November 14, 2025 • 17 mins
Willie talks with Katy Talento of the Alliance of Healthcare Sharing about the scam the Obamacare is and what needs to happen to fix healthcare in the United States.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Bill Cunningham, the Great American. Of course, the healthcare crisis
in America has caused the shutdown of the government now opened,
and watching one of the morning talk shows, King Jeffers
is saying they have another bite at the apple in
about ten weeks. January thirtieth is not that far away,
and he says there might be another government shutdown happening,
(00:27):
which is utterly ridiculous. Putting money into a failed system,
a failed government program. Doubling down on stupid is often
what Democrats and what many in Washington do. Some are
fighting against it. Katie Talento is the executive director of
the Alliance of Healthcare Sharing and first of all, Katie
Talento tell us, can you give me, generally in the
(00:48):
American people the status of health care in America today?
Volumes have been written on that topic. But about out
of ninety three percent of us get either our health
insurance for Medicare, Medicaid from private plans, through employers or
veterans or whatever. It might be about seven percent through
the Obamacare exchanges, which have failed miserably. So, since you're
in the industry, what is happening to us healthcare system
(01:11):
in America in general? And the response to it by government.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, it's not a good situation. Bill, Thanks for having me. Yeah,
I think the affordability crisis is hitting everybody, and so
you know, premiums are up double digits this year for everyone,
even if federal employee has got a twelve percent rate hike,
So you know, they get no love for having been
put out of work for you know, twenty seven weeks,
but they have to now pay more for their insurance too,
(01:39):
so at least they're suffering with the rest of us.
I do think that this is going to become a
campaign issue unfortunately, and Republicans are usually in trouble when
healthcare becomes a campaign issue. You know, I was a
veteran of the White House when we were doing repeal
and replace back in the day, and I can tell
you it's going to take longer than five weeks for
us to negotiate some sort of master plan here.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So I think that if the Democrats want.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
To have another shutdown, they will do that at their
political peril. But you know, that may not be the
best thing for the American people at this point.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
What happened.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I've done many topics the last few days weeks on
the failure of Obamacare, in which is government subsidizing and
billions of dollars that might be forty to fifty billion
a year.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Maybe you have the number.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That Washington sends directly to insurance companies under a promise
to hold down premiums and to the to the seven
percent twenty three million people on Obamacare. Why did Obamacare fail?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So the promise to hold down premiums has not really
been tested. Obviously, the premiums have skyrocketed. They've more than
tripled since twenty ten when.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
The bill was first enacted.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
However, affordability is sort of addressed by Obamacare because they
just subsidize.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Your overpriced premiums. And so the vast majority of people who.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Are buying their plan on the Obamacare exchanges are getting
premium subsidies, so their premiums are either free or they
are largely subsidized. And that is truly the only way
that you can keep anyone who is younger or healthier,
or who is not sort of already sick from fleeing
this market where it's so unaffordable.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
That they don't see the value of it.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
But they need to have all these younger, healthy people
in the insurance pool or the insurers do, or else
it'll go into what we call in the.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Insurance business the death spiral.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Where it's just sicker and older and sicker and older
people every year, and then the premiums go up, and
then a few more younger healthy people leave because they
can't afford it anymore, and then it's older and sicker
and so just get you get into the spiral, and
that's the.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Death of an insurance product.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So they have to force people to stay in the pool,
and that's why it's failing. It was never a good
value for young healthy people. When you're requiring these policies
to cover everything from abortion and trans surgeries to maternity
writers for men and you know, preventive cap smears for men,
(04:06):
you know like this is this is too much. It's
too much insurance coverage for what most people need, and
it's not enough insurance coverage for the people who do
need it because the deductibles are so high they can't
even afford to use their plan when they when they
do need it. So it's an absolute failure. I do
think that there are promising alternatives out there, like health
care sharing ministries, like health savings accounts like Direct primary Care,
(04:30):
which is sort of a Netflix subscription for unlimited primary care,
and people are fleeing to these better alternatives that feel
more human and feel more rational meeting their needs.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Funding of failure is what Washington does, which is why
Democrats want Obamacare to be funded. I spoke to a
twenty eight year old who called in a couple a
