the procedural vote at 5:30 eastern time. then the senate will turn to rebuild it was passed by the house this week to regulate prescription drugs compounding pharmacies. you can watch live coverage of the senate over we will let you know about a live program coming up, an event hosted by an alliance for health reform. we will be hearing about health care costs in the plans being offered by employers. that is live at 12:15 eastern. we will also be live on c-span 3 from the capital where the senate homeland security committee will be examining the impact of digital currencies. they allow people to exchange goods and services online without any money. again, the house is about to gavel in. starting today with morning our and speeches on any topic. take you live.

[captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker.

the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., november 18, thrown. i hereby appoint the honorable mo brooks to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker's room -- the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, -- the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission of clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on november 18, 2013, at 10:23 a.m. that the senate agreed to house amendments to the bill, senate 252, signed sincerely, karen l. haas.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip , but in o five minutes no event shall debate continue beyond 1:50 p.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from alabama, mr. rooks, for five minutes.

mr. brooks: mr. speaker, on january 15, 2009, in order to get obamacare passed, president obama promised america, quote, if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. no one will be able to take it away no matter what, end quote. on june 28, 2012, in order to get re-election votes, president obama promised, quotes, if you are more than the 250 million americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. this law will only make it more secure and more affordable, end quote. president obama's recent apology for its deception has not stopped cancellation of millions, millions of american health insurance plans nor slowed the obamacare costs skyrocketing health insurance costs. obamacare forces to on the one

hand, pay higher obamacare health insurance costs and cut money for food, shelter and clothing or go without health insurance and pay tax penalties while risk health care bankruptcy. max baucus, the senate sponsor of obamacare, warned us earlier this year that obamacare was a train wreck waiting to happen. well, the verdict is in. obamacare is dysfunctional and threatens the lives and finances of millions of real hardworking americans. mark timilton of huntsville, alabama, writes, quote, i just received a notice of blue cross blue shield of alabama yesterday indicating that my total blue plan was no longer available due to the affordable care act. my family coverage increased $1,187 0 per month to per month. they were kind enough to offer the more affordable and considerably worse silver plan

for only $938 per month. i don't qualify for any subsidies, so this will directly hit my household finances. meeze make every effort to stop -- please make every effort to stop affecting the tennessee valley constituents. jessica more of ardmore, alabama writes, quote, i am write being the not so affordable health care act. my insurance premiums are going up 118% with blue cross blue shield. the health care marketplace will be of no help to me as i make too much money. i am a single iraq veteran. i am my sole income. i am perfectly healthy. the amount in which my premium was raised is how much money i have left in the bank at the end of the month. i do not live beyond my means. i am a faithful taxpayer. the affordable care act premium hikes are not affordable to me, nor to many other honest taxpayers. please help the already tax to

to the max middle class on this, end quote. obamacare has caused millions of americans to receive health insurance cancellation letters, leaving them struggling with how to protect their families. thanks to obamacare, a year from now tens of millions more americans risk losing their health insurance once obamacare's employer mandate kicks in. mr. speaker, while obamacare is dysfunctional and threatens america's lives, there is a better way. the american health care reform act, which i have co-sponsored, unleashes the power of free enterprise competition to deliver quality health care at prices americans can better afford. among other things, this bill, first, forces lower health care costs by legalizing interstate competition among insurance companies. second, reforms medical malpractice laws that health insurance is paying for health care, not frivolous lawsuits.

third, let's americans -- lets americans deduct health care costs and gives them a standard deduction. four, protects americans with pre-existing conditions by bolster state-based high-risk pools. mr. speaker, health care decisions should be made by doctors and patients, not washington bureaucrats. quite frankly, big brother bureaucrats have no business butting in and forcing americans to buy health insurance that they cannot afford or do not want. obamacare denies hardworking american taxpayers their right, yes, their right to choose the health care policy best tailored to their needs. mr. speaker, obamacare should be repealed and america should have health care debate care solutions based on truth, not deception. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities

toward the president. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until 2:00 p.m. today. >> for more about what is going on, we talked to a capitol hill reporter during washington journal. we want to get an update about congress.

