Just went through the Exchange Last month. Enrolled and made her first payment. I had to do it her do it for her. She wasnt going to get around to it. I was very happy. Host what was the process like for people who havent run through the same steps as you have for your daughter . My husband and daughter were negative about it. They insisted it wasnt going to work. I used the information from her. Once i got that information from her it did take me about i dont remember how bad it was but i did at some point have problems getting in. I had her permission to go in because there are privacy issues. At some point i had to delete an application because i was having problems. She was enrolled within an hour. It took me that long because i have a lot of decisions to make. I was going through the website sheit was really hard doesnt make a lot of money but i figured i know what she spends her money on. The biggest problem was choosing from so many different programs. Choices inut 12 South Carolina. I hear not all states are like that. Details from how that program works. Senior white house adviser David Plouffe was on abcs this week im coand he talked about the success of this law. Week, and you talked about the success of this law. [video clip] laxity talk about people going to medicaid and health care, more than 10 Million People have health care. Of the politics of this are tough. I think they will get better over time. Of i think the republican playbook of repeal obamacare gets tougher as more and more people get health care. I think more republicans understand that. Plouffe defending the Affordable Care act. Ron is on the line for democrats. Host i think caller i think the Affordable Health care act is fantastic. The premiums are affordable, the process of getting on was relatively easy. As one woman mentioned it is difficult to choose between in my case there were six or seven. We have the Consumer Health coalition. They are a nonprofit that helps people navigate. I know every state has something similar. Want to say that republicans dont want you to know how good this is. They focus on these red herring distractions. Keepe meantime they putting up these Insurance Premium changes. The ones that change the premiums a lot of these Insurance Companies ultimately dont want to be regulated. They dont want to be regulated. People keep bringing that up. We want to keep taking your calls about this looming enrollment deadline. We are going to the hills to get a preview of the week ahead in congress. Thank you for joining us. Whencan we expect lawmakers return to capitol hill . What are the big things youre watching . Guest it will be a busy week. The Senate Returns this evening. Pass ae expected to prevention of a big cut in medicare payment. It was passed somewhat controversially by unanimous vote last week. They are also expected to pass the Unemployment Insurance bill. That cleared the hurdle late last week and they are going to send it to the house. Speaker boehner has more or less come out against it. They are expected to finally complete their work on ukraine aid bills when they get back on tuesday evening. We are expected to see the annual paul ryan budget. Ukraine,i can ask, on spine the Politics Around that. Is that expected to sail through the house . They are going to pass it by unanimous consent on friday after lawmakers have left town and the senate has passed it. According to majority leader eric cantor, they want to be on record. Tothey pushed it back tuesday. This provides a Million Dollars in loan guarantees to look to ukraine. It will separately act on a bill that provides 10 million for prodemocracy broadcast to propaganda coming from russia in that region. Host you mentioned paul ryans budget. Are there any indications about what is likely to be in it or how it will be different from the administrations Budget Proposal . Guest it wont be that different. It will be similar in one aspect. Saidlican leaders have that he is going to stick to the top line spending numbers. That was something he had negotiated with the Senate Committee chairman patty murray in december, which passed the house and senate. They are going to stick to that number but the budget is going to have much deeper cuts in the subsequent years. To stick to ang republican commitment to balance the budget within the decade. It will balance over 10 years. Host im sticking with paul ryans budget. It is obviously a democratically control take controlled amber controlled chamber. Guest as you mentioned, it is a largely symbolic document. Already announced they are not going to do a budget this year because there budget agreement. Democrats are going to skip that. In the house it is going to be a tough vote for some republicans. It will contain this bipartisan number for 2015. 62 republicans voted against that deal. Some of those people that voted against that number will have to vote for a budget that includes part of that agreement next week. The budget will come out this week. Host russell berman, congressional reporter for the hill newspaper. Thank you for being with us. Our topic with the our topic this morning is the deadline for the Affordable Care act enrollment. Earlier we heard from a senior white house adviser. Lets take a look at what senator barrasso from wyoming had to say. [video clip] they are cooking the books on this. People want to know the answer to that. They also want to know once this is all said and done what kind of insurance will those people actually have . Will they be able to keep the dr. That they want to . Bestow that some of the cancer hospitals in the country want very little to do with people who buy this insurance on the obamacare exchanges. Post come the Washington Post takes a look at what happens in maryland. Maryland will begin the process of placing its troubled exchange, which has had some money problems since its launch on october 1. Officials decided it would be better to start now. Maryland had two years to create its first exchange, which has cost 125. 5 million to operate. The state now has about seven system, areplace that feat that will cost tens of millions of dollars. The second enrollment opens on november 15. Lets go to a caller from maryland. Bruises from baltimore on our line for independence. In baltimore on our line for independents. Caller our system has failed terribly. Anthony brown, the lieutenant governor, is running for governor. Anybody out there, do not vote for him. Martin omalley, what a manipulator. To sign upyou tried for the healthcare exchanges . Guest i have not because it is so bad. They changed the definition of a fulltime workweek, which was always considered 40 hours. Change to 30 to hours for a fulltime workweek. It was written by the lobbies of the insurance industry. Lets talk the truth. I dont like this president but i voted for him in 08. Issues. Liberal on our next call comes from delray beach, florida. Martin is on the line for margaret is on the line for republicans. Caller , i had two points to make. My husband and i never had Health Insurance. My husband is an immigrant. Bill we haveevery ever incurred. We have three children. I also work in social services and i work with a lot of persons of disability. I would like to warn the country they should all come to the social Service People to see how efficiently the government works. I am a republican and i would like to remind everybody who trashes the house how this bill was pushed through without a republican vote, what time of night this bill was pushed and i didnt vote my representatives in to pass a bill that somebody else wanted. This president has rolled it over. He ignored the law. My husband and i are going to go on today. You couldnt write this in a fictional novel. This is the brain trust to call in. The best they can do is call everybody who objects to this bill if big it. Everyone, god check out the navigators. Check out how many people are Identity Theft felons. Check out how many people are going to have access to personal information. I like the idea of helping poor people. This doesnt help poor people. This just gets democrats to stay in power. Post come our topic is the deadline today for the Affordable Care act enrollment. The phone lines are if you have enrolled through the informal care act through the Affordable Care act, please call 2025853883. On or on twitter our next caller is john in glenview, illinois. Caller good morning. There are a couple of points i would like to make. The person who just called mentioned that the only thing people who are people who are against this are called bigots. You can also call them on informed. One of the biggest problems with the aca is the amount of its of misinformation out there. It is important to think about this. A very good example is one of your first college, a woman who i am sure believed what she said. She got on and said she didnt believe the law was working well, what happens when the federal government stops paying for the subsidies and the states have to pick it up . What she obviously doesnt understand is that that is not true at all. What happens in a few years is that the government stopped paying 100 of the Medicaid Expansion costs, then it goes to 90 , gaining states that will have to pick up 10 . It will go from zero to 10 of the Medicaid Expansion. Listeners to think about that woman is someone who wants her to believe that. People find out they have misinformation. Up what ieasy to look just said. They will take anything at face value. Host im going to take a look at an article now from the Washington Post, that talks about the political impact of this deadline. Republicans and their allies are arty look already using the health laws a dominant theme. The conservative Group Americans for prosperity is spending more than 30 Million Dollars on ads alleging that the law will increase consumers pay for insurance and deprived them of access to the doctors they trust. Several Democratic Senators who voted for the law and will face the electorate this fall have suggested ways to improve the law. But Congressional Republicans have shown no interest in religious state of randys. And National Republican Senator Committee spokesman brad dayspring said democrats have a major liability. R has enrolled through the aca. Guest good morning. Aca. Calling to support the i am 62 years old. I am a diabetic with high high bloodssure pressure. I had no hopes of getting any kind of an affordable insurance until the aca came along. Premium is less than 60 per month. It costs me zero dollars to see. Y primary care physician this has really opened up. For me i can now get Affordable Health care. It has been a wonderful thing for me. I signed up over the telephone at the end of january because i wasnt able to get in through the computer. Post come how long did it take you . Host how long did it take you . Over the phone to me an hour, hour and a half. I had to buy through the federal program. I had choices. Like i said, for me it has opened up a wonderful world. A couple ofg at more comments from twitter. Next caller is melinda from georgia on our line for republicans. Youre on washington journal. Caller glad to speak with you. I want to bring up what is going on with my insurance. Five fivethe percent of individuals. I just received a cancellation for blue cross of georgia. Premium will rise to make sure we coincide with what the president has said needs to be covered under the act. Of four tom a family 4000 of outofpocket expenses and deductibles that need to be met. My insurance is going to run me 34,000 per year. That is unreal. They like to compare this to the in which theem government hands out the insurance. Its not something we in turn have to pay for. Something i have not heard address often is the loophole to 19,000 where you do not qualify for government subsidies nor are you eligible for medicaid. There are quite a few of those the fiveing the bag of percent, which is buying insurance at an outrageous fee. And not able to