Our question is what is your message to the senate on health care . How should they approach medicaid . What role should states play . How should they handle preexisting conditions . The numbers are on your screen. You can also reach us on social wj, and you can find us on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. The house legislation passed this week, would reshape the Nations Health care system by eliminating federal medicaid funding and changing protections for people who buy Insurance Coverage on their own. Usa today has a quick recap on the front page. Here are the highlights of the house bill that allows insurers in some cases to raise premiums on customers with preexisting conditions. It stops expansion of medicaid as of 2020. It ends penalties for individuals who dont buy insurance and eliminates costsharing payments that help low income people pay deductibles, allowing states to apply for waivers of mandatory Insurance Coverage and reveals taxes on the wealthy. The notion that their Health Insurance is made cheaper for younger americans is one reason why the senate are starting from scratch in their approach. The wall street journal has it on their front page, senators tackle health bill rewrite. Among the provisions they are tackling is one that allows insurers to charge Older Americans five times more than young people. Is seeking tohune alter the tax credit and provide more money to the elderly. Beingare among whats scrutinized by gop senators, who hope to reach an agreement spending their own ideological spectrum before hoping to win over the rest of the senate gop. Then theres also this from politico, senate gop rejects house obamacare bill. Down, they need to end up with a bill that can win over 50 of the 52 senators, and even if they accomplish that, their bill could be unpalatable to house conservatives. The house bill squeaked through their vote. The two chambers are not coordinated much in recent weeks as the house frantically worked to kick the Health Care Bill to the other side of the capital. Republicans say they will take the time to need to understand the ramifications and will insist on score on the cbo from voting. A great oneliner from lindsey graham, im still waiting to see if its a boy or a girl. Any bill that has been posted less than 24 hours, going to be debated three or four hours, not scored . Needs to be reviewed with suspicion. Orchard park, new york on the democratic line. Caller yes, if i could have the ear of the senate, i would say you could create a national Health Care Bill, one page, that everybody can understand, simply by saying medicare for all at all ages, eliminate medicaid, and medicare for low income people could be subsidized by the government. That, in itself, would save billions. But its extremely difficult. Let me make my point. Its extremely difficult, because the average american of there thinks the one payer system that they have in canada, britain, most of the developed country of the world, the people hate it. I have tried to get cspan for years, going back to brian lamb and susan swain when they were doing the shows to say, please, please, get a hook up through cspan with people in canada, britain, and so forth, to find out what they really think of their national Health Care System, but cspan, for some reason, i suppose its because of the pressure of the Insurance Companies and the pharmaceutical industry, by unbelievable amounts of ads on the cable system, that is why cspan has never done it. But we need the truth out there, and i would hope cspan1 cooperate in getting it. Thank you. Host we lost him, i was going to respond. Jim from vienna, west virginia, democratic line. How are you . Caller im fine, sir. Host what would be your message to your senator . Caller well, i still believe that it is hard to believe these days, but the senate is the saucer where the coffee cools. I think they will settle this debate down, and hopefully work something out. That is what the senate is for. Thank you. Host ok. Lets go to pamela from fort washington, maryland. Democratic line. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller id like to ask the senate, or congress in general, who was going to pay for this. If they want to lay everything on the backs of Older Americans, i dont know what you call it now the affordable young people up to the age of 26 would still be on their parents Host Health Care plan . Caller right. It was going to be paying for this . Because right now, the majority of older people are probably funding most of the things in this country right now, because there are a lot of unemployed young people. Host based on what you know of the house plan, what do you think of the merits of it . Caller i think they should have just left it the way it was and improved on the issues that were in the Affordable Care act instead of just trying to throw the whole thing out. Host some other republicans i spoke to this week saying we are seeing the death of obamacare in realtime. Their words. A chart in the wall street journal shows you the number of insurers across the country. Those areink and red, the