bob.t: good morning, have a weekd senate left before thanksgiving. what are they trying to do this week? the senate, the senate is starting work on defense authorization bill. they will have a vote to proceed tonight on that. then there will be a series of debates on a range of issues into the senate whether it is -- dealinganistan with military sexual assaults. they're just getting started on this bill. they are not going to finish anytime soon because of the amount of amendments and thorny issues here. on the house side, republicans are taking aim on president obama's energy policies. there will be a series of bills attacking the obama administration's regulations,

trying to make it easier for oil and gas companies to get permits on federal land. debatesll be rigorous in the house and senate. the week will be dominated by the health care law on the website woes. host: talk a little bit more about nominations. the senate faces another test on a nominee. they point out that the first two nominees failed to achieve the 60 votes to move forward. there was a third this evening. what is the latest to their? guest: this is another battle. republicans say that their argument against approving the d.c. nominees is the exact argument the democrats used in the bush nominee.

you don't need this many appointments on the d.c. circuit. haveants have -- democrats countered that. they can't agree. it has nothing to do with the individual nominees. there is this constant talk of a possible nuclear option when they have the standoffs. they're moving aggressively on this, moving forward on this -- there was another nominee. a democrat from north carolina. his nomination has been held up. there are others in the pipeline that could be controversy oh. the biggest one -- controversial. the biggest one that is likely to get through his janet yellen to replace ben bernanke at the fed. host: health care enveloped everything else. there are no shortage -- there is no shortage of stories that say that things are being halted

because of health care. guest: i think the biggest thing to look for is pressure from house republicans on the senate to vote on some type of votenion bill to the upton last week, 39 emigrants defected -- lower than a lot of -- democrats defected -- lower than a lot of people thought. inhink the lower number came because of obama came out with his own administrative fix. that has been criticized by the insurers and insurance commissioners in the states. daily updates of where the website is going to be. we are going to have more oversight. -- that is the next big thing with obamacare and it's troubles. how secure is the information when people go to sign up and enroll? , managingto sack

editor at "the help you cope -- "the hill." >> a look now at some of the live programs we will be having on c-span network. the health insurance professionals will be looking at health care costs in just a few minutes and price caps on employer plans -- that discussion said to begin in just a couple of minutes on c-span 2. it will be hosted by the alliance for health reform. over on c-span 3, gloria steinem will be speaking today at the national press club. she helped found the women action alliance and the women's media center. we will have her remarks live on c-span 3. johnson as first lady loved to show off her home. the guests of the ranch would gather in the den.

various heads of state came to visit. -- connection to the room one of the things she wanted to highlight was the native american heritage here in the hill country. we have a small collection of arrowheads over there. she had an eye for copper. she collected various items over the years and had gifts from various friends. in gave a tour of the house 1968 that was filmed, where she featured the china that you see here, purchased in mexico, very colorful. she spent a lot of time here at the ranch and it was very important because it provided a respite from all of the turmoil from washington, particularly later in the presidency. the johnsons could come home and recharge their batteries. lady lady bird johnson, tonight, live on c-span and c- span 3. also on c-span radio and c- span.org. is a bigger than

life character to a lot of people who have read about her. -- is consistently ranked when they do rankings of first ladies -- she is in the top 5-10 in terms of influence. what was she like? not as first lady, but as a mom? andother was so organized first she did not show a lot of emotion. that was so unlike my father. he was always the type. influence. calming she was my best friend. we have a special relationship. i would say, i am telling you this, not as my mother, but as my best friend. mothers -- i have three daughters -- and mother has to say, eat your spinach.

it is 10:00, you need to go to bed. have you cleaned your room? whereas, a best friend you can say, oh, i'm so madly in love ,ith joe and then next week when it is no longer joe, the best friend does not say, wait a minute you told me you were in love with joe and now you're telling me that you think that hank is just the man of your life? those kinds of things. i had that special kind of relationship with mother always and that was a very important stabling factor in my life who have somebody you could talk to, that you knew would give their best judgment, but full of love and not necessarily what you ought to do all the time.

