8:00, former independent counsel ken starr joins us to discuss his book. week on c-span's washington journal. kimberly leonard joins us from the washington examiner. she is their senior health policy reporter. talking about the future of the affordable care act. ridiculously efforts by republicans on the act. what is going on? guest: they are looking at a bill that would repeal or undo certain taxes and obamacare. what would happen is aspects like the employer mandate signs would go way. -- would go away. there is a tax on tanning salons that would go away. when it comes to the overall efforts, why are republicans still making these efforts on the affordable care act? did make a promise

to voters that they want to follow through on, but it is important to note that a lot of these taxes have been delayed before, in a bipartisan way. be room for democrats to jump onto this. of course, they won't frame it as repealing obamacare. -- toikely to talk to talk about it as a fix. host: this is being labeled the fix american work -- guest: essentially, they are trying to help3 small businesses impactey look at the that obamacare had on them. they would change the definition of obamacare's full-time worker from 30 hours per week to 40 hours per week. they would, as i mentioned before, with the signs that come with the employer mandate. if you have 100 employers -- employees, then you have to provide them with health insurance. that was supposed to go into

effect and the fines were supposed to occur, but under this, the fine would be lifted over the course of 2015 to now. those would go way. it is just another effort to they are stillt responding to some of these needs, and seems like a follow-up to a lot of what you were talking about earlier on this program, with the tax cuts. host: is this a response from employers, something they've been lobbying congress to change? the things that small employers say, and when i say small employers, i'm talking about restaurant owners, retail. they are concerned that a lot of the mandates in obamacare are causing them to have to lay off workers or give them fewer hours. if you say that 30 hours per week's full-time, what if an to 25er moves there hours hours per week? then they aren't getting health insurance. so there's been concern about some of the unintended

consequences of these mandates, essentially resulting in job difficulties. kimberly leonard is joining us to talk about the efforts in congress. if you want to ask questions, you can do so. if you receive health care from an employer, call (202) 748-8000 . if you get health care via the aca, (202) 748-8001. everyone else, (202) 748-8002. one look at costs. if they were to put this bill into law, the congressional budget office, it looks at different bills and scores them, it says it would cost the government about $52 billion over 10 years. that is because the government would not be taking in a lot of these taxes that are meant to ultimately pay for obamacare. like i said, there have been a lot of delays in the taxes before. one of them that is included in this package, that i neglected

to mention, is called the cadillac tax, which is supposed to apply to especially expensive health insurance plans. what has happened is that so many health insurance plans now qualify as expensive, cadillac plans, that really just apply to your average, middle income worker. a have been pushing that back along bipartisan lines for years. inis set to go into effect 2022. under the house bill, it would go into effect in 2023. host: sometimes legislators poo-poo the numbers from the cbo, and other times they supported. -- they support it. comes to things like -- especially obamacare, when predictions came off a little bit, they are always used as a sort of political tool. there is argue that

this large bill that has been passed for health care that is not being paid for, or you can also say, the government is saving all of this money, the industries are saving all of this money. or you could say the cbo score has been incorrect before. that is what a lot of members and appointing two. host: being so close to the november elections, what has --?n the f - guest: the senate has already said it won't be taking another swing at obamacare repeal this year, so even if the house moves forward, it is doubtful the senate will take it up. schedule withll the supreme court confirmation, and they want to pass an opioid response bill next week. to see thisficult happen before the midterm elections, but these are parts of obamacare, as i've said before, that have been passed on by partisan lines. efforteaction on this

from the newest senator in arizona, tell us what he had to say. guest: not particularly about this effort, but jon kyl, replacing the late senator john mccain, has said that he would vote to repeal obama care. we don't know if that means he would vote for the repeal and replace bill, the skinny repeal, the different measures that republicans the forward. even if he were to do so, you still have two centrist senators, lisa murkowski and susan collins have essentially said they want to work with obamacare, want to make it better, or against repeal. kyl'sicans, even with jon vote, don't have enough votes in the senate. host: as far as the timeline, walk us through these efforts and how soon we may see action. guest: the house efforts, they are meeting later today to

discuss how they are going to move forward on it. the senate this week is really focused on cap and on as well as the opioid package. kavanaugh nomination, as well as the opioid package. host: talk about the effort by the senate, what is being done on the front of opioids. come tohey have finally an agreement after months of negotiations on what they want to see in this bill. the opioid crisis involves overdoses from heroine, prescription painkillers, and especially potent, fentanyl. thousands of deaths every year, sort of an out-of-control public that congress has tried to tackle. they have a lot of things they can do in terms of adding additional funding, reduce -- removing regulations, speeding up the development of different