qualify for any subsidies or assistance from the government. I suggest that everyone just keep their money in their pocket and payasyougo. Host gail is on the line as an aca enrollee. Caller when my husband retired a few years ago we do not have any insurance. Allad to find it and with the preexisting conditions it was extremely expensive. Month toaying 600 per 700 for a 7500 dollars deductible. Until that was met it was 100 covered. I couldnt wait for obama care to come out because i knew it had to be better. We signed up and now we are 8,000 deductibles. This is not Affordable Health care. This is Catastrophic Health care. , afterthing goes wrong 13,000 you might get covered. Still going to have to put it out. How is that affordable . How are people going to make these deductibles . Please stop calling it the Affordable Care act. People just dont understand until you look for it. Host one more tweets i want to take a look at other headlines making the news today. In the new york times, the latest update from the ukraine next caller is robert from washington dc on our line for independence. Caller good morning. People are uninformed about is the health care is so big that no one can research everything. If they dont have their primary doctor admit them to the 75,ital over the age of they are responsible for the bill. The aca doesnt exempt illegal aliens. Irs is allowed to go into your bank account and do whatever they want with the funds, but nobody talks about that. The other thing i dont appreciate is how you just kind of skimmed over the hardship exemption. Medical bills exceed eight percent of your animal your annual income you dont qualify. All you have to do every american needs to google aca andeme hardship healthcare. Gov will give you a list of everything everyone qualifies for foreign exemption. My representative wont even put that on his facebook page. He just very quickly skimmed over that point about the hardship exemption. Host this story from the guardian as in as a condition for agreeing to the diplomatic crisis to a solution for the diplomatic crisis in crimea. He made the remarks after an inconclusive meeting with john kerry. The u. S. Secretary of state at the russians ambassadors residence. Called veryre constructive. Feinstein, one of the leading senators on the Intelligence Committee discussed the situation in ukraine on cnns state of the union. [video clip] alexa have seen that intelligence, i cannot tell you what it is but i can give you my view of what i have seen. There is no question there are 30 thousand troops 30,000 troops staged in various areas. Two people that watched this it looks like an invasion force. As putin says it is an exercise. What gives me an sense that we may be able to solve the situation is the fact putin did call our president and suggestions were made. There will be a meeting between the former minister of russia may the ability to solve this. Of any student of russian history knows how important crimea was and is to russia. Khrushchev seceded crimea to russia in 1954. It with reasons to russia. A referendum was passed. That has been done. Host that was senator dianne feinstein. She chairs the Senate House Intelligence panel does a big topic on this weekends sunday talk shows. Mike rogers was on Fox News Sunday and he was asked about Vladimir Putins call to president obama. [video clip] lexie is not looking for a way out. You have the ukraine issue and you have the georgia issue. Theyre moving some of their most advanced equipment. No reason to do that. The Georgian Army poses no threat. And you see the Russian Movement and you seerder covert influence operations. They have their intelligence officials and special forces. Nside ukraine there is no way i would take that as any other sign that he is looking for a way to find his from crimea. Host that is from mike rogers on Fox News Sunday. Our topic is the deadline for aca enrollment. That is tonight at midnight. Our next caller is from minnesota on the line for democrats. Caller just real quick i want to mention that before the whole , thecare came up last Fall World Health Organization released the figures from the numbernd amerco ranked one for the cost of health care. We were first for the whole world. Were certainly seventh 37th for delivery of health care. We have third world countries eating us on the delivery of the health care. Something is terribly wrong with that picture. That meant we were paying so much more than anyone else in the whole world. Host our last caller is jake from colorado. Caller the deadline is today. Mention that to this is just a tax. It has nothing to do with health care. It is not a health care, it is just a tax. Whyt was all that great, and to our leaders doing something about it yet though what dont they have the same host care as we all do . Lets take a look at a couple of other tweets. Waivers delay and changes. There is one from teresa, she tweets ron tweets we will be joined by local haar. R josh kraus later well go back ot our discussion of the open enrollment deadline for the aca. Well be joined by cq roll ethridge. Ly well be right back. The issue is not whether to trade, it is how to trade. Between the texan is him and free trade is over. It is history. Of argument over the rules fair trade and how to get our workers and businesses on a level Playing Field is the debate of the present and the future. Be to achieved compatibility between all countries that are trading, just as we have compatibility between all the states of the United States. This debate started before the cold war ended. In most of the cold war our standard of living was rising and we were locked in a battle with communism. We didnt care too much about trade treaties. We never had a debate on this floor. We always put trade treaties to be subservient to our Foreign Policy. Of the old last trade treaty. Standard realize our of living has been declining over 15 years. They realize our most Important National coal must be a rising standard of living. Pastnents represent the and fear of real change. Highlights from 30 years of house coverage on our facebook page. Ate a bike Cable Company by americas Cable Company 35 years ago and brought to today as a Public Service i are local cable or satellite provider. Washington journal close quote continues. Host our guest is josh kraushaar. Thank you for being with us. Wrote an interesting piece that says Foreign Policy is reemerging with a vengeance. Usually think about foreign policies. At theyou have to look Republican Jewish Coalition meeting where some of the leading republicans spoke over the weekend. Chris christie, john kasich, jed bush, all focused on Foreign Policy. When you look at the broader picture, with the challenges and president obamas administration. S facing you can see to 16 being a dropdead point for a lot of these challenges. Clinton in various speeches over the past month has a more hawkish tone than president obama. There are all sorts of warning signs and data points read while voters may not put Foreign Policy on the map right now, it is certainly looming large as a major issue in 2016. Host i want to listen to some of her ring marks and get your response. Coming months will be crucial in several regards. First the hopes for a just and lasting peace that guarantees israels security, that creates a comprehensive path for two people. We ensure that iran never requires esch never acquires a nuclear weapon. Filler clinton at the American Jewish congress. Guest i agree with the broad points. Iran, sheme to expressed some deeper notes of skepticism read it was very much a trust but verify the type of approach. Soundfinitely didnt optimistic for the American Jewish congress. I think a lot of their leaders are very optimistic. She was playing to the crowd. There can be a negotiated path to a Nuclear Issue with iran. Will her tight to obamas secretary of state help or hurt her . Guest it can only be a challenge. When she famously gave a reset button to her counterpart with we are now seeing the aggressiveness that russia is it looks like it will be coming back to bite her. There are a lot of things to pore over. Her record will be scrutinized. If anything else will be focused on it will be her record as secretary of state. There is some pressure points. Guest is the Political Editor at national journal. If you like to join our in. Ersation you can call the phone lines the first call this morning comes from South Carolina. Otis is on our line for democrats. Caller hello. Secretary kerry and president bush does a wonderful job. [indiscernible] i think they did a great job putting the safety on the country. That is what i have to say about it. Secretary kerry was meeting with his counterpart in paris. The attempt that russian they seek diplomatic agreement but it doesnt seem to come anywhere. The conversation was extremely unproductive. It seems the and the administration wants to avoid when you haveion troops on the eastern ukrainian border, there are very real reasons that the situation is going to get worse and it wont be a diplomatic solution that is going to get us out of it. Host he argues if he was president he would take a harder stance against the russian president. Talk about his foreign policies. Guest he certainly resents that point of view within the parties. Even rand paul, as you just quoted from his column, has moved to the middle. Upset and isre calling on the ministry should to do more things in response to russian aggression. When it comes down to the specifics and when it comes down to the actual event that happened, americans are much more interventionist than the public polls would indicate. Host our next caller is from oakland michigan. Journal. N washington caller thank you for the ability to call into cspan. I am a 68yearold woman and i listen to all the republicans with their criticisms to president obama. I see what they did when they are in charge. That is a problem president obama is supposed to solve. If we have just bombed and toward door and got out of there, we might have had even better. Listen to for me to all their criticisms when i watch what they did. I actually talked with some military people. I listen to rumsfeld criticizing everything. The one that got us into the mess that we are in. Really have a problem listening to all the republican criticisms because i have been watching this for a long time. They have nothing to criticize president obama. They are the ones that got us into this mess. Same thing with the economy. The republicans got us into this mess. Guest the situation in iraq has led to president obamas noninterventionist posture when it comes to the syrian civil war, when it comes to what is happening in russia. The public is very war weary. Mood definitely isnt a for foreign conflict. A lot of it has to do with problems we face in iraq. Hitsthere is a crisis that , you can bet the Public Opinion is going to move more in the hawkish direction, more in the interventionist direction and the president is going to have to respond. Host a poll says it is more portman for the u. S. Not to get involved in the situation with russia and ukraine than to take a firm standing. You walk the line between knowing there is a war weary nation and still trying to appeal and deal with these crises we are having . Guest more than any other issue the Public Opinion on Foreign Policy is very malleable. You see those numbers change significantly. Where the an issue president ial bully pulpit has a role in affecting Public Opinion. If president obama was giving speeches on a weekly basis, talking about the need for the u. S. To give more support to nato or give more relief the Energy Russia that europe is facing and get a regular set of speeches about the crisis that is emerging in russia, i think you would see Public Opinion move more toward the interventionist ill. The president s instinct has been not to get involved. He has been trying to fight as many Diplomatic Options as possible to avoid ramping