of insurance commissioners president james done owe lan.e you here. in general how is it rolling out in louisiana? >> oh, it is rolling out over a very bumpy road indeed. the website being the first and most important issue and challenge for consumers trying to access the subsidies, trying to get coverage. if they have existing conditions that they need the guarranty issue protection for, it has been a very rocky start as you know. david: before october, before this thing was rolled out a lot of critics said it wasn't ready for prime time. indeed isn't that what we found? in fact you used the term, half-baked to refer to it? >> no question about it. the bill itself when it was passed, when i say half-baked, it was rushed through hen senators kennedy's 60th democrat vote switched over to the republiian side and they no longer had the filibuster-proof majority they needed in order to accomplish their stated goal. and, because of that, rush, in an unfinished fashion, it had a lot of inconsistencies with within itself. some of the criticism bei

the ceo of the national association of insurance commissioners. this is the deciding vote for the affordable care act. welcome. >> thank you. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> enchants commissioners are divided about whether to go along with the request to allow carriers to reinstate canceled policies. there has been a deep divide. who is right? explain what it is all about. it is based at the state level. the latest information we have states ofr or not t going to go along, i think 17 states as of right now have go ahead do this, and extend renewals and not cancel the policies. 18 states have decided not to go along with that recommendation and are chosen to go another way. a third.ce is about oure that have not decided still looking to do whatever they think they can under their laws. not surprising that there are different approaches when you have a state-based system as we do. >> has though been anything you're able to do? there has been a lot of controversy over this. some commissioners said they did not want to go. the naic has learned is we do no

. >> i am a former insurance commissioner as well as governor. i can look at it from the eyes of a commissioner as well as from the eyes of a governor and a senator. having seen all of those different views and looked at the viewpoints, i strongly support what is happening with the states having that right. apparently, the president does as well. >> asking you as a former insurance commissioner, do you feel the states with rate review authority or trying to negotiate with carriers have seen more competitive premiums? do you think it is not as clear- cut as some would suggest? >> i know some of the states that do not have right now a rate of approval have been seeking it and perhaps they will end up getting it through their state legislatures. i think it is a state issue. some believe in open competition without regard to dealing with approval of rates. they seem to be satisfied with it. others would rather have more control over rates. states have control over rates. once again, i think it is really a state issue where commissioners and governors

but i can tell you from my experience is before i came to the senate, i was the elected insurance commissioner of florida, and the behavior of humans with regard to buying insurance unless they think they absolutely need it, they're not going buy it. and this is almost out of sight, out of mind. if you want to spread that base by getting the young as well as the old in to it was very hard to get people to buy this insurance. private insurance and long-term care we look at -- we're at the same time looking at our experience with the nongroup, the individual insurance market for health care. and we know that is a market that is rigidded with -- riddled with problems because of in part with insurers to avoid people with preexisting conditions and to limit their risk. that is what you see unless you have everybody participating. and my -- the idea that i was discussing with senator white house i put before the commission and hope we will all consider in the future is that is that i think there is based on a view that we can better educate and help people prepare and help an industry respond as we

but to your point, whether it's the republican in california or the insurance commissioner in georgia republican, their whole game plan, their play book, is all about obstructing. and the insurance commissioner in georgia went so far as to say i am the obstructionist and i will do everything in my power as the insurance commissioner of georgia to make sure that the affordable care act doesn't work. when you're dealinging with people trying to tear down what we're trying to create, you can see that it makes it somewhat more challenging. but we will not just survive in this environment. we will see people thriving with new health insurance, with the kinds of opportunities to get preventive care so they stay healthy, all of which is going to serve all of us very well this the future. >> all right. congresswoman jackie spear, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >>> coming up, a rare moment of bipartisan agreement on gun reform, as congress literally does the very least it can do. but first, senator marco rubio during perhaps the most he can do for tween interests at home and abroad. >> do