i think mother gave daddy so much grounding. he knew always that she was going to tell him what she really thought. she was going to be able to be his eyes and ears. she was going to help them with what people really thought so that he was not isolated, he got every kind of opinion. she was going to tell him when , buts wrong, not publicly privately -- if she thought he should do something different or how she felt about it. she would often wait for him to ask. she thought he was the smartest person she ever knew. had the beste judgment. he would tell us that all the time. talk to your mother about that. she has best judgment.

i thought she had pretty good judgment. the negative thing -- mother was not perfect -- she had too much. ethicic that -- puritan that you must be working all the time. she always got a desk full of letters. even to her dying day, she had a big tote bag that would be full of mail, full of projects, things to do. she had an assistant. one of their jobs was to get the backpack and go through it and see what she had written on it. and then get it back to her. she was always feeling like i must be doing things, good work. the white house i would say that i'm going to kidnap you mother and we are going to this exhibit at the national gallery and we are going to go out to lunch

somewhere because a lot of people don't invite you out to lunch for fun. they invite you to come to the luncheon where they're going to raise money. they invite you to come to the democratic dinner or whatever. it is kind of a working dinner for you. out andbe able to go order what you want to we. and to go to see a museum. so i would do that. the truth of the matter is i think she did it because she thought she was doing something for me. leaving thestify desk because i am doing this with linda. linda wants to go to the art gallery. i will go and this will be something for her. of course i would justify doing that it was -- i am getting mother out of the house. i'm giving her some time to do something for fun.

-- she always so had work to do. she was a wonderful, fun person to be around. >> did that change when she became first lady? >> oh no. i probably had more of a need to get her out and do things with her. we liked being together. we enjoyed company. motherer once said, your ever gossips. i would laugh. i would listen to what you say -- he'd say. she didn't talk also, but she didn't mind hearing at some of the time. he thought she was perfect. i thought she was a pretty wonderful woman. except that she didn't play enough. that would be about my only criticism of her.

>> she was the wife of a politician. you were the wife of a politician for a while. would never marry anybody in politics because i did not want my life like they did. i had other plans. and then i married chuck for the ago years ago -- 45 years and he decided to go into politics. by that time we had two children. there we are. now we have three children. >> what did you learn from your mom and was your style similar to hers? was a different or the same? >> what advice would you give me, i asked her, for being a good political wife and what did you do for daddy? she said, i went around behind him thanking everybody. i think that is true. it is a lot of that.

people who lot of were good to chuck and a lot of people that needed to have that connection and they knew they could call me and that i would get a message to. -- chuck. they knew that i was aware of how much they were doing and i think mother did a lot of the same. she kept him up with a lot of his friends. he was a wonderful friend. daddy was. he had so many friends. he loved to call them and talk to them. democrats or republicans. timer spent a lot of feeding all of those people. in the senate days, particularly, there were a lot of bachelors -- either because they never married or because their wives stayed back home. maybe they were just out of town.

a senator one time came over because he was going to a white tie event and he needed someone to fix his tie for him. he came over and mother helped get him all dressed. daddy would bring lots and lots of people home. how --often -- that's with a lot of friendship and she made a lot of friends and would bring them into his life. rayburnance, speaker was interested in history, just like mother was. mother and the speaker would go off to see some old house in virginia on a weekend. daddy would sometimes go grudgingly along. but he wanted to be with the speaker and the speaker wanted to be with mother, so it all worked out.

lot about what to do in politics from my mother. i was raised with it. i knew that you walked into a room and introduced yourself to everybody. you didn't necessarily stand back in the corner and wait. if you could go out and establish that friendship on behalf of your husband or your open the future that you could be a very helpful person and that is what mother did for daddy. particularly in things like the lady bird special. >> talk about that. it seems to me to be a unique jumping off point for first ladies. did you go out on any of those? >> i did. told us how they really needed us to help when

the elections. you and i know they didn't really need us. but i think that people liked to .ee a family member if they couldn't get daddy and they couldn't get mother, maybe at least the could get linda or lucy. .ucy and i took turns lucy would go and then i would go the next weekend. we were in school, so this was just the weekend. , i went to campaign about half of the states. lucy went to about half of the states. on the lady bird special, we share that. virginia -- from alexandria -- to south carolina and lucy went from south carolina to new orleans. we took turns. both of us were in school and so i could only take off so much and seek to -- she could only

