choice is an issue too with big name insurers pulling out of some state exchanges. next year 38 keens are expected to have no obamacare providers. republicans have pounded away on such weaknesses. and their deductibles are through the roof. it s a disaster. reporter: but obamacare is succeeding in a number of ways, too. 20 million people who didn t have health insurance before the law now do. people with pre-existing conditions have more protection and even though many republicans believe the system is economically doomed the death spiral of obamacare continues. reporter: in a new report, the kaiser family foundation has found evidence that the individual market has been stabilizing and insurers are regaining profitability. that s a fancy way of saying not only is the program holding on despite its flaws, but unless republicans nudge it toward insolvency, their wait for obamacare s collapse could be a long one.
i want 100%, but i will vote 50%, 75%, but i m not voting to create new entitlements for insurance companies. so what about that, senator graham? doesn t this plan keep in some of those entitlements and certainly the taxes? right. so here s what i would say to rand. he s a libertarian. i respect him very very much. obama care was designed to lead to single payer healthcare. they were going to make it so expensive for employers that they would drop coverage on their employees. they would go into state exchanges that were going to fail to be taken over by the federal government. we ve got one last chance to stop single payer healthcare. with all due respect to senator paul, we better come up with a plan that saves the private sector. the government is very involved in healthcare. it is called medicare. it is called medicaid. i have got one simple go with my colleagues is to save the private sector option for people who make too much for medicaid and are not 65 to keep
steel, former house speaker, also jason johnson. it is so wonderful to see you. michael, let s start with you since this is the republican health care bill. this amendment is trying it s best to find a middle ground between the conservatives of the party with the ted cruz amendment and the moderates, but is it going to get someone like susan collins on board? we re inching to the finish line. you re seeing changes on both sides. changes like additional resources for the opioid epidemic, more state exchanges, that is the conversation we re having now. big cuts to medicaid still. it is on an unsustainable path, there needs to be changing to survive. jason? they kept some of it to pay off the senators on the fence.
insurers, partly by breaking down some of the regulatory barriers that exist in the state exchanges. second, lower pharmaceutical drug prices and in fact, medical care costs generally but pharmaceutical drug prices are much higher than they should be, much higher than in other industrialized countries partly because of excessive profits or price gouging and lack of transparency, negotiation for medicare prices just as the v.a. does it. there are other points where we can come together and improve the system that exists now, the affordable care act but simply insisting on repeal and decimating medicaid, kicking people out of insurance, our elderly, our sick, because of the kinds of protections that exist now that would be decimated, and the pre-existing condition annual caps, all of
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.