up the crisis. Change. Ategy may that instinct from the white house has shaped Public Opinion. I think if the president was a little more assertive on stating the challenges of the United States, those numbers would move accordingly. Host come there was an Associated Press poll that did look at obamas Foreign Policy. While americans have given him high marks on Foreign Policy, the new polls show him registering his low support level yet on the issue. Disapprove of how he has handled the situation in ukraine generally. Why is it so bad now . Guest the president s Approval Rating 41 . Approval on Foreign Policy was 36 . Despite the president s response to what the public wants, not getting involved in the conflict in russia, his numbers have declined pretty substantially over the last six months. President obama has been very responsive to where the public has been on Foreign Policy. The numbers have gotten even worse. There is this real conflict. America is looking to the president for leadership on the issue. They are seeing the situation worsened and the president seeming to be helpless in affecting the outcome. There is a conflict with the American Public does not want to much involvement but they want involvement when it comes to the actual outcome. Rachel in reseda, california on our line for independence. Cant believe all these ignorant callers. I dont know if they are watching cnn or msnbc or fox. News,ve to get unbiased go to you can go to presstv. Com. I am totally behind putin. Obamas host government. Being tough and honest and straightforward is a much better way of conducting Foreign Policy in this way that diplomatic approach that the administration has relied on. Kristi has by being a new jersey governor has a very atlarge to the governmenty is already having a government advantage when talking about Foreign Policy. Would behris christie pretty well prepared if he was to handle conversation about the middle east. He did step into it over the weekend, we recall the west bank , so he got into trouble and his team may have to walk act that phrase. Think he has a large support. By and large i think he has a large support. Caller hi. It is just ao say joke. Does not matter what obama does. He will be the bad guy no matter what. Anything he does will criticize. Limbaugh withrush the curse in that first he says obama better not be weak liberal cannot do anything about it and then sent the navy seals he said obama said the seals over guest it is interesting when you look at the president and how he handled Foreign Policy in the Reelection Campaign and looking at how he is handling things now. The administration was willing to the president was willing to talk about killing in mod and. Of thes a bit part Foreign Policy messaging in 2012. The other point is president obama being the largest geopolitical threat of now having to expand and deal with the foreignpolicy legacy. You cannot rely on just killing foreign killing osama bin laden. Weeknk he got testy last when jon karl at abc news was asking him about mitt romney. He was right when it came to questioning russia. Russia, tennessee. Look ath america would the track record of the United States. Every time we talk about saving the people, the democracy, it has been a dismal fate. We may terrorism. We may terrorists and that guinness fan, terrorist and a rock. The president said we gave iraq back to the people, we give it back to the terrorists. When will these people wake up. Crimea they have been there since the 1800s. We actually open our eyes and see that america has been an abysmal failure and cannot be depended on to bring justice, peace and democracy anywhere over there . We need to bring our troops back home and bring this thing alone. How many trillions of dollars to we have to spend . I would like your guest to address this issue and be truthful about this. Lets stop killing young men and women. In american politics there is a big divide between those who believe in american exceptionalism that the u. S. Has a role to play in international affairs, a leading role based on history. We see that among internationalists on the democratic side. You have views like a caller suggested that are more in the rand paul realm that we should keep the business to ourselves and not involve ourselves in the activities of other countries. There is a divide that crops up. Usually the former that took precedence. Even george w. Bush in the 2000 president ial campaign talked about america having a more humble policy and expressed previousm about Clinton Administration involvement in the balkans. The divisor always taken place in american politics. Interventionist side of both parties. You have the side of both hearties that are much more or to get involved overseas. We talked about leading republicans and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, are there other democrats forced speaking out this forcefully as we look ahead to 2016 . The short answer is no because there are not many other democrats looking at running in 2016. One you look at the names that have been mentioned, mark omalley does not have much foreignpolicy experience under his else. As other name mentioned brian schweitzer, someone who takes a noninterventionist view on foreignpolicy. If he does run, if he does challenge clinton, he would have unique form and when it comes to foreignpolicy, definitely running on the nonintervention side. He would be the rand paul of the democratic artie if you will. Our guest is the Political Editor at national journal. Join the conversation for democrats. For independents, 202 6280205 annex color is dave on the line for democrats. Our next caller. Isler the first question the ukraine, lets say we support them and support the opposition corridor, is there a chance they would turn around and join the u. N. Tom and if if they joined nato, would we then be able to put the antiballistic Missile Defense systems and ukraine . That, is a kind of threatening . Know he is portrayed now as this aggressive type situation, really morection defensive . Is he nervous we will try to use the ukraine to box them in with the Missile Defense system . As far as Missile Defense, a big debate between republicans and democrats, the debate is the Obama Administration canceled the Missile Defense plans in Eastern Europe, which was intended to give russia assurance that the u. S. Had no intention of presenting defensive posture that they are pointing at american weakness and citing the fact that we should redeploy as a way to counter russia aggression. There is one political issue sparking a debate and is the issue of Missile Defense. Next up, alex and the line for republicans. Question iecific want to have the guest validate my questions. Why do we have to refer to domestic issues . In our country, this is the point that i want to ask about this. We interfere in domestic issues. We have a lot of political economical problems. Somehow the citizens do not have enough money under the line of poverty and, lots of juvenile that are topless and do not have any amount of salary for their lives. I think by putting restrictions on the russian government, it somehow it takes advantage for the government because there is inot of citizens who invest russia, and by restrictions and sanctions in the country, we have stopped investing to country, which has a lot of benefits for the country that can help improve the economic side. Guest president obama famously should focus on nationbuilding at home and not a broad. That is a common sentiment, at least on the surface for a lot of voters. That is a challenge the president is facing, whether to russia, andsure on i can imagine president obama hoping to focus on the economy back home, having to deal with unforeseen challenges overseas but looking like foreignpolicy may dominate the final few years of his second term. Host judy on the line for independents. I wanted to know why no one is talking about it, the reason the United States wanted to influence all over the world is because of the labor. Cheap labor. They want to get it everywhere. As cheap as they can get it, does not even matter. That is why the richest people here in america are the ones changing our laws, writing legislative in congress. We should make it that if you have never worked a day in your life that you should not be running the government for the people. They constantly take the money that isducation and unacceptable. That is why we are through all of these wars because wars bring money. Not sure if that has to do with Foreign Policy, but surely the cuts, the sequester cuts and further cuts to the Defense Budget is something that will come up as a political issue in 2016 come at the notion that if we do have unforeseen conflicts emerging, you will hear democrats and republicans calling for a larger military budget to handle the conflicts. Host one of the points we have not touched on was senator marco rubio who was on the floor and gave a speech about tom harkin. Talk to us about his foreignpolicy and what you see there. If there is one republican that would benefit from a renewed forecast on foreignpolicy, it would be marco rubio who did not have a good issue with 2013 that has really found his footing and voice when it comes to talking about foreignpolicy. An interventionist tone with his comments. He spoke a few weeks ago and was one of the few twos focus to focus on foreignpolicy is the theme of his speech. Did not get a great reception with conservatives in the room but registered with the broader atte am especially looking the 2013 election. He is one of the few candidates that has foreign experience, tenure on the Foreign Relations committee. He has that under his belt. If there are conflicts overseas and secretary clinton uses this to her advantage, i think youll see a lot of attention for him for the intervention. Host next up on the line for democrats. Hello . What i want to can you hear me now a ge . Is thewant to talk about real reason the ukraine and them are having problems is because they have Natural Resources over there and the corporations here in america want to maintain control over foreign lands and raw materials. That is what it is basically about. They will kill the Indigenous People who live on the lands, and i think what we need to do just lock the people up in congress and corporations and feeling andr this pilferage and they have been doing. They are tyrants and racketeers. Guest if anything, it is the resources that europe depends on from russia that have hindered a more active, robust response from the United States and european nations. It natural, resources are playing any role in the conflict, it is in favor of not getting involved. Robert on the line for independents. I am a vietnam veteran. I served i country for almost 10 years. My country for almost 10 years and was only a disability that forced me out. We have not learned a thing from what happened in vietnam. We went into afghanistan and were only there to kick the taliban out, yet we decided to q the waywent into ira we did. The government has only two major functions that it has a responsibility for. One is the security of the country, the other is to take care of the needs of the people of the country. When you start getting overly spending on government for the military and neglect the people, we will not be safer than it who came into this country. I would like to know your comment on that. Thank you. Not to getiment it involved in russia and the conflicts is certainly alive and well. The question is if things get worse and russia invades further, will Public Opinion change and will the tax ask in confronting russia become more aggressive . The role of foreignpolicy in president ial egmpaigns particularly chang overtime or remained pretty constant . Guest 2004 into a large extent in 2008 foreignpolicy was the dominant issue. He likely would not have one over Hillary Clinton if it was not her positioning to the center on the supporting of the iraq war. In 2004 president