drugs to treat pain. they have a giant package of 70 measures that they've cobbled together to try to reach an agreement. so, we are expecting it to get a vote this week in the senate. guest: kimberly leonard reports for all things on health policy for the washington examiner. she is here to take your questions. the numbers on the screen, (202) 748-8000 if you receive health care from an employer, (202) 748-8001 if you receive it under the aca, and others, (202) 748-8002. the first one is from rod in indianapolis. caller: yes, hello. a suggestion. if they really want to help small businesses, why don't they just get rid of the insurance companies altogether and go to medicare for all. ,e are spending too much money

and all insurance companies do is shuffle money up the ladder into the hands of the very wealthy. doesn't help anybody. guest: there are more senators , theever who agree medicare for all act, a bill by senator bernie sanders, has an unprecedented amount of support senate, the house and and is where a lot of the left-leaning democrats are looking to make changes. it is to roll everyone onto the medicare program, whether they have private insurance, medicaid, or are uninsured, to create what is often called a single-payer system. host: julie is in ohio, go ahead. caller: medicare for all is not free. evil that have medicare have to pay $150 per month out of their medicare check, so that wouldn't be free.

i get my -- i get my insurance from my employer. is $5,000.ble when they changed this, it is terrible. they need to go back to the very beginning. cover the people, have an exception for people who cannot get insurance. my daughter gets aca and she pays zero. we have to pay $100 each week for insurance, it is ridiculous. my question to you is why, when i look up the aca, and says, did you lose insurance? you can only apply through this period of time. why is that? it seems like you should be able to get insurance anytime you want. guest: the reason it is set up that way is because the law does not want to have a bunch of people waiting until they get sick to sign-up for health

insurance. so what they have is a thing called open enrollment, for six weeks. this year, it is going to be six weeks, beginning on november 1, during which people can sign up for health insurance. there are a ton of exceptions. if you qualify for medicaid, you can sign up for medicaid at any time. if you have a circumstance in your life that has changed, birth of a child, divorce, you have access outside of that time. -- theson they access reason they set it up that way, knowing what to expect as far as how to price their plans, knowing who is in them instead of people waiting until they get sick to enroll. host: does the administration -- to educate people about enrollment periods? guest: there's certain money that they spend on things like

navigators, and they kind of bring in the private sector to educate people about that. we are reporting on it all the time. but there are certainly ways that people can sort of get around some of the restrictions, and they have, as well. look to the did administration to see if we can tighten some of these orders. in the initial years of obamacare, they initially spent a lot more on people who were enrolled than expected. host: the insurance company, cigna, put out a flowchart. do you offer coverage? if the answer is no, $2320 for a full-time employee minus the first 30. does the plan offer a minimum value? no, the fee iss -- thiser of $3400 ultimately adds up to a lot of money for a -- for an employer.

certainly does. but there are certain people who say, if you are going to have workers, this is one way to make sure they are covered. the affordable care act was about helping -- was expanding health insurance coverage to as many people as possible. theyis one of the ways plan to do that, in addition to the plans we talked about earlier where people can sign up from healthcare.gov or in state exchanges. this is just one of several measures, one that keeps getting delayed. a lot of it has to do with a lot who sayctivism by folks that it is impacting their business. host: this is eric from fort washington, maryland. i don't have as much a question as i do a statement. i think the whole health care program has been a racist conspiracy.

if all the states had been required to participate in the affordable care act, if it was never called the obamacare, instead of the affordable care act, there is no other bill that has ever been passed that has been called by a president's name, and the president does not pass a bill. social security is not called roosevelt care. the welfare work right is not called the clinton care. whole problem with premiums going up is the fact that states opted out, health insurance companies opted out. if everyone was required to participate in the plan, premiums would have gone down. host: to that point, there was information this week about premiums under the affordable care act in the coming year. guest: one of the interesting things that has occurred is that premiums are set to rise at a lower rate than they have in

past years, about 3.6% rise, which is pretty low. there have been expectations that premiums would rise by double digits, so this is kind of a surprise. in addition, we have data that are eitherrs expanding into more states, which will give people more choices about coverage, and show that they are also offering more kinds of plans in the states. all of this is happening despite predictions that say everything would be going in the opposite wouldion, that premiums be going up and insurers would be leaving obamacare. that said, a small growth in an already high number is still a lot. people are still looking at paying more in premiums next -- or paying just as high however, there are people who fall below a certain income of ourld, who, as one

