On Friday's Mornings with Maria, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo interviewed Ezekiel Emanuel, considered one of Obamacare's architects. It was quite contentious, and ended with Bartiromo stopping inches short of laughing sarcastically at her guest's comments and conduct.
Her reaction was completely defensible, given Emanuel's ridiculous economic claims, his sophomoric and fact-challenged attempt to drag the Bush 43 administration into the discussion, and his de facto contention that every business and medical critic of Obamacare with whom the FBN host has spoken must be lying, i.e., "Your anecdotes are no good!"
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>
In the first of two excerpted segments, Emanuel claimed that former President Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus "worked remarkably successfully," that "there is no evidence that the Affordable Care Act limited and economic growth," and played the Bush 43 card — which led Bartiromo to let him have it with both barrels:
Transcript (bolds are mine throughout this post):
EZEKIEL EMANUEL: We had a serious recession in this country which had to be combated, and President Obama introduced Recovery Act, legislation to stimulate the economy and to bring us back, which worked remarkably successfully.
MARIA BARTIROMO: But then he pushed forward this gigantic health care legislation that took the oxygen out of the room on helping the economy, and in fact it hurt economic growth.
EMANUEL: No, Maria, Maria —
BARTIROMO: When you look at the impact of 16 percent of the economy being health care —
EMANUEL: You can have your opinions but you cannot have your facts.
(Bartiromo gets close to laughing)
The facts are there is no evidence that the Affordable Care Act limited economic growth. As a matter of fact, after passage of (continuously interrupting Bartiromo's attempt to counter by repeating "after passage of" three times) the Affordable Care Act, the economy came back.
BARTIROMO: 100 percent wrong. 100 percent wrong. I speak to CEOs and managers of businesses every single day on this program, Doctor Emanuel. And the one thing they tell me is the reason they have not hired more people, invested more in their business, is because of the cost of healthcare. That's the reason. And when you have a legislation that is 18% of the economic growth story, you can be sure that healthcare is going have an impact on economic growth. That's a fact.
EMANUEL: Maria, let me make two quick points. The first point is we agree, you and I, me and the President, that the fact is we need more affordability in healthcare, and I've worked tirelessly to get healthcare costs to become under control. Second point is, under President Obama, we had more low inflation that we did under President Bush. To restate some important numbers, under President Bush healthcare premiums for a family went up 80% in his eight years. Under President Obama, they went up 35 percent. That's a —
BARTIROMO: This is not a conversation about President Bush. As much as you want to blame President Bush still for all the problems under Obama, we can’t do it today, because it doesn’t make sense.
This year, premiums in Arizona will be up 116 percent. Premiums across the country will be up in the double digits. That’s a fact, Dr. Emanuel. We know that, and we know that. And we know the cost of healthcare is the reason that executives have not hired more people, and the reason that managers of business(es) have turned full-time jobs into part-time jobs. That's a fact.
Points:
- The stimulus didn't work. As a result, the Obama economy, which supposedly "came back," was the worst post-World II recovery on record, and annual GDP growth never rose above 2.6 percent.
- The following point cannot be emphasized enough. As a percentage of income, total household expenditures on healthcare including health insurance rose from 4.7 percent in 2008 ($2,976 divided by $63,563 at Page 2 at link — virtually the same percentage as seen in 2000 [Page 3]) to 6.2 percent in 2015 ($4,342 divided by $69,629 at Page 2 at link). Thus, nominal household income (before inflation) increased by about 10 percent, while medical costs increased by 46 percent. There has been no "low inflation" in household healthcare spending.
- Legions of employers cut work hours and jobs from 2012-2014 as the Obamacare employer mandate loomed and was then delayed.
The second segment follows Emanuel's advocacy of changing fee-for-service doctor-patient payment arrangements, which is virtually a guaranteed path to the medical rationing Emanuel has favored in past writings, and his citations of two instances (in 82 months, going back to Obamacare's March 2010 passage) of alleged cost containment success.
After that, as a fired-up Bartiromo brought things back to reality, Emanuel told her, in essence, that all the business and medical people she's ever talked to who have criticized Obamacare have been lying:
Transcript:
BARTIROMO: How come so many doctors won't accept it?
EMANUEL: Oh no, doctors love it.
BARTIROMO: That's not what I hear from doctors. (Laughs) Doctors love it? I don't know where you're getting this?
EMANUEL: Maria, your anecdotes are no good! Ortho North Carolina down in North Carolina, Hogue Orthopedic Institute in California, they love these bundled payments because it allows them to actually make more money by being efficient and reducing the cost of their care.
BARTIROMO: How come the majority, how come the majority of Americans want to program repealed and replaced? How come business say, "Please get this cost off, I can’t hire anybody anymore. How come so many people want it replaced if your facts are so good, and mine are "no good"?
EMANUEL: You may not have looked the latest pulling, but NBC/Wall Street Journal, the latest polling shows that now more people want the Affordable Care Act kept and more people, 50% of people don’t trust the Republicans to actually amend the Affordable Care Act in a responsible manner.
The polling is changing, Maria. We always know it’s easy at the start with just bland comments to say, "Oh, we’re going to repeal, and people will support it." Once the details come out, support drops like a stone, and that’s what’s going to happen with the Republicans, and your not going to see lots of people urging it.
As a matter of fact, one of the ads that played in between here was from AARP, "Keep our Medicare." Because they don’t trust the Republicans actually preserve Medicare for the elderly. That's going to be a serious problem.
MIKE HUCKABEE: You know what? So is their (AARP's) cruise. They're selling like hotcakes. That's also happening too.
BARTIROMO: All right, Dr. Emanuel, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much.
EMANUEL: No problem. Just get the fact right, Maria, next time.
BARTIROMO (fighting hard to suppress laughter): Okay, thanks.
(Former presidential candidate Huckabee was involved in other portions of the interview directly relating to the just-confirmed HHS Secretary Tom Price.)
Bartiromo's assertion that Obamacare is not popular with doctors is pretty obvious, given the large decrease in the number of medical providers accepting Obamacare patients. Additionally, one-third of U.S. counties have only one Obamacare insurer.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll Emanuel cited is deeply flawed in many respects. What's important to note for now is that the article at NBC promoting the January 12-15 poll ignored the fact that 46 percent of those polled want "repeal and replace" to be an "absolute priority" this year, while 26 percent say it can be delayed until next year. Unfortunately for Emanuel, that really means 72 percent of respondents want to see Obamacare repealed and replaced.
Beyond that, Emanuel's side just lost the one poll that matters. It's known as an election. Political polls like NBC/WSJ are essentially trying to convince America, besides their ability to accurately report what they found (which they didn't), that we should trust the 1,000 people who completed their survey more than what happened on November 8. What NBC/WSJ and others won't tell readers is that, given the usual poll response rate of 8 percent, they failed to get about 11,000 others who were contacted to complete their survey, and that it's an utterly illogical stretch to believe that the opinions of those who would not complete the survey mirror those who did.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