week or two ago, and this guy says, look, I
was in Obamacare for like two years. I got out
because I never I never used it. I never went
to the er. I never I had a primary care physician,
but I didn't feel a need to go. It was
(05:01):
costing me seven hundred dollars a month, and I'm thinking,
why am I doing it? I got rid of it. Plus,
he said to me, look, isn't it true, he called
me Uncle Bill. Isn't it true, Uncle Bill, that if
I have something bad happens to me, I can go
to the er anyway and get care at the er,
and if I can't pay for it, I can't pay
for it. So why have insurance if I get the
product anyway for nothing? How do you respond to him?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
He's exactly right, He's making completely rational choices. You can
go to the er and they are required to treat
you regardless of your coverage. Now, you might end up
with a really horrific building said to you, you might end
up in collections over it, but at least you will
be treated in that moment if you're having a life
threatening issue. I totally sympathize with your caller because he's
(05:45):
the exact reason why Obamacare is failing. Young healthy people
they just seed no value in this product, so why
would they stay? And so you're left with only healthy, unhealthy,
expensive people driving up premium so that it happens even
worse next year. That's why this whole project has failed,
and that's why we've got to seek alternatives. I was
(06:07):
so encouraged by President Trump tweeting or rather truthing out
in the past couple of weeks about let's just stop
putting money in insurers' pocket and let's actually put it
in health savings accounts for people so they can go
buy what they want.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Great idea, but a Keem Jeffries and the Democrats don't
want any part of that because it puts the person
in charge, not big time health insurers who pay them
huge amounts of money.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
And campaign.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I think the average America done understand that about how
much money every year goes from the US Treasury to
big time health insurers in order to knock down the
premiums of individuals who may not use the product at all?
And how much money is the taxpayer funding healthcare insurance companies.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
How much money we're talking about about, it's.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
About a trillion dollars. I published with it with a trillion.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
With a John Houfkin's researchers a few years ago, we
estimated that almost half forty seven percent. But the entire
United States budget goes towards some form of health care.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, if you're United healthcare, are you in the business
having taken all this money from the government under Obamacare,
are you in the business and making sure that you're
ensured have great healthcare at low cost?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Or are you in the business of making money?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, that's exactly right. You know, these giant companies we
call them the Bukahs, Blue Cross, United Signa at nine, Humana, Buca,
and these these giant companies, nobody had ever heard of
some of them, you know, years ago, and now they're on.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
The Fortune fifty list.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Their stockholders are loving it. Living it up, and you know,
their CEOs are living off they're billionaires. And you know, meanwhile,
United Healthcare is denying a third of every claim that
comes to them. And most people think of their insurer
like the cable compan They hate them. And so this
is a product that nobody really wants to pay for
(08:04):
because they don't see the value in it, and when
they really need it, when they really need it.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
It's an absolute bureaucratic night there to use.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Aren't the insurance companies because they are a for profit
business in the business of denying claims and having high deductibilities.
And that's true because I listened to a Keem Jeffries.
If Republicans don't agree to this, you want people to
be sick and die in hospitals. You don't want people
to get medical care. In reality, the Democrats get millions
of dollars in campaign donations from insurance companies, and aren't
(08:37):
they in the business of making money and not in
the business of providing healthcare?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well, the secret of the dirty little secret of healthcare
is that the insurers are interested in high prices from hospitals,
and hospitals are interested in lots of sick people.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So when you get paid.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
When people are sick and high price stuff is done
to them, you're going to get more sickness and higher
price stuff. And that's what we're seeing over and over again.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
You also say in this column, uh, you believe that
the recent US government shutdown that ended after forty three
days result of from protecting lucrative political donations from big
healthcare insurance. And the media never asked a King Jeffries
or Democrats the question, how come we're funding the BUCA,
the large Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare and SIGNA.
(09:27):
We're funding them and they're in the business of screwing
the policyholders.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Why isn't that brought up by the media.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well, you know, to be fair to these politicians.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And let me tell you, the healthcare swamp funds all
parties and every single one of them. You know, the
farm industry alone has four or five lobbyists for every
member of Congress. So nobody is innocent here in DC.