bush used the threat of terrorism and election as a referendum on his handling of the iraq war, which more voters judged in favor of his record than john kerry. Foreignpolicy is an issue when it is front and center in the news. Are we are facing concerns not quite as pressing as they have been over the past five or six years, then foreignpolicy does not rank as a major issue. God forbid if there was a terrorist attack or awful conflict the took place, you can bet the public concern over Foreign Policy would go back up. Next call is leonard and on the line for democrats. Yes, i would like i am sorry. Lets try it again. I would like to say that i support the fact that we need to deal with the problems at home, but i totally disagree with what is going on with russia and the ukraine. The United States has always been a world supporter and figure that is the lead in the world that supports countries that are about to be overtaken. E did do the iraq war we did do some good. Obamas shares is maybe not the right word, but getting involved. Is laughing at us. We just had the sochi olympics and all that while we were unaware. I cannot believe that. In and takesright over. They are laughing at the United States, and the idea that the rest of the world is taking a very close look at what we are going to do about this. Mr. Obama does do something. It does seem the administration was caught off guard from russias aggression. You can look at the administration frederick and the week of conflict where you would hear president obama and john kerry talk about how russia acted in a 19thcentury way as opposed to the 21st century way of international law. I do not think putin was very moved by that type of rhetoric and much more moved by the old power politics of generations past. This is an administration right now that is a very some will point. Foreignpolicy could be the central issue for the final couple years in office, and how he handles russia and the conflict are likely to shape his longterm legacy. A couple of minutes left. Onng to jt and red oak, iowa the line for republicans. I had a comment regarding germanys role in all of this. Interesting because we do not want or need the you can ukraine in nato. I do not think that is even a question. Part of this goes back to 1999 when germany finally got accomplished what they intended to get accomplished 50 years earlier. Russians, like so many over there in the middle east and Eastern Europe are long memory. When they see Something Like that happening in yugoslavia, they take that to heart, and i doneve mr. Putin has exactly that. I do find it funny that he make link betweene the the sochi olympics and shortly there after invasion of crimea. That happened once before with russia and the invasion of georgia. I do not think esther putin has do not think mr. Putin has designs on returning socialndre my eyes republic status or anything like that. I do not think the eastern elite was built for anything more than a cursory invasion and nonprotracted stay. I do believe Something Like that and mold ova could happen. Guest interestingly when you look up Public Opinion after the involvement took place, strongly in favor of humanitarian involvement that the u. S. And European Countries did in the balkans. That was preceded by strong. Umanitarian calls we have not seen that level of unspoken menace on the issue. I think that is one thing when you look at Public Opinion, how active a president is in calling for a greater american role in handling russia. That will be a big indicator. The Political Editor at national journal. Thank you for being with us. We will be joined by Emily Ethridge joining us on the last day of the ability to enroll in the Affordable Care act. We will be right back. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] the car spun around in a circle. The driver instantly wanted to was. Where her fil phone was in the back seat. She was alive for about 35 minutes before they cut her out. Hello. I am adam lindon, a 16yearold and ready to start driving. I am very eager and yet also very scared. Many drivers today are focusing on their cell phones, rather than on the road. The statistics show distracted driving is incredibly dangerous and cell phones have no place behind the wheel wheel. Something needs to be done about this. We have announced the winners of this years cspan student cam winners. Video everyp tuesday. See all the winning documentaries online at stud entcam. Org. Cspan, bringing Public Affairs events from washington directly to you. The room atin congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and congress. Offering complete double to gavel coverage of the u. S. House as a private industry. Cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you by your Public Service brought to you as a Public Service by satellite and cable provider. Like us and follow us on facebook and twitter. Host our guest the segment is Emily Ethridge. Thank you for being with us this morning. Midnight is the deadline for signups under the aca. Thursday the white house announced 6 Million People had enrolled. Why is the number so important . Guest it is sort of a revised goal. Originally we thought it would be 7 million. There was a downward revision of what the goal was. The Congressional Budget Office said now we have to face 6 Million People. The administration has met expectations of the experts and that is why do such a big deal to them. Host the health and Human Services Department Said room march only four point 2 Million People had signed up. Is there a big surge of the and expected . We have beennd hearing margins when things will really like to have them. Takes a lot of time. Said this is what happens and massachusetts when it started in massachusetts. Other similar programs like this. They said wait until the last minute. In march you will see a big leap and number, and that is what we have seen. Folks his said i am planning on going in and finding uptodate. Is there worry there will be more technical glitches or people may not be able to make it im midnight . A little bit see of problem friday and that is why the administration said if you can show you were in line by march 31 and for whatever reason it did not go through, they have extended the deadline for the people. They did say we know this has been troublesome, we know there might be issues and we are giving you extra time to get signed up. Today is the deadline, but not really the last deadline you will have if you want to get health care this year. Our guest is Emily Ethridge. If you would like to join the conversation for democrats, the number is 202 7370001 for republicans 202 7370002 and for independence 202 6280205. If you enrolled for health care through one of the exchanges,. Ou can also call in question give you a from twitter. How many people paid . What is the net number and how many are uninsured now . Guest those are Great Questions and questions that we on us he did not know the answers to. 6 million was a big goal. We do not know how many people have paid premium so far. We do not know what the break downs are. How many are healthy, how many are old and have medical lot bys . It varies a state. Some states have higher enrollments in other states. Some states might have a great balance of people. Some states might not have a good balance. Some say higher enrollment, some say low. We do not know what 6 million means in a detailed way. I want to take a look at the data through march first. October 1 to march 1 they say the total number of people is 4. 2 million. 86 did so with the financial assistance. What does that say to you . Guest that is a very high number for people who are getting subsidies. What it means is maybe you have people who have been signing up to get subsidies were not had insurance in the past. Maybe didnt work at jobs where they have had the benefits and have not able to get affordable insurance before this time. Than a lottle higher of us were expecting. They get Health Care Coverage now and it seems to be working. From jeff inall is siler city. Good morning. To residing 6nce million. I think that has been accomplished here. All these commercials republicans have made to this werecular law, but they only with the democrats and republicans in trying to make this more to the people of the country. Can truly have a successful rollout in reference to this particular role. Especially in a state like north carolina, a lot of ads about the Health Care Law, negative ads and has been this battle from both sides trying to reach people who the administration wants to reach to signup and the same people, people who are really opposed to the law. I have been on both sides and people enrolling saying what that is one of the Biggest Challenges they face, one of the misconceptions out there they are trying to work with. There are still people who think the law was repealed. A certain percentage of people think the Supreme Court did not uphold the law. There is always a constant battle for information for getting out there to reach people and have seen a lot of things on the airwaves. Is iris on the land for independence. Caller hi there. I am an educated when it comes to the internet, but i do not think it has a brain, i do not think it is a calculator, i think it is a storage tank for information and do not know how it can answer questions. I might be stupid, but i really thought it was a place you go to gain information that someone else put in there and certainly would not have an answer for every equation out there. I just wondered why it is supposed to replace the brain . Seriously. Put all your information in the and it will spit back an answer. This is not jeannie and only up. And the lamp. It is a way of getting people to put information in, and then youve got it, but who is there inside that little thing that spits out information on everything you put in there . Any response there . Guest there are concerns that have there are people that have concerns with the website because they think their. Nformation will get tapped you do have to put in your Social Security number in order to enroll. You have to put in information about your family. Have been a lot of concerns raised about what is the security of the website . We have seen several big thacks with Neiman Marcus and people are concerned about the safety of their data on the internet right now and people concerned with health care as well. The Administration Says they have the best security in place and have not had breaches so far. Especially earlier in the fall when the website was not working as well as it could have been. Have something republicans really been focusing on, making sure the website is as safe as your bank, if not safer. Host earlier you said this is not really the end. The it article notes the Obama Administration has given extra time if they arent unable to enroll or health care. They know something interesting, people will be able to qualify for an extension by checking on care. Gov. X at heatlh the government will not try to determine whether a person is telling the truth. It is an honor system. Guest it is an honor system that were people love in trying to and role but for whatever reason have not been able to make it. All you have to say is i was trying and was not able to do it. It is like when you get an extension on a paper you have not written yet. All you do is check a box. This extension, there have been previous extensions in the past. Who does this actually apply to . Guest there are people that have tried and not been able to sign up for health care. People heard reports of waiting in line outside the health care centers. People stretching around the block. A lot of states have problems with their own state websites. Maryland exchange has not been working very well. There are a lot of people need to signup that have not done this. Anybody who waited today, maybe does not time to time to get it done, anyone who did not realize this applied to them, did not realize