At book christ in crisis. Nine a clock a. M. , the Heritage Foundation on the trump administrations economic record and how it could impact the 2020 election. Trumps economic record and how it could impact the election. Host good morning. It is tuesday, december 24. A3 hour washington journal is ahead. We will begin by getting your view on the legacy of the Affordable Care act. It was 10 years ago today the Senate Passed legislation some dub obamacare. We want to know what the impact has been on your family and your community, phone lines are on your screen. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Ndependents, 2027488002 you can also send us a text message this morning. That number, 2027488003. Onerwise, catch up with us social media. On twitter it is cspanwj. On facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. Morning, youuesday can start calling in now as we take you back to 10 years ago, this was president barack obama at the white house the evening after the senate held that vote, a partyline vote to passed its version of what became the Affordable Care act, these are president Barack Obamas remarks. [video clip] in a historic vote that took place this morning, members of the senate join their colleagues in the house of representatives to pass a Landmark Health insurance reform package, legislation that brings us toward the end of a nearly century long struggle to reform Americas Health care system. Ever since Teddy Roosevelt called for reform in 1912, 7 president s, democrats, and republicans alike have taken up the cause of reform. It time and time again, such efforts have been blocked by special interest lobby its lobbyists who perpetuated the status quo that works better for the Insurance Company than the American People. With passage in bills in the house and senate, we are poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful, health that will bring security and stability to the American People. Toughestes the measures ever taken to hold the Insurance Industry accountable. Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny you coverage on the basis of a preexisting condition or drug coverage when you get sick. Appeall be able to unfair decisions by Insurance Companies to an independent party. If this becomes law, workers will not have to worry about losing coverage if they lose or change jobs. Families will save on premiums. Businesses that would see their cost rise if we do not act will save money now and they will save money in the future. This bill will strengthen medicare and expand the life of the program. It will make coverage affordable for 30 million americans who do not have it. 30 million americans. Because it is paid for and curbs the waste and inefficiency in our system, this bill will help reduce our deficit by as much as 1. 3 trillion in the coming decades, making it the largest deficit Reduction Plan in over a decade. These are not small reforms, these are big reforms. Host president obama from 10 years ago. Some history after he made those remarks, the Affordable Care act would not be signed into law for another three months. In the intervening months, Senate Democrats lost the vetoproof majority in the senate in a january special election and the members of the house, democrats had to move a budget reconciliation bill to get the Affordable Care act across the finish line. It was signed by the president into law march 23 of 2010. We are talking about the aca asking how it impacted you. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Before we get to your calls, this headline from the wall street journal on this topic, the Affordable Care acts legacy 10 years later, this is what the wall street journal had to say, most americans, particularly those with workplace coverage or medicare felt limited impact despite predictions it might lead Many Employers to drop insurance or hurt medicare. Employer insurance began covering Preventative Care while young adults up to 26 were added to their families coverage. Private medicare plans have flourished despite cutbacks, the acas biggest transformation has been in the individual Insurance Market where consumers buy their own plans. Before the law, insurers could refuse to sell plans to people with preexisting Health Conditions or, charge them more than healthier people. Those protections have become so popular even republican critics of the law say they want to retain them. We want to hear from you in this first hour of the washington journal. Bill is up first out of brooklyn. What has been the impact of the afford will care act . Caller ensuring millions of people that were uninsured previously. Singlepayer with even more leftwing options more centrist option, but the Affordable Care act was started by and affordable a conservative think tank. They dont want government having price control of prescription drugs, but having price control no way impinges on my individual freedom. Host do you think you talk about singlepayer, the Affordable Care act will be seen as a step towards a singlepayer system in this country . Caller absolutely. I have lived in canada and public Health Insurance was way better, more comprehensive than now. Ivate Health Insurance a singlepayer is simple. I think doctors would like singlepayer, it is more simple. It is the humane way to go. To think that people could die just