December 2, 2025 • 8 mins
U.S. Senator Rick Scott joins us to discuss his plan to fix Obamacare and bring health care costs down.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go straight to the hotline and bring in Senator
Rick Scott, who joins us this morning to talk about
his bill to fix Obamacare and drive down healthcare cost.
Senator Scott always appreciate you taking a few minutes to
come on the show. And let's dive into this bill.
And first of all, this isn't a complete repeal and
(00:21):
replace Obamacare plan, correct, this is something that would reform it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, I think we've got to fix it. It's really important
to me that people have access to doctors and hospital specialists.
I grew up in a family that didn't have health
care insurance. I remember when my little brother had had
a significant disease. He my mom had to go to
find the Churity Hospital four hours away from our town
because nobody would take care of him as my mom
(00:49):
had no money. So I think it's really important to us.
And what we've done with Obamacare is we cause the
cost of healthcare to skyrocket. That means that you have
less access to help here. So what my bill would
say is we're going to stop giving the money to
insurance companies. We're gonna give it to the consumer and
let the consumer become a shopper. Of healthcare so they
(01:10):
know what they need. They'll know the type of insurance
they need. If we're going to give them dollars, which
we need to make sure we have safety nets for people.
Let's let them be the buyer. Let them they might
want to have a direct contract with the hospital. They
might want to you know, pay for their copayment were
deductible or their premium out of it. Let them give
give that decision. We shouldn't be you know, we shouldn't
(01:31):
have one size fits all by the federal government deciding
everything and give them money to insurance companies then they
dictate all the terms. That's it's the wrong way of
doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Let me ask you this. You know, we heard for
years that we needed to repeal and replace Obamacare because
it was such a disaster. Why isn't that still the plan.
Why is it now an attempt to fix it as
opposed to tossing it out and starting over with something new.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, my view is if a state likes their Obamacare,
they are to bill keep it. But I just think
we ought to go back to let states make these decisions.
Let the state governors and their legislature make the decision
how they want the federal healthcare dollars to flow, and
I think most states are going to make the choice
that the existing way Obamacare work doesn't work, and what's
better is allowing you know, in their state, allowing the
(02:24):
consumer to have the money instead of you know, an
insurance company having the money. So I think the right
thing to do is get people, get people options. Respect
the fact that our states are all different, and so
if a state wants to keep Obamacare, you know, learn
to keep Obamacare. It doesn't work, it's a failure. But
I think that the right way of doing this is,
(02:45):
you know, let the governor and the legislatures be active
in making these decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We're joined by Senator Rick Scott talking about his bill
to address issues with Obamacare. One of the concerns is,
let's say you give my need directly to consumers, and
you've got someone like me who is generally pretty healthy.
I might not look all that healthy at the moment,
(03:09):
but you know, we're coming off with Thanksgiving and a
lot of food. But let's say you've got somebody who's
generally pretty healthy and they decide, you know what, I'm
just going to kind of roll the dice. I'll maybe
go to urching care. I'm not going to buy any
kind of insurance and then you have a pool of
people who needs insurance because they're sicker, and that leads
(03:30):
to higher and higher premiums. What do you say about
those concerns, how something a setup like that could impact
the marketplace?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, I think no different than what we You know,
the way we do food stamps is we give the
money to the we want to help help somebody, which
we should, Well, we give it to that individual and
let them choose. We don't say, oh, gosh, you know
healthcare is you know the food food's going to for
other people because of that. What we say is in
(04:04):
our country, we're going to give you freedom and choice,
and I think people are going to make good choices.
I think everybody will. Then the insurance company is going
to be trying to figure out how do I ater
to you rather than cater to getting more money out
of the federal government. Existing program has never worked, you know,
you know, just remember how it was sold. You get
to keep your doctor. That was not true. You to
(04:25):
keep your plan completely untrue. Every family is going to
save twenty five hundred dollars. No, it's skyrocketed. You know,
back when Obamacare started, the deductible would have been maybe
three thousand dollars for a high deductible plan. Now it's
ten thousand dollars and somebody's Obamacare planned. So this is
the way the SINS set up does not work. And
that's why we've got to give I think governors and
(04:47):
state legislatures are going to make a good choice here
and let them let them figure out what fits for
their state. And I think if in their state they
have an issue over that, they'll they'll create high risk pools,
which is what we had before before Obamacare. We had
high risk pools for for people that had higher health
care costs.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
But you know, back then you didn't have to cover
people with pre existing conditions and things like that. Once
you factor that in, it complicates things a bit. And
that was part of the reason that you know, you
would want healthier people in that pool to kind of
stabilize the cost of everything for everybody.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, well that in mind, I think every plan ought
to cover pre existent condition the I don't think anything.