take off so much. it was a fascinating experience. perspective,mom's what was her role in that lady bird special and did she enjoy it? >> i think she enjoyed it because she liked people too. daddy loved people. he likes to go out and speak to them and find out how they felt about things. mother was a little more cerebral. she loved the south. she spent a lot of time in --bama because her maternal her paternal family were from alabama. she had lots and lots of cousins . she would go there in the summer. her mother died when she was 5. her mother's sister would take her to alabama to visit cousins

in the summer -- kissing cousins of all kinds. toher did not want the south think that we did not want their vote. just because we knew that there were a lot of people who didn't like the civil rights bill for instance, she helped that she could appeal to them to recognize that that was a time that was coming in the change had to be made and that we were moving forward and that they were all -- a lot of african american citizens who were there and we wanted to reassure them. whoe were a lot of people loved the south like she did. called the members of the senate, the states where she was going, and their governors,

and asked them to ride on the train and i don't want to come into your state without without talking to you about it. she wasn't going to be invading. she was coming to talk to them. and that she did. some people that didn't like us and that were very vocal. heard that there were threats that they were going to blow the train up. beforen a car through hours -- ours. if it was on the tracks, they would blow up the sidecar and not get us. and then there were threats all along the way. .ut it was a wonderful success

mother would stand on the back of the train like she had seen harry truman do and she would tell them how proud and happy she was to be here. and she hoped they would vote for her husband and that he cared about them and there were many things that we all shared. and that she was a daughter of the south. it was wonderful. seeas wonderful for me to the bravery. they were risking their political life, even if not their physical life, they were risking their political life to associate with lyndon johnson and the lady bird. wereof their constituents not in favor of the civil rights bills that had been passed.

and some of the things that daddy was supporting. they loved mother. i asked one person, what did your father -- how did he feel about you writing on the train? he was a senator from a southern state. she said, my daddy loved your mama and your daddy so much, he didn't care. i just thought, those people don't get enough attention too. you look at the people who were willing to write on the train. when i becameat, one of lady of virginia, those -- he was a lieutenant governor then -- he told me that his governor sent amount to and the governor was not ready to go himself, but

he wanted to be hospitable. capital, he to his came out to greet us and he said, if i hadn't done that, i would not have been elected governor in the south. that he wouldwas have been opposed by people in his own democratic arty. -- party. there were some who were more liberal than he was. it was an interesting revelation to me. i was hearing that story in the 1980's about a story in the 1960's. >> you talk about your special bond with your mother. at that trip alone must've meant a lot. >> it did. he would go to a stop in there would be people who would have

signs up, down the blackbird. there were a lot of things that were not nice that people would say. there were a lot of wonderful people who would be there cheering. calm and sheways would let them all scream and then she would say, you've had your say and now let me have mine. took them back a little bit and they thought, do as these evilseen people? they knew the national press was there. and so sometimes they would let her speak. when they would say bad things, i sometimes rose to her defense. fortunately i didn't say too many bad things or get caught. make andfforts did she

was it possible to have some sort of semblance of a normal life inside the white house? that thisays told us is just for a little while. it is the job that is important. i was a history student. i had read about how -- when the romans would come back from winning a great battle and they had their triumphal march through that they had a slave who was on the back of the chariot who said, remember you are mortal, remember you are mortal. sometimes in all of those people who were cheering, people began to think you are pretty important. maybe it wasn't a presidency that was important, but you as an individual were important.

i think that always restrained us. she would always say, don't do anything that you don't want to see on the front page of "the new york times." something that was hard to do. that was limiting. there were lots of things that young people do that is just part of the time. >> did you ever have a time where she said, linda? >> i was very shy. i still am, believe it or not. bookish andus and boring and lucy was the exciting one. got more press until i had this wonderful wedding.