because they dont have insurance, we think it is collateral damage. Host this is maria out of virginia, good morning. Maria, are you with us, this morning . Caller yes. Host go ahead, maam. Caller i would to the white page webpage of the white se he doesnt know what he is talking about. A democrat, what has been the leg race legacy of the aca . Caller good morning and Merry Christmas to everyone. Bothl like after 10 years, parties, democrats and republicans have eroded something that was good. I also think that the Affordable Care act did come from republicans and they are beating up them up themselves. I am a disabled veteran. Health care comes from the v. A. , which is a singlepayer system. I feel like something that is good can be better if Congress Works together. They are not working together. An americans people, we need to tell them they need to work together. Dont do away with it, fix it. Host do you think the Affordable Care act will be around 10 years from now . Caller i would like to think it would, if not that particular one, something similar and it needs to be improved, of course. It has its problems. Have been inns charge for a long time. They have not done anything, but they dont want they are the ones making the most noise. We need to look at them and say if you all want to do something, fix it. That is all i have got to say. Know well,n viewers there are ongoing threats to the Affordable Care act and the biggest one having a moment last week in court, this is the story from Kaiser Health news, a federal Appeals Court in new orleans dealt another blow to the Affordable Care act last week agreeing with a lower court judge a portion of the health law is unconstitutional now that congress eliminated the tax penalty intended to enforce it. It is sending the case back down to lower courts to decide how much of the rest of the law can stand in light of that ruling. That means the fate of the Affordable Care act will not be settled before the 2020 election, the stakes could not be higher, the case is expected to wind up in the Supreme Court. Leading a coalition of states defending the health law announced wednesday night he would appeal the decision and if the high court, which upheld the aca twice since its original passage, agrees with the Appeals Court, the decision could end the nation up and the entires Health Care System. That is from kaiser help news. We have been talking about it since the ruling last week. We are asking what do you think the legacy of the aca has been . Dolly in texas, good morning. Caller good morning. I have very little to say about this because it is very complicated and the truth of the matter is as far as i can tell, theAffordable Care act is foundation on which we all can build and everything about our lives goes that way. We have to establish foundations under whatever it is we are doing and the Affordable Care act has done that. The one thing that is the most i will think i do think it will be around because it is a good thing, but all good things can be improved on and here we just thesehere is labels put on everybody, you are a socialist if you think we should have Affordable Care health care for everyone, guaranteed and i cannot believe that this i have a lot of complicated thoughts about this because the religious people against the Affordable Care act, it makes me wonder what their spirituality really is because that is a huge part of being thinking about god and how god affects our lives. Anyone involved in that has to know taking care of each other is prime and important. The number one thing it seems to me that has polluted our thinking about health care, not insurance, when i say health 83. I am i am interested in health care and for everyone. Here is what has to happen, we cannot think about money and health care at the same time, we have to think about profit is not necessarily the way to go. We can do it, but we have to decide what it is that we are going to focus on and profit should not be it. Host President Trump has had plenty of criticism of the Affordable Care act since he took over the white house and had plenty to say about the appeals port Appeals Court case. [video clip] onwe are doing tremendously health care. We won yesterday in the Supreme Court, you saw that in the appellate division. Individual mandate is now gone, that is tremendous savings, that was the worst part of obamacare. We take care of preexisting conditions, they are not going to be able to do that, we are doing things nobody has ever done before. Key more to come on that federal case, but we are asking you this morning about the legacy of the aca. Carolina,outh republican, you are next. Caller eric christmas, john. You are familiar with the weather system we have been going through down here, we just had our 85th coastal flooding events of the year. The closest to that was 1958. Something is wrong. To the nice lady who called and i know she was sincere, i honestly dont think there is anything godly or spiritual about requiring a citizen that may they may not want and penalizing them if they dont buy it and exposing that citizen along withh premiums having to meet enormous deductibles before they can use a plan. Thought out. Not the problem was making it a part of the tax code. Small Business Owners were strangled by the aca. It was not worth all of that and