states in which there is only one or two Affordable Care act insurers. You can see the problem laid out in this chart. What do you think about that, pamela . Caller im glad you brought that up. I think doctors and Health Care Agencies should not be allowed especially and run, if they are the only ones in that particular state. I think that should be against the law, quite frankly. Host ok. Lets go to steve, calling in from akron, democratic line. Hi, steve. Caller hi. The government guided program on, in 20072008 that i got i stand 2000 per month on Health Insurance. I had preexisting conditions. They came up with a program called pcip, that was limited and in very few states, but was a governmentbacked high risk pool for preexisting conditions. They finance that, they stopped they continued to finance it until obamacare came along. If we dont go to singlepayer in this country, we are in trouble. They have tried this program before, the preexisting conditions, pcip. It went broke and they couldnt find it in a stopped taking people. Host what does that mean for you . Caller for me, going from 2000 to 349 per month. That is what that meant. I have diabetes and several other conditions, but i was at the point that i own my own business and financial he went broke because of the health care. I voted for obama, my parents were republican, i got them to vote for some type of health care. Is obamacare good . It is better than what was out there. Trying to run a Small Business, it broke me, and i paid that for over three years until pcip came along, which dropped it down. People need to look, they could say i have factory insurance and its great the get out there as a selfemployed, independent person work and pay for insurance. That, you10, prior to couldnt afford it if you have diabetes or anything like that. The government has done this before. Pcip. If everybody looks it up and finds the program. Thats all i got to say. Host all right. We have a tweet hear from bill king. Its not that confiscated, singlepayer universal health care, nothing less will be acceptable. From chicago on the republican line. What would be your message to your senator . Illinois,ll, im from so both of my senators are democrats, and they are both but i just want to point out that the senate gop has their little group of 10 white males that are going to come up with their own alternative host 13. Caller i think thats very alarming. Half the country are women, not one woman involved . Thats pretty ridiculous. Host on the substance of the legislation, what do you think would be a wise approach for the senate to take . Caller to me, all the ones people complaining about, the 19 states that dont even have obamacare. Rida, texas, who else tennessee, all these people that complain about obamacare, all these congressmen complaining about obamacare, ultimately they just dont have obamacare. So maybe they should take care of their states and leave everyone else alone. Host all right. Lets go to california, an independent. Two senators are opposed to the republican approach to say the least. What do you think the Upper Chamber should do . Caller good morning, rodney. Im sorry, its early. Good morning, sir. Im an independent, i voted for ms. Harris and support ms. Feinstein generally, and i supported in do support obamacare. In fact, i think we need medicare for all. This is really i dont even know what my message to the Upper Chamber is. I dont have much faith in them. Republicans control the chamber, and yes, there was once a time in my lifetime when they were independentminded republicans, independentminded democrats. Thats not the case. Aboutee it, sir, this is oldfashioned allow me to say it an editorial page, federalism. Their argument, maybe it is not trumps view, who knows what that is. However, it is just delegating to the states now. The lady just made the point that some states dont have obamacare. That is part of the problem. Maybe they will say, well, to give the states a choice. Its a bit of a stretch to see it and they will go, there was a civil war, there were states that wanted slavery, and no pun intended to mr. Trumps recent embarrassing remarks about andrew jackson, but i believe health care is a right, and obamacare is not perfect, and i dont have faith that the senate there might be modifications with preexisting conditions. Sick, and ika were mean that sincerely. Maybe it could be a democrat, who knows. Have a good day. Host lets go to rob, calling from new york, democratic line. You as well have two democratic senators, Chuck Schumer interest developer and. What do you think they should do . Caller well, im a member of upstate new york and my messages for my senator Chuck Schumer to stay the filibuster and kill this gop bill, because it is deeply flawed, because it takes away the individual mandate. You arent able to purchase Health Insurance on a volunteer plan. Host we have a tweet hear from Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer. House gop has made their bed and their constituents wont careet it, the trump fight is far from over. Nancy pelosi said swing states are walking the