But I will tell you that you know, these people,
they are in the business of making money and profiting
off of our sickness. But the American people are also
(09:59):
apol polutely committed to having insurance at any cost. I mean,
we have seen that. Unfortunately, if you try to take
I mean the battlescars from the repeal and replaced effort
in twenty seventeen, if you try to take a single
dollar away from insurance subsidies for even a small percentage
(10:20):
of of the American people, you will lose the next election.
So I think the Republicans take this issue on at
their peril. The Democrats take this issue on at their peril.
It's very perils. It's going to make everybody a little
bit scared. So it'll be very interesting to see what
happens over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
You seem to say, almost Katie Talento of the Alliance
for Health Care Sharing, it's almost a soluble problem. The
Democrats are incentivized to keep the issue front and center.
By the way, Obamacare had little or nothing to do
with the shutdown, because the shutdown was shutting down the
whole government. So the Democrats said, look, we're not going
to pay the soldiers, We're going to make TSC agents
(10:56):
sleep in their cars. We're going to shut down snap,
We're going to shut down the entire government on this
unrelated issue of giving money to insurance companies out of
the public treasury. And I think the American people bought
it because politically, most of the polls now indicate this
weekend that Republicans are blamed for the shutdown and not Democrats.
(11:16):
So when Republicans voted to open the government and Democrats
voted to close the government, the American people believe that
the Republicans closed the government and the Democrats wanted to
open the government, when in reality, the Republicans wanted to
open the government and the Democrats wanted to close the government.
You know what I'm saying, Democratically, the Democratic Party.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Won, no.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I mean, they're in a civil war right now over.
You know, they're eight traders who actually opened the government.
But those eight traders, the Democrats who voted with the
Republicans to reopen the government, they're the ones in the
swing states, so they kind of know that this is
not actually a good plan to just shut down not
do their jobs for months on end.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So I think Democrats that actually are in.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Any kind of political peril, we're thanking these eight behind
the back, behind the scenes all right now.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And lastly, for those of us who receive healthcare from
our employer, I work for a large company, and it
takes a degree in Chinese calculus to figure out all
the plans and the deductibilities.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
And you want this rider? Do you want that rider?
Do you want prescriptive care? Do you want not want it?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Do you want maternity care? I don't need that very much.
Do I need transgender care? Which I don't think? God
hope I never need that. And so I leave it
to my wife to decide what do we do. And
according to polling, the majority of employee or employee based
plans are popular with employees, which is about one hundred
and fifty some million people. But still the cost keeps
(12:44):
going up. If you're on Medicare Medicaid generally you pay
little or nothing anyway. You don't have a dog in
the fight. So can you tell me get out your
crystal ball, Katie Talento? How does this issue resolve itself
without a complete collapse of our medical system?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
How do we resolve it?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, I don't know that we're going to resolve that. Again,
I'm very nervous.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I'm very nervous that we're going to end up with
single payer at some point because it is not a
sustainable trajectory. And you're exactly right that those who are
bearing the largest cost of this are wage earners at
big employers who are actually paying for most healthcare in
this country.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You're right.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Half those country is insured on the job. And those companies,
you know, they have some other core mission that's not
running a health plan, but they're now in the health
insurance business, and that business is absolutely spiraling. And so
it's a huge crisis for every company. And so if
we don't get this under control, I fear very much
(13:43):
it will be the business community that pressures Congress to
have a complete government takeover of healthcare.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Lastly, explain single payer. I have a pretty good grasp
of what it is that everyone under medicare. Explain to
the average Americans what is single payer, how would it work?