most people who even think we need a plan like this, they would have to agree. Host you think it will be around 10 years from now . Caller not in its present form. I honestly think and i dont agree that we may go to medicare for all. Before callers call and complaining that people in have these nice Health Care Plans, one of the provisions of the plan was all members of congress and their staff would have to buy an aca plan. They used to be able to enjoy the federal Employee Health benefits plan where they had their own choices. If a congressman had a wife in the federal service or spouse, they could ride on their plan or lindsey graham, he is retired military. Other than that, they hated it because they knew they had to buy a plan. February in 2014, they gave themselves a break by enacting a law that would make the government pay part of the premiums, i will leave it at that. Host thanks for heading off those comments at the pass. From north charleston, South Carolina, comments from facebook this morning, fran writing the aca crushed our family, our cost more than tripled. Chris saying it might not have been the best, but it was an attempt at reform. Hopefully we can put our party team mindedness aside and work towards reform, deborah saying it saved my life at the time, glad i had it. Luckily our state provided subsidies and martha saying it is the most expensive thing the government has forced me to purchase for 10 years straight. Asking for your thoughts, what you think the legacy of the aca has been since that key vote on Christmas Eve of 2000 nine, took place in the senate with a partyline vote on the Senate Health care plan that would affordable that would become the Affordable Care act. ,his is kevin in florida republican, good morning. Good morning. Merry christmas and happy hanukkah to everybody. Within 100 disagreement the wall street journal. They have cherry picked some things about the plan, it is totally has totally destroyed our family financially. My wife makes 30,000 a year. Her Health Insurance premiums, 798 a month. That is a third of her income on a 6,000re plus deductible. She had a hysterectomy and we had to pay the whole 6000. Veteran, to go to the v. A. And started using them or i would have paid 700 a month in premiums. I am a republican. The one thing republicans have done is majorly dropped the ball. They keep telling us they were going to repeal and replace. They dont even have a plan on this iseplace it, talking to republican congressmen and senators saying you lied to us just like obama lie to us. Both of you guys are at fault for what is happening in america. If you are low income and you get subsidies, you are perfect, you are happy. If you are middleclass, they are stealing from us like it is unbelievable. I dont know how we can keep paying the premiums, it is more than the mortgage. Health Insurance Premium more than the mortgage. Mentioned the wall street journal story, this is the lead saying nearly a decade after its passage along party lines under president obama, the Affordable Care act is deeply ingrained in the u. S. Health care system influencing everything from senior drug cost to calorie disclosure on restaurant menus, it added 20 Million People to the ranks of the insured. There is a chart that goes with that story showing the percentage of people without Health Insurance in this country over the years starting in 2010 at 16 . 4 . 18, 9 this is julie in pennsylvania, republican, good morning. I am calling from my personal experience. When this started, my premiums went up at work, so i had more deductions taking out of my paycheck. They call this affordable, and that is not what i have experienced. My deductibles were higher and paying for procedures that would have been covered in the past. Then i became unemployed and because of the salary i had been making, my plans were very expensive and the ones i did me being were based on unemployed, the amount of money i was getting for unemployment, back when i was employed because my salary went back up, i had to pay the higher premium, so they were subsidizing me when i was gainedyed, but because i employment, i owed them money. Eligible for medicare thei predicted before Affordable Care act took place refusedt was people who to go and get on medicare because they were either too whenor year responsible, the Affordable Care act was instituted, people ran and registered for medicare. That is exactly what happened, i predicted that. My plans thing are very expensive to be on this adultdo have three children and my one daughter at the time was 21 and she was having her tuition for expensive andry she was working for an employer not offering medical and i had to put her on my plan and i feel like employers shifted the responsibility of what they used to give as a benefit to parents. Then i had healthcare costs for my children who normally would be on their own as an independent. I think i agree with the other collars, if they are going to keep it, it really needs to be it really should be income between medicare and a certain middleclass income. Having this conversation today because it is the 10 Year Anniversary of that key senate vote that took place on Christmas Eve, and unusual vote on Christmas Eve in the senate when the then Senate Health care plan, the democratic Health Care Plan passed on a partyline