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GAO Investigation Exposes Shocking ACA Report Revealing Billions in Fraud & Waste · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Fraud has become a major headline, especially when it deals
0:05
Speaker 1: with the Affordable Care Act, which we now know is
0:08
Speaker 1: anything but affordable. And now we're finding out more about
0:12
Speaker 1: your tax dollars going to insurance programs companies, and in
0:18
Speaker 1: fact the beneficiaries don't even know it's even giving them coverage.
0:23
Speaker 1: I want to take you backwards to where we learned
0:26
Speaker 1: a lot of this from the GOA fraud investigation. The
0:29
Speaker 1: Government Accountability Office, used by Republicans of the centerpiece of
0:34
Speaker 1: their new expose A has found significant fraud vulnerabilities in
0:40
Speaker 1: how the ACA, the Affordable Care Act marketplace processes enrollment
0:45
Speaker 1: and taxpayer subsidies. Some of the key findings are truly shocking.
0:51
Speaker 1: The GOA created fictitious applicants with fake or invalid social
0:55
Speaker 1: Security numbers, and the ACA marketplace still approved them for
0:59
Speaker 1: subsidy and policies. In fact, nearly all of the fake
1:04
Speaker 1: applicants were accepted. The report found instances of duplicate and
1:09
Speaker 1: repeated subcy payments tied to the same social security numbers,
1:14
Speaker 1: including one social Security number appearing on many separate policies,
1:18
Speaker 1: and that suggested poor verification systems. In other words, the
1:24
Speaker 1: insurance companies know that they're going to get paid for
1:27
Speaker 1: people that don't deserve the coverage, but who cares if
1:31
Speaker 1: you're getting paid. Tens of thousands of subcy payments also
1:36
Speaker 1: were connected to deceased individuals as well. That's right, your
1:40
Speaker 1: tax dollar is going to dead people. And what better
1:44
Speaker 1: client for these big insurance comings than someone that's literally dead.
1:49
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about any claims at all.
1:51
Speaker 1: It's free money, all because of fraud. We also now
1:56
Speaker 1: know that the payments were going to brokers. Brokers were
2:00
Speaker 1: able to enroll a lot of people and switch plans
2:04
Speaker 1: on half of people without clear verification procedures. What does
2:07
Speaker 1: that mean? Big incentives for them, Commissions going for each
2:12
Speaker 1: person they were signing up, including multiple people under the
2:16
Speaker 1: same Social Security number, or dead people all together. The
2:20
Speaker 1: estimates are also rising. Republicans are now suggesting billions, not
2:26
Speaker 1: hundreds of millions, but billions in improper payments annually, including
2:32
Speaker 1: potentially twenty seven billion they're now saying in inproper subsidy payments,
2:38
Speaker 1: though exact figures are hard to find why because there's
2:43
Speaker 1: so much fraud now, Republicans are now demanding that the
2:49
Speaker 1: system be changed because it is filled with systemic fraud, waste,
2:53
Speaker 1: and abuse in the ACA marketplace known as Obamacare. It's
2:58
Speaker 1: costing taxpayers and then driving up premiums for legitimate human
3:02
Speaker 1: beings that aren't dead, legitimate in rollees. And that is
3:07
Speaker 1: where John Thune comes in. Center thom the Democrat from
3:11
Speaker 1: South Dakota, and other GOP leaders are now citing the
3:16
Speaker 1: GOA findings as a justification for opposing the extension of
3:21
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act and the premium tax credits without
3:24
Speaker 1: structural reforms. Here's Center Thune talking about Obamacare and just
3:29
Speaker 1: how broken the system is.
3:32
Speaker 2: Option a little over a decade ago, premiums have gone
3:34
Speaker 2: up two hundred and twenty one percent. Here's what you
3:36
Speaker 2: said last time we talked end of September. The premium
3:40
Speaker 2: tax credit issue is something we're willing to have a
3:43
Speaker 2: conversation about. But the fact of the matter is it
3:45
Speaker 2: is rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. It needs reforms.
3:49
Speaker 2: But you're willing to work on this issue in particular. Yeah,
3:52
Speaker 2: I mean, part of this is that the base Obamacare
3:55
Speaker 2: program is not going to be affected. What's going to
3:57
Speaker 2: be affected is the enhancements that the Democrats added when
4:00
Speaker 2: they have the majorities. But we're willing to have that conversation.
4:04
Speaker 1: But you got to do that.
4:05
Speaker 2: You can't do that in the context of a hostage
4:08
Speaker 2: taking situation. Did they win the hostage taking situation? As
4:12
Speaker 2: far as the politics here, because there's a lot of
4:15
Speaker 2: people that are going to see their healthcare premiums skyrock. Yeah,
4:18
Speaker 2: and there in that marketplace, which represents about seven percent
4:22
Speaker 2: of the American people who get their insurance through the
4:25
Speaker 2: Obamacare exchanges, particularly those that are above the four hundred
4:29
Speaker 2: percent poverty level, which is where the Biden COVID bonus
4:33
Speaker 2: is kicked in. Yeah, there's seeing some increase. Now, there
4:35
Speaker 2: are other things they can do, they can shift around
4:37
Speaker 2: at different markets. But the fact of the matter is
4:39
Speaker 2: we're open to fixing and addressing this, but you've got
4:43
Speaker 2: to do it in a way bread that actually solves
4:45
Speaker 2: the problem in lowers costs if you stay on this
4:48
Speaker 2: path right now with all the waste, fraud, and abuse.