march 31 was the enrollment date. A lot of people do not know this is the final day to signup. It applies to people who have been trying or people who have not realized that will realize later them and this gives them the last effort. A numberh there being of delays, and this not the only one, does this give republicans more ammunition to want to see the law thrown out or want to use it in this race or later in 2016 . Guest absolutely. This gives them ammunition to say this law is not working the way the Admission Administration planned it to. They keep changing the deadlines, making exemptions for some groups and not others. See theblicans want to employer mandate. It has been delayed a year. They say if you delay it for companies, you should delay it for people, to. Administration says there are different reasons. Equal treatment, everyone should have the same delays, some extension and has not happen that way before. Host next, a call from malcolm, on the line for republicans. Good morning. My comment is this, when senator cruz stood up and had a mini athon it was to delay obamacare for one year and what did you hear from nancy pelosi, harry reid and the president and all the other supposedly theres isthe democrats that the law the law as the way it was passed and has to go into effect the way it was passed. That was happened, the occupant of the white house has exemptedverything and half of the country for political and financial friends. Now we have a bunch of democrat senators standing up and saying we need to make changes. That are likeoing who need to get out of office. Because she does not represent most of the people out here, i believe. They have not heard anyone speaking about a want to make changes to the law and the law wayas the way it was the it was passed. We cannot do that anymore he does the occupant of the white house has totally destroyed anything that resembles the law, and no one can figure out where this law is anymore because of the garbage he has dumped on us, and as far as this thing about how many people are getting handout from the government when they signup, does anybody know that the handouts are coming from taxpayers who already are broke from taxes and government that is totally bankrupts . The caller raises a lot of interesting points with what we were talking about with delays. Confused and do not know necessarily. I thought that was delayed in this part was delayed. Maybe that is why they need the other extension for people trying to sign up for health care. We have heard concerns from democrats who say we did not want these laws to be delayed,. O not want them delayed we have seen democrats in the senate and the house trying to introduce bills to fix parts of the law, improved parts of the law, especially emma kratz with tough races in 2014. Definitely becoming an election issue and expecting to see bills from democrats and the next few months coming up that they would vote on to change part of the law. Next up, bruce on the line for republicans. I wanted to say about the medicaid extension program. I do not know whether people realize it, but there is nothing like the medicare program. Dedicated extension is more like a loan program. If you go in the hospital and heirsmedical bills, your will end up losing out. The government will come in and take what assets you have. Perhaps a house that you spent 30 years paying off. The government will come in and x number of dollars, and we will take whatever proceeds from the sale of the house that you have, and your get any stuff will not inheritance from you because the government is going to take any assets you have and put it toward your medical bills. That is all i wanted to save. There are different rules in terms of if you owe him a what the government can do to retrieve debts. That is another concern from House Republicans recently, especially as it is expanded under the law in several states have agreed to do it under the law. Medicaid has expanded under the law. Medicaid, the population is growing by a lot. Or people are covered under the program. This is the thing we see lawmakers focus on kitchen focus on to try to figure out the different roles. Host a question from twitter there are exemptions for the Health Care Law. Illegal immigrants cannot perform in the health care marketplaces. People with certain poverty levels are exempt from having to buy insurance also. Low number because there are subsidies for people to help buy the insurance. The Supreme Court looked at the issues and upheld it. It does apply to almost all people but Everyone Needs to pay insurance or pay the tax penalty. You do have the option of paying not wantty if you do the healthcare coverage that qualifies under the law thomas about is how were moving forward. Host i want to talk about them demographics. This was taken october 1 through march 1. Is 10 of the population. 2630 four is 16 . Ages 3540 four, making up 16 . You see a spike when you look at older groups. Is 23 . What does that age breakdown much on . Guest not as the younger side as some in the administration were hoping to see. They focused on having a cohort of young people, not so much because being young is important that being healthy is important. Young is a way to stay healthy. Younger people are healthy. They want the breakdown of people who are healthier if you do not need as much medical care to people who are older balance that in the population pulls. We think the younger population will grow a lot in the last month. Throughers only go march 1. The administration has set for a long time that young people will wait until the last minute to get the coverage. It is also true a lot of people under the age of 26 can stay on their parents plan. Maybe those people are not signing up in selecting plants in the marketplace and choosing to stay on their parents plan. Nbc news reporting there were a couple of glitches with the website this morning. The report people trying to enroll for private Health Insurance before mondays midnight deadline discovered that the website was currently unavailable. We want to know to our viewers that the website does appear to be working now. This is from earlier this morning. Another one of the calls, sturgis, kentucky. Youre on with emily etheridge. Caller this is mike winters. Have readknow if you the dr. Seuss took that they are constantly referring to. Itlikes green eggs and ham, a. K. A. Affordable health care. Thank you. Tost the color is referring senator cruz reading green eggs and ham. It was getting late into the night, we were all a little punchy at that port. I think the collar is making the point that eventually he will come around to the health act. Going out to florida. Ron on the line for independents. Caller good morning. My question is, this Affordable Health care act seems to require all , to the signup. Host we will try to come back to you. Going out to greenville, north carolina. Caller can you hear me . My question is i heard you 18yearoldt staying on the insurance and parent on their parents insurance. What happened to 18yearolds. Go onlyot have jobs making 9,500 and do not reach theld cannot make 11,000 limit to qualify. What happens to those people . A good question. There are people, especially in states who did not decide to to expandte medicaid. , originally people who wrote the law assumes everyone would have Medicaid Expansion. There is a cap with people for those incomes and are not getting help from medicaid and not getting health help in the exchanges. One thing be administration is working on is encouraging to help people who would qualify for medicaid otherwise, because there is a cap and that is a problem. People who are not making that much money every year who do not get Health Insurance through the employers and need to sign affordable auctions to have Health Insurance. That is a population not currently getting assisted by the law. That might be something the administration looks to change in the next few years. Host you asked earlier that democrats are proposing legislation. Tell us what you are seeing, what the laws look like and whether there might be action on them soon . Interesting thing we saw is introducing a copper plant. Right now at them, gold, silver and bronze. There could be even a cheaper option that has even less coverage for people who do not use a lot of Health Care Services and do not really need insurance that covers everything and all of the services because they feel like they will not use them and do not want to buy the coverage they do not use. A copper plan would be barebones, simple plan you would not pay very much for. That is something we have seen ensured. A lot of insurance plans, this may be not a bad idea. Maybe we should talk offer this in the marketplace. Might be something we see as insurers start to offer more options. Depending on how many people sign up. Tennessee,anooga, mitchell on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. I would like to say the republicans keep talking about this butemocrats force have not had health care for years and decades. Where were they asked if they were not there . I do not understand that. Of the things came from a republican think tank group they put together. I do not understand. I do not see the problem. What is the problem. . If you can tell me, we need to take care of health care, we did that. We need to take care of this country altogether. Nice altogether in a 25,000 dinner and they agreed to say no to everything on the night of the inauguration. If you are not going to help, then get out of the way. You undermined jimmy carter. You undermined and went around the person from tennessee, vice president. You cannot keep doing it. I remember that commercial where theyll got together and said they would keep doing the same thing that they was doing. Is the caller raises a lot of good points about Health Care Overhaul being something people have worked on for decades. Almost no one says now the system before the law was the way we should have kept it, should not have touched a not all that everything worked perfectly back then and everyone got the health care they needed. Everyone wants to change the Health Care System am obviously a difference of how you do that and how you pay for that. He referenced the original idea, the idea for the original mandate for individuals required to have insurance comes from the Heritage Foundation piece back in the early 19 90s. In massachusetts where they have universal Health Care Coverage in that state that was implemented in under mitt romney. These are ideas that have been around for a long time. We have done work for a long time in this country to try to make Health Care Different and change is always difficult. A politico piece look at look at migrating pieces. See if you agree with the assessment. Says . O you agree with that cap g i agree with meeting with lance bass. The administration has tried a lot of different ways to reach out to people, whether appearing internetet, dvd is comedy videos or meeting with different constituents. Constituents of certain religious groups, and there have been a lot of church outreach. Cabinet members have gone to very specific locations. A lot of work in texas because there is a very high group of uninsured people there. Specific states they have really been targeting. It has been hard to define what the outreach efforts are because it been so different and targeted for different populations. I remember talking to an official a few months ago in saying i do not see a lot of our reach and hear a lot about it. They said we are not talking to you because we have insurance you have insurance and you are person we need to reach out to. I thought that was interesting at the time. Clearly they have reached the enrollment numbers, a certain population and have tried so many ways, celebrities, a lot of nba players recently trying to really see that push to getg these anger people enrolled. Tom is on the line for republicans. Caller thank you for