you can fix obamacare, but we have it, it s not going away. because it is effectively dead. when we look at this, andy, you ran medicare, medicaid, also the affordable care act for the obama white house. this latest plan of block grants, the idea that certain states who supported obamacare will now get less, and those who did not support obamacare will be getting more, would this even work? this is a really radical plan. as you say, it would cut dramatically the funds that go to states. it would sharply curtail medicaid which is the program that cares for kids, people with dsz a disabilities, lo disabilities, seniors. and so this is a radical plan, i think that is why it is starting to lose ground. but i would just warn everyone we should try to distinguish
and if you don t have public support, this is what you get. is this master craftsmanship by bernie sanders, because he was bringing up the idea of single payor, that they now have graham/cassidy being pushed forward, so maybe bernie sanders looks like a winner. well, i think a lot of democrats including elizabeth warren and hillary clinton have been in support of making sure that everybody has access to affordable health care. bernie sanders is amongst that crew, but certainly not the only one. i think that the big thing here for us is making sure that we get through september 30th, and this bill does not pass because it will hurt a lot of americans, and we actually work toward fixing obamacare and actually what that looks like and make sure that everybody is covered and people get the protections that they need. andy, one of the criticisms has been that we are looking at single choices because of
what have you seen of the health care bill? i haven t seen it. is that a problem? never a problem, no. i always like to move forward with legislation i ve never seen. john mccain, one of the gop s longest serving senators, deep in sarcasm because he doesn t know what is in his party s health care bill. what would it mean if republican leaders plan on a vote next thursday when people don t know what s in their plan. let s ask editor in chief of vox, ezra klein. and andy slavit. it is good to have you both here. ezra, let s start with the why. why do you believe the process is the way it is?
under either current law or the legislation. the non-group market under current law is the health care exchanges under the affordable care act which the seek owe says will probably be stable, not collapse, not go into a death spiral. the cbo explains why those obamacare exchanges will remain stable. subsidies for those buying health care and penalties for those who don t, it stabilizes the market over time. the other thing the seen joe score shows in sharp relief is the staggering distribution of wealth under the gop plan. cuts to medicaid and the poor and working poor totaling $880 billion, tax cuts for the wealthiest are $883 billion over the same period. that s a shift from the working poor to the rich. joining me now the former acting administrator for the centers for medicare and medicaid services. andy, let s talk about the death spiral finding, it s gotten less attention than it deserves because the cornerstone is we cannot abide the status quo because it s imploding. cbo says
the same period. that s a shift from the working poor to the rich. joining me now the former acting administrator for the centers for medicare and medicaid services. andy, let s talk about the death spiral finding, it s gotten less attention than it deserves because the cornerstone is we cannot abide the status quo because it s imploding. cbo says not true. well, you re right, chris, and it s not just the cbo. standard & poor s came to the same conclusion last winter, so have the society of actuaries, so has the independent office of the actuaries, so i think what the premise of an exploding market really as you ve said on your show, it s a neat justification for a big tax cut perhaps but it s not true in fact. so what do you think about the other parts of this bill? i mean, to me this redistributional aspect is so striking. here you ve got huge, huge tax cut, mostly to the top 1%.