plank. What do you think about that . I believe we have lost him. We do have some sound from lamar alexander, talking about his approach to crafting Health Care Legislation. He chairs the house, education, labor, and pension committee. We want to get it right. We want to meet official deadlines. We carefully considered the legislation passed by the house. We will Work Together carefully to write our own bill. We will make sure we know what our bill costs when we vote on it. By law we have to do that. We will get it right and then we will vote and hopefully the end result will be significant americans,s for most giving them more choices of Health Insurance at a lower cost. And to do that, by gradually transferring more decisions from washington, d. C. To the states and individuals. Host the question for you this morning is what is your message the senate as they approach cracking their own Health Care Legislation . There are the numbers on the screen. Lets has now to Fort Lauderdale florida where robert is on the republican line. Caller yes. Host what would be your message to the senate on health care . Itler i dont understand that it i just know tried to get obamacare and i was denied and i had to pay 792 if i dont have insurance, and i only make 16,000, which barely covers my mortgage. Dont they are going to fine me 792. I tried to get insurance and i got turned down, and i think this whole obama thing is language or the i would try the best i could to get insurance and i got turned down, turned down, turned down. So when trump came out and he know, i am i you going to kill this rule about me fineg to pay 792 as a because i dont have health best thingas the that ever happened with donald trump coming into office. He said i am going to squash that. It helped me out 100 . I dont know whats going on with health care. I am trying to get it, but i keep getting squashed. Host you think your prospects will be better once the house and senate work on a compromise bill . Ok, i think we lost him. Lets go to jonathan calling from minneapolis, democratic line. Hi, jonathan. Whats your message for the senate . Caller good morning. Andybody is opinionated should have a way to express weekendinions, the agreed to do that without being nasty about each othersopinions on trump. Amy klobuchar and al franken need to step up their game. Im from minneapolis. We have some of the best health care in the state of minnesota. They should really take a look at it. Everyone should get the same Free Health Care we get a minneapolis and everybody would be healthy, happy, with the pursuit of happiness. Im disgusted, im appalled with what trump is doing. I hope somebody starts an impeachment process, there have been so many things wrong with gay and lesbian rights. Im furious that he took away all these things from people. Who does this in the year 2017 . Everyone needs to treat people with common courtesy and respect. Host ok. Lets go to alan, from scottsdale, arizona. Republican. Whats your message to the senate . Caller well, i dont have a message to the senate, because i need to wait and see what they will do. But my messages to the American People. Votesare came out with no from the republicans, and we understand that. But heres the actual truth. Obamacare was implemented to actually fail. When they implemented the program, they couldnt even release the 300 million they spent on the internet to put up the website. Everything that they possibly did said to the American People you can keep your plan. All the lies that they said, it was deemed to fail from the beginning because they wanted singlepayer. Why didnt any of the democrats actually try to correct the problems as it was going . And it just goes on and on. The mountain of lies told the American People. Thing that makes me sick is the amount of people that had their doctor,had their nobody wants to talk about those people that were on chemo, that needed health care continuously, and were thrown off their plan. They didnt care about those people, and that was millions and millions of people that had Affordable Health care, that were thrown off the plan for the Obama Health Care that was designed to fill from the beginning, because all they wanted was singlepayer. Attempt from the beginning to defraud the American People of billions, or i will say trillions, of dollars, and it is just sickening that nobody can what thed the fact of Democratic Party has tried to do to the American People. Albert is on the independent line from underhill, vermont. Hi, albert. Whats your message to the senate . How do you approach crafting Health Care Legislation . Caller yes, i want to support the first caller who was for singlepayer. Here is my experience. I was in germany a few months ago, suffered an embolism, went to the hospital, was there for four days. Nobody said anything about being paid. I never got a bill. I dont know what it cost. Thats singlepayer. Doing some research, i find out that the germans are spending far less per capita for Health Insurance then we are, and the Life Expectancy in germany is higher than it is here. Thats my message. Host your