california, wild and wonderful writes in: as a former insurance commissioner, would you please explainto people the problems with buying insurance across state lines? >> guest: yes. the state of california and many of the states have very important consumer protection laws. these laws deal with the financial ability of the insurance company to pay a claimant someday in the future, and they also provide mechanisms for prompt and fair payment of claims. not every state does. there are some states that have very weak laws, and in my view, almost no allow -- no law at all about the financial stability of the insurance company. so a company that's operating in one of those states that has very weak consumer protection laws selling insurance products into a state like california could -- no, wrong word, is a real serious consumer problem. one that i dealt with for many, many years trying to get a claim paid from a company that was out of state that did not have the kind of financial wherewithal to pay claim or even a desire to do so. so we're talking about consumer protection here. now, we'r

closely with an insurance commissioner in mississippi to help that happen. >> here in this committee, we always talk about the important of having certainty for small businesses. when they put together a business plan, they need to know what they are confronting and what types of resources they will have available. my question to you is, what had inthe threat of cuts the implementation of the provision of the affordable care act by your agency? >> you know, well, i would say, as with any government agency, we do the best we can with what we have. while it would always be helpful to have more resources, and i think, particularly, the secretary has spoken very about the benefit of having additional resources to do more outreach, to be able to do more education, to be able to make sure every single person in the country and certainly every small-business business owner in what benefitsnows the law can provide of -- to them and what they can take advantage of. that has been difficult, given the funding levels we have. >> thank you, very much. thank you, mr. chairman. >> last chair -- last

even the democratic state insurance commissioner in washington state, who supports the law and has a successful exchange, conceded it's almost impossible for people to figure out what doctors and hospitals are included. >> if their provider, the one that they rely on the most, which is often going to be a family practice provider, that that provider is in network or not. that information isn't as readily available right now. >> reporter: he was the first state insurance commissioner to reject president obama's request to allow insurance companies to reinstate cancelled policies because he feared it would ruin the exchange. gottlieb said there's another part of the exchanges that will hurt the most vulnerable, those with serious illnesses and expensive drug treatments. >> this is a particular burden to patients with things like cancer. >> reporter: and he predicted if the exchanges don't sign up enough people before the deadline, the president would have no choice but to delay the law so as not to penalize people who find it impossible to seen up. bret. >> jim, thank you. >>> another

now all the democratic blue state insurance commissioners are saying, nope. we want the cancellations to go ahead. we want to go full speed into bank. so a obama care. so all of the states are are putting their users through a terrible experience of cancellation. they will be madder than hell. >> david plouffe in a moment of candor, weakness and truth telling said obama care may take until 2017 to start working well. >> i think that's a.d., but i'm not sure. >> i think you're right. politically what happens from here. the if we are right -- >> well. >> if george will is right, what happens in terms of this politically? >> well, you know, i'm out of the prediction business. >> good idea. >> if the election would be held right now, we need six seats. there are three that were near unopposed. west virginia, montana. open seats, weak democrats. there were four incumbent democrats in serious trouble. cotton is ahead of prior in arkansas. cassidy if you count the republican vote with mannis is ahead of landrieu in louisiana. most of the alternatives are tied with h

. >> the good news for some of those consumers is that belief is state insurance commissioner is allowingto be continued through next year. but they still rely on that some white. neil: at this point in the health care law, they're about 5 million fewer that have insurance and we have a lot of ground to have this run more smoothly and i would imagine that the indication of it will take a while. >> absolutely. one of the core goals of this is to expand that more americans could access a form of insurance company. including what kind of insurance coverage and we will get to that later. and you've mentioned many of these are facing a confusing situation in states like oregon and so people have to figure out if with her insurance company and commissioner are cooperating. neil: so the president might say that you can keep your policy. so what do you do? there a state like this that are realizing that. >> when the white house talks about better technology or repairing their website, they been health care.gov and they don't mean those that are not able to enroll one single applicant. but that is