4:50
Speaker 2: The same thing is true today that I said last September,
4:53
Speaker 2: and that is that there are no income caps, there
4:55
Speaker 2: are zero dollar premiums. There are literally millions of people
4:58
Speaker 2: in the exchange. You don't even know they're covered because
5:00
Speaker 2: the payments go directly from the federal government to the
5:03
Speaker 2: insurance companies, and so people are automatically they're audo or
5:06
Speaker 2: rolled by the insurance companies. And there's no accountability in
5:09
Speaker 2: this program. And the Government Accountability Office sisted and audited
5:13
Speaker 2: this program, and of the twenty fay claims they submitted,
5:16
Speaker 2: nineteen of them got approved. That's a ninety five percent
5:19
Speaker 2: failure rate. So it's got to be reformed and we're
5:22
Speaker 2: open to that, and if the Democrats want to work
5:25
Speaker 2: with us, we won't get it done before the Christmas holiday,
5:28
Speaker 2: but when we come back in January, there are discussions
5:31
Speaker 2: that are going on right now. We have folks who
5:33
Speaker 2: are interested in fixing it.
5:34
Speaker 1: There seems to be real momentum now by Republicans because
5:38
Speaker 1: of this amount of fraud that they should oppose the
5:42
Speaker 1: extensions of the ACA and the premium tax credits because
5:46
Speaker 1: there needs to be reformed. The insufficient fraud protections in
5:51
Speaker 1: the Democratic proposals is also a major problem. Democrats don't
5:56
Speaker 1: want to fix this problem because they're biggest donors, which
5:59
Speaker 1: is the healthcare industry. The health insurance companies are giving
6:04
Speaker 1: them millions and millions of dollars in campaign donations, and
6:09
Speaker 1: that's exactly why Democrats are doing this right now now.
6:13
Speaker 1: Pressuring Democrats to include verification and anti fraud measures in
6:18
Speaker 1: these subsidy extensions is something Republicans need to mandate. Center
6:24
Speaker 1: Thune and other Senate Republicans have framed the debate as quote,
6:28
Speaker 1: you can't extend subsidies without fixing fraud and integrity issues first.
6:33
Speaker 1: They want legitimate legislative language requiring stricter eligibility checks and
6:40
Speaker 1: stronger fraud deterrence mechanisms before supporting further funding. Now here's
6:46
Speaker 1: also with the House Speaker Mike Johnson had to say
6:49
Speaker 1: about this on CNBC of.
6:52
Speaker 3: The COVID Era enhanced subsidy, the premium text credit has
6:56
Speaker 3: been a big issue around here of debate for months now.
7:00
Speaker 3: We knew that we were coming to the end of
7:01
Speaker 3: the year when it would expire. And remember, the Democrats
7:04
Speaker 3: created this COVID era subsidy. They are the ones that
7:08
Speaker 3: put the expiration date on it. And now they're turning
7:10
Speaker 3: to Republicans as if we should we should save that
7:13
Speaker 3: in some way, we couldn't find consensus on it with
7:16
Speaker 3: the body in order to pass it. Here's the reason
7:19
Speaker 3: everybody needs to understand. There's a false narrative out there
7:22
Speaker 3: about these these subsidies. It subsidized in insurance companies, and
7:26
Speaker 3: when you do that, you're masking the costs, the rising
7:29
Speaker 3: cost of healthcare, and you're rising making the premiums rise
7:32
Speaker 3: even further. But here's here's the false narrative. The Democrats
7:35
Speaker 3: are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country.
7:38
Speaker 3: It affects seven percent of Americans this extended subsidy. And
7:43
Speaker 3: of those, even if it was extended without any reforms
7:45
Speaker 3: at all, it would only reduce that small group of
7:49
Speaker 3: Americans premiums by five point seven percent.
7:52
Speaker 4: The Democrats are twenty four million Americans. No, I understand
7:56
Speaker 4: the ass is not for everybody, but it's twenty two
7:58
Speaker 4: to twenty four million America. And there are Republican some
8:03
Speaker 4: Republican Republicans whose districts are going to face some real
8:07
Speaker 4: trouble and some real issues with us. We've talked to
8:09
Speaker 4: some of them. I understand that Michael Awler from New
8:12
Speaker 4: York was particularly upset yesterday that he was kind of
8:18
Speaker 4: furious about it, said it's idiotic, it's political malpractice. That's
8:21
Speaker 4: what he told Axio. So on some of this, they
8:22
Speaker 4: said they could hear him yelling from outside the room
8:25
Speaker 4: yesterday where all of you were meeting.
8:27
Speaker 3: Well, no, no, I was in that room with him
8:29
Speaker 3: and Micha Lauler's one of my close friends. In fact,
8:31
Speaker 3: I was with him in his district in New York
8:33
Speaker 3: City just two weeks ago campaigning for a couple of days,
8:35
Speaker 3: raising him money and helping him get reelected. He's an
8:37
Speaker 3: essential member of our conference and a really smart guy.
8:40
Speaker 3: And what he was arguing for is this seven percent
8:43
Speaker 3: of Americans. But here's the point. What we're going to
8:46
Speaker 3: do today is the first of multiple steps to help
8:49
Speaker 3: not just seven percent of Americans, but one hundred percent
8:52
Speaker 3: of Americans reduce their premiums, actually reduce their premiums, not
8:56
Speaker 3: subsidized insurance companies to raise the premiums, but reduce them.