senator, independent bernie sanders, tweeted this. Let me break the, bad news this Health Care Bill is not getting through the senate, no way. Hes an advocate of the singlepayer system you mentioned. What do you think some of the roadblocks might be that lie ahead for the senate as they approach Health Care Legislation . Caller well, going back to the andt caller, the Insurance Health care business in this country is huge. They spend a lot of money on lobbying and advertising, and that makes it very, very difficult to change things. I am of course a supporter of senator bernie sanders. Robert fromgo to ocean city, maryland on the democratic line. Good morning, robert. Caller good morning. Nice weather here. Ould like the other colors i was in the navy for six years under National Healthcare. My wife is british and she paid her stamps and everything. We werent taking advantage of the system. When my son was born, he cost 10 shillings. My wife had an operation, no cost. Definitely singlepayer. Absolutely no problems. We do have some money problems in the National Health system, but you ask any brit and they would say, absolutely not, dont even touch my nhs. Thank you. Host tina from massachusetts on the independent line. Good morning, tina. Caller halal. Hello. I was just calling in regards to the gentleman who said he made 16,000 per year and was charged 800 for obamacare. Its just common sense, that doesnt sound right. I am wondering if he was from a state that didnt expand medicaid or a state where the Insurance Companies were pulling out due to the future uncertainty of whether or not what kind of Health Insurance would even be allowed. That,ally curious about as that sounds extreme. If we are so much for singlepayer, then why was the public option not even allowed during the hearings . They wouldnt even allow a public option, little own singlepayer. But anyway, that was our message. We were had romneycare, told we had to get Health Insurance back in 2005, so there was no uproar or anything like that. Everything went smoothly. It was excepted here accepted here. Thats my common. Host if you are an independent democrats have been saying all week that republicans pay the price for this. What do you think about that . Caller im not so sure the republicans never seem to pay a price. They always seem to play dirty and it works, which reinforces the attitude of playing dirty again. It keeps getting them places. Seem a littleats spineless. They dont want to fight dirty, they dont want to hit below the belt, and because they dont like to retaliate in any meaningful or big way, it just seems like they are weak. Thats why im an independent. Host all right. Lets head to miami, florida, where linda is on the democratic line. Hi, linda. Caller hello. Host hi. How do you think the senate should approach crafting Health Care Legislation . Caller well, i was born in toronto, ontario, canada. They had care for everybody, and they didnt break the bank, they didnt take peoples homes, they didnt do anything like that, they didnt charge you 20 for pills like an aspirin in the hospital. I just got out of the hospital. For three days, they cost me 32,000. Three days. They turned around and they wanted to charge me an enormous amount, a deductible and everything. Dropped the money for my Insurance Company. They dropped 20,000. We had to pay the rest. Yet my husband was paying 1000 per month. 1000 per month. It doesnt make sense. None of it makes sense. If the government cannot take care of its people, why should the people take care of the government by paying all these taxes . I know my husband pays a tremendous amount of tax. Its unbelievable. Why should they should President Trump theres cheating going on, all this stuff, he shouldnt have won. They should have impeached him right away. Host so the message you would share to your senators, marco rubio and bill nelson, would be to focus on cost . Caller the cost . Of its crazy. My husband pays 12,000 per they turn around and help the Insurance Company by dropping the prices for them, but not dropping the prices for us. Host ok. William calling from glanville, arkansas. Independent. Hi, william. Caller high. Thank you for your time. Im a Small Business owner and id like to share a couple of facts we have experienced. I have 50 employees. Healtho 2009, our insurance costs were 2500 per month, and we played 100 of that as a benefit. That same cost today is 5,600, andwe are going to drop it, our employees are going to have to sign up for the affordable and now they are saying they can use the doctors which they were promised, and it just doesnt work. Its not affordable. The second statement i would like to make, has a retired military person, i have friends who work in washington. The problem is lobbyists. My friends tell me the unbelievable amount of money lobbyists are spending on wining and dining our congressmen and senators to get their way, it has to stop. A lobbyists have to be reformed. Thank you. Host the wall street journal has a whos who, and they point out that the deal in the senate between the centrists and the conservatives. Republicans