not, you know, how we ip sure the cost. >> steven brill, great to have you here. you, sir. >> you're welcome. >>> up next, we'll talk about what you're seeing outside of your window because we're having a rebound of the cold. the sudden return of frigid weather for millions of americans. next hour, what's behind the new trump business trademarks in china? >>> is president trump trying to dodge reporters or is something else at play? we'll examine it. >> the president is living in fear of reporters tonight now more than ever. he is visibly afraid of being anywhere near reporters. or is it your allergy pills? break through your allergies. introducing flonase sensimist. more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies. new flonase sensimist. ♪ i'm in the kitchen. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. i

journalist and msnbc contributor steven brill.o see you. >> good morning. >> a wild week in washington. your general reaction to the last couple days. did you anticipate what would happen yesterday? not eve an house vote on the floor. >> i didn't, but i think now the challenge becomes making what the president said not a self-fulfilling prophesy. there's been a lot of demonstrations at town hall meetings the congressmen have had, if people are worried about health care, the next demonstrations should take place on the plaza in front of the health and human services building because the trump administration can kill health care or help obamacare survive. i'll give you one example, and take a big gulp of coffee because this is really boring stuff, but there is a provision in obamacare that allows for and in effect directs the government to subsidize low and middle income people who can't afford the dedoubleables and co-pays that they're asked to pay, which is what the president keeps complaining about. republicans in congress sued a

. >> joining us now, steven brill, wrote the definitive book on obamacare "america's bitter pill." o an msnbc contributor. and so steven, here's a soft ball for you, how does this plan stack up to the donald trump that we just heard? >> it doesn't do anything like it but the first thing to understand about this plan is that it is exactly what the president said they were not going to do which is repeal immediately and replace later. this, basically nothing really happens in this suggestive law until 2018 and the really bad stuff doesn't happen until 2020. to get to your question -- >> give me an example of what happens in 2018, what happens in 2020. >> what happens right now is the mandates go away. that's basically pretty much all. >> right. >> and the taxes go away. >> the revenue that the bill collects goes away. >> all the revenue the bill collected will go away. the subsidies on the obamacare exchanges continue exactly as they are now only they're going to go up because premiums are going to continue to go up and they're going to go up especially higher because without the mand

steven brill in your last hour talked about that. there were ways to indemnify insurance companies if they got too many sick people and so forth, that republicans refused to fund. so there are things that we can do to make the system better, but in kentucky we've ensured more than half million people out of a population of 4.4 million through the affordable care act, and most of that is operating fairly well. people are getting health care that they never have gotten in their life before. >> we know president trump won on this argument of repealing and replacing obamacare on tay one. talk to us about what it was like behind the scenes of knowing that this was an effort that was doomed to fail because of the lack of republican support. >> i think there was an element of frustration but also an element of vipd case. i've been saying for two years now, and i'm sure i've said it on your programs before, that there really isn't any alternative to the affordable care act except going to single payer, or you can go back to where we were bef