callers mentioned earlier, are paying nothing for coverage or premiums. but people should keep in mind as well that deductibles are a factor in all of this, and that whenever they take a plan, it is going to come with a certain number of doctors and hospitals, so it may not necessarily be the health providers they prefer. so, there's going to be an effort, i think, to educate people about what their offerings are. if there are reasons we are only seeing a 4% growth this time? one reason is that insurers looking into selling plans this year actually ended up overpricing their plans. year, they apply to work in different states and sell health insurance there. they essentially say, here is what we want to charge in premiums. health insurance regulators kind of negotiate and figure out what the prices are

going to be. and they can't just throw a number out there, they have to show data for why plans will price -- will be priced the way they are. ,he plans are price pretty well insurers are still making money and are not losing a lot, and are still able to make claims. is kimberlyest leonard of the washington examiner. timothy from new york, go ahead. yes, i'm currently on medicaid. medicaid does not pay for everything, ok? i've gone to the doctor, and the doctor says, well, your chart -- your insurance is not going to pay. and there's nothing we can do for you. this kind of ridiculous, you know, that people that are

disability and stuff like .hat cannot afford anything they are lucky if they can afford where they live. host: thanks, caller. about one of the things medicaid is that it reimburses health care providers at a lower rate than health insurance. so there are a lot of doctors that will say we will not accept medicaid plans. but then some do. it might be worth asking a few different providers about whether they accept medicaid plans, that because the reimbursement rate is so much lower, there does tend to be a sort of gap for people in regards to what they can access. host: penelope gets her insurance from her employer, calling from san antonio. caller: i think the whole thing should never have been instituted. i think it has been just another

way to extend government. all they want is one single-payer, and they are going to get to it by forcing it and forcing it. ,axes for the county hospital where people were treated before this, have gone up and up. so the hospital is still taking the people in, yet in our state, they can't have these little health clinics at the walgreens or walmarts or different small pharmacies, because the state has brought it. the doctors have brought it. if you have just those little clinics, you could reduce so much. people could pay their own, you wouldn't have thousands of employees and taxes and penalties and all of this nonsense if you just let the market work. host: before we let you go, have you seen changes to how year and -- to how your employer has provided insurance? retired government

employee, so of course we get taken care of. i don't worry about myself, i worry about the poor people who can't put food on their table or medicine, or rent because they are spending so much money. guest: san antonio? texas has an expanded medicaid expandedt -- has an medicaid, which is an area where low income people can access insurance coverage. and the argument she's making, i think a lot of different health care groups are undergoing this effort to show they can provide health care at a lower price, that they can better coordinate care. it is interesting that you are seeing groups like amazon saying we will create these collaborations with different companies and tried it deliver better coverage and better care. so there's kind of a rolled out response from the private sector

that says maybe we can try to figure this out. host: there's a story in the paper pointing to a federal judge in texas, a decision that might affect the future of the affordable care act. guest: is an interesting lawsuit. what happened last year is that republicans ended up zeroing out uninsured ongoing obamacare, known as the individual mandate. people no longer have to pay a fine if they are uninsured. waged by aawsuit, bunch of republican states, says that because the mandate went away, they believe the rest of obamacare should follow a. sort of adding -- should follow away -- should fall away. the trump administration is saying that instead of defending we agree with the republican attorneys general,

but only to a certain extent. they believe that only two parts of obamacare should fall. the one that requires health insurance to cover anyone regardless of pre-existing condition, and the part that says that if someone has a pre-existing condition, you can't charge them more than someone who is healthy. this has been kind of a nightmare scenario for republicans interview -- into the midterm election. -- protections are the most important part of obamacare, and they are essentially running against candidates who are saying they are trying to take away your health care, or charge you more because you are a woman or had cancer, or have an addiction. so this is a big part of what is playing out. host: is this the kind of case that could circle back to the supreme court, and if it does, what could that mean for brett kavanaugh? of red statelot democrats, they really held onto and this of the law

lawsuit, because they are able to say this is their biggest , when they decide whether to confirm the judge. host: art is in florida. haver: good morning, i three quick comments. the worst thing about obamacare was the fact that when it was written, the insurance companies and lobbyists were the ones that wrote the bill. so they wrote it in favor of them. win on that one? and republicans have made it their goal to destroy that bill to begin with. , supplementale secondary insurance through united health care, which is but as far as socialized medicine, england and canada have wonderful programs that work.