have proven they are really to book their party, as they have in the past. They may be willing to break from the party on health care. Already they have demonstrated that he opposed stripping federal funding for Womens Health provider planned parenthood. Both have concerns over the house builts cuts to medicaid and are expected to push for changes in the safety net. A call from nantucket, massachusetts. Democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Its the lobby that controls everything. The insurance lobby. The pharmaceutical lobby. Those are the two biggest lobbies. And the republicans, this was like a football game. Trump needed a score so they made a bunch of deals and they made this, but it will never get through the senate, ever. In a million years, it will never get through the senate. And a lot of republicans are going to be lost. You know something, he ends up spited. Thank you for taking my call. Host june is calling from edinburg, virginia. Hi, june. Caller high, good morning. Hi, good morning. Host whats your message to the senate . Caller my message to the senate is deadlock. They work against trump, totally. Is at least trying to do Something Different because obamacare is a joke. Everyone i know thats involved without insurance has problems. They have high deductibles, 5,000, 16,000, its ridiculous. The old days lets put it this way. Insurance was a business. A big business in this country. And you are going to try to take a big business and turn it into a government owned and operated thing . Never going to work. Insurance Companies Want to make money, and they were going to make reasonable money at one time, and then came along all this universal with mrs. Clinton, she wanted universal health care, and that got everyone all pumped up. Oh, maybe the government will pay for my insurance. Well it doesnt work that way. Because the Insurance Companies are a business. If they are not going to make money, they are not going to stay in a government program. To lets face it, we are all going to have to pay. We are going to have to pay more than we used to have to pay before they screwed around with it. If they try to give the republicans a chance, i have a republican obviously, and i am a trump fan and i voted for him, and as far as obama goes, that whole program was a lie. It was a tax, and its the reason roberts on the Supreme Court said it was a tax. Otherwise things of the different. Live in virginia where they said they will pull out of the Health Care Exchange next year. Because of expected financial losses. What does that mean for people you know in virginia . Caller well people in virginia have lost their mind anyway because they voted for obama and hillary clinton. Is used to be a red state and things were a lot better. We dropped so low in the economic field we are in the bottom 10. And guess what, we have a democrat for a governor. Back when we had republicans, we had businesses in the state. Of course i live in the county thats kind of dominated by a couple big families, and they want to keep this county back. They dont want the progress. Thats the reason we dont have a lot of jobs in this county. Im a retired person, but i worry for everybody else, too. I am concerned about people having insurance and having money to pay for insurance. Everything goes hand in hand. If there are no jobs, theres no money for insurance. Rumps got the right idea. Youve got to get the taxes low, you have to do what you have to do. Host lets go to jail, calling from york, pennsylvania on the independent line. What is your message to the senate . Caller my message to the senate and everybody that is listening right now is its not a twoparty system. You need to look at what they are doing. They have had a long time to figure out and repeal, replace. We voted in these republicans thinking they would do the right thing, and they are not. Look, made an even have obamacare. They are exempt. So with that, lets wake up. They are not working for us and we need to eliminate them. We need to remove them from the senate, period, because they are not doing anything for us. They have been there for more terms,e or two they are no good for us. We need to look at that and we need to look at each other, talk to each other, and figure this stuff out because they arent doing anything good for us and we need to get back to that grassroots and helping our neighbors, and they are to doing it. Thats all i got thank you,. Host a tweet here from jacqueline smith. It works in blue states but not red ones, wonder why. Lisa calling from matthews, North Carolina on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Share thatt like to i would be happy if the senate would have the same insurance that we have. I think they would fight harder to have good insurance. My husband and i are both registered democrat. Are, in the area where we obamacare is definitely not working. Ridiculous, the cost of coverage is ridiculous. Something has to be done. I know, i understand that we makingike trump Something Different happened with the coverage, i understand that we dont like obamacare, we are going