8:59
Speaker 3: And the first of those votes is today. This is
9:02
Speaker 3: the Lower Premiums for All Americans Act we're going to
9:04
Speaker 3: have on the floor, and it's going to actually achieve
9:07
Speaker 3: if it's signed in a law, exactly what we're saying.
9:09
Speaker 3: It has many components. Among them are the cost sharing
9:12
Speaker 3: reduction programs, which will reduce all premiums across the board
9:15
Speaker 3: by at least eleven percent and by the way, save
9:18
Speaker 3: taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. We have the Health
9:23
Speaker 3: Association Health Plans that will be a part of this today,
9:25
Speaker 3: which will give more flexibility to small businesses and others
9:29
Speaker 3: and insurance in the marketplace. You've got PBM transparency as
9:33
Speaker 3: a part of this, and the choice accounts, so there'll
9:35
Speaker 3: be a lot more flexibility in the system. Consumers will
9:38
Speaker 3: be able to have more choices and their cost will
9:41
Speaker 3: go down. Will also increase access to care through these reforms,
9:45
Speaker 3: and again this is just the first of many. We're
9:48
Speaker 3: going to do more of this in the first quarter
9:50
Speaker 3: of next year. Republicans are the ones who will fix healthcare.
9:53
Speaker 3: It is the Democrats who broke it.
9:55
Speaker 1: Republicans will fix healthcare, and Democrats are the ones who
10:00
Speaker 1: it waste, fraud and abuse. It's part of what the
10:04
Speaker 1: Trump administration said they were going to expose in our government.
10:08
Speaker 1: It's part of what DOGE was created to stop. Well,
10:12
Speaker 1: now we have a new report out from the US
10:14
Speaker 1: Government Accountability Office and it is raising shocking concerns about
10:19
Speaker 1: fraud and deliberate improper payments within the Affordable Care Act
10:25
Speaker 1: and the insurance exchanges. The Government Accountability Office releasing the
10:29
Speaker 1: preliminary watchdog report showing not only that, but serious vulnerabilities
10:35
Speaker 1: and the ACA marketplace subsidies and people are making billions
10:40
Speaker 1: of dollars off of our tax dollars with fraud. Federal
10:45
Speaker 1: auditors created fictitious identities to test the system. All fake
10:51
Speaker 1: applicants in twenty twenty four were approved for subsidized coverage.
10:56
Speaker 1: In fact, eighteen of the twenty fake applicants remained active
11:02
Speaker 1: into twenty twenty five. Fake and rollies were awarded thousands
11:07
Speaker 1: of dollars in subsidies per month taxpayers money automatically paid
11:13
Speaker 1: to the insurers. And now you know why the insurance
11:16
Speaker 1: industry is giving record dollars to Democrats who were in office.
11:23
Speaker 1: The Watchdog has not completed its full final report. The
11:27
Speaker 1: lawmakers are already calling the preliminary findings not just alarming,
11:33
Speaker 1: but damning. House Speaker Mike Johnson saying this last night
11:37
Speaker 1: on Fox News Channel.
11:39
Speaker 3: The Government Accountability Office just came out with a new
11:41
Speaker 3: report this past week, Laura, and it is astounding. Just
11:44
Speaker 3: for example, over the last two years, they submitted twenty
11:47
Speaker 3: four to two dozen totally fraudulent applications for these Unaffordable
11:52
Speaker 3: Care Act subsidies. Okay, twenty three out of twenty four
11:55
Speaker 3: were approved. There were no sub security numbers provided, no
11:58
Speaker 3: verifications incomb or even citizenship. Okay, of course, not right.
12:02
Speaker 3: This tens of thousands of dollars paid to each one
12:05
Speaker 3: of those, to the insurance companies for people that do
12:07
Speaker 3: not exist. Okay, dead people. Ninety four million dollars of
12:11
Speaker 3: taxpayer dollars paid insurance companies for people that have been deceased.
12:16
Speaker 3: Then you had soci security numbers sixty eight thousand, so
12:19
Speaker 3: security numbers in twenty twenty four alone were used for
12:22
Speaker 3: multiple persons, in other words, multiple people using one number
12:25
Speaker 3: to builk the system and defraud it. That's the system
12:28
Speaker 3: that the Democrats created. That's the one they want us
12:31
Speaker 3: to subsidize. So when we go forward with the truth,
12:33
Speaker 3: we explain to the American people the reason their cost
12:36
Speaker 3: out of control is because they created a broken system.
12:38
Speaker 3: We have the solutions to fix it. That is the
12:41
Speaker 3: message and the truth. I think that's going to prevail
12:43
Speaker 3: as you go into the election year.
12:45
Speaker 1: Obamacare sold is affordable care it's not that at all.
12:49
Speaker 1: Ninety four million send to insurers for people that were dead. Now,
12:53
Speaker 1: how much that ninety four million is going to come
12:55
Speaker 1: back the American taxpayer. I think you know the answer, No,
12:58
Speaker 1: none of it is coming back. Sixty eight thousand Social
13:02
Speaker 1: Security numbers used by multiple people to cheat the system,
13:08
Speaker 1: Huge amounts paid to insurance companies, which are the top
13:11
Speaker 1: donors to Democrats in Congress, for countless thousands of people
13:17
Speaker 1: who literally don't exist. The question is would anybody go
13:21
Speaker 1: to jail because of the billions and billions in fraud?
13:25
Speaker 1: The answer I think you know now is no, that
13:28
Speaker 1: is not going to happen. We are not going to
13:30
Speaker 1: get our money back. So how do we now move forward?