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And why is it a bad idea?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, so, single payer is what every other country in
the world, literally every other country in the world, has
decided to do about healthcare, where the government actually pays
for healthcare, and they do it in different ways. In
some countries like Israel and Germany, they basically do it
like an Obamacare on steroids, where it's all filter through
insurance companies which are.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Just agents of the state.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But at least you pick an insurance plan like Medicare
advantage for instance. But other countries like the UK or
like Canada, you know, they just have the government. You
just walk into the government clinic and the government hospital.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And there are no insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And the reason why this is a problem, and I
mean again like there are trade offs. Right for some
services like primary care, it's a much better experience and
it's much more sane in these countries where you have
easy and free and unlimited access to primary care and
preventive care. But what happens in these situations is when
it comes times that you need specialty care, there is
(15:00):
rationing and long lines, and you don't get the best technology,
and you don't get the timely treatment, and cancer patients
are waiting, and people with you know who need knee
replacements are waiting for years. There are people who die
on the wait list for their knee replacement. So it's
just it's not a good situation, and America has chosen.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
A different path. I hope that we figure a way
out of this.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
There are some innovative and creative ideas out there, like
health care sharing ministries, like health savings accounts for everyone
I think that might help as we As you know,
President Trump actually implemented when I was there, a Christ
transparency initiative, forcing hospitals and ensures to post their secret
prices publicly in an effort to try to create a
health care market. What we have right now is either
(15:44):
free nor market in healthcare. So to the extent that
we can force an actual Christ competition in health care,
we might just be able to pull this thing off.
But it's going to take a miracle from God.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, Katie Talento, executive director of Alliance of health Care Sharing,
you've laid it out, and I fear this issue is
too easy to demagogue, which means you're I had it
toured within ten years of Medicare for All system in
which you will ration healthcare, and it's gonna be similar
to Canada. And most of my Canadian friends get their
(16:17):
medical services of any exceptional quality or quantity from the
United States. They don't stick in Canada because to get
a knee replacement or they have cancer treatment is thinking
months you'll die on the list before it's replaced. And
if someone needs a knee replacement in America, you can
get it a week from Tuesday. Katie Talento, you're a
great American. Laid out the problems once again. Thank you
(16:38):
for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. And Katie, you're
a great American. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Thank you Bill, you too, God bless you.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Let's continue with more. There you go.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I don't know what to say, but the politicians, especially Democrats,
are not incentivized to solve the problem because politically, in
their minds, they benefit from low information voters. Bill Cunningham
News Radio one hundreds that w you all.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Don me
Bill Cunningham, the Great American. Of course, the healthcare crisis
in America has caused the shutdown of the government now opened,
and watching one of the morning talk shows, King Jeffers
is saying they have another bite at the apple in
about ten weeks. January thirtieth is not that far away,
and he says there might be another government shutdown happening,
(00:27):
which is utterly ridiculous. Putting money into a failed system,
a failed government program. Doubling down on stupid is often
what Democrats and what many in Washington do. Some are
fighting against it. Katie Talento is the executive director of
the Alliance of Healthcare Sharing and first of all, Katie
Talento tell us, can you give me, generally in the
(00:48):
American people the status of health care in America today?
Volumes have been written on that topic. But about out
of ninety three percent of us get either our health
insurance for Medicare, Medicaid from private plans, through employers or
veterans or whatever. It might be about seven percent through
the Obamacare exchanges, which have failed miserably. So, since you're
in the industry, what is happening to us healthcare system
(01:11):
in America in general? And the response to it by government.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, it's not a good situation. Bill, Thanks for having me. Yeah,
I think the affordability crisis is hitting everybody, and so
you know, premiums are up double digits this year for everyone,
even if federal employee has got a twelve percent rate hike,
So you know, they get no love for having been
put out of work for you know, twenty seven weeks,
but they have to now pay more for their insurance too,
(01:39):
so at least they're suffering with the rest of us.