that got a lot of press. i didn't get my parents into much trouble. at the beginning of her time at the white house, a very difficult time for the nation with the assassination and then at the end of vietnam, did you see anything toward the end -- the protesters were outside of the white house you couldn't have helped but here some of that. did that have an impact on our did you see the factor? saw the factor. she was a very even killed person. daddy had his eyes and close. -- high sna and lows. she did not cry and shout and scream. that was just not my mother. i know she was affected by it. i know that it hurt her very much to hear people saying those things. i was there. i was pregnant.

i had a baby. there was my husband in vietnam and there is nobody wanted the war to be over more than i did and more than that he did. he was trying to find a way and we thought we had it in the paris peace talks and then for wentns that you know, they behind the back and got in touch with the south vietnamese and said you will get a better deal and theyen -- nixon pulled back. it was hard to peel -- hear people shouting outside our window, hey, how many kids did you kill today? it was very hard on daddy. it was hard on mother. she was trying to do everything she could to give daddy some peace and solace and to be there by his side. she was very supportive of his

march 31 speech. she felt and we hope that maybe when people could focus, not on then behat they could willing to come to the peace table. things get soe focused on an individual. for instance, you look at the release of the prisoners that the iranians held on until the moment that reagan took his hand off the viable. they were not going to let jimmy success.ve that it was personalized. sometimes in politics that happens. it is not just between democrats and republicans. it is international sometimes.

sadly, that happened to us. we tried and daddy was willing decisionslot of bold that he thought were right for the country, even if it was not the best for the democratic party, even if it meant that he personally would suffer from it into popularity. he thought it was the best thing and a trip toy tell people, you can criticize the choice that somebody makes, they did question why it. let's believe that they did it with the best of motives and that they were trying to do what they felt was best for the country. that does not matter whether it

is lyndon johnson or george bush. presidenterybody was thinks they are trying to do what is right. not hardo say, it is to do what is right, it is hard to know what is right in some cases. we were facing a situation where we have a lot of people on the other side who wanted to bomb -- who wanted to go into vietnam with the bombs from here schumer shimarrosion and -- hiro and get rid of the problem, so to speak. he did what he thought was right and i hope that history will talk about a lot of the things that he did and i will hear some lifetime.pping in my >> i think history and historians are constantly reassessing your father's --

>> it is very interesting because as you know this year there was published something about the presidency and historians rated that this was -- daddy was in the top four with the two s and i believe wilson. this was for the century. >> just a couple more questions. thank you for your time. as people have reassessed your father's presidency, your mother storyank very high in his and's polls as an influential first lady. why do you think that is? >> she recognized that this is a bully pulpit and there were things that she cared about. he could about head start.

she was cognizant of the fact that there are a lot of children who did not get the food they needed and didn't get the kind of schooling they needed and they needed that head start because of the poverty in their homes. out anded to go publicize this wonderful program. she also grew up surrounded by nature and she knew what the natural beauty could do for your soul, for your spirit. look good, feel better. that kind of thing. allwanted to introduce us to what we could do to make our ,wn surroundings look better with planting and to clean up our junkyards and to the wonderful, wonderful national parks that we have, that people come from all over the world to see.

she was a publicist for some of these things. she cared about them in her heart. she had always been interested in what came to be known as beautification and she carried that on until her death with the wildflower center here in austin. valuablerobably most as a counselor to my father. something that you don't get credit for. that he needed somebody he could talk to, who would tell him the truth or how they sought. he didn't need anything from it, he didn't want anything. it that everyone is always thinking for something for me to do? i think that is true. when you are in a job, everybody is coming to you, even your own staff, with a project that they think what they want to be the

person that brings in the information from such and such. mother did not have a dog in that fight except daddy. he was the person she cared about. the solace that allow them to be able to go out and do great things like civil rights bills and like medicare and all of the education bills. she was his strength. i am so glad she was there. interests. her own and that was important. and daddy promoted her to. sometimes she would hold back and say, i should be here with you. he would say, you have two degrees from the university of texas, you can do anything. he was a promoter of women.