the nebraska senator who's now heading up all these insurance commissioners, he was telling me, i thought it was revealing, that they did wince at the time when the president said, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. i said, i don't remember you saying that at the time. he said, we did relay to the white house, i don't know who in the white house, that this was not feasible. there's a lot of liny covering here. i'm wondering if it's all part of the same story. of not keeping in contact with the health and human services secretary, the secretary not following up on warnings presumably from those in congress who were getting leery, something that could never happen. >> it was a complete failure to communicate regardless of how many meetings there were. to paraphrase judge judy, somebody didn't have their listening ears on because there was nobody listening to anybody. whether the information was getting put out there or not. shoot, you could have read "the wall street journal" and known that the website hadn't been tested, there were going to be problems. mckenzie's study out

probably has a more importance function these days as the head of the national association of insurance commissioners. they all recently met with the president, at least key people, yourselves included. you were telling me it's split among -- >> well, 23 states where the commissioners and/or the legislatures and governor have decided to go along with the president's recommendation or his suggestion that the coverage be extended. 23 states have decided that they either don't have the authority or it would be inappropriate based on what laws have been passed in their state because -- in some instances, they passed a law saying that people had to get in to the plan, and so they are getting into the plan -- >> a f they break from their own law. so for those 23 -- the others are undecided, i guess. what happens to the folks in that state who -- president said, well, you can stay on your plan for another year. they can, right? >> they can. they can stay on their plan. raises serious questions about the actuarial content of that plan. when you have mostly young people or will you have people with health car

the georgia insurance commissioner kicked obama care bashing into high gear.n's woman's group people with preexisting conditions are like reckless car drivers. >> if you're going to drive on georgia's roads, you have to have liability insurance. say you're going along and you have a wreck and it's your fault. well, a preexisting condition would be then you call up your insurance agent and say, i'd like to get collision insurance coverage on my car. and your insurance agent said, well, says, well, you never had that before. why would you want it now? you say, well, i just had a wreck. it was my fault. and i want the insurance company to pay to repair my car. and that's the exact same thing on pre-existing insurance. >> according to hudgens, sick people cause their own problem and just want someone else to pay for it. the backwards logic comes straight from the mouth of someone with a pre-existing condition. the commissioner is running his mouth with an effort tank. if ralph hudgens thinks sick people are as careless as he is with his words, he can keep on prete

. >> the real reason for that is the insurance commissioners didn't do their job in the states. but we're never going to be able to convince people that's what the problem is. >> when you say one-size-fits-all standards,. >> they are actually the popular provision. i can't be kicked out for a pre-existing condition. you can keep your kid on the plan. women's health care doesn't cost more than men. don't talk about this, these are the things if people knew and understood, they'd like. >> montana has a very different health care situation than new york. >> montana has the way to implement the plan think want to. if they don't want to do it, they can implement the federal plan. >> we used to have state by state markets. now we have one centrally-planned market from the federal government. >> that doesn't usually work out too well, but we'll sigh. next, hillary clinton's record breaking results. we'll ask our guests if she's deserving. >>> who do you blame for the widening income gap? tweet democrats or republicans. we'll have the results after the break. if yand you're talking toev

he is now the ceo of the national association of insurance commissioners.cast the deciding vote for the affordable care act. welcome. >> thank you. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> insurance commissioners are divided about whether to go along with the request to allow carriers to reinstate canceled policies. there has been a deep divide. who is right? >> let me explain what it is all about. it is based at the state level. the latest information we have all whether or not states of going to go along, i think 17 states as of right now have decided to do this, go ahead and extend renewals and not cancel the policies. 18 states have decided not to go along with that recommendation and are chosen to go another way. the balance is about a third. those that have not decided our still looking to do whatever they think they can under their laws. it is not surprising that there are different approaches when you have a state-based system as we do. >> has there been anything you're able to do? there has been a lot of controversy over this. some commissioners said they did

