more than a few votes. yeah. that s the biggest challenge with this bill. mitch mcconnell has a very fine line to walk. he needs to acquiesce to some moderate senators who say they are worried about the rug being pulled out from under some people. if you move in that direction you risk alienating conservatives who could get to yes with one or two concessions. it s hard to see right now how he ll be able to meet the demands of both those parties without losing people, amendment added to win one or the other over. michael, i want to play you the piece of an interview that kellyanne conway had on abc about medicaid coverage. let s just play that. these are not cuts to medicaid, george, it slows the rate for the future and allows governors more flexibility with medicaid dollars because they are closest to the people in need. these are not cuts to medicaid and it affords governors more flexibility. tell me what you think about that? the first point these are not
forces and those working with our military. the second category was burned and maimed children that our children s hospital could provide lifesaving care. to the president s credit he did write those in as exceptions which were noted by the supreme court. we ll see where that goes. thank you for your views on refugees. i hope you re able to share them with more people. let s talk about the health care bill waiting for that cbo score today. andrew reuben and i were just talking about this a few minutes ago. one of the issues more than it was when obamacare came in is medicaid. oklahoma is not a medicaid expansion case but you re a u.s. representative. what s your sense of the 23 people people who may end up, or some of whom may end up losing coverage because of the transfer of authority over medicaid to the states. i think the first thing we have to examine is 23 million figure. it is not a hard figure. in fact, it s probably only roughly a third of that that s actually enrolled. th
doctor they want to see when they want to see them and they don t want to wait. in other countries you don t have that. does that translate to better outcomes in health care? probably not. but certainly translates to americans being a consumer society and wanting what we want when we want it. well insured american, if you work for nbc comcast like i do, we have the best health care in the world. you probably do. a lot of americans have virtually nothing. i would have agreed with that statement a few years ago when we first started talking about this. this bill that s being talked about with 23 million people losing their health insurance and many, many people being in medicaid program, medicaid has revamped how health care is delivered in this country. 70 million people covered. absolutely. we are measured on our ability to provide access and immediate care to those medicaid beneficiaries the same way united health care, aetna, blue cross and blue shield measures
us. so the landscape has changed, completely changed. that s why when looking at this bill and looking at the cbo score, we have to look at the effect on medicaid as much as we have to look at the effect on people in the individual markets who have a policy on the exchanges. medicaid is 70 million people, the exchanges are 10 or 11 million people. exactly. what people tell me time and time again, i m sure you heard it from your friends who buy insurance on the exchanges, state exchanges or healthcare.gov. if they can find a plan on the exchange, it s very expensive. high deductibles, many don t get subsidies. fair to say didn t turn out the way obama and i would argue a disaster but fixable. one more thing about the exchange, not just the cost. you may get a plan, subsidies, then you find out you can t go to the doctor you ve seen 20 years or the hospital because they haven t signed up with that insurance exchange product.