>> bust? two. question or two. those reminiscences are invaluable to historians. what was it that made her do things like that? did she have an eye toward the future? that yound you know are living in an important moment in american history? what if her the presence of mind? >> she was a very disciplined person. i was at the university of texas when the assassination took lace. when i came to the white house she came and said you need to keep a diary. it is a good discipline. they have people in mental institutions to do that. thank you very much. is a discipline. it is a stabilizing thing to write down. i did it in fact, but not in theory.

minas -- mine is november 15, studied latin for tarot hours, had a date with joe, washed my hair. mine is so boring. every once in a while i will have some interesting thing, but most of it is just trash. theer would collect newspapers from events to help remind her. she would write notes to herself as she was going along. days -- and they use that term she used to use it. people had date books. he wrote in their what you are going to do. she would then go back and also write what happened in the upper datebook. -- in her datebook. she would go back and it would

say, the senate ladies lunch, mrs. roosevelt talked about -- you know tell about what she wore, the other people who were there -- every once in a while, she would say, i met lady astor. i said, you did? she had just put it in her or 1952 orom 1948 whenever it was. she was a very disciplined person and she knew that those were special things that even if nobody else would cherish them, she would cherish those words to look back on what happened in the white house. she knew that things were going by so fast that if she did not put the stuff down, she would not remember it.

she taped her thoughts and she would have a little sign on the door. don't come in. i'm busy. go away. to bed not want interrupted when she was doing her taping. she kept a lot of notes along the way to be able to do it. today might be very busy. tomorrow she could talk into her machine as she called it about what happened today. sadly, she did not do the lady bird special because it was so and she couldn't find the time, literally. >> i promise this is the last question. want thesomething you people to know about her that they would not think of -- she had this image but this is the way she really was -- or is

there a final story that you remember about her that you think people would want to hear? it could be in the white house or it could be anything -- anything at all. >> no. i can't think of any particular thing about mother. read.s very well hering up, she said that first boyfriends, her first heroes were some of the norse gods. all of that seemed very exciting to her. becaused through books in her little rural town, she did not have a lot of amulet -- intellectual stimulation, except through books. she continued that through the white house. is that sheing

loved to watch "gunsmoke." they would have state dinners housee whiteout -- white communications people would tape it for her and that was the first time i had ever heard of being able to tape television shows. i don't know how they did it. 1966 andalking about 1967. us is before tivo or any of the taping programs came up. she loved that. one of the ironic things is that james r nass was a republican. we all laughed about it. daddy would say, he's my competition. so much, linda. very nice to spend the time with you. i appreciate it. >> thank you. good luck. interview took place

november 15, 2012. her mother is featured tonight on first ladies, influence and image. you can also find live on c-span 3 and c-span radio, also at 9:00 eastern. on the other networks today, gloria steinem will speak today at the national press club. she helped found the women's action alliance, though national women's political caucus and the women's media center. you can watch her remarks live, 1:00 eastern on c-span 3. at 3:00 eastern, the senate homeland security committee will examine the impact of digital currencies that allow people to exchange goods and services without using real money. c-span 3 will have live coverage of that hearing. >> the information that facebook has on over one billion people. they know your political

preference, your sexual preference, who your friends are, what you like to mow with your dogs name is, all the sorts of things. one security analyst said that if the government asked you directly for that's of information it would have taken money, lawyers, even guns to get you to pop up the information. but we routinely do so on social networks. we also don't think about the fact that our google searches are tracked. i read mystery books. my google searches, if the fbi chose to look at them, would be very incriminating. i am looking a different date rape drugs and things like that for my mysteries. people may think they are engaged in some secret activity, not knowing it is a big eyeball on the other and keeping track of the things that you do. author lori andrews, monday

on the communicators at 8:00 a.m. eastern. on c-span 2. >> if you are a middle or high school student, the student videocam competition wants to know what is the most important issue congress should address next year? mickey 5-7 minute video and make sure to include c-span programming for your chance to win $5,000, the grand prize. $100,000 in total prizes. get more info at student can.org. entcam.org. >> the u.s. house will gavel in at 2:00 p.m. eastern. while we wait for the house to come back, a look at the implementation of the affordable care act. this is from washington journal this morning. kyle cheney of "politico."