taking my call. What is the total cost in dollars for the alleged 6 Million People enrolled in obamacare . And what percentage of that total cost is being paid by american taxpayers . And what percentage is being paid by those alleged 6 Million People . Host that is a good question. Guest we have been talking about how the data is incomplete so part so far. Throughntioned before, our city first about 83 of people are going to be enrolled through subsidies, and we do not open will be higher or lower what that it is all tallied out. The subsidies are paid for by taxpayers but there are parts in this law that raise revenue. There are additional taxes on Health Care Insurance plans. There is a tax on medical device manufacturers. It does all come through taxes, and the laws partly funded through those things. It is not just from straight taxes on individuals. In as a lot of people who are paying in a lot of ways to help the cost of the subsidies that is the big cost of the law. We will find that out later. Alabama. Nn, birmingham caller good morning. Is all theon republicans in the house of representatives and the senate, they have health care, they are not worried about it. This little game that they can play about a not going up. Enacted thent obama aca, this is been happening for years. Insurance companies are the biggest flaws in have been around for years. All these games that republicans are playing, my husband has worked all of his life, i am retired. Mike husband is getting ready to retire. Our insurance before the aca, before president obama became president of Insurance Companies were going up on insurance. Medications were going up. That is the game. People need to learn. Theres an old adage that the bible tells you. Show yourself to be true. To learn things for yourself. Thet the caller raises point were talking about before. Be interested before the healthcare law was not perfect, it was very flawed, people had issues especially in individual market but also in other markets where your premiums with ever went up every year and you did not know why. These were canceled and changed. This has happened for years and it has been a big problem in the American Economy that need to work on. A lot of that is still happening. A lot of people say that as a fault of the healthcare law, but sometimes it is and sometimes it is an completely related completely unrelated great host if someone needs to sign up or how insurance and they do not check that little box that says i tried in it did not work, do they file any fines . Guest when you file your taxes ask you Health Insurance, annual say no, and you will pay a penalty for the first year. It will be pretty low, like 95 or one percent of your annual income. Whichever is more common secret end up paying a lot or a little so you could end up paying a lot or a little. Five years from that conveyed you decide to keep not having Health Insurance can be good and up paying a lot more. Thisan enroll again november, so you have to go through the rest of 2014 without Health Insurance. Host scott from florida. I just have a question about the Affordable Care act. Today to have until sign up for, but i was wondering if some do not offer until april, and you want to go through them continue still apply for open enrollment without being penalized . Insurance forhad most of 2014, which you would employer offered it april 1 to be would be covered on that. You do not have to be covered for three under 65 days on for 365 days under the law, just have to be most of it. Maybe they do not have a job right now, or the benefits to not kick in until a few months after they begin working about or maybe they get a raise and more hours. It is a cop located thing. And everyone situation is different which is why there has been so much confusion over what should i do and when should i enroll and should i enroll . Connecticut. N caller good morning. I have two or three points. The an independent voter, type who listens regularly at all periodically. Speaking about the republicans, i am not registered with any party, i am a lifelong democrat who five years ago looking at this process of creating this law became frustrated. And im for thoroughly and independent. The independents are a big block , perhaps larger than either party. The independents, like the, look and they make observations. Saiduests spoke before and are the planies going a little arrive. But the plan is going the way that it was designed. Poorly. The problem, the difficulty, is not with the plan, it is with the residents from its of what it was going to be. Thank you. Calleri think the brought up the point about how the law was put into place, and how the bill was passed. Ago, and itr years is still a thing that residents with a lot of evil. They do not like it way the bill was preceded, they do not like the way was handled, and that has colored the perception of what these law was going to be from the very beginning. If this was such a good deal, why did not give republicans vote or it . Why was there not more bipartisan action out on the floor when we could see it . Why was this more in open bar says . Verye started out being suspicious of this bill when it was just a bill, and that has continued for these many years. Host from twitter guest we saw that in the emergency room you will receive care, you will stop to pay for it. You can choose not to have entrance, and pay the penalty, some people are deciding to do that and saying that im going to pay for my health care out of my own pocket. That is an option, manual of will health care and you will have coverage. If you followed break your leg, a hospital will still treat you ask you about interest because the law is still in place. Host larry from pennsylvania, independent line. Caller hello . Host you are on with Emily Ethridge. Ago, several colors ago, a gentleman said about democrats and republicans and republicans not voting for this and that. Before the was dried on the paper, harry reid would always say dead on arrival. How would they negotiate when on the floorme up is dead on arrival . How is that fair . Goingsaid everything was to be that you could have your own dock your and keep him, and you can keep what you want. Can someone explain that to me . Guest that is a big problem that lawmakers are having right now with democrats in control of the sentiment and republicans in control of the house. Says that if you have good ideas i will take them from anybody. And as the caller points out, the people are so right and what is a good idea was applicable at what is an and its not it frustrates a lot of republicans and democrats. Bere is in accord with could , buted legislativly theyre really reluctant to do that because they leave that will just open the door to change everything. We have not seen a lot of Health Care Bills go to both chambers in quite some time. Host lets look at Public Opinion for a second. How popular or unpopular is this law . Guest it is not that popular. It is just about 50 or less than that of approval of the law. The majority do not say to repeal it, they say that it is not really great but we should improvement and we should work to make it better, and congress should make changes. We should make it is to make this work. Everyones idea of improvement is different. But no one is saying lets scrap it and go back to the way it was. Everyone wants to see it differently from how it was, and we are reconciling those ideas of what is best for everybody because youre such an individual matter. Everyone needs of the different, separate situations. That is what makes this so personal and so passionate. Host joanna and murrysville, illinois, from democrat line. Caller i have two questions. Right now i am retired. , they did gete out of Social Security, which is about 128 a month. For a supplemental program, which does involve dental and 360 a i have to pay of whatst for that 20 america approves of what medicare approves and tomorrow it is going up 40 a month for me. , first of all, is that supplemental policy eventually going to be included in this . The other thing, which is to be a very important question, i know illegals cannot register, because they do not have legal residency, but can they still go and getmergency rooms free Health Insurance and coverage for their medical problems at taxpayer expense . I will take my answer off the air. Guest for the medicare privatent plan, Insurance Companies have a medicare dated plan that are offered to supplement your medicare benefits. Those are affected slightly under the law, but those are still run by private Insurance Companies. The plans will be offering whatever they are offering per year because they would have made decisions and choices about what the plan would be before the of particle care act was that before the Affordable Care act was passed into law. The interest is often these plans make sure that the plan in the law does not affect them too much and require big changes out of the because those are not ery populated or popular, and these have been going down or much more slowly than they have been in the past. People are pretty satisfied with how advantage plans are playing out. Host we have one more call, from the independent line. I am an independent although im registered democrat, but i do not vote with them goes because they are too far to the left. The 50 their percent of the payle in this country federal taxes and going to pay everyones list taxes. Make 43,000 a year, our taxes are going up because of this health care, and we cannot afford it. What are we supposed to do . Thank you. It is one of those things were everything that changes the kelpie attributed to the healthcare law although there are so many things in life. There are a lot of provisions in the law that people do not see at the beginning of an there are a lot of things that people are paying for even though the law was posted be paid for over the 2010 was back in when it was passed in 2010. It is costly, and were going to it isst exactly how much good because the government to provide this first euro coverage. This first year of coverage. Host thank you for being with us this morning. When we come back, we will restart our discussion about today, the last day of enrolled for the Affordable Care act. Well also take more of your calls. We will be right back. I think the transaction is a lot less scary, a lot less large , and a loss let lot less obligated the people like to think it. In the video it is not a more thoughtful deal, we do not compete with Time Warner Cable anywhere. Theres not a consumer that has a choice between comcast products and cut Time Warner Cable products. At the end of the day were have under 30 of the market, so not particularly scary. Is one thing that is appropriate to think about and to discuss, and it is the location on the broadband side. I think there is a very good story there as well. Lots of real competitive and , as well as the increased scale and increased investment. Not a really scary story when look at market share. Something limbless than 40 of the wireline broadband share. Wireless is certainly beginning to be an effective competitor as substitute for it least many uses of broadband. Rock band,are and not sure what that matters, the issue is local share. No local market was no being any less choice after the beforetion then there is the transaction. With the proposed merger between comcast and Time Warner Cable, tonight on the communicators at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan two. Washington journal continues. Host the last 45 minutes of our show we went to focus on the topic of this deadline. Today is the deadline at midnight for enrolling for Health Insurance under the Affordable Care act. While there are a number of exceptions, and there have been extension of a todays the deadline without facing the penalty. We want to take a special look at how different states are approaching this. The first one is from the courierjournal from the kentucky newspapers. They have broken down some numbers here. In that state and in indiana continues through monday. That is the front page of the courierjournal in kentucky. To join our conversation we would love to hear about your experiences and signing of route here, and what you think about this law. We want to stick with kentucky were just a moment, and were going to be joined now by audrey tayse haynes. June practiced a little bit about what is going on her state. Thank you for joining us this morning. Guest good morning. Kentucky has joined a statebased exchange. How is that than out so far . Role is the secretary of the cabinet of health and family services. Everything from medicaid to Public Health to Behavioral Health to the local health ,epartment to our com process all Health Policy as well as in side, andservice the other Delivery Program theyre all within this one cabinet. Benefit exchange was located here, and it actually has been a very good decision because it has made the coordination of all of the other programs to be easier. Even not have the barriers with the government that you can have. The secretary of the cabin and all of the departments, there are listeners and republic Dutch Department heads that report may. Aboutwe have a chart kentucky and the Affordable Care act. It is a statebased marketplace, y are individual selecting there are 85,000 individuals selecting a plan, 3002000 digital enrollees, and 18. 