the lobbyists and republicans are just trying to scare people into thinking that this is not a good thing. that is total crap. i'mhird point is that, seeing in a lot of bills coming up about the opioid crisis, are any of these geared towards holding the big pharmaceutical companies responsible for the opioid epidemic, because they are the real culprits in why this epidemic even started. host: we will let our guest respond. for some backtrack viewers, the opioid epidemic is credited towards the overprescribing of these narcotics that are extremely addictive, meant to treat pain. rings like oxycontin. what happened is they were prescribed to patients in abundance, and a lot of people became hooked. once they sort of started petering out because doctors that sot -- noticed

many people became addicted, people turned to a different drug, heroin, to maintain the high or alleviate the pain they are having. there are bills in the package aimed at holding pharmaceutical companies responsible. there are senators who have called for bringing in some of to askharmaceutical ceos questions, hold them accountable in hearings and things like that. right now, a lot more of the measures are focused on giving more funding and resources to things like the national institutes of health, to come up with nonaddictive treatments for pain and come up with other options for people who have addictions, so they don't have when they arekey trying to overcome some of the difficulties of being hooked on these drugs. host: the caller started by

talking about insurance companies. if i am the head of an insurance company and i'm looking at what republicans are trying to do with the affordable care act, what is going through my mind? guest: it is not just what republicans are doing, but with the marks are doing, which -- notdemocrats are doing, just insurance companies, but hospitals and doctors. they would say they don't necessarily want to go in the direction of medicare for all, because they will be getting lower health insurance rates back. they won't be able to cover all of the services they currently , and theyr the plans say, we want to keep the aca. we want to have the senators invest in it, have more funding for it. things like that. i would say that a lot of health industries are pretty united when it comes to what they want. but members of congress are not

united in terms of the approach they are taking, not what stakeholders want to see. host: helen from michigan is next. caller: hello, yes. you were talking a few minutes ago about medicaid. , there is one kind, my husband was in a medical care facility. $8,500 per month, and i could not pay it. had to go on medicaid, and they are going to take my house. but i was living in it, so they didn't take it. lessmedicaid is more or the people that don't own anything, illegals that come over here and get everything for nothing. and that is what is so sickening. , undermedicaid

obamacare, was intended to be expanded to anyone who made $16,000 per year or less, and they have to be in the country legally to obtain that. what happened was there was a lawsuit before the supreme court and which states said we don't want to participate in this, even though the federal government pays for most of the expansion. so the supreme court said that states can just decide if they want to expand medicaid. most have decided to, but some states haven't. so you see this gap in coverage where people who would have otherwise but health insurance from the obamacare exchanges don't have the medicare option -- the medicaid option and remain uninsured. host: let's hear from an employer, virginia. nobody seems to talk about tort reform anymore in civil insurance costs, but i

know that a lot of doctors pay outrageous amounts for insurance. a lot of preventative medicine to take care of frivolous lawsuits. so what happened, has there been any more of that? there is not a lot of talk about that on the hill. one of the areas being talked , and i have a story next week, it has to do with regulations around how doctors and hospitals and other health care providers can sort of contract with each other. order to fit those regulations, they have to hire attorneys to make sure they comply. that is an area that the trump administration and congress is saying, should we loosen these regulations? should we allow more, let it go? where thescenario trump administration says, if we get rid of some of these attorney fees, difficulty understanding the rules, we

could lower the cost of health care. host: kimberly leonard >> the democratic delegate from the virgin islands joins us to talk about the trump administration's responses to hurricanes maria and harvey 2017 on the latest response to hurricane florence. be sure to watch as he spends "washington journal," live at 7:00 eastern. bob woodward is joining us on september 17 to talk about his trumpet in the:

white house -- trump in the white house." ken starr also joins us to talk about his book. >> coming up this weekend on book tv, saturday at 8:00 eastern if fox news host discusses her thoughts on the trump presidency and his detractors with her book. >> when i went through a dairy and came out and what my press people said to me, there was already an article on what happens at the dairy farm. i'm like, really, what did it say? it said nothing that i said. said x, alleged that i y, and z. i didn't realize it was fake news, but i said how can i un against someone

where the fix is in? its already rigged. they are saying i did things i never did five minutes ago. >> on sunday starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern, coverage of the 2018 brooklyn book festival. "rising out of hatred: the leaking of a former white nationalist" and on afterwards another kite a.m. eastern, -- 9:00 a.m. eastern, another author discusses his book. he is interviewed by brent bozell, founder and president of the media research center. >> does anybody get a real point across on television? >> they do not. you look for something that can go viral. the network and producers are

looking for something that can go viral. and want something they can clip to post on facebook, twitter, to go viral. it's bad but good for business, but bad for conveying information. >> watch this weekend on c-span2's book tv. ♪ >> what does it mean to be american? that is this year's student competition question. we are asking middle and high school students to answer it by producing a short documentary about a constitutional right, national characteristic, or historic event and explain how it defines the american experience. with our awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes, including a cash prize of $1000. the deadline is january 20, 2019. for more information go to our website.