us an update on the affordable care act on where it is and where it is going. what a we start with the house voters -- the house vote on friday. remind us about what it means. guest: the house voted friday pretty strongly for a bill proposed by congressman fred upton from michigan. he is not a fan of the affordable care act. it is called the keep your health plan act or something along those lines. it was intended to get at the issue for people whose plans are being canceled. it is different from what the president is willsing because his plan actually undermine the law, according to supporters of the affordable care act. in other words, it is a plan that is getting phased out because it lacks the benefits of the affordable care act. the upton bill would allow

people probably to keep those plans, but also to sign up for those plans newly and 2014. the president's proposal differed in the sense that he does not want people to remain on those plans long term. he is providing a grace. for those people who might be losing their plans otherwise. host: one of the significant critiques is that they were meaningless. this one, how important was it? analysis has been across the board. 39 democrats sided with republicans and that is significant. attraction toear democrats, especially vulnerable democrats who are up for reelection next year. while the proposal does not necessarily have a chance of passing in its current form, it showed a little bit more but where the country is and where the mindset is and where the politics are on the health love these days and there's a lot of concern out there the democrats are vulnerable on this issue with people losing their health plans.

host: nancy pelosi stepped in over the weekend on one of the sunday morning shows to talk specifically about democrats. here's a look. [video clip] >> i will play the democrats stand tall and support the affordable care act. we have great candidates who are running, who are concerned about our economy and our concern that the government was shut down because of a whim on the part of the republicans. costing us $25 billion to our economy. concerned that overwhelming the american people with immigration reform support background checks, support ending discrimination against people in the workplace. all of these kinds of things are the concerns of the american people. jobs will be the major issue in the campaign as they always are. this is an issue that has to be dealt with. it does not mean it is a

political issue so we are going to run away from it. it is too valuable for the american people. what is important about it is that the american people are well served. not who gets reelected. up?t: any follow- guest: she clearly wants to turn the page on the crisis of the moment with the affordable care act and the democrats as a rule want to do that. the question is will they be able to? -- result among democrats there is hope among democrats that this crisis will pass and the affordable care act and all of the website problems that have plagued it and all of the cancellation notices will eventually be become a blip on the screen and people will realize the benefits and a wholesale way. they will be able to talk about the other priorities on the campaign trail next year. being abledepend on to talk about the other issues is whether they can get the health care law off the front pages and ending the crisis that

is going on. host: our guest is kyle cheney. have a hoping to bloomberg news health policy reporter join us as well. we do have kyle cheney to help with any information about the .aw, the rollout of course we have been talking about the congressional bill already. we will get your calls in just a moment. we want to follow-up follow up on this house bill. the upton bill. we know that the president has vowed to veto that legislation. is there anything like it in the works and the senate? there is and it is a democratic sponsored bill -- billor mary landrieu has a that has been compared to the upton bill. the landrieu bill is like a slap on the wrist to the affordable care act. the upton bill was a stern rebuke. a landrieu bill chastises the

president and would take a swipe at the affordable care act in terms of enabling people to stay on certain plans that meet the requirements. the political fate of that bill is also an open question. it is not the upton bill. it is not as scary to democrats as the upton bill may have been. it is also a senate democrats are uneasy about the politics of people losing their health plan. host: host: are there any vague meetings heading into the week? guest: that they'll in particular is going to get a lot of attention on the senate will probably consider that in some form or another. the president tried to take it off the agenda with his own expert it does not have seem to have mollified everyone. we have not heard the last of the mary landrieu bill or others like it. host: let's try our first call

from florida, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i had my policy canceled. i am a senior citizen. i lost my mate november 8. he was 16 years older than i am. i'm going to be 82. he got canceled because of pre- he went conditions but on to hospice which i cannot took all whole bunch off of my shoulders. after listening to the president -- i had already gotten a policy that was so much better than what they canceled -- no referrals -- those referrals, you could be three weeks -- i have cancer of the skin -- three