back and forth, and i think all this fighting is hurting us. It is definitely not helping us. Something obviously in our area has to change. Was promised that i could keep my doctor. We moved here 24 years ago. Obamacare, i had to change. So i changed my doctors, and that was not fair. That i said, oh, ok, lets do that. The next year, our premiums almost doubled. Were paying over 2200 per month. They people i talk to, cant afford the coverage. I talked to one person that in order to get a subsidy they couldnt claim each Others Health care income. Were notaying, ok, toer, to get insurance get obamacare subsidies. But its not working. You talk to all kinds of people, whether they are democrat, republican, independent, and you get all these different stories. That we somehow in this country have got to come together so we can get health care for everybody. Host lisa, let me ask you. Then North Carolina you have the Republican Legislature and the democratic governor. When you think that would mean for you as it relates to health care . And we lost lisa, ok. Lets go to tony from palm harbor, florida on the republican line. Hi, tony. Whats your message for the senate . In thinking we can honestly moved move to a more socialized system of health care, as they have in the u. K. , where most people are covered, in the people that arent as well off maybe have a better job or a better career, that we could move to a better system toward most being covered, and honestly, theres a lot in this country that dont pay taxes. Big corporations that dont pay taxes. They made billions of dollars per year. Honestly, the fact that it happens, its sad that there are a lot of people in this country that dont even have health care. I just believe it is wrong, honestly. Host mark is calling from bloomfield, new jersey on the independent line. Good morning. Caller hi, good morning. Sidesms to me that both obamacare is terrible, i have two friends in really bad shape, and one is going bankrupt because she has an illness, the other one is living in one room, doesnt even have a kitchen, and they are charging him 100 something for Health Insurance, its insane. It seemsepublicans, like they dont have much of a plan either. It seems like both sides are in chaos. Be, whystion would dont they do what they are supposed to be doing and seeing which state has the best health care. To me, it would probably be massachusetts, like the woman said before. They had no problem there. It was a combination of mitt romney and ted kennedy. Bipartisanped a Health Care Plan that is working. Why dont they use that . Thats my message. Host so your senators, Robert Menendez and cory booker, democrats, opposed to the republican bill. How do you think they should approach these negotiations if it comes to a point where democrats have a say . Caller i think someone should stand up and suggest that they use the model in massachusetts for health care. Everyone would be insured and there would be no problems. You heard the woman from massachusetts. She said it was great. It was flowing there. Host ok. Lets go to ridgefield, connecticut, where howard is calling on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to point out from the previous caller, massachusetts is an obamacare state, thats the basic model. There are no examples of free markets working for health care. Ago, there wasrs a paper that explained exactly why free markets fail. Whenever people say we need free markets to fix it, wrong. That will not work. The only example in the world of obamacare, which is massachusetts, switzerland, a couple others, and medicare for all type systems, which are basically singlepayer, which most of the world uses. That is what works the best. They pay half of what we pay for medical care. Generally. Ve longer, they have better results. That is the answer. There is no free market answer. Is acongress did so far tax cut for the wealthy. Thats what they wanted to do. Thats what they did. It doesnt do anything for your health care. Host explained that for us. Why do you say freemarket systems fail . There wasll, 1963, that 38 page paper. It just doesnt work. Story, i couldnt possibly explain it even though im an economics major. Thats just the harsh reality. They dont. Theres the profit motive. You pay more. You have no mobility to really understand medical care in realtime. Of you have perfect competition, the invisible hand, it just isnt there. The market fails. Thats why it doesnt exist anywhere in the world. It just doesnt. From we have a tweet here donna westbrook, who writes watch for senator jon tester, considering a vote for ahca. Tester is one of the red state democrats who will be interesting to watch out for. They move forward with this healthcare debate in the senate. Donald, calling in from san antonio, texas on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, i want to let everyone know, its not obamacare, its trumpcare now. I can tell out here, you it sounds like they should retire. The insurance they are receiving is medicaid, if you get the results. The people back, that are calling in whining about their insurance are