we had a situation in which a state insurance commissioner saw the benefits of the affordable care act, wanted to help his own constituents sign up for health care benefits to which they're entitled and the governor intervened and shut down the entire state exchange with no real explanation other than the fact he doesn't like the president, doesn't approve of this administration and doesn't approve of the federal law that p would provide these benefits to the people of mississippi. i realize that for the right the affordable care act and its implementation problems are a problem for the administration, but it's not mutually exclusive to note that republicans sabotage matters too and it certainly mattered in mississippi. >> when we talk about the importance of governors in this federal battle, ron, i want to point out that politico has a piece up today saying that republican governors are up for re-election next year in a number of states that president obama won twice. so in your opinion do you think this pr push is going to be enough potentially to unseat republican governors in these

and the state's insurance commissioner, dave jones, who was critical of covered california because they refused to let people renew their canceled policies for the next year, he too criticized -- is criticizing covered california and telling them to let people -- to comply with this regulation. >> real quickly, if you want to enroll this weekend there's time. monday is the deadline. what do you need to do? >> if you think you qualify for subsidy, find out on coveredca.c coveredca.com. for everyone in your household, date of birth, social security number, zip code, if you're an immigrant you need numbers from your visa. you should be sure and allow time. because it takes some time to enter all this information and get through the process. if you do not qualify for a subsidy, you do not have to shop on coveredca.com, you can go to ehealthinsurance.com or other private exchanges or direct to a plan and you can enroll that way. >> all right. lisa, thanks as always for that explainer. >> good to be here, thank you. >>> and that's it for tonight. thanks so much for joining us. we wish all of

guest: the white house said that states and insurance commissioners can choose to let those plans be extended or not. insurance committees can choose to extend those plans or not. it is not the administration's decision anymore. they kind of punted that. some states have agreed and are letting plans that would've been canceled continue on for next year. even in the states where the plants will continue, it is only for one more year. if you have your plan canceled and now in stated, it you will be in the same position this time next year where your plan will be canceled again and you will have to figure out when -- figure out another option for your health care. it is a temporary fix for the situation, and if you are in a state that is not allowing the plans to continue, like in california, your plan is going to get canceled. host: what is the national association of insurance commissioners? guest: every state has its own insurance commissioner, and they oversee the insurance plans that are allowed to be sold in every state. each state has its own set of requirements that an insurance

. >> republican insurance commissioners generally allowed customers and insurers to work it out. if individuals are happy with the old plans they can keep them. but the democrats who believe in obama care realize that you have to have new people in there with the new plans, even plans they don't want and for single people, maternity coverage is not a necessity and yet they have to buy the plans for the insurance to work out. we are just dealing with a 5 million or so people losing individual coverage. what happens a year from now. when 80 million people could lose coverage from small and midsize businesses? you will see the problems now compounded by ten times, because we are going to have 80 million people who could lose their coverage. this is going to be a nightmare. what you have seen so far is bad and you haven't seen nothing yet. >> florida and georgia and michigan and north carolina and others have a year of flexibility left to decide. >> flexibility or crisis. i would say more chrissis than flexibility. >> thank you, david. >> so is the senate majority leader harry reid p

and can barely buy food is going to now buy a policy that because of state by state should insurance commissioners over eight hundred bucks is going to drop down to six hundred dollars because we're going to go to the lowest common denominator and just like we do credit cards some folks i don't need health care i was off healthcare for a while as well and and you to be on a car accident and yet thank goodness if i had i mean on the one hand i could have been irresponsible and i could have said gosh i just hope that someone will pay for this for me and just go to the emergency room and put it on the taxpayer or i could have said i'm going to live with this it was a it was a calculated risk i took that kind of risk behavior is what drives the market at the rest of your life i mean this crazy not to have health insurance as some people i think should be able to make their own choices about their own life decisions particularly in this arena i think it's very important for our spillover costs but that doesn't necessarily necessitate it let's let's talk about the auto bailout the treasury department ju