I mean, I remember this issue with my brother, and
you know, my parents wouldn't have been able at that point.
The way they were set up, they wouldn't have been
able to get insurance even if they could have afforded it,
which they couldn't. So I think we've got to we've
got to make sure that we cover people with pre
(05:45):
existing conditions. And but I think through competition it's going
to drive down the cost. So there's so I used
to be in the hospital business. There's no reason costs
should be as high as they are. The reason their
costs as higher as they are is that no one's
action like consumer everybody's just up and they come up
to DC, they come up and just just throw more
(06:05):
money at the system.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Well, well there's no transparency, senator, And does your bill
address that? Like, I don't know what I'm paying for?
So so I went to to urgent care recently and
I didn't get a I didn't get a bill until
like weeks. I had no idea what was going to
be picked up by insurance. Well wasn't like, how do
we address that part of it?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Mine covers transparency. When I was in I had an
urgent care company company before I was governor, and I
had a menu board just like Starbucks. You want to
come to see a doctor who was eighty nine dollars.
If you had one procedure, I think it was one
forty nine. If you had X ray, you know, and
take care of the wound, all these things, then was
(06:46):
it so it was? It would have been all if
I think two twenty nine or something.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That's what I want. I want to see a McDonald's,
like Lord, when I go into a hospital or a
doctor's office.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Sue is that you get charged as an individual who
goes in there by yourself as self pay is going
to be different than what the insurance company has to pay.
And it all depends on your insurance too, so it's
a different price depending on who you are.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That's another part of the issue.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, well, when when you when everybody becomes a consumer,
right then, and they're going to everybody in my bill,
you're required to put your prices up. There's actually we
have laws right now, they're just not being enforced to
require me. When you go into a hospital, or you
go into a doctor's office, or you go, you know,
(07:32):
into any type of facility, you should know what you're
going to you know what's going to cost and who's
going to pay for it. It shouldn't be this this well,
I have no idea until after the fact that then
I get this, this surprise bill. You should never have
any of this with I dealt with surprise bill in
a if as governor we pass transparency. But you've got
you know, people have got to enforced these laws.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
All right. Senator Rick Scott with us this morning talk
about his bill to address issues with the Affordable Care
Act and help drive down healthcare air cost. Senator Scott
really appreciate the time this morning. Thanks so much for
coming on.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
All right, take care, Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
The Ryan Gorman Show on NewsRadio WFLA.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show,
and find us online at ryangormanshow dot com.
Let's go straight to the hotline and bring in Senator
Rick Scott, who joins us this morning to talk about
his bill to fix Obamacare and drive down healthcare cost.
Senator Scott always appreciate you taking a few minutes to
come on the show. And let's dive into this bill.
And first of all, this isn't a complete repeal and
(00:21):
replace Obamacare plan, correct, this is something that would reform it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, I think we've got to fix it. It's really important
to me that people have access to doctors and hospital specialists.
I grew up in a family that didn't have health
care insurance. I remember when my little brother had had
a significant disease. He my mom had to go to
find the Churity Hospital four hours away from our town
because nobody would take care of him as my mom
(00:49):
had no money. So I think it's really important to us.
And what we've done with Obamacare is we cause the
cost of healthcare to skyrocket. That means that you have
less access to help here. So what my bill would
say is we're going to stop giving the money to
insurance companies. We're gonna give it to the consumer and
let the consumer become a shopper. Of healthcare so they
(01:10):
know what they need. They'll know the type of insurance
they need. If we're going to give them dollars, which
we need to make sure we have safety nets for people.
Let's let them be the buyer. Let them they might
want to have a direct contract with the hospital. They
might want to you know, pay for their copayment were
deductible or their premium out of it. Let them give
give that decision. We shouldn't be you know, we shouldn't
(01:31):
have one size fits all by the federal government deciding
everything and give them money to insurance companies then they
dictate all the terms. That's it's the wrong way of
doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Let me ask you this. You know, we heard for
years that we needed to repeal and replace Obamacare because
it was such a disaster. Why isn't that still the plan.
Why is it now an attempt to fix it as
opposed to tossing it out and starting over with something new.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, my view is if a state likes their Obamacare,
they are to bill keep it. But I just think
we ought to go back to let states make these decisions.
Let the state governors and their legislature make the decision
how they want the federal healthcare dollars to flow, and
I think most states are going to make the choice
that the existing way Obamacare work doesn't work, and what's
better is allowing you know, in their state, allowing the
(02:24):
consumer to have the money instead of you know, an
insurance company having the money. So I think the right
thing to do is get people, get people options. Respect
the fact that our states are all different, and so
if a state wants to keep Obamacare, you know, learn
to keep Obamacare. It doesn't work, it's a failure. But
I think that the right way of doing this is,
(02:45):
you know, let the governor and the legislatures be active
in making these decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We're joined by Senator Rick Scott talking about his bill
to address issues with Obamacare. One of the concerns is,
let's say you give my need directly to consumers, and
you've got someone like me who is generally pretty healthy.