in red states. Republican controlled. People need to sit down and read their insurance policies. In the insurance is place of making money, it wants to make money, and they keep hollering about going back to old times and preexisting conditions. The two favorite things of obamacare, thats what they need to be fighting for. Preexisting conditions. Theyve got a cap. Then he put it in worry your child can stay on until 26. There are a lot of problems obamacare cannot instruct Insurance Companies to tell you they are priced to six their price. Obama, withwith whoever, every year people jack up their premiums. Anytime you use their insurance they jack up your premium. Go get your car fixed, then your insurance goes up. People need to sit there and start reading these things, stop givingthe media do it, them these a second soundbites telling them what they want to hear. My mother always told me be careful, listen to a person always telling what you what you want to hear instead of telling you what you need to hear. Thank you. Host all right. Lets go to jean from arcadia, louisiana on the republican line. Caller hi, good morning. My message the senate would be, number one, protect existing conditions. Two, take the burdens off the back of the elderly people. , im africanamerican and i am from the state of louisiana, and my representatives have already voted yes to this plan. Africanamerican, i do not believe in state rights. State rights are not kind to minorities. I feel this bill was passed in the house to give republicans and trump some kind of a win, but actually they havent won yet. Six, that has nothing to do with caring about people. Seven, to you elderly, white, and poor people who voted for trump, i feel sorry for you. Trump has lied to you. You are going to suffer if this plan passes, believe me. Thank you. Host brent is calling from oregon on the independent line. Good morning, brent. Caller hi, thanks for taking my call. Our Health Care System is a joke. If the only system in the world set up the way it is. One in six people dont even have health care, and that was before obamacare. Who you have other people are double covered, either from pensions or from medicare, whatever. Its ridiculous away our Health Care System is set up. Forom line, we paid more almost 18 of our economy going toward health care. For other companies its half that, anywhere from 10 12 . I guess it comes down to, as long as we feel health care is a right, then we are messed up. What happens as long as we feel its a privilege, i should say, instead of a right. The problem for me is that in every other country in the World Health Care is a right, not a privilege. Its only in the United States where they say it is a privilege. We ttom line is that if when obamacare was being put in, if we were able to get the government option, it would have killed the Insurance Companies. They would have had to compete. Instead if you look at how much the Insurance Companies are making, up to 50 million. Talked about how the six ceos of the highest Insurance Companies are making 300 million combined. Is in our Country Health care was a right, they would not be mentioning that kind of money. They would be going to help people, not to give ceos huge amounts of money. Host carl is calling from kansas city, missouri on the democratic line. Hi, carl. Caller hi, amen to that man who was just on there. I want to make a point. This thing thats going on is a tax cut. Its not a health bill. Ann the republicans put in infrastructure thing, it will be a tax cut, it wont be building construction, financed rightfully by the government so we can have some roads and bridges. And republicans always say that when the government does something, it is always done bad. Will actually, thats not true. Well actually, thats not true. Im a veteran, and the republicans are trashing the Veterans Administration and hospitals because they are trying to privatize it. I had excellent care with the v. A. I sat in the waiting room with a and everyone, likes to sit around and great, that is what they do. My girlfriend has to go to a regular one, she gripes. I sit around with a bunch of veterans, and be careful we need a baseline. Life is tough and then you die. When you pay your taxes, its not paying taxes americans, my fellow citizens, its not paying taxes, is what you get for your money. Thats all i have to say, thank you. Host lets go to spanish fork, alabama, where lois is on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Say that it like to think are senators should have the same insurance we have. Way, they take what we have and try it on for a while. Why should they have difference, and then they can vote on what we have. I think it would take the democrats up a notch, the republicans down a notch, or something. I think our senate, the same insurance, that we have to try it out for a while, at least for two years. Host in sanford, North Carolina, john is on the independent line. Caller high, how are you doing hi, how are you doing . I believe that President Trump needs to do an executive order and put the house and the senate on obamacare