the fix the president tried to make for canceled plans saying we are telling the insurance commissioners and the insurance companies they have to give those plans back temporarily. the one-year delay in the employer man -- mandate and the fact that they granted legal status to some illegal immigrants by simply saying we are not going to enforce certain immigration laws. that triggered a lawsuit by ice agents who were told by the administration to essentially disregard the laws passed. we know there are other examples that critics site out there, but what does it take for this to get through the house? is it a simple majority? how many people have to sign on for this to move forward? >> it will be a simple majority. and then the speaker would have to decide whether or not he wants to litigate it. shannon, you gave examples of affirmative and defensive nullification. congress had a chance to provide a pathway to citizenship for children. they refused to do so. so congress refused to act and the president substitutes his judgment for that of congress and it does by executive fiat what they

and that's the exact same thing on pre-existing insurance. >> now, since the video came out, the commissioner admitted it was a bad analogy. but saying a cancer survivor, congresswoman, getting insured is the same as someone who wrecked their car and then tried to scam an insurance company? i mean, is this what they think? >> you know what? actually, as a former health care professional, i think he needs to go see his doctor. because frankly, after you hit a certain age, everybody has a pre-existing condition. it's called hypertension, it's called part of the aging process. and so really it reflects either profound ignorance. it was a very silly analogy. but you know what's going on in california, rev. california's doing very, very well. so the republicans here have resorted to creating a fake website that looks like the state website to trick people into getting on a website and hearing negative things, misinformation. the fact that they would go to such lengths to prevent people from getting health care is really quite tragic. >> but, you know, governor, at least one republican is admitting

the national insurance of commissioner said the average insurance premium is $791 so that 38% like would go up. there are two types. bodily injury coverage in case you or anyone else gets hurt. it's required in all states but new hampshire, second, property damage coverage, you get that in case your car or someone else's car or property or a mill box mailbox gets damaged. >> the two that cost the most, property damage and bodily injury. those increase rates 40% across the nation. comprehensive claims are much less expensive. they only effect your rate 2% across the nation. >> but location does matter. insurance companies in massachusetts will raise your premiums the most if you file a claim, almost 70% on average. california comes in second, hiking premiums 62%. new jersey is number three, at 59%. the states that have the smallest premium hikes after a claim, maryland, at 20%. alabama, just 22%. and michigan, 23%. >> insurance is regulated on the state level, not the federal level. so that means insurance companies have a lot of leeway in how they can adjust rates based on your claim his

senate, iame to the was the elected insurance commissioner of florida. nd the behavior of humans with regard to buying insurance, unless they think they absolutely need it -- they are not going to buy it. and this is almost out of sight, out of mind. baseu want to spread that by getting the young as well as the old into it, it is going to be very, very hard to get people to buy this insurance. what do you think, dr. feder? >> i agree with you, senator nelson. we have a lot of experience with that. i am always interested when we talk about rugged insurance and long-term care that we look at same timeat the looking at our experience with the non-group, the individual insurance market for health care. we know that is a market that is because,ith problems in part, of a desire of insurers to avoid people with pre- existing conditions and to limit their risk. and that is what you see, unless you have everybody participating. the idea i was discussing with senator white house -- whieth tehouse, which i hope we will all consider in the future -- i think it is bas

he was a former insurance commissioner and knows this as well as anyone in this body, but flood insurance is one piece for americans that live, some in low-lying areas, some in flood-prone areas, but they have been there a long time, like 300 years in our case. i mean, they just didn't move down here in the 1980's. we have been here since the 1780's and the 1680's, so we have been here a long time as a country. we have built up a -- a protection, if you will, of good, solid, affordable flood insurance since the last 40 years. we have been building levees a long time. thank goodness we're building more of them and building them better because our people need them and we could all use more of those. i try to provide funding for that every chance i can as a member of that appropriations committee. and we are promoting, mr. president, contrary to some of our critics, we are promoting very good policies in this country about smart growth, how to build stronger, higher, more resiliently. we're not blind to the challenges, but we have right now before this body a flood insurance bill that will f

