'I Need You To Think About This': Maria Cantwell Grills Dr. Oz About Health Insurance Policies

2 days ago

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Friday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned Dr. Oz about health care for people on or formerly on Medicaid.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Dr. Oz. Thank you so much for the visit in our office and I wanted to

00:06put up you know not we're not into a and I gotcha as much as a long-term

00:12commitment apparently that you have the from 2009 I think that every American

00:17should have coverage and that was probably on a visit to Seattle so we

00:23appreciate that. In continuing the line of questioning that my colleague just

00:29had you know Medicaid in the Medicaid expansion you believe in the Medicaid

00:33expansion that was done under the Affordable Care Act? For some states it

00:37made sense for some it didn't I think that's a good example of how states

00:41should pick a path to take care of their most vulnerable but they have to have a

00:44plan. Well wait but the states that didn't don't have a plan what plan did

00:49they have? As we discussed in your office but with the Affordable Care Act they

00:54have an opportunity to expand Medicaid or they could use other tactics as you

00:58know ten states haven't expanded. I know but you're saying that's okay? As long

01:02as they have a plan to address their challenges of dealing with the

01:06underserved populations. What plan? There are these multiples well look I don't

01:11have the numbers right in front of me but I'll get those I guarantee you they

01:14have lots of people unserved and as my colleague just said that oftentimes

01:21exacerbates the cost on to hospitals in more expensive care instead of getting

01:26coverage. You and I talked about this concept of bundling up the working

01:33population at a hundred and fifty percent you know above the Medicaid rate

01:37as New York has done as Minnesota has done as now other states are trying to

01:41do and creating that incentive juxtaposed to the exchange. Do you

01:46believe in that concept? We discussed in Washington State how you had a very

01:50innovative program before the Affordable Care Act that actually seemed to make

01:54sense to me as you described it. I've not studied it in detail but I like the

01:59idea that there are multiple different approaches to moving people from

02:02Medicaid if they're able to get off Medicaid into the workforce and you to

02:08do that you have to support them in order to afford insurance. So some

02:11transition process if you're able to get off Medicaid to get you under a private

02:16insurance company prevents the gaps in care that often do result in

02:20extraordinary expensive admissions. I'm saying something else that I hope my

02:24Republican colleagues will listen to. I'm asking you if you believe in a virtual

02:29bundle delivered by the private sector getting access to that as a way to

02:35reduce the exorbitant payments on the silver plans. That's what I'm asking.

02:41It's a detailed question that I do have to research a bit and if confirmed I

02:45look forward to following up with you on that because I think in your office some

02:49of the ideas we discussed including that one are promising ways that would

02:53allow people the flexibility to choose what type of insurance they want if

02:57they're starting to work and it's financially doesn't make sense to get

03:02off Medicaid yet and if they are able to get above the poverty level which is you

03:06know is $16,000 a year for a single individual it's not much money you have

03:10to have ways for people making slightly more than that to feel confident that

03:13they're protected. Well I think the American people want to know just from

03:17your nomination and from this process that we're going to go through what is

03:21it that Republicans believe if they're saying next year which I think the

03:24president is saying we're going to cut off all of those silver plan subsidies

03:29I'm saying I at least want to hear from you whether you believe that bundling

03:34those people up into a virtual bundle I think is what you called it in my office

03:39and allowing them to have that market power is an idea that you agree with.

03:46Well I look forward to confirm with this committee to researching that in detail

03:50it's a promising enough idea that if you'll take me into your office again I

03:53would love to visit you with it. Okay well definitely my vote will be

03:56predicated on this so I can't wait till after you're confirmed I need you to

04:00think about this because look you're coming with the ability to be an

04:04advocate here so we want to know what you're gonna be an advocate for and all

04:08my colleagues are gonna want to know are you going to cut Medicaid we we want to

04:12know that from everybody we want to know are you going to cut Medicaid we don't

04:15believe in cutting Medicaid it's 1.8 million people now in the state of

04:19Washington it is basically the number of people in my state who are getting

04:24maternal care from this is is an exorbitant the number of kids getting

04:30care from this you know is high 47% of kids in my state receive insurance from

04:37from Medicaid and and we have population centers of our entire state that are

04:44well above 50% Medicaid Medicare populations so how do you deliver

04:49healthcare to Central Washington when it's that level so we want to know

04:53whether you're going to commit to concepts if you don't like some aspects

04:58of the Affordable Care Act you should say which ones you don't like thank you

05:01very much but I hope that you will learn that that the Affordable Care expansion

05:07of Medicaid work and virtual bundles that give consumers more clout also work

05:11thank you thank you senator Lankford

'I Need You To Think About This': Maria Cantwell Grills Dr. Oz About Health Insurance Policies

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