I might not look all that healthy at the moment,
(03:09):
but you know, we're coming off with Thanksgiving and a
lot of food. But let's say you've got somebody who's
generally pretty healthy and they decide, you know what, I'm
just going to kind of roll the dice. I'll maybe
go to urching care. I'm not going to buy any
kind of insurance and then you have a pool of
people who needs insurance because they're sicker, and that leads
(03:30):
to higher and higher premiums. What do you say about
those concerns, how something a setup like that could impact
the marketplace?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, I think no different than what we You know,
the way we do food stamps is we give the
money to the we want to help help somebody, which
we should, Well, we give it to that individual and
let them choose. We don't say, oh, gosh, you know
healthcare is you know the food food's going to for
other people because of that. What we say is in
(04:04):
our country, we're going to give you freedom and choice,
and I think people are going to make good choices.
I think everybody will. Then the insurance company is going
to be trying to figure out how do I ater
to you rather than cater to getting more money out
of the federal government. Existing program has never worked, you know,
you know, just remember how it was sold. You get
to keep your doctor. That was not true. You to
(04:25):
keep your plan completely untrue. Every family is going to
save twenty five hundred dollars. No, it's skyrocketed. You know,
back when Obamacare started, the deductible would have been maybe
three thousand dollars for a high deductible plan. Now it's
ten thousand dollars and somebody's Obamacare planned. So this is
the way the SINS set up does not work. And
that's why we've got to give I think governors and
(04:47):
state legislatures are going to make a good choice here
and let them let them figure out what fits for
their state. And I think if in their state they
have an issue over that, they'll they'll create high risk pools,
which is what we had before before Obamacare. We had
high risk pools for for people that had higher health
care costs.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
But you know, back then you didn't have to cover
people with pre existing conditions and things like that. Once
you factor that in, it complicates things a bit. And
that was part of the reason that you know, you
would want healthier people in that pool to kind of
stabilize the cost of everything for everybody.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, well that in mind, I think every plan ought
to cover pre existent condition the I don't think anything.
I mean, I remember this issue with my brother, and
you know, my parents wouldn't have been able at that point.
The way they were set up, they wouldn't have been
able to get insurance even if they could have afforded it,
which they couldn't. So I think we've got to we've
got to make sure that we cover people with pre
(05:45):
existing conditions. And but I think through competition it's going
to drive down the cost. So there's so I used
to be in the hospital business. There's no reason costs
should be as high as they are. The reason their
costs as higher as they are is that no one's
action like consumer everybody's just up and they come up
to DC, they come up and just just throw more
(06:05):
money at the system.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Well, well there's no transparency, senator, And does your bill
address that? Like, I don't know what I'm paying for?
So so I went to to urgent care recently and
I didn't get a I didn't get a bill until
like weeks. I had no idea what was going to
be picked up by insurance. Well wasn't like, how do
we address that part of it?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Mine covers transparency. When I was in I had an
urgent care company company before I was governor, and I
had a menu board just like Starbucks. You want to
come to see a doctor who was eighty nine dollars.
If you had one procedure, I think it was one
forty nine. If you had X ray, you know, and
take care of the wound, all these things, then was
(06:46):
it so it was? It would have been all if
I think two twenty nine or something.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That's what I want. I want to see a McDonald's,
like Lord, when I go into a hospital or a
doctor's office.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Sue is that you get charged as an individual who
goes in there by yourself as self pay is going
to be different than what the insurance company has to pay.
And it all depends on your insurance too, so it's
a different price depending on who you are.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That's another part of the issue.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, well, when when you when everybody becomes a consumer,
right then, and they're going to everybody in my bill,
you're required to put your prices up. There's actually we
have laws right now, they're just not being enforced to
require me. When you go into a hospital, or you
go into a doctor's office, or you go, you know,
(07:32):
into any type of facility, you should know what you're
going to you know what's going to cost and who's
going to pay for it. It shouldn't be this this well,
I have no idea until after the fact that then
I get this, this surprise bill. You should never have
any of this with I dealt with surprise bill in
a if as governor we pass transparency. But you've got
you know, people have got to enforced these laws.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
All right. Senator Rick Scott with us this morning talk
about his bill to address issues with the Affordable Care
Act and help drive down healthcare air cost. Senator Scott
really appreciate the time this morning. Thanks so much for
coming on.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
All right, take care, Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
The Ryan Gorman Show on NewsRadio WFLA.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show,
and find us online at ryangormanshow dot com.
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