cable satellite corp. 2013] ben nelson is currently the ceo of the national association of insurance commissioners. here's a brief preview. >> what the concern is, some people will decide to do that. some will choose not to. there is always a concern that people with health conditions are the one who will want to extend coverage and others will choose to opt for other coverage elsewhere. is, now they will be two different pools of individuals. the pull of those having coverage extended, who choose to do that, and the other pool, a larger poll of people who will be buying policies and going into the affordable care act. this is a challenge because , you why a large pulls of that you don't end up with people simply with health conditions. that will skew the rates and make them much higher. >> you can watch more of the interview with ben nelson tomorrow on newsmakers. >> it was like shock in all. that look that he had on his him puttingd see .is hand up i could close my eyes and see it. thatl never forget bringing me to reality of what was going on here. after he got into the tent, the the tente goes

the insurance commissioners have to approve. now you have a major carrier like aetna saying, no, we are not doing this. the president's fix is no fix. he didn't have the power to enforce it. they just did it again on friday. as you pointed out many times on the show, unless you pay you don't have insurance. on december 31, they extended the constitutiondeadline to the. a lot of people won't have care. sebelius said we are urging insurers to let them bay after december 31. we are urging them to accept partial down payments of the first month's premier yup, to let them keep their doctor even if not in the plan. they have no authority to enforce this. peel will lose their plan, doctor, insurance. they can do nothing about it. >> when we get to january 1, 2014, we are looking at a situation where this whole fix. the president's critics said it was political. he knew it was an empty promise. he was trying to say, i tried to keep my promise. when we get to that date we are going to have millions of americans potentially who are now no

that if you live in a state where they are not promoting the site, you can go to the state insurance commissioner'sebsite and it won't say anything about the affordable care act. i talked to people in indiana and they say there's no such thing as obama care in indiana. they don't understand this is something that's taking place and no matter where you live you can sign up for the insurance or exchanges. i say that they also think the law has been repeeled. i talked to a woman in ohio who told me people are coming in and saying, why are you trying to get the word out about enrolling if this law isn't going to go through? it's been reappealed by the house but also have to be repealed by the senate and the president would have to sign off of it. >> that misinformation campaign seems to be working. >> right, exactly. >> carrie, we heard a few moments ago the president signed up on the exchange. largely a symbolic move since he'll continue to enjoy the military insurance that he has. the administration meanwhile has hired 12,000 supporters to answer questions online or over the phone. 80,000 navigators

when we turned over to the state insurance commissioners? or the state health regulatory agencies? s. tumlinson? >> well, that's a good question. i think if we move in the direction of creating more incentives for people to purchase private long-term care insurance or reform the marketplace, improve demand and supply and all of those kind of things, we would continue to regular did at the state level the way it always has been by there has to be more of a federal -- just be more of a federal role in kind of setting the bare bones sort of standards, and i guess you'd call it the parameters around which some of these policies would be designed and how they would work. fundamentally the marketplace is not working so we need some actual marketplace reforms. and i think those have to come from the federal level. i think issues around, you know, regulation around the insurance pools and that kind of thing could continue to operate at the state level. >> senator nelson, i'll just point out, the current setup, radio towards other, obviously states have a main regulatory responsibility, but

i know that the only numbers coming out from new york is one provided by the insurance commissioner from the state of new york who said they have rates for 2014 that at least 50% lower than average than those that are currently available. but we do have some numbers coming out of some states that are related to small businesses. in the six states that made information available in the small group market, proposed premiums are estimated to be on average in 18% lower than the premium a small employer will pay for similar coverage without the affordable care act. would you say this is the type of trend that we will see coming out of other states? >> yes, i agree with that. it is important to bear in mind insurance markets do very dramatically so we can't generalize from new york's experience to where there is a very competitive market. a lot of carriers offering coverage to other states where there's only one or two. over time, i would expect that the example of the states that have established their own markets and been successful will encourage and inspire other states to do the same and