2 potential percent enrolled. Guest as of today, we have 100 2024 that have chosen 73,124 that have chosen enrollment this weekend. 350,000 ofotal of enrolled in our statebased exchange as of this morning. Host so far, has president been happy with rate they are seeing from the marketplace . Guest we have not received complaints, but i am sure there are some people out there that would say that the rates are not what they expected in general there have been many press articles as well as we have gotten excellent the back from many people. I have lots of friends that have Small Businesses that maybe with just one or two employees, small , had an excellent coverage and went on and watch the best coverage and i think shes going to stay with that. her salary is such that she receives no subsidies that all, but she is getting the platinum level plan from a wellknown company and still saving pointed bit of money. People here have been very pleased. Host kentucky is just one of two states that requires applicants to disclose their fear insurance that is. What decided that disclosure . Just one ofs hundreds of others decisions at the time. We knew that the goal of this was of course to not only help people who had insurance improve upon their insurance policies, yet enriched a policy with more benefits, not just catastrophic policies, but also to reach the uninsured. Within our state, about three out of every board of the jewels who have signed up did not have insurance priebus ofthree out of every four those who signed up did not have insurance previous. Kentucky is the 44th sic kest date in the country. We have very high chronic disease numbers. Our governor made the decision to expand medicaid and to have a state Waste Exchange for several reasons. Was to improve our Health Status. We are all thrilled about that. We are thrilled the success of our exchange we were thrilled that so many kentuckians who have been putting off screenings maybeeventative care, and even surgeries that they needed to have for some time at been put off for some long times and i can now take care of their health. Step this as an important as kentucky continues to be a bright shining star for Economic Development. Thereve been several rankings that come out this year that shows that kentucky is definitely on the move in in improvedd now Health Status and we believe withis going to help us our Economic Development strategies as well as our citizens. We will be ready to go to work. Host that was audrey tayse the secretary of the kentucky cabinet for health and Human Services. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you. Based thesenger kentuckybased newspaper the messenger. Lets go to the violence. Our first caller is care and in philadelphia, pennsylvania. Caller hello. Im calling because the previous callers had mentioned that the bymacare law had been passed being forced through congress over the objections of the republicans. Give some facts about that that refute what they were saying. I had watched the hearings leading up to the passage of the law, in particular in the senate, the Senate Committee on health care had adopted over 200 amendments that were offered by the republicans, and agreed to take out the public option which the republicans had vigorously opposed. Republicans got not one vote even though they even the democrats though the democrats accepted the amendments they had offered. People do not know that half of the states opted not to expand medicaid, rather, and a opted not to participate and set up state exchanges. We only have 50 of the states are actually participating in the law through the Medicaid Expansion and through setting up state exchanges. That is where there was an overload on the federal exchange. Host taking a look at more states no, cnbc reports a high number of uninsured under new york and new jersey obamacare signups. In kentucky, 75 of the nearly 65,000 people who enrolled in private obamacare insurance sold on the staterun exchange were uninsured at the time they rolled, according to questionnaires they filled out when they applied. And 75 of people enrolled in medicaid be of the exchange likewise had been uninsured. The nearly of 343,000 private obamacare plan enrollees reported being uninsured women picked their plans. And 90 of the medicaid enrollments the of the states exchange reported being honest short being uninsured. Caller i would like to make the comments that Medicare Part d extended for 6. 5 months in sign up. Also the people that are working and receiving subsidies also pay taxes and paid 75 cents of the premiums for our congress people. Is the most important thing when our seniors signed up for Medicare Part d, had their insurance cards, and went in to pick up their prescriptions, the pharmacies could not get for the assurance that is because they have no record of these people. Thats so bad in michigan Jennifer Granholm had a law passed that the State Government would pay for these inscriptions and wait to be reimbursed from these Insurance Companies. I helped a lot of seniors during this time. It was so sad because these people would cry and walk away without their medication until this law was passed. There was a problem with computers talking to one another to getting the information the pharmacies from the Insurance Company for some reason. To work expect this 100 either after it goes into effect. This has happened before, and we will get through it. But people need insurance, and i am so happy that this law has been passed. Host lets take a look at some of your comments from twitter bobby, knoxville, tennessee. Caller i have a comment regarding something that secretary haynes said. She gave a great example of one of her friends, a trial lawyer, who is benefiting from the exchange. A trial lawyer who is probably well paid and above the average compensation that probably most people that need to exchange and buy insurance needs. The only reason that savings comes into existence is because her premiums are basically subsidized, and lower than what they would otherwise be on hers pacific situation. Others are having to pay more than they would have to pay because of their basic situation. There are those who cannot afford the premiums as she can give can, and they are probably subsidizing those savings that she realized. I think that is a good example of how this thing works. That is my comment. Is margin in bay city, michigan. Caller good morning. I had my First Experience in witnessing and obamacare card being used. I am on medicare into a supplement myself, and it affects my children. Lady, medical house, well mayen, she said it will pay will not pay for my mammogram . So i kind of question her after said,t turned down, and i so you have been using obamacare for a while . She said is my first time use. You pay . D how much did 600 a month when my husband pays 600 a month. Dollarsre that was etc. Together. Them. I cents ozone did your plans it would cover your mammogram test . She said it would be free because it is preventive care. So i asked the lady behind the counter, it doesnt take the aca . She says we are supposed to, but it must he a breakdown in the computer talking to each other. ,ust like this lady that called i am assuming that is what is going on. They are probably covered. M not war or against it for or against it, but i do not think the Computer Systems must be catching up with each other yet. They must not be synced so to speak. That was my First Encounter with anybody with an aca card. Premiums doubling the before i went on medicare, on i was paying blue cross and blue shield and 50 copay on drugs, and hundreds of dollars to go to the hospital. But now i paid 352 a month by ,edicare, and a good supplement and i have a good drug coverage. Last year i had 40,000 between s, and iital visit did not pay a dime on it yet. Im happy with the way that medicare is that up, but i do pay a little more than i did when i was on private care. That was my comment. I have not seen anybody using obamacare until about a week ago, and it was surprising. Thank you very much. Host taking a look at another run page front page of the chicago tribune. Our next caller is david in virginia on the line for democrats. Tell us what youre thinking about the healthcare law. Caller good morning. That areost people complaining about the healthcare law have not tried it. I signed up for health care last , my wife, and my three kids. At first i was playing close to 1000 a month, and now it is down close to six 600, and i get more coverage than before. I do not understand why people complain without trying. Thank you. Vst the next caller is aughn. Caller i am looking at this and saying the Health Care Law establishes a policy. It does not do anything for health care per se but when he going to use it you find out of your covered or not. We do not have our. Yours necessary, our hospitals necessarily, to pay for this thing which is a lot in whether to subsidized or not. Somebody has to pay. And in order to keep this thing downe have to do is shut our military and withdraw from the world. I do not think that is a very good idea or the plan. Host a couple more comments on twitter our next call, comes from massachusetts. Caller good morning. Thank you for take my call. The question about something that has not been really thatssed at all, the fact first of all i would think at least 70 of americans do not want this program. We feel like it is being forced upon us. Askedas a bill that was without even being read and understood by our politicians. With that being said my question is, if the bill is such a great program, why do all politicians and possibly over 1200 different groups have now been exempt by president obama from this program . Unions, hollywood contacts, and so forth . Why is it that all of these other groups are exempt and yet the average american person is not getting the programs they want, they are paying more than they anticipated, and so forth . If the program is so good, why are all of these politicians and over 1200 groups exempt . Obamams as if president just wave his magic wand and makes these exemptions for who . People contribute into his program . I am not sure. It is so wonderful, why do so many people have to be granted exemptions . This morning is todays deadline for aca enrollment. That deadline is at midnight. We would love to hear from you from your experience and thoughts on the law. Our next call comes from South Carolina, mary is on the line for republicans. Im calling about obamacare because we are going to want obamacare. Nobody