Concerns that americans have about people losing coverage. Im a big believer we can cover everybody but reduce costs and bring down those premiums deductibles. I will make a conviction on cspan that before the end of the year that obamacare would will be repealed and a new plan will give people more choices and bring more competition to the health care markets, because thats whats lacking right now. You saw what happened in connecticut where many peoples premiums are going up 40 50 this year. Obamacare the wheels are coming off. Host covering everybody and reducing costs is such a hard thing for congress to try to do. Was your suggestion . Guest several things and one is a nobrainer. Let the people buy insurance across state lines. For example, i live in virginia. But i have an Auto Insurance policy that is based and in ohio company. Why cant you do that with Health Insurance . One of the problems with obamacare is that some of the Health Insurance companies have dropped out of the market. Now in one out of three counties there is one Insurance Company providing insurance, so you do not have much choice whatsoever in those counties. The number is growing every year. Why not instead of having people maybe select from one or two or three plants, why not 100 . Why not somebody in michigan being able to buy a policy in utah . That would be number one. Increased competition would drive down costs and give people more choices. The second thing you have to do is do medical malpractice reform. That is to say that the trial lawyers are about a 20 billion a year tax on her health our health care system. There has to be common sense malpractice reform and that is something most americans want. The third thing is to allow people to buy plans, especially for young people, a very stripped down plan that protects you against high catastrophic events, if you break your arm i get some kind of serious ailment. Buthave a high deductible, you are protected from a high risk. If you have that kind of plan, most young people to be paying half or one third of what it costs under obamacare. Then you will get more people signed up. One other quick thing if i may the biggest problem with obamacare right now that a lot of people are not coming to grips with is that it is in a rapid death spiral. Healthy people and young people are dropping out of the Insurance Market and sick people are signing up for insurance. That is driving up costs dramatically. As the spiral gets worse and worse, insurance gets more expensive and more people drop out. The idea that everybody is going to lose their insurance under the republican plan, no. If we stay on the current course were on, nobody is going to have insurance within five or 10 years. Host Stephen Moore is with us this morning. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7488001. 202 7488002. A lot of the debate heading up to be an American Health care act revolved around preexisting conditions. What is your opinion on preexisting condition coverage . Guest first of all, i have a niece who i love dearly that has appeared existing condition. She has epilepsy and thats expensive treatments for that. Obviously you are going to need some public subsidies for people who have relatives or they themselves have a preexisting condition. Republicans have to be much more straightforward on how they will print tech protect people with preexisting conditions, but what you cant do is put people with preexisting conditions in the Insurance Market. If they have a preexisting condition, you cannot ensure someone for something that has happened. The idea for insurance is that you are protecting from some unforeseen event in the future. What you need to do is provide a subsidy and a benefit to people who have a preexisting condition, but move them into a separate high risk pool so that the rest of the Insurance Market can function in a way that lower costs for everybody. Yes, provide the Insurance Coverage for them, but dont put them in the market with everyone else to drive up costs dramatically and then people are going to buy insurance. Host how the u. S. Sure that the costs on those folks are not driven up in those high risk pools . Guest under the republican plan, states would come up with different ways of dealing with that. I dont remember the exact numbers, but theres Something Like 10 billion in federal funding to provide subsidies for families with a child or an adult with a preexisting condition so that they are not going to lose the benefits that they get. They are not going to be part of the Insurance Market that Healthy People are in. Host latoya is up first in georgia, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want everyone to look at mr. Stephen moore because he is the those who wont have health care. I want them to listen to you. Obamacare wasng, the heritage plan. He took the plan from the Heritage Foundation. And here it is. You are fighting against the same one that you represent. I want all the republicans that get medicare or any kind of health care i want them just to listen to you and here you because you represent everything that is against their better will. You can say what you want to say, even the host. I hope he holds you accountable, but when you say things like the 8 billion coming out to the top 1 , i know about it. You have been everywhere tried to hustle this plan off. Host lets give Stephen Moore a chance to respond on the history and some of your comments. Guest i will simply say this. We are where we are right now. I think barack obama was well minded and obamacare, i think they thought it would work. Remember what the title of the law is the Affordable Care act. That is what has not happened. Obamacare has made Health Insurance more expensive and not less responsive. It has put more of a financial strain on middleclass families. Thats a fact. We saw what happened last year with 20 to. 5 increases and 25 increases in premiums. I mentioned what happened in connecticut. Aetna just dropped out of virginia. Costs are going up. Thats a financial reality. The idea that we can stay on the path we are on right now with obamacare is not an option, ladies and gentlemen. Obamacare is falling apart. Is everything wonderful in the republican plan . No. Theres a lot of fixes that need to be made with it and to it and to protect people with preexisting conditions. Host was the biggest fix