13:35
Speaker 1: Number One, We've got to make sure that people understand
13:38
Speaker 1: just how unaffordable the Affordable Care Act is. Democrats have
13:43
Speaker 1: misled hard working Americans and claim that the Affordable Care
13:47
Speaker 1: Act with lower health care premiums when their law was enacted.
13:51
Speaker 1: What has happened since then? Premiums have skyrocketed. Since twenty fourteen,
13:57
Speaker 1: premium costs on the ACA changes have risen nearly two
14:02
Speaker 1: times faster than employer coverage. Why because they know the
14:07
Speaker 1: government money's there for the taking. It has also been
14:12
Speaker 1: more than three times faster than inflation. How do they
14:16
Speaker 1: get away with it when it's government dollars tax dollars.
14:20
Speaker 1: There is no real metric to business or to saying no. Again,
14:25
Speaker 1: the insurance companies know who to pay. That's the Democratic
14:28
Speaker 1: Party who then protects them and their record earnings. It
14:32
Speaker 1: is without question that the Unaffordable Care Act has failed
14:35
Speaker 1: the American people, and now Republicans are having to deal
14:39
Speaker 1: with the fallout and trying to fix it. What we
14:42
Speaker 1: know is the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable.
14:45
Speaker 1: In fact, it's already a disaster, and without the government subsidies,
14:49
Speaker 1: nobody could afford it. But this is where we are
14:52
Speaker 1: with the Democratic Party now. Constantly they lie and they
14:57
Speaker 1: try to tell you that the Affordable Care Act is working,
15:01
Speaker 1: that it is something you should be proud of. Well,
15:03
Speaker 1: House Republicans have introduced a bill to lower healthcare premiums
15:08
Speaker 1: for all Americans. Here's more of what Speaker Johnson had
15:11
Speaker 1: to say about that.
15:13
Speaker 3: We're very close and we're delighted to present this and
15:16
Speaker 3: put it through the House next week. Here's the important thing.
15:19
Speaker 3: You said it very well, Laura The Democrats broke America's
15:22
Speaker 3: healthcare system fifteen years ago when they came out with
15:25
Speaker 3: that Obamacare proposal, the Unaffordable Care Act, that did exactly
15:29
Speaker 3: the opposite of every single thing they promised. Premiums have
15:32
Speaker 3: skyrocketed in some categories up to seventy or ninety percent
15:36
Speaker 3: in the last fifteen years. They will continue to skyrocket.
15:39
Speaker 3: So the Democrats proposal right now is subsidize it further.
15:42
Speaker 3: They want the American tax payer to give billions of
15:45
Speaker 3: dollars to insurance companies in a program that is just
15:48
Speaker 3: riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse. We're not going to
15:51
Speaker 3: do that. Republicans are bringing common sense solutions. We are
15:54
Speaker 3: bringing solutions forward that will actually lower the premiums for
15:57
Speaker 3: all Americans. It's long overdue, and we've got some great
16:00
Speaker 3: ideas to do it.
16:01
Speaker 1: You listen to the fix there from the Speaker, and
16:03
Speaker 1: he's right, there has to be a fix when you
16:06
Speaker 1: have a system that is paying huge amounts to insurance
16:09
Speaker 1: companies for countless thousands of people who don't exist. It's
16:13
Speaker 1: a problem and you may ask yourself, how to the
16:16
Speaker 1: insurance companies even allow this to happen. Well, if someone
16:20
Speaker 1: doesn't exist. Isn't that literally the best possible person that
16:24
Speaker 1: you could ensure. In fact, you could also argue that
16:27
Speaker 1: the insurance companies have actual incentives to take money from
16:31
Speaker 1: the government for people that don't exist. That's why this
16:35
Speaker 1: undercover investigation in rolling twenty three out of twenty four
16:39
Speaker 1: fictional applicants for subsidized health insurance plans to the ACA
16:43
Speaker 1: exchanges should make everyone angry. I don't care if you're
16:46
Speaker 1: a Republican or a Democrat. They also know and they've
16:51
Speaker 1: been warned of these significant vulnerabilities and lacks anti fraud protections.
16:57
Speaker 1: The report actually suggests that there could be widespread in
17:00
Speaker 1: multiple areas of the country where this is being exploited.
17:05
Speaker 1: You also have to go back to the other client
17:08
Speaker 1: of the insurance company, which is the best client you'll
17:10
Speaker 1: ever have ninety four million sent to insurers for those
17:13
Speaker 1: who are dead. Now, if you're an insurance company, what
17:17
Speaker 1: is cheaper and what is more guaranteed to your bottom
17:20
Speaker 1: line than premiums being paid on a human being that's dead.
17:23
Speaker 1: You don't have to ever worry about a claim. Why
17:25
Speaker 1: would you tell the government or try to stop that
17:28
Speaker 1: type of fraud when it's ninety four million, literally directly
17:32
Speaker 1: to your bottom line. The GOA report finding that more
17:36
Speaker 1: than the ninety four million were sent directly the insurance
17:39
Speaker 1: companies on behalf of individuals that are dead. These are
17:43
Speaker 1: what you would describe as fraudulent payments involved using dead people,
17:48
Speaker 1: social Security numbers, and other information to then get the payouts.
17:55
Speaker 1: Now House Budget GOP saying, it is important that we
17:59
Speaker 1: note the issue is improper government payments and improper government
18:04
Speaker 1: payments to our very good friends over at the insurance companies.