and put president obama on obamacare, and i believe they will get together and fix this train wreck and the health tax act that has been implemented and put on the American People. Host so what has been your experience with the Health Care System . Are you on the Affordable Care act . Caller i had insurance through the state, but the rates for me to pay for my wife, because she is unemployed, is just daughter isand my ensuring her family. We get up to go to work for the government every day, and we work for the Insurance Companies before we provide for ourselves. Obamacare is nothing but a tax, and obama denied this, but like theyearlier caller said, passed it even though he stood there and lied to the American People, which it never should have been passed in the first place. Host ok. Lets go to austin, texas where mary is on the democratic line. Good morning, mary. Caller yes, good morning. Host what is your message to your senators . Caller my message to them would be to put humanity above their Party Politics and above their self interest. Its just amazing to me how many people really dont understand obamacare reason that has as many problems as it does is because so many republicans were fighting against things that would have made it better, and they refused to do the things that could still say that and make it better. En lieu of that, our next best option is singlepayer. As many people are starting to wake up to the reality of, singlepayer is really what would be in the best interest of the masses. Host can you explain what singlepayer is and how it works . Caller singlepayer is medicare. Its a social program that would have everybody in a pool. Benefitstake out the to the Insurance Companies, we would all participate, we would all get Better Health care as a result, nobody would be going bankrupt because their insurance costs were so high. Everybody would be in the pool so the risk would be spread amongst everybody. But people dont understand that. They buy into this whole socialism issue, thats not what america is. Well, should america be defined by what it is right now, which is benefits this plan by republicans benefits people who couples and0 plus, make 250,000 plus. Is that what we are . We are going to put it on the backs of the sick, the elderly . We are going to pass a bill that benefits people who make over 250,000 . If ludicrous. Its ludicrous. If people would stop and look at what republicans have put forward and what democrats have put forward, they would set aside their personal differences about specific politicians and realize the democrats are putting forward stuff that will help the masses, and republicans are putting forward legislation that helps the top. Wake up, america. Host timothy is calling on the independent line from wilton, North Carolina. Good morning, timothy. Whats your message to the senate . Caller yes, my message to the senate is, first of all, i am so discouraged. When we elected as president we had a chance to overcome im sorry when we elected obama. We had the opportunity to make so much progress. What Mitch Mcconnell and the said, and the congress they just did everything they could to disturb and discredit this president. It really set us back, it set us back a long ways. But getting to my point. Before obamacare, health care was a disaster. When you look at something as complicated as health care for everyone, is going to have some bugs. Im index air force guy, military. M16, we had to work the bugs out of it. There are a lot of good things in it. The republicans know that. They are keeping a lot of the stuff if you look at what they are doing now, its really obamacare minus a lot of things. That Health Insurance companies are the most costly companies in america. Health insurance is the biggest business, and so much money, and that is the reason republicans, why these people are making money off the stock market and everything. Thats the reason they dont want to socialize our medicine. That gives us all bad names. You take the profit out of health care. People shouldnt be making money off sick people. We need everyone to be insured. All the other countries do it. I dont understand thats why im an independent now. The democrats have no way of explaining to the American People and sell the ideas. Republicans are very good at it, they are very crafty, and a fool people really easy. Host a tweet echoes some of what he just said. Health care is always expensive when you let profit factor in the equation. Our last call comes from joe in staten island, new york. Republican. Caller yeah, is a bitter old man the Senate Majority leader,. Is the next democrat in 2020. He wants bernie voters. Knows he is a young whippersnapper. Host all pro labor, political reporter Marianne Levine joins us. Later, reutersdavid shepardson joins us. We will be live Tuesday Morning from murrays energy with a look at the u. S. Coal industry. We will travel to ohio to talk about what life is like in the industry. We have a translating facility that brings coal by train down to the harbor. We offload and load it onto barges. One of the things we have realized y