that needs to be made . Guest pardon me. Host what is the biggest fix that needs to be made . Guest people need to be reassured that you are not going to have millions of people lose coverage frankly. You need to make sure one of the problems with obamacare is that there are all these people who have insurance right now, but theres a huge number of people who are not paying premiums for the insurance. Essentially with obamacare you can almost literally be in the name you once on the way to the hospital and signup french urban in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and signup for insurance. We have to have people act responsibly and pay their premiums and bring the premiums down so they are more affordable and happen Insurance Market that covers everyone. I believe as i said before that we can cover everybody in this country. We can dramatically reduce costs of plans by increasing competition. By the way, why not . Ive never heard a good argument for why we would not allow people to buy insurance across state lines to increase competition. The only people against that are the Insurance Companies because they dont want competition. Competition works in every other industry. Why not in health care . Host fred is in cordova, maryland. Caller good morning cou how are. How are you guys today . I have to respectively disagree with the last caller. I was wondering about a possible compromise between the democrats and republicans. Tothe democrats agreed lowering the Corporate Tax rate to 15 , could the republicans agreed to lowering the eligibility age for medicare from 65 to 62 to match the Social Security age . Would that be a decent compromise you would support . Guest first of all, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it. We have not even talked about tax reform yet, which is my favorite issue. Thats got to get done and thats really my area of expertise. Youre exactly right. We have to bring that corporate rate down to bring businesses and Companies Back to the United States creating jobs here and not in mexico and china. The question about lowering the eligibility age for medicare heres why i showed her a little bit about the idea. Im openminded to it, but consider this. Medicare is going to corrupt and bankrupt and bankrupt really quickly. It will massively increase the debt in this country and yeti of adding more people and the idea of adding more people to the titanic makes me nervous. We need to find ways to restrain the cost of medicare and not add millions and millions more to it. Host you are concerned about increasing the deficit and debt. Talk me through president trumps tax reform plan and how it does not add to the debt and deficit. Guest i think the biggest problem with the u. S. Economy right now and the reason donald trump won the election i dont think theres any doubt about it, but the economy has not been growing. It has not been creating the good jobs americans have become used to. It is harder to find those middleclass jobs out there. Ill think the problem with the economy is the number of jobs. There are a lot of jobs out there. We are not creating the high wage jobs americans want to fill. One way of improving the economy and getting the growth rate up and creating higher wage jobs is to lower the business taxes so businesses can invest more in machinery and equipment, new factories, computers, and just hiring more workers. Mentioned the congressional budget office. Does a great study out just a couple months ago by the cbo. This is not the Heritage Foundation or any right wing group. They say when you cut the business tax rate, about 70 of the benefit of that goes to workers because they get higher wages and they have more jobs. I want to see that Magnetic Pull driving companies and factories out of the United States because of high regulation and tax. I want to see it reversed so you get these copies coming back to the u. S. One interesting story in the wall street journal yesterday showed that apple, one company, one of our great iconic american companies, has 250 billion abroad in places like mexico and ireland and china. And want to bring that money back to the United States. Under the trump plan, we would charge them 10 . The government would raise 25 billion. They would bring back to 50 billion to michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, california and reinvested here. Thats a winwin situation that reduces the deficit and creates jobs in america. Host what about the idea that we talked about before on raising money from this border adjustment tax . Guest that has been an incredibly controversial issue. There are some merit to that idea. I think i said this on your show a few months ago. I believe we have the dumbest business tax system in the world. You cannot come up with anything dumber than the way we tax businesses. We have the highest rates in the world. You have some companies that pay a lot of taxes. Other Industries Pay almost no tax. You have a lot of complexity in the system. So why not tax companies, tax goods and services when they are insumed here and imported the United States rather than taxing what we produce here in america and sell abroad . Its a most like we have our tax system upside down. I dont know if that will happen. Host why was that not in the president s plan . Guest first of all, donald trump is very interested in some kind of border tax, no question about it. If you listen to what he said on the campaign trail, he does have an interest in a border plan. Heres the political reality. The retailers of this country hate the idea. Whats the biggest retailer in the country and the world . Walmart. They dont want a border adjustment tax because theyre bringing all the things that you buy not all of them, but many are made in china and mexico and other countries. It would make things more expensive when you walk down the walmart aisle. On the other hand, things produced here in america would be less expensive. Its an interesting idea and im openminded to it, but im wondering politically whether it can happen. Host richard is an independent. Good morning. Richard, are you with us . Caller yes, i am. Good morning. Good to talk to you, mr. Moore. You knowing how excuse me, i lost my thought for a second. The change in taxes will compensate for the price that you are paying on your medical right now as far as insurance. I happen to live