18:09
Speaker 1: Their premiums have skyrocketed. Programs like Medicaid and even COVID
18:14
Speaker 1: nineteen stimulus checks are another example of the waste, fraud,
18:17
Speaker 1: and abuse. Every government program seems to be covered up
18:21
Speaker 1: with people that are taking advantage of it, people that
18:23
Speaker 1: are dead, people that should never get the benefits, who
18:27
Speaker 1: are getting the benefits, which is where the Trump administration
18:31
Speaker 1: comes in. What the Trump administration is now said is
18:34
Speaker 1: the government is working on these solutions, such as using
18:37
Speaker 1: the Social Security Administration's Death Master File to identify and
18:42
Speaker 1: stop such fraudulent payments. And what are Democrats saying about that.
18:48
Speaker 1: They're not advocating for it, they're fighting literally against it.
18:52
Speaker 1: Tooth and nail because they want the money to keep
18:55
Speaker 1: flowing to their biggest donors, the healthcare insurance industry. The
19:01
Speaker 1: Senate is staring down healthcare in a major battle with
19:06
Speaker 1: Obamacare subsidies set to expire on purpose. Why are they
19:12
Speaker 1: set to expire? Because Democrats designed it that way. Now,
19:17
Speaker 1: you may ask yourself a question, why would they design
19:20
Speaker 1: a program to expire on purpose? It's pretty simple. Democrats
19:25
Speaker 1: were playing politics. They wanted this to be a political
19:30
Speaker 1: issue that if you don't vote for them, the Democratic Party,
19:35
Speaker 1: that then you can't afford your Obamacare, also known as
19:39
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act, which is anything but affordable. They
19:45
Speaker 1: created a crisis out of thin air, a crisis so
19:49
Speaker 1: that then when the midterms came around, they could say,
19:52
Speaker 1: you better stick with us, because otherwise you will lose
19:56
Speaker 1: the healthcare that we told you we were going to
19:58
Speaker 1: give you forever. It was a designed crisis. That's how
20:02
Speaker 1: evil the Democratic Party was with health care, and specifically
20:06
Speaker 1: with the subsidies around Obamacare. They also knew that Obamacare,
20:11
Speaker 1: the quote Affordable Care Act, was never going to be affordable.
20:14
Speaker 1: They knew from the very beginning. But what's happened since
20:17
Speaker 1: then is even worse. Democrats had figured out that their
20:21
Speaker 1: best donors could be the health care industry, insurance companies, hospitals,
20:27
Speaker 1: those that get paid with these guaranteed subsidies of Obamacare,
20:32
Speaker 1: and they would fill their campaign coffers with cash. Why
20:36
Speaker 1: because the Democratic Party was filling their bank accounts with
20:40
Speaker 1: guaranteed government payments at levels that even the insurance companies
20:45
Speaker 1: could have never imagined. So here we are with a
20:49
Speaker 1: crisis that was created by the Democrats on purpose, a
20:54
Speaker 1: crisis that was made for political reasons only and for
20:58
Speaker 1: reelection campaign, and now we're dealing with a fallout. Senate
21:04
Speaker 1: negotiators are set for a high wire act this week
21:08
Speaker 1: on healthcare, and this is all happening. Wow. Many of
21:12
Speaker 1: them are leaving Washington for the holidays without a resolution
21:16
Speaker 1: on the expiring and hand subsidies. With lawmakers increasingly shifting
21:21
Speaker 1: into campaign mode as the calendar flips to the new year,
21:24
Speaker 1: it's an election year. The Chamber has been consumed for
21:28
Speaker 1: months by a fight over the future of expiring Affordable
21:31
Speaker 1: Care Act subsidies, which were at the center of that
21:35
Speaker 1: record breaking government shutdown. It was the Schumer shutdown. We
21:39
Speaker 1: all know that with the subject of multiple votes and
21:43
Speaker 1: extensive negotiations in the week since so that we don't
21:46
Speaker 1: have another government shutdown in the new year. Now, the
21:51
Speaker 1: December thirty first deadline is set to come and go.
21:54
Speaker 1: A bipartison group of lawmakers is trying to keep those
21:57
Speaker 1: hopes alive that a deal could come together next month,
22:01
Speaker 1: but they're now facing numerous problems, chief among them bringing
22:05
Speaker 1: the fraud that has now been exposed under control, as
22:10
Speaker 1: well as the rhetoric from the left and those on
22:14
Speaker 1: the right that say we should never have done this
22:16
Speaker 1: in the first place. Quote, since the Obamacare passage, any
22:22
Speaker 1: conversation about anything on healthcare has been a big lift.
22:26
Speaker 1: That is what Senator James Langfort, a Republican from Oklahoma, said, saying, quote,
22:31
Speaker 1: everybody sees the problems, and at times my Democratic colleagues
22:35
Speaker 1: will admit, okay, yeah, that's a problem, but trying to
22:39
Speaker 1: vote on it has been tougher. So no matter what
22:42
Speaker 1: we do tweaking this thing, it's going to be hard. Now.
22:46
Speaker 1: The Senate voted on two competing healthcare proposals on December
22:50
Speaker 1: the eleventh. Both failed for Republicans even crossed the aisle
22:56
Speaker 1: to vote in favor of a Democratic buil to extend
22:58
Speaker 1: the subseas for three years, and centers on both sides
23:02
Speaker 1: of the aisle have spent the days since trying to
23:04
Speaker 1: pick up the pieces and find a new deal. Now
23:08
Speaker 1: there is a group now of nearly two dozen members
23:13
Speaker 1: occupying various political lanes across each party, that is convened
23:19
Speaker 1: with an eye towards, as they describe it, unveiling a
23:21
Speaker 1: possible deal, with some even indicating that hopes of a
23:25
Speaker 1: framework agreement could come by the end of the holiday
23:27
Speaker 1: work period and could be in theory past next month.