creating that i can tell you from my experience before i came to the senate i was the elected insurance commissioner of florida and the behavior of humans with regards to buying insurance, unless they think they absolutely needed, they are not going to buy it. and this is almost out of sight and out of mind. if you want to spread that a base by getting the young as well as the old into it is going to be very, very hard to get people to buy this insurance. what do you think, dr. feder? >> i agree with you, senator nelson and we have a lot of experience with that and i am always interested when we talk about private insurance and long-term care that we are at the same time looking at our experience with the moniker of individual insurance market and we know that that is a market that rebel with problems because in part because of a desire to avoid people with pre-existing conditions and to limit their risk and that's what you see unless you have everybody participating. and the idea that i was discussing with senator whitehouse that i put before as a commission and hope that we will all consider in th

the president asked the state insurance commissioners and insurance companies to let people keep theirmber of democratic senators in the senate have a bill led by mary landrieu so people can keep their policies. why would this be going on it's only a small percentage of the people found their old policy was not better than obamacare. here is the number. right now people are being offered the opportunity to keep their policy, not in all states but when they are offered the opportunity to keep their policy 80% to 90% arcing, one ceo told me in his company where they are allowing people to keep their policy 85% are keeping the old policy. i don't think he got the memo. this one is settled. stuart: what happens next year when we are told tens of millions of cancellation notices go out, people who get their health care from their employers. what kind of plan are they shifted into? >> millions of people are getting the one year extension. is only a 1-year reprieve for the death sentence from these policies so we will get through this next fall at election time. you have a small employers, ma

. >> a letter from gary cohen to state health insurance commissioners saying while many people will have subsidies, there are still going to be some people paying more than they were paying. >> reporter: and a few days after his initial promises, the president seemed to downgrade the pledge that most would get better coverage at lower prices. >> there's a good chance they'll be able to buy better insurance at lower cost. >> reporter: in fact one insurance plan that asked not to be identified analyzed its pool of 375,000 people and found even after subsidies, only 10% would actually see a decrease in costs, while one-third would face significant rate increases as a result of obama care. bret. >> jim, thank you. >>> the president's par end up paying a stiff price for obama care. senior political analyst britt has some thoughts on that. >> the president's health reform plan is the stuff of jokes but the plts plit cal consequences will be felt. it's likely to prove the least of the problems. mr. obama's deceptive promise that no one would lose their doctors, hospitals or health insurance has

>> it's critically important for insurance commissioners in the states to make the improvements. i hope they do make the improvements. we have given them the authority to do so and hope they will take us up on that. as long as democrats continue to find ways to fix and improve the affordable care act and republicans remain obsessed with repealing the affordable care act and going back to the days of a broken system where people were bankrupt because they were sick, as long as republicans continue to say that we should at $1200 in cost to seniors because that's what a repeal would cost and we are going to remove preventive health care and remove protects for presifting conditions, as long as they cling to that, we will number good shape. we want to fix it and improve it. they want to repeal and end it. most americans want to fix and improve it. >> steve israel joining us from the hill, we appreciate your time. take care. >> moving on to today's first read with the house scheduled to leave for vacation at the end of next week, the 113th congress is shaping up to be the least produc

when georgia's insurance commissioner ralph hudkins, he's a republican, he used an unbelievable analogyrance companies to cover preexisting conditions is a bad idea, he says. let's watch. >> let's say you're going along and you have a wreck. and it's your fault. well, a preexisting condition would be then you calling up your insurance agent and saying, i'd like to get collision insurance coverage on my car. and your insurance agent said, well, you've never had that before. why would you want it now? and you'd say, well, i just had a wreck, and it was my fault. and i want the insurance company to pay for my -- to repair my car. and that's the exact same thing on preexisting insurance. >> and he's supposed to be one regulator in the insurance industry. anyway, he's since conceded it was a poor analogy. he said today that as the prostate cancer victim himself, he can sympathize are other people who have preexistingen cans. preexisting conditions. i don't know why people are talking that way because people do have car insurance before they have wrecks and then like to have insurance before

