JON SCOTT (CO-HOST): [The Affordable Care Act] was passed, obviously Joe, by Democrats, didn't get any Republican votes. The president is suggesting that you ought to just let the thing crash and burn. Is that realistic? And would the blowback affect the Democrats?
JOE TRIPPI: I think at this point, the Trump administration owns health care and what the -- they've got the votes, I mean, they have the majority in the House and the Senate. The House bill passed. They're not going to get Democrats to sign on to a CBO [Congressional Budget Office] report that has 23 million people losing their health care and $800 billion in Medicare cuts. That's just not going to -- Medicaid cuts. Not going to happen. They're having problems even getting a majority in their own caucus in the Senate to go along with that. We’ll see if they can. I agree with Brad, it's better to get this right than to get it done in a hurry. But I do think [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell feels like the longer this is out there and the longer the debate goes on, the less chance he's going to have of pulling those three or four votes in. And another cautionary note that I'd point out, Jon, is, part of the problem here is whatever does pick up three of those five could push a couple more that we don't know about that have concerns but haven't voiced them yet. If it moves it one way instead of the other, we could have more conservatives or more moderates upset and saying they can't vote for this thing. It's a movable target and that's the problem right now.
SCOTT: Brad, Joe mentions the 23 million people that might be tossed off the insurance rolls if the Senate proposal becomes law. But this is not a bill that requires people to buy insurance. That's the part of this thing, Obamacare, that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Can you force people to buy insurance? So if 23 million Americans decide they don't want to buy it, I mean that's kind of the American way, isn't it?
BRAD BLAKEMAN: It is the American way, and that’s the market. Look, health care insurance in America is not a right, it’s a service. And if you have the means to pay for it, then you should pay for it. And if you don't have the means to pay for it, then you should be cared for. That is the American way. And in order to reduce cost, we have to increase the marketability of insurance companies to compete. That means that we have to sell across state lines. That’s how you lower costs. We’ve got to make incentives for people have health savings accounts. People have to control their own destiny. It's not what the Democrats wanted, which was eventually a single-payer system, because they knew Obamacare was destined to fail.