23:32
Speaker 1: Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and then he would
23:36
Speaker 1: say a Republican in name only, and Bernie Marino, a
23:39
Speaker 1: Republican from Ohio. We're among the organizers of the big meeting. Now.
23:44
Speaker 1: Their bill is calling for just a two year extension
23:48
Speaker 1: of the Obamacare subsidies paired with conservative leaning reforms served
23:53
Speaker 1: as the basis of the discussion to get rid of
23:56
Speaker 1: some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that Democrats do
23:58
Speaker 1: not want to touch. Why because when there is fraud
24:01
Speaker 1: in the healthcare industry, it goes directly to the bottom
24:04
Speaker 1: line of the healthcare providers who are their biggest donors
24:08
Speaker 1: of the candidates and the Democratic Party running in these midterms. Now,
24:13
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, and this went very much unreported, there was
24:17
Speaker 1: actually a group of House GOP Centrists, so they're not
24:21
Speaker 1: really hardcore conservative, they're not MAGA Conservatives who bucked their
24:25
Speaker 1: leadership of the Speaker Mike Johnson by signing into a
24:29
Speaker 1: Democratic effort to force a vote on extending the subsidies.
24:34
Speaker 1: Also met with a group of Centaters to try to
24:36
Speaker 1: chart a path to a deal that could pass in
24:39
Speaker 1: both chambers, because that's part of the problem. If you
24:42
Speaker 1: get it down the Senate, you still have to get
24:44
Speaker 1: it done in the House. Now, Democrats in the Senate
24:46
Speaker 1: have also shied away from trying from tying, i should
24:50
Speaker 1: say the healthcare battle to the looming government funding deadline
24:55
Speaker 1: at the end of January, giving talks a major boost. Now,
24:59
Speaker 1: the Senate adjourned without reaching a healthcare framework for Christmas.
25:04
Speaker 1: That is problematic. Democrats present the first they described it
25:09
Speaker 1: bipartisan meeting last week. They knew that people were leaving town,
25:13
Speaker 1: so it was pretty much meaningless and it was a
25:17
Speaker 1: political stunt. And they said they were initially encouraged as
25:20
Speaker 1: they described it by the discussions, but they indicated that
25:24
Speaker 1: complications made striking a deal increasingly quote problematic. Quote. There
25:30
Speaker 1: was a simple concept on the table when we walked in.
25:34
Speaker 1: It was within the range of reason, but then it
25:36
Speaker 1: got more complicated. There was conceptionally might be well okay,
25:41
Speaker 1: but maybe or might not. That's how Senator Tim Caine,
25:44
Speaker 1: the Democrat from Virginia, said, labeling the meeting a quote
25:47
Speaker 1: productive discussion. He also said there was quote complicators in
25:52
Speaker 1: the room now. Attendees said that they expected future meetings,
25:57
Speaker 1: but whether they continued to push the ball up the
26:00
Speaker 1: and keep talking during the two week holiday break remains
26:04
Speaker 1: an open question. Both sides also have political considerations that
26:09
Speaker 1: could scuttle discussions at any time. And then you've got
26:13
Speaker 1: numerous Republicans that have signaled that they have little to
26:16
Speaker 1: no appetite to vote for any type of extension of
26:19
Speaker 1: the enhanced subsidies, no matter the reforms that could make
26:23
Speaker 1: the package more palatable. Why it's a campaign issue, There's
26:27
Speaker 1: a lot to think Obamacare is well a total lie,
26:31
Speaker 1: and it's filled with fraud, and they're not going to
26:33
Speaker 1: keep paying for that level of fraud. They have also
26:37
Speaker 1: indicated that language concerning the High Amendment, which bars federal
26:42
Speaker 1: funds from going towards abortion and any healthcare package, also
26:47
Speaker 1: remains a major sticking point. Democrats are also quick to
26:52
Speaker 1: note that Republicans have, as they described it, continuously opposed
26:56
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act. Well, it's not affordable. That's one
26:59
Speaker 1: reason to oppose it. And the Minority Party has indicated
27:02
Speaker 1: they plan to pen the blame because this is really
27:06
Speaker 1: all about politics, not about helping you on the GOP.
27:09
Speaker 1: For the premium hikes that millions of Americans are set
27:12
Speaker 1: to experience in the lead up to the midterms. Now,
27:15
Speaker 1: let me be clear, if you have a massive hike
27:18
Speaker 1: in the premiums going into the midterms, it will be
27:21
Speaker 1: blamed on the Republicans because people don't pay attention. We
27:28
Speaker 1: have a lot of idiots in this country that just
27:31
Speaker 1: love free stuff. They don't realize how much that free
27:35
Speaker 1: stuff costs, because nothing is free in healthcare. So here
27:39
Speaker 1: we are at a crossroads what Republicans do, and the
27:44
Speaker 1: President United States of America has got to figure out
27:46
Speaker 1: a way to bring them all together. Operation Overlord the
27:50
Speaker 1: d DA Beaches. You and I share a passion for history,
27:54
Speaker 1: so I hope you'll join me next spring on the
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Speaker 1: D Day Beaches in Normandy. That's right, the invasion that
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Speaker 1: sealed Hitler's doom. Oh Maha and Utah. You're gonna discover
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Speaker 1: the sacred patch of sand with me ten days in Europe,
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Speaker 1: luxury hotels and fully escorted by America's leading expert on
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Speaker 1: France and the D Day Invasion. Can chase fifty seven
28:16
Speaker 1: fifty seven and that includes your airfare. You're gonna stand
28:19
Speaker 1: at General Patten's gravesite by Stone Point Duhal and Mulberry Harbor.