I do think that this is going to become a
campaign issue unfortunately, and Republicans are usually in trouble when
healthcare becomes a campaign issue. You know, I was a
veteran of the White House when we were doing repeal
and replace back in the day, and I can tell
you it's going to take longer than five weeks for
us to negotiate some sort of master plan here.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So I think that if the Democrats want.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
To have another shutdown, they will do that at their
political peril. But you know, that may not be the
best thing for the American people at this point.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
What happened.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I've done many topics the last few days weeks on
the failure of Obamacare, in which is government subsidizing and
billions of dollars that might be forty to fifty billion
a year.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Maybe you have the number.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That Washington sends directly to insurance companies under a promise
to hold down premiums and to the to the seven
percent twenty three million people on Obamacare. Why did Obamacare fail?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So the promise to hold down premiums has not really
been tested. Obviously, the premiums have skyrocketed. They've more than
tripled since twenty ten when.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
The bill was first enacted.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
However, affordability is sort of addressed by Obamacare because they
just subsidize.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Your overpriced premiums. And so the vast majority of people who.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Are buying their plan on the Obamacare exchanges are getting
premium subsidies, so their premiums are either free or they
are largely subsidized. And that is truly the only way
that you can keep anyone who is younger or healthier,
or who is not sort of already sick from fleeing
this market where it's so unaffordable.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
That they don't see the value of it.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
But they need to have all these younger, healthy people
in the insurance pool or the insurers do, or else
it'll go into what we call in the.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Insurance business the death spiral.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Where it's just sicker and older and sicker and older
people every year, and then the premiums go up, and
then a few more younger healthy people leave because they
can't afford it anymore, and then it's older and sicker
and so just get you get into the spiral, and
that's the.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Death of an insurance product.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So they have to force people to stay in the pool,
and that's why it's failing. It was never a good
value for young healthy people. When you're requiring these policies
to cover everything from abortion and trans surgeries to maternity
writers for men and you know, preventive cap smears for men,
(04:06):
you know like this is this is too much. It's
too much insurance coverage for what most people need, and
it's not enough insurance coverage for the people who do
need it because the deductibles are so high they can't
even afford to use their plan when they when they
do need it. So it's an absolute failure. I do
think that there are promising alternatives out there, like health
care sharing ministries, like health savings accounts like Direct primary Care,
(04:30):
which is sort of a Netflix subscription for unlimited primary care,
and people are fleeing to these better alternatives that feel
more human and feel more rational meeting their needs.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Funding of failure is what Washington does, which is why
Democrats want Obamacare to be funded. I spoke to a
twenty eight year old who called in a couple a
week or two ago, and this guy says, look, I
was in Obamacare for like two years. I got out
because I never I never used it. I never went
to the er. I never I had a primary care physician,
but I didn't feel a need to go. It was
(05:01):
costing me seven hundred dollars a month, and I'm thinking,
why am I doing it? I got rid of it. Plus,
he said to me, look, isn't it true, he called
me Uncle Bill. Isn't it true, Uncle Bill, that if
I have something bad happens to me, I can go
to the er anyway and get care at the er,
and if I can't pay for it, I can't pay
for it. So why have insurance if I get the
product anyway for nothing? How do you respond to him?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
He's exactly right, He's making completely rational choices. You can
go to the er and they are required to treat
you regardless of your coverage. Now, you might end up
with a really horrific building said to you, you might end
up in collections over it, but at least you will
be treated in that moment if you're having a life
threatening issue. I totally sympathize with your caller because he's
(05:45):
the exact reason why Obamacare is failing. Young healthy people
they just seed no value in this product, so why
would they stay? And so you're left with only healthy, unhealthy,
expensive people driving up premium so that it happens even
worse next year. That's why this whole project has failed,
and that's why we've got to seek alternatives. I was
(06:07):
so encouraged by President Trump tweeting or rather truthing out
in the past couple of weeks about let's just stop
putting money in insurers' pocket and let's actually put it
in health savings accounts for people so they can go
buy what they want.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Great idea, but a Keem Jeffries and the Democrats don't
want any part of that because it puts the person
in charge, not big time health insurers who pay them
huge amounts of money.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
And campaign.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I think the average America done understand that about how
much money every year goes from the US Treasury to
big time health insurers in order to knock down the
premiums of individuals who may not use the product at all?