then president obama came out and said, well, if you lost your coverage, we' encourage the insurance commissioners in your state to make sure that they allow you to keep that. and that all those happen by december 23rd. i mean, you know, there's not that many shopping days left before christmas. >> you've got millions of people and deadlines that are coming up, and the house of representatives, the deadline's monday. we were told that less than lf of the people have even tried to sign up. they're scrambling now, saying just keep receipts and make a log of what you're doing. we'll give you an extra 30 days to make sure that you are covered. they're pushing us to do it on pacher e-- paper as opposed to online because it's not working, and this is a very small sample size of what's happening coast to coast. >> what's going to happen? you know, what's going to happen to the guy in your office, to all those people who can't get it before december 23rd, and then the new year comes and they're out of luck? >> well, i think people have been delaying properly so because the safety, security, the encryption

>> yes, government, hospitals, big insurance, exchanges, the state insurance commissioners who tell youn exchanges. it is just getting worse. david: are you hopeful, final question, are you hopeful we'll straighten this out perhaps by, i know, we don't want to sit back to let it unravel but so many problems with obamacare eventually people will cry out for other answers, aren't they? >> yes. there is always hope. we live in a great country and, and a government that eventually, after we tried everything else comes around and does the right thing. there is all sorts of free markets brewing on the side. internet is undermining a lot of these price, price problems. there is new cash only hospitals springing up. the weeds may spring up alongside, or flowers may spring up alongside obamacare and undo it for us. david: today's "wall street journal" what to do when obamacare unravels. we have the university of chicago school of business professor. appreciate you coming in. >> thank you. cheryl: beyonce helps a terminally ill girl have her wish come true. we have the story next. david: if you b

kathleen sebelius believes she should be our nations insurance commissioner, that she should dictate decisions across 50 states. a great example of that is when the president, by executive action said, you know what? this grandfathering issue, we're going to wipe that off the law and continued to move forward and act like the law doesn't say what it says about grandfathering. because of these cancellations. they try to dictate that in every state and not overstate what along with that. i think kathleen sebelius has been a miserable failure in his job. i did not want her to have it. others in kansas were happy to see her go. i think we need a different hhs secretary in a different health- care law. host: you talked about former i.t. projects. give some examples. guest: i was chairman of the i.t. committee and the state for many years and we review these projects, whether it was at labor or medicaid or transportation project. a lot of failed i.t. projects at the end of the day. she does not have a good track record on these issues. healthcare.gov is a failed i.t. project. the real fail

. >> they tried to allow changes to state insurance commissioners and insurance companies to we shouldif they want to. not all states have signed up and this is just a change to try to get people insured and there's not a deficit of those on insurance because of the health-care law instead of surplus expected millions of people to get insurance but with all these cancellations and the website not working with a face a tough problem getting more people insured rather than fewer. the president will address this at his news conference right here. cheryl: we will have it right here. thank you very much. dennis: more on the latest obamacare at a, adviser to mitt romney, do you like this delay or do you not like the delay? >> this is the most consequential change or delay in this administration to the obamacare exchange. will read chaos on individual markets, they shop for health insurance coverage on the road. dennis: what is so fundamental about this delay versus previous ones because we had plenty on this. >> the obama administration potentially exempting millions of americans from the in

canceled yet and i'm crossing my fingers, i live in the district of columbia, but you know the insurance commissionerlumbia said that everybody's got to be compliant with obamacare and they want everybody to be pushing these exchanges. so my plan hasn't been canceled yet, it's care first, blue cross/blue shield, but i'll come back on your show if it is and i'll raise holy hell. stuart: you will. conservative black chick, i just love the name, that's what it is. >> thank you. stuart: merry christmas to you. >> you, too, merry christmas. stuart: gotcha. we called it, electronic cigarettes will now be treated like regular smokes in new york city and we'll deal with that in a moment and liz macdonald is still here on the subject after this. [ male announcer ] my client gloria has a lot going on in her life. wife, mother, marathoner. but one day it's just gonna be james and her. so as their financial advisor, i'm helping them look at their complete financial picture -- even the money they've invested elsewhere -- to create a plan that can help weher all kinds markets. because that's how they're getting re