28:24
Speaker 1: Call my friends at Conservative Tours on your cell phone.
28:27
Speaker 1: Just dial pound two fifty and say the keyword Conservative Tours,
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Speaker 1: or go to Conservativetours dot com an A plus rating
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Speaker 1: dial pound two fifty say the keyword Conservative Tours. You'll
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Speaker 1: have the option to receive a one time auto dialed
28:47
Speaker 1: text message from my Heart Media. Now, before we get
28:50
Speaker 1: to the end of the story here with Donald Trump
28:55
Speaker 1: and what he has to figure out and really overcome,
28:58
Speaker 1: I also think there's another ass aspect of this that
29:00
Speaker 1: you need to understand, and that is this part how
29:03
Speaker 1: broken it actually is. And this is why There are
29:08
Speaker 1: Republicans that do not want to just in essence, auto
29:12
Speaker 1: renew this thing, because the argument is, why would we
29:17
Speaker 1: reward waste, massive fraud and your tax dollar is going
29:24
Speaker 1: to insurance companies that are literally, as I would describe it,
29:29
Speaker 1: stealing from you. Let me give you some data that
29:32
Speaker 1: you're not going to hear anywhere else, and you should
29:34
Speaker 1: know this data. But you should also take this data
29:36
Speaker 1: and take the podcast and share it so other people
29:38
Speaker 1: hear this. Not only is Obamacare or the I'm going
29:42
Speaker 1: to probably call it more the Affordable Care Act, because
29:45
Speaker 1: it's so insane that that's what they actually called it,
29:47
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Like it's just lunacy. It is heavily subsidized.
29:53
Speaker 1: This thing is being propped up by your tax dollars
29:56
Speaker 1: at numbers you can't even get your head around. Now,
29:57
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wants the money to go directly to you,
30:01
Speaker 1: so that then you can spend the money on healthcare
30:03
Speaker 1: the way that you believe it should be done, so
30:05
Speaker 1: that these insurance companies don't keep screwing us through all
30:10
Speaker 1: the fraud and the fake accounts and the payments that
30:12
Speaker 1: are going right, That's that's the number one thing, all right,
30:17
Speaker 1: so let me give you some data here. Twenty four
30:20
Speaker 1: point three million people selected right or were auto re
30:25
Speaker 1: enrolled in the marketplace coverage in twenty twenty five. Now
30:30
Speaker 1: a big driver in the Advanced Premium Tax Credit known
30:34
Speaker 1: as the APTC. The report notes that twelve point eight
30:38
Speaker 1: million or more receive that subsidy in twenty twenty five
30:44
Speaker 1: compared to twenty twenty. People are asking the question where
30:49
Speaker 1: do these twelve point eight million people come from? Now?
30:52
Speaker 1: These enhanced subsidies are a massive budget item, all right,
30:56
Speaker 1: and their expiration is a cliff. The enant's Premium tax credit.
31:02
Speaker 1: It was expanded under COVID, right, it's no longer around.
31:06
Speaker 1: COVID's not around like it was. It was all done
31:09
Speaker 1: during the COVID era legislation, and it was extended and
31:12
Speaker 1: they're scheduled to run out. They will expire at the
31:14
Speaker 1: end of this year. That's why there is this like
31:17
Speaker 1: the house is on fire moment. One major budget estimate,
31:21
Speaker 1: by the way, says that permanently extending the enhanced substis
31:25
Speaker 1: for COVID, which we don't have anymore. That's how broken
31:27
Speaker 1: the Affordable CARECT. They need subeties for COVID even though
31:30
Speaker 1: we're not dealing with COVID all right, could cost up
31:33
Speaker 1: to three hundred and fifty billion dollars through twenty thirty five.
31:38
Speaker 1: That is insanity. And the analysts also note that well
31:42
Speaker 1: over fifty billion of that cost flow two households above
31:47
Speaker 1: five x the poverty level. Let me give you example.
31:51
Speaker 1: Some of these substees are going to families that make
31:53
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty thousand dollars a year for a
31:55
Speaker 1: family of four this year. Is that where we're and
31:59
Speaker 1: this is how you get closer and closer to just
32:01
Speaker 1: straight up socialized medicine. You subsidize people at one hundred
32:05
Speaker 1: and sixty k with a family of four. They then
32:08
Speaker 1: learn to just rely on it, depend on it. They
32:10
Speaker 1: vote on it because they don't want to pay for
32:12
Speaker 1: their healthcare because it's going through the taxes. And then
32:14
Speaker 1: you have this big grand divide and you get very
32:17
Speaker 1: close to what I just described, which is socialized medicine.
32:21
Speaker 1: And we're on the verge of that just being the reality,
32:23
Speaker 1: which was the whole design of Obamacare. That's part of
32:27
Speaker 1: what you really need to understand, Like this was all
32:30
Speaker 1: a part of the design. It was designed to fail
32:35
Speaker 1: so that the government would just take over the entire system. Now,
32:39
Speaker 1: without the enhanced subsidies, the affordability math worsens really fast. Okay,
32:45
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six premiums modeling finds that the marketplace premium
32:50
Speaker 1: payments would rise by one hundred and fourteen percent on average,
32:54
Speaker 1: meaning that fifty percent are above that level if the
32:57
Speaker 1: credits expire. That's about one thousand, sixteen dollars a year.