in a town that happens to only have one insurer, blue cross blue shield. Im in the aca. That has dropped my insurance unbelievably only because of the amount of income tax ive taken my life. I also see that the rates are going to go up rohit go up the matter what and how they changed to me. I just dont have how bring in more taxes is going to change that. I heard you discussing that earlier that you think its going to offset it for the people who may be have preexisting conditions or not. In car insurance, we pay higher are ae have when you bad driver, they put you into an assigned risk category. Im wondering if that will happen with Health Insurance. Guest great question and i appreciate the color calling in. One of the things i do not like about obama care is everybody is essentially put in the same pool. Everybody sort of pays the same amount regardless of your health condition. Im not talking about preexisting conditions. If you live a healthy lifestyle. Of healthw half outcomes are a result of the lifestyle you live. Do you eat right . You get enough sleep . Are you overweight . Do you use drugs . People with bad luck decisions have worse health outcomes. Why should a healthy person who does exercise and stays fit and gets enough sleep and doesnt do drugs and doesnt smoke or drink too much, why should they have to pay the same premiums that a person who does just the op. Opposite . We have to get back to the idea of individual responsibility ,. People can have whatever lifestyle they want, but if it reduces their health, people who do should not have to pay as much. This gentlemans example is right. If you have a good driving record and you have not been in an accident and 10 years, you will pay a lot less insurance than somebody who is running into other cars and telephone poles and so on. That is the way the Health Insurance market should adjust. You cannot do that under obamacare. You cannot simply say this person has a Better Health record and that person. Therefore this person should be paying lower premiums. Host willie is a democrat. Good morning. Caller i have a question about the preexisting conditions. Person with a preexisting condition got put into a state pool, they are not going to get they are going to be limited and it will cost them an arm and a leg. If they are able to get in. The republican plan also has caps on the amount. If you buy the insurance across state lines, youre going to have all the insurance commissions. How are you going to do that . They are going to be flocking all to one state, everybody, with the lowest rate. Its not going to be much competition. Host mr. Moore . Guest i will answer the last part of that because i think its what i know most about. If you have interstate competition, you will be able to buy a plan that fits what you want. People should be able to buy Health Insurance for what they want. If you dont want Insurance Coverage for Mental Health or Insurance Coverage for drug addiction or contraceptives, why should you have to buy that policy . If people want to buy that policy, they should be able to. If people dont want to buy that policy, they shouldnt. Expanding the choices people have will reduce the costs. This gentleman is right. By allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, the states would very with very heavy regulations in their Health Insurance markets, no one will buy insurance from the states because of costs are so high. You will get competition between the states in terms of health plans and that will drive down costs and force other states to reform the Health Insurance systems in ways that make Health Insurance more affordable. The high cost of Health Insurance is one of the biggest factors that is hurting middleclass families right now. Theres no question about it. Host cindy is in norwalk, connecticut. Caller good morning. And think you having this discussion is what constitutes as a preexisting condition . There are Different Levels of preexisting conditions. I dont know too many people who dont have preexisting conditions. I work in the pediatric field and there are children with adhd. That is highly costly. You have checkups every three months with the doctor. I have an overactive thyroid. They cost 10 a month. That is not expensive preexisting condition. Its very cheap, but it is considered and i pay more. I do think there are Different Levels and there should be. We should not all be in one preexisting condition bill. My son has celiac disease and he requires to see his endocrinologist once a year. He went last year for his well check and he spent 10 minutes. They took some blood, but that theyre not cost me of what i was responsible for 800 on top of a 1300 a month premium, which either way my payments have gone up 700 this year. 9,000 a month. 1900 a month. My son is not going to go first checkup this year. Do you think i can afford that . Its just crazy. Host thank you for sharing your story. Guest one of the reasons i love isg washington journal because you have such great callers to ask great questions. Shes exactly right. We need to define what a preexisting condition is. I wrote a column on this this week where i mentioned that i e a homeowner should insurance policy and one year i lapse and paying my homeowner insurance. Sure enough that is when the tree fell on my house and i had 50,000 with the damages. I was not covered because ive not paid my premiums and either pay that outofpocket. The reason i tell that story is that i cannot go to the homeowner Insurance Company and say i have a preexisting condition that this tree fell on my house. Can i have insurance . We have to think about people acting responsibly and paying the premiums and so on. One of the point that the lady mentioned is really important. Premiums are going way up under obamacare and bankrupting middleclass families. Obamacare has not made health care more affordable. It has made it less affordable. The other thing happening that this woman was mentioning is that even as the premiums are going up, so are the deductibles going up. Come undergentlemen obamacare, youre paying more for health care and you are getting less insurance. Its the worst of both worlds. Host if you want to read that column, it is americas sickly Health Insurance system. It is an the washington times. Dana is up next. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for cspan. You know, i just cant bring myself to believing anything republicans say regarding health care because they feign ignorance. They same ignorance because they were the ones fame and currents they were the ones who thought of the individual mandate when orrin hatch and some of them had the names on it to rival hillarycare. Now these guys are going to take 800 billion out of medicaid. How is that actually going to cared services and health to the poor or sicker people . Host mr. Moore . Guest thats a great question. Medicaid is not just bankrupting the federal government with its spiraling costs, but its bankrupting a lot of states. The states and the federal government share the cost of the system. Again when you talk about dumb programs, medicaid, the way we pay for it is really stupid. States are effectively rewarded for wasting money. The more money they waste on medicaid, the more money they get from the federal government. Instead of an incentive to because conscious, states have incentives to drive up costs because they get more money from uncle sam. What this plan would do is basically give a pile of money to the states and say you run your medicaid programs, you control your costs, you provide Good Services for your citizens. People say thats not going to work. It has worked. There are couple of states have done that, indiana, for example. They instituted a plan that has some cost shares and other kinds of reforms. They got elderly people out of Nursing Homes and to home care, which is better for senior citizens. You can do that under conventional medicaid c. Why not let states find Good Services for the citizens and drive down costs . When i talk to governors, if you reduce the regulations from uncle sam, we will take 80 90 of the money you give us now. Let us run the program ourselves and thats the whole idea behind the republican plan. It worked back with the welfare reform when states came up with amazing welfare reforms that got a lot of people off welfare and work. Host over the image and Health Care Act passage in the house American Health care act passage in the house, there was also the on the this bill to prevent the Government Shutdown. President trump tweeting his frustration with that legislation, saying, september our country needs a good shutdown to fix the mess. I want to get your thoughts as to whether thats a good idea to have a good shutdown. Guest i think our financial situation in washington is a disgrace. Years, the last two bush years and the eight years obama was president , we doubled our debt. We cannot continue to borrow and borrow as we have. Is it time for a shutdown to figure out how we can for the first time in some of the decade pay our bills . To figure out how we can for the first time in so many decades, our bills on time and match our revenues with our expenses household has to do, every city and State Government has to do that . Want to see a Government Shutdown, but i want to see a return to fiscal responsibility. Have to start cutting Government Spending we have 4 out of budget that is control, most americans we ening and watching know waste 20 to 25 of every dollar we spend in washington. We have to become more frugal in give taxpayers value for their tax dollars. Host are you more concerned about a Government Shutdown or a debt default . Well see fight necessary this fall on both of those. Guest my biggest concern is of those, its growth. We have to get this economy need more ter, we jobs, john f. Kennedy said, when an economy growing faster, more people working, that is the best way to balance budget. Get the tax cut to get businesses back in america, workers in america, not mexico, china and india f. We per year,owth rate up so go from 2 to 3 growth, that john, by 3 ebt, trillion over the next decade. The best way to balance the budget, get america working again. Host time for a couple more alls, richard in reston, virginia, republican, good morning. Caller yeah, im a physician. Of so much hot air, as are most republicans. Ealth savings, you cant do unless you have decent income. Eople cant, if you have 50,000 to drop on fixing your house, that is fine, for couples to raise two or three kids, that will not work. Malpractice, 70 cerebal palsy practice are from substandard care. Malpractice isat out of hand. What is out of hand is that is policing doctors. Third thing that i think is very important is that with about people Different Health styles have different, hey, they dont have medicare, dicare, everybody has same premiums, premiums. Has same fix that before you go after some other things. There, ichard, a lot Stephen Moore, a chance to respond. Host high drug costs are a about it. O question we want to make sure the united invent and nues to create lifesaving drugs and the 30 wonder drugs invented and created over the of Something Like 27 of the 30 were introduced and come up with in the United States. New drugs and vaccines are great to reduce cost of healthcare and keep you out of the hospital. Right, drug n is costs are going up a whole lot. The e have to get back to idea of insurance. With respect to medicare, by the ay, yeah, everybody has the same healthcare, the problem is, look at the latest report on medicare. Bankrupt, we oing cant pay the cost. We have massive number of baby soon going to e be retiring, going on medicare, the Fastest Growing program in country, we better do something about medicare cost, as well. Will endphen moore, we it there. Come back again. Guest thank you. Washington on journal, could more troops be heading to afghanistan . Washington posts missy ryan it, be on to talk about reel be right back. Saturday, at noon eastern on historians ilitary discuss their books on world war i. The 2017 colby military writer symposium. Speakers include Author Jennifer keen, with her book world war i, solder experience, michael nyberg, path to war, the war created modern merica, robert elasandro, and his book, over there, america in the great war and the recipient colby award, s author david barron, waging war, president s anden congress 1776 to isis. Colby military writer symposium, saturday at eastern on cspan 2 book t. V. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas companies. Ision it is brought to you today by satellite or provider. Washington journal continues. Host Washington Post national writer, missy ryan joins us after her frontpage story about