ever wanted it, it was crammed down our throats. People protested the whole summer before the against it, and then they were calling us tea party people. We wanted a good healthcare plan, but not the way they wanted it. They said they should have record negotiated with republicans, and we dont want the government telling us. And through medicare medicaid. Im a poor southern woman, that is how i get it. Host youre not a supporter of the healthcare law . I hope all of the democrats lose in 2000 thing lose in 2016, and we can scrap this bill. Host next caller is henry in new jersey. Caller good morning. It really bugs me when i republicans and everybody who has been Health Insurance and when they know that obamacare is nothing but the truth about my wife and i we are living testimony of obamacare. Lost her job because of downsize, i lost my job because of downsize. I was on the phone from day one when the healthcare law went into effect to get a policy. January 1, when i got my insurance for my wife and i. Subsidy, because we dont make that kind of money. They republicans cover dont want to work with obama, they do want to do nothing to help the poor people, and the majority of the poor people who dont have health care is people of color. Host you said you and your wife have enrolled through the healthcare law. have you been happy with the care that you have knowledge of signed up . Got my colonoscopy, and do not pay dollar. The lady who called just now talking about qwest, we went to quest. We did not pay a dime for blood work. There is tier one and tier two that i have. Doctormy regular family or, im only paying 50 for the y family doctor, but my specialist, i go through the program was the Insurance Company allows me to do. Old stayed with my Insurance Company, my payment is ready five dollars for special and 15 for maryland is a should. What people do not know theyre talking about, and the lady just now says she is. Obamacare for the first time, and she doesnt know what shes talking about. Talkedarlier today we about how enrollment is going in kentucky, we went to focus now on another state, and how and role it has run in the federally run extremes there. Joining us now is mike chaney. Thank you for joining us. Mississippi is a part of the federal exchange, and even though you do not support the the federal off healthcare law, you support the state exchange. I am charged with supporting all of the laws come even if i do not agree with them, and i thought it was important to have a Health Care Exchange for mississippians by mississippians. Host what kind of enrollment have be seen in the state so far . Guest so far we had about 25,000 people. Even though the federal government has not given us the numbers for march and we know that we have about 32,000 signed up through the end of march. That would include this past weekend. Host have you had any issues with evil being able to sign up effectively with the state being so rural . Guest we had a lot of issues in the first few months. We did not see a cake and enrollment until the mid part of december the federal government finally got everything running correctly. Most of that huge increase came in the last few weeks of december and the first three weeks of january in 2014. That from a lot of other states im sure. It took a concentrated effort to get a lot of people to go back and try to sign up again. Doinggoing through and research on this convoy noted that some of the rates for mississippi are some of the highest in the nation. Can you explain why that is . Guest i found that i had 36 counties, that had no coverage at all. We only had one company or actually worked in the state of mississippi. Someone ato recruit their request if they would do some things for us which they agreed to do. We recruited humana which covered those counties. That, they were doing a lot of effort to get the right correct, the rates correct, and when we are the second highest in the us, but we have this subsidy of attack credit that goes to the consumer, they are just as competitive as they are in louisiana, alabama, tennessee, and all the surrounding areas. They are the same as what you the lower 48. Host what is the most challenging of having people get ess get to help insurance access to Health Insurance . We were a statebased , andnge up until 2013 denied the blueprint we submitted in 2012 simple because the government was not on board. Argued with them, but we operated an exchange that we kind of knew was working. Have done, we have not tried to go out and supplied with the federal government has done, but a slow enrollment has been the proper outreach. That is not the popular opinion in the federal government. We just do not have a proper enrollment by proper outreach program. Summer,me this mississippi will be one of the few states with ace mallbased with a statebased Small Business exchange. Guest what we hope will happen is that we will offer an alternative to Small Businesses with again still get the tax credit, if they want to buy through the state operator in the exchange, what we call the Shop Exchange. What we think is that we will haveill be to do is to Small Businesses with 25 or fewer. Employees still be able to receive the tax credit they have been receiving prior to the Shop Exchange opening. Albeit, most of those credits should have begun generate one the014 january 1 of june 2014. Im waiting for what other carrier to get their rates and plans like they need to have them. , thank you forey joining us this morning. Health care news also on the front page of one of the largest papers in mississippi. Their headline, push for enrollees ongoing. Were going to look at one more tweaet lets go to milwaukee with jimmy. Caller good morning. My thing is this. My premiums with down by 50 . The people who are mostly complaining about this Health Care Act are people who already have insurance you do not even accept this. Thereve your people over on fox news that is lying to call itll day, and they against this Affordable Care act. Thought thatns they were going to stop this. Be obamasng to waterloo. That, fox newson event they hated this president so much they would try anything. I am row that this has happened, and it is not going anywhere. Host the front page from the hartford current taking a little bit of a different feel. Can in cincinnati, ohio. I host a radio talkshow here in cincinnati. , and ied about this think one word is missing, and it is optional. We as american citizens have freedoms. We have the right to either opt in or not. People act as if no one in america had health care before president obama. Im sorry, that is wrong. Then i hear republicans and Tea Party Members demonized and called racist and other names, simply because we are fiscal conservatives. Tomakes no sense for any law be passed without the people reading it. Nancy pelosi made that same statement. We have to pass it to find out what is in it. That is wrong. Was the reason why the government shutdown, it wasnt because of republicans, it was because of the congressional carve out. I do not think the congressional staffers should get an extension. If this was so good, why are we being worst to do this . There are so many exemptions and loopholes, and if this was real strong, good legislation, we would not have all of these exceptions or loopholes and we would have the options that we should have as american citizens. Gallup took a look at who has to pay the most for health care and medicine, and they found that alabamans struggled the most to abort. Abamans of four al found they did not have the money to pay for the health care and medicine needed. At the other end of the spectrum, i why minnesota tied for the lowest centage of residents who are unable to afford you did health care or medicine, clocking in at 12 way to present. Thats 12. 2 . Hello. For the aca, i had insurance reviews to this taking previous to this taking effect, and it was canceled. My premium on that was 300 and you dont dollars a month 381 a month. Im no copay. 1000. A copay of 10 now i have a policy that is 358 saving me 20 to 38 a month. Last doctors visit was over 900. That would have covered everything before. I went through a bunch of stuff. Mrs. Going to wind up costing me somewhere around 3500 more a month out of pocket. That is what aca has done for me, save me 23 a month, but pocketsting me 3500 a outofpocket. It doesnt work. Im getting subsidy of 275 a month. I am retired, income is less than 30,000, it is ridiculous. Host the next caller is one that in california. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have sat here for the past 20 minutes listen to everyone calling. My statement is if the yepublicans do have their wa with the ryan budget, medicare were also end up in the exchanges, with a 3000 voucher. All of the seniors and the retired, all of you individuals lying on the aca, go try with your samere doctor, with a 6,000 voucher when you already lying about the night that your premiums is over 6,000. Tweets uple more caller hello. People are wondering why so many people are opposed to the aca. I will tell you straight out what the problem is. Millions of people had live it plans to their employees, and they are being dubbed from those had private claims for their employees, and they are being dumped from those plans. , her plan is going to cost me lower over the long run more over the long run. She works parttime. The company is contributing 13,000 to medical for her. The medical subsidy from the almost caller entire salary. That is in jeopardy because millions of people are being thrown off of these plants, and thinks she might be thrown off. People are opposed to it. If you listen to the program, the people that are for the caream couldnt get health , and i can understand that. What the Obama Administration has done is disrupted millions of people who were covered. They are not covered anymore, and that is the problem. They should have focused on the uninsured, and the people who could not get health care, and just addressed that. That is not what they did, that is why people opposed it. If you listen carefully, the people that are being subsidized very much i other people are for it. Just because youre getting obamacare does not mean you are going to get access. We recently called up for a doctor, and they asked what type of insurance they had for this dr. And they would not accept obamacare, the doctor would not accept it. Host the next caller is bobby in fort smith, arkansas. Caller good morning. In ourwant to say country for all of these many years we have been the envy of the world for being a free country. Free country. We are no longer a free country at all. Washingtonestapo in where the president does not want this insurance, and does not have to have it of his family doesnt want it, his Staff Members dont want it, and they dont have to have it. The congressman the, the , and their staff dont want it, so they dont have to have it. So we cover the poor people, can outrageouss insurance for them, but we are not allowed to even choose. That sounds like a slave country to meet. [inaudible]. Host cheryl on our line. A republican in massachusetts started this. People are complaining because they think it was obama. It is not. It was a republican. Well,ing to say this as if they would do away with obamacare, one of the republicans, they will have to support me and my medical. Robertext call is from in florida. Caller good morning. It is great to be here. We need to sit back and relax, take stock of what is happening. We have a great country. We have got a great country, a lot of people are responding to the fact that republicans have paid a great deal of money to scare us. Lets not be scared. 98 and maybe 99 of our representatives are fairminded individuals who seek the wellbeing of our country. What we are hearing this morning is that there is an equity across the u. S. You know what . Who willise rulers look at all the facts and say there is a great deal of inequity and disparity