33:02
Speaker 1: So the Congressional Budget Office says, look, the expiration not
33:06
Speaker 1: only would reduce substas in the enrollment, but it would
33:10
Speaker 1: raise the uninsured rate, which then would be blamed they
33:13
Speaker 1: believe on Donald Trump. That's why Democrats are willing to
33:15
Speaker 1: play this game of Russian roulette. They also said that
33:20
Speaker 1: not only would that happen, but literally millions could lose
33:22
Speaker 1: coverage because if Congress says nothing, then the money dries up,
33:26
Speaker 1: and then they're like, why I can't afford it? And
33:28
Speaker 1: then the rates have gone through the roof because the
33:30
Speaker 1: rates that the insurance companies are charging have skyrocketed since
33:37
Speaker 1: the subseas came in, because they're like, well, we need
33:39
Speaker 1: to get our hands on more of this money. So
33:42
Speaker 1: now you're actually paying a rate that is egregious, that
33:47
Speaker 1: is unrealistic for the marketplace without the government subsidies. You
33:52
Speaker 1: following me here, the insurance company said, hey, we can
33:56
Speaker 1: grab billions of dollars. Let's keep raising the rates every year.
34:00
Speaker 1: The government will pay the rate increase guaranteed. We'll also
34:05
Speaker 1: have a bunch of dead people that are enrolling and
34:07
Speaker 1: people that have died that are still being enrolled in
34:09
Speaker 1: a bunch of fraudulent enrollment. That's all a fact. We
34:12
Speaker 1: know that as well. We are getting paid for people
34:15
Speaker 1: that never use their insurance. We're getting paid for people
34:18
Speaker 1: that don't even know they're actually enrolled in Obamacare, and
34:21
Speaker 1: so they never come into the hospital. And we get
34:24
Speaker 1: all that money without having to offer any coverage or
34:28
Speaker 1: actual service. And now you understand exactly why Democrats want
34:35
Speaker 1: this to keep going, because the insurance companies have basically said,
34:39
Speaker 1: we have a blank check for you. We will write
34:42
Speaker 1: you a check for you to get elected and get
34:44
Speaker 1: re elected, and we will write it for you forever
34:47
Speaker 1: as long as you let us keep getting the billions
34:51
Speaker 1: of dollars in government aid. These insurance companies are not
34:55
Speaker 1: running a business anymore. I want to be clear about that.
34:59
Speaker 1: They're running a full blown, shady as hell, corrupt business
35:07
Speaker 1: with a government check that keeps showing up. It's bribery.
35:12
Speaker 1: That's the best way I can describe it is it
35:14
Speaker 1: is bribery. Let me give you another example. The programs
35:19
Speaker 1: quote integrity and fraud vulnerabilities have been documented now for
35:25
Speaker 1: the first time. How bad is it? I'm going to
35:28
Speaker 1: quote for you the Liberal Washington Post. Okay, are you ready?
35:34
Speaker 1: This is the I'll say it again, the Liberal Washington Post.
35:42
Speaker 1: The Washington Post reported at broker scheme has now been
35:45
Speaker 1: tied to at least one hundred and eighty million and
35:48
Speaker 1: in proper federal subsidies, alongside findings including a GOA test
35:53
Speaker 1: showing weak verification controls in many cases. Now, this is
35:56
Speaker 1: just full blown fraud. How many people have gone to
35:59
Speaker 1: jail so far that we know of? I don't think any.
36:02
Speaker 1: Usually when we find this level of fraud, what usually
36:04
Speaker 1: happens we don't get any Okay, body that actually goes
36:08
Speaker 1: to jail. This reminds me a lot of the housing
36:11
Speaker 1: crisis and the fraud that we found out was going
36:13
Speaker 1: on in the housing market, in the loan market, and
36:18
Speaker 1: what happened when there was the big crash in eight
36:20
Speaker 1: One guy went to jail because all of these bankers
36:25
Speaker 1: and all of these mortgage lenders that were in on
36:29
Speaker 1: this scheme. This just massive level of corruption, of waste, fraud,
36:36
Speaker 1: and abuse all got away with it. So is there
36:39
Speaker 1: any incentive to not do it again? No, there is
36:45
Speaker 1: zero incentive to not do it again. This is what
36:51
Speaker 1: President Trump is having to deal with. And the question
36:54
Speaker 1: that he's going to have to ask is how much
36:56
Speaker 1: money should go to subsidize this. Right, there's two big
37:01
Speaker 1: buckets that are at the center of this subsy debate, right,
37:04
Speaker 1: the premium tax credits, the monthly subsidies, that's the main
37:07
Speaker 1: affordability engine for the marketplace premiums, which if skyrocketed. And
37:12
Speaker 1: then the enhancement stub subsy expansion, the temporary larger credits
37:16
Speaker 1: that were done in the name of COVID that is
37:18
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty billion we're talking about right now
37:21
Speaker 1: through twenty thirty five. I'm going to say it again,
37:24
Speaker 1: we can't afford this. We can't afford any of it.
37:28
Speaker 1: So how do you pull back? Okay, how do you
37:33
Speaker 1: pull back on this? That's the question that everybody needs
37:37
Speaker 1: to ask, And how do you do it without losing
37:40
Speaker 1: a midterm election is the bigger question on this don't forget.
37:46
Speaker 1: Share this podcast wherever you can with your family and
37:48
Speaker 1: your friends, and I'll see you back here tomorrow.