And how much money is the taxpayer funding healthcare insurance companies.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
How much money we're talking about about, it's.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
About a trillion dollars. I published with it with a trillion.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
With a John Houfkin's researchers a few years ago, we
estimated that almost half forty seven percent. But the entire
United States budget goes towards some form of health care.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, if you're United healthcare, are you in the business
having taken all this money from the government under Obamacare,
are you in the business and making sure that you're
ensured have great healthcare at low cost?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Or are you in the business of making money?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, that's exactly right. You know, these giant companies we
call them the Bukahs, Blue Cross, United Signa at nine, Humana, Buca,
and these these giant companies, nobody had ever heard of
some of them, you know, years ago, and now they're on.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
The Fortune fifty list.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Their stockholders are loving it. Living it up, and you know,
their CEOs are living off they're billionaires. And you know, meanwhile,
United Healthcare is denying a third of every claim that
comes to them. And most people think of their insurer
like the cable compan They hate them. And so this
is a product that nobody really wants to pay for
(08:04):
because they don't see the value in it, and when
they really need it, when they really need it.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
It's an absolute bureaucratic night there to use.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Aren't the insurance companies because they are a for profit
business in the business of denying claims and having high deductibilities.
And that's true because I listened to a Keem Jeffries.
If Republicans don't agree to this, you want people to
be sick and die in hospitals. You don't want people
to get medical care. In reality, the Democrats get millions
of dollars in campaign donations from insurance companies, and aren't
(08:37):
they in the business of making money and not in
the business of providing healthcare?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well, the secret of the dirty little secret of healthcare
is that the insurers are interested in high prices from hospitals,
and hospitals are interested in lots of sick people.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So when you get paid.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
When people are sick and high price stuff is done
to them, you're going to get more sickness and higher
price stuff. And that's what we're seeing over and over again.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
You also say in this column, uh, you believe that
the recent US government shutdown that ended after forty three
days result of from protecting lucrative political donations from big
healthcare insurance. And the media never asked a King Jeffries
or Democrats the question, how come we're funding the BUCA,
the large Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare and SIGNA.
(09:27):
We're funding them and they're in the business of screwing
the policyholders.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Why isn't that brought up by the media.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well, you know, to be fair to these politicians.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And let me tell you, the healthcare swamp funds all
parties and every single one of them. You know, the
farm industry alone has four or five lobbyists for every
member of Congress. So nobody is innocent here in DC.
But I will tell you that you know, these people,
they are in the business of making money and profiting
off of our sickness. But the American people are also
(09:59):
apol polutely committed to having insurance at any cost. I mean,
we have seen that. Unfortunately, if you try to take
I mean the battlescars from the repeal and replaced effort
in twenty seventeen, if you try to take a single
dollar away from insurance subsidies for even a small percentage
(10:20):
of of the American people, you will lose the next election.
So I think the Republicans take this issue on at
their peril. The Democrats take this issue on at their peril.
It's very perils. It's going to make everybody a little
bit scared. So it'll be very interesting to see what
happens over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
You seem to say, almost Katie Talento of the Alliance
for Health Care Sharing, it's almost a soluble problem. The
Democrats are incentivized to keep the issue front and center.
By the way, Obamacare had little or nothing to do
with the shutdown, because the shutdown was shutting down the
whole government. So the Democrats said, look, we're not going
to pay the soldiers, We're going to make TSC agents
(10:56):
sleep in their cars. We're going to shut down snap,
We're going to shut down the entire government on this
unrelated issue of giving money to insurance companies out of
the public treasury. And I think the American people bought
it because politically, most of the polls now indicate this
weekend that Republicans are blamed for the shutdown and not Democrats.
(11:16):
So when Republicans voted to open the government and Democrats
voted to close the government, the American people believe that
the Republicans closed the government and the Democrats wanted to
open the government, when in reality, the Republicans wanted to
open the government and the Democrats wanted to close the government.
You know what I'm saying, Democratically, the Democratic Party.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Won, no.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I mean, they're in a civil war right now over.
You know, they're eight traders who actually opened the government.
But those eight traders, the Democrats who voted with the
Republicans to reopen the government, they're the ones in the
swing states, so they kind of know that this is
not actually a good plan to just shut down not
do their jobs for months on end.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So I think Democrats that actually are in.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Any kind of political peril, we're thanking these eight behind
the back, behind the scenes all right now.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And lastly, for those of us who receive healthcare from
our employer, I work for a large company, and it
takes a degree in Chinese calculus to figure out all
the plans and the deductibilities.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
And you want this rider? Do you want that rider?
Do you want prescriptive care? Do you want not want it?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Do you want maternity care? I don't need that very much.
Do I need transgender care? Which I don't think? God
hope I never need that. And so I leave it
to my wife to decide what do we do. And
according to polling, the majority of employee or employee based
plans are popular with employees, which is about one hundred
and fifty some million people. But still the cost keeps
(12:44):
going up. If you're on Medicare Medicaid generally you pay
little or nothing anyway. You don't have a dog in
the fight. So can you tell me get out your
crystal ball, Katie Talento? How does this issue resolve itself
without a complete collapse of our medical system?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
How do we resolve it?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, I don't know that we're going to resolve that. Again,
I'm very nervous.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I'm very nervous that we're going to end up with
single payer at some point because it is not a
sustainable trajectory. And you're exactly right that those who are
bearing the largest cost of this are wage earners at
big employers who are actually paying for most healthcare in
this country.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You're right.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Half those country is insured on the job. And those companies,
you know, they have some other core mission that's not
running a health plan, but they're now in the health
insurance business, and that business is absolutely spiraling. And so
it's a huge crisis for every company. And so if
we don't get this under control, I fear very much
(13:43):
it will be the business community that pressures Congress to
have a complete government takeover of healthcare.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Lastly, explain single payer. I have a pretty good grasp
of what it is that everyone under medicare. Explain to
the average Americans what is single payer, how would it work?
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And why is it a bad idea?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, so, single payer is what every other country in
the world, literally every other country in the world, has
decided to do about healthcare, where the government actually pays
for healthcare, and they do it in different ways. In
some countries like Israel and Germany, they basically do it
like an Obamacare on steroids, where it's all filter through
insurance companies which are.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Just agents of the state.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But at least you pick an insurance plan like Medicare
advantage for instance. But other countries like the UK or
like Canada, you know, they just have the government. You
just walk into the government clinic and the government hospital.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And there are no insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And the reason why this is a problem, and I
mean again like there are trade offs. Right for some
services like primary care, it's a much better experience and
it's much more sane in these countries where you have
easy and free and unlimited access to primary care and
preventive care. But what happens in these situations is when
it comes times that you need specialty care, there is
(15:00):
rationing and long lines, and you don't get the best technology,
and you don't get the timely treatment, and cancer patients
are waiting, and people with you know who need knee
replacements are waiting for years. There are people who die
on the wait list for their knee replacement. So it's
just it's not a good situation, and America has chosen.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
A different path. I hope that we figure a way
out of this.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
There are some innovative and creative ideas out there, like
health care sharing ministries, like health savings accounts for everyone
I think that might help as we As you know,
President Trump actually implemented when I was there, a Christ
transparency initiative, forcing hospitals and ensures to post their secret
prices publicly in an effort to try to create a
health care market. What we have right now is either
(15:44):
free nor market in healthcare. So to the extent that
we can force an actual Christ competition in health care,
we might just be able to pull this thing off.
But it's going to take a miracle from God.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, Katie Talento, executive director of Alliance of health Care Sharing,
you've laid it out, and I fear this issue is
too easy to demagogue, which means you're I had it
toured within ten years of Medicare for All system in
which you will ration healthcare, and it's gonna be similar
to Canada. And most of my Canadian friends get their
(16:17):
medical services of any exceptional quality or quantity from the
United States. They don't stick in Canada because to get
a knee replacement or they have cancer treatment is thinking
months you'll die on the list before it's replaced. And
if someone needs a knee replacement in America, you can
get it a week from Tuesday. Katie Talento, you're a
great American. Laid out the problems once again. Thank you
(16:38):
for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. And Katie, you're
a great American. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Thank you Bill, you too, God bless you.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Let's continue with more. There you go.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I don't know what to say, but the politicians, especially Democrats,
are not incentivized to solve the problem because politically, in
their minds, they benefit from low information voters. Bill Cunningham
News Radio one hundreds that w you all.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Don me
Bill Cunningham News
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