weeks it took to get a referral and by that time, the cancer had grown twice the size. i called my insurance company and told them that i listened to and if this went through, would they reinstate me even though i haven't of the policy? -- we didheir answer not cancel you because of the affordable care act. joined a year you ago, we were already in the process of selling to another insurance agency. they changed their story completely and i think that's what these people will find out. it's not the affordable care act, it's the insurance companies. i am wondering if she was on medicare. older role not necessarily enter the affordable care act insurance program. about thet on a point

fact that insurance companies, in many cases, the ones changing these plans. is thing the white house trying to emphasize that even prior to the affordable care act, insurance companies were the ones making wholesale changes to people in the individual market. many of these cancellations were not necessarily directly derived from his health law. that is a point he has been trying to hammer home. host: you also write about state regulators. this is your updated lease in politico -- here's your updated piece in politico today -- tell us more. obama when president announced his fix last week, the idea was that he kicks the problem to insurance companies and state insurance regulators. he said we will not enforce the provisions in the affordable care act that say you cannot keep a substandard plan but the problem is, states cannot allow

you to stay on that unless they change their rules and regulations or even laws in some cases and the insurance companies have to play ball. what we have seen is even if the state regulators want to comply, they might be constrained because they have to do it quickly. they only have a few weeks to really get their rules and regulations updated. if there is a law change, those things can take months or more. many of them are saying that even if they were interested, they could not do and many of their -- many of them are saying they are not interested because they don't want to reintroduce substandard plants back into the market. it remains to be seen how many people that resident -- the president's fix applies to. it could be a small number. host: republican -- caller: about six months ago one of your ladies from the kaiser institute mentioned -- something that no one has really

talked about recently -- the fact that these people, they keep talking about subsidies. apparently, it is in the law that if your estate did not expand medicaid, people in your state or not qualify for the subsidy because they did not have enough money to qualify everybody. that is going to hit the fan. paul ryan -- every time he gets in front -- one of these congressional hearings, he mentions. when he is talking to these representatives for the health care plan, he mentions to them, by the way, there is a clawback feature. if they accidentally give someone a subsidy that is not supposed to get a subsidy, technically, they go back out of the next year when that is fleshed out with the tax system, they are supposed to claw this money back. also, when these congressmen say you can get a subsidy, they don't understand, people cannot

even afford with a subsidy. what is really different about this, people are not used to paying a monthly payment for their health care. a lot of these people -- it is just -- they do not realize that people out there cannot afford these plans. he specially, you get somebody who is only paying $200 a month, that is 2400 dollars a year. then they find out there is a $6,000 deductible. that is before the insurance companies have to pay anything. host: let's hear from our guest. guest: you touched on the issues people are concerned about. on medicaid expansion, i'm not sure if there is a relationship with subsidies on the exchanges. you are right that states that have not expected medicaid, it is not that they cannot give out subsidies, they lose out on billions of dollars for the medicaid population.

their existing medicaid programs, no matter how ungenerous they are or how narrow they are, those would remain in place for the most part in states that are not accepting medicaid dollars. you said that people who get a subsidy that they were not entitled to have to have that clawed back. that is true, it is a process called reconciliation at the end of the first year when people file taxes in 2015. they will say how was your income, was it expected you? if it was higher than you thought, you have to give back a portion of your tax credit. host: by the states, a little bit about where we have been and where we are headed. sign up again october 1. coverage was set to begin a little more than a year -- a few months. january 1, 2014.

consumers can now wait as late as march 31, 2014 to sign up without a penalty. some other facts and figures here. through november 2, 106,000 plans were out there. 74.8% were state-based, toy 5.2% --re federally facilitated. 25.2% were federally facilitated. just under one million people have gone under the process but have not picked a plan. just under 400,000 are eligible for medicaid or chip. of course, the numbers who have actually signed up have been very much in the news lately. what has the government said lately? what will they report again? guest: on a monthly basis, early to mid december. i will be a lot more -- that round will

be more significant becauseit will show progress spacethey have made fixing the website, which has really blocked people. we will get a sense of the progress they are making. we're going to find out if young people are signing up. what is not in those numbers is the mix of people that are getting covered. the obama administration needs young people to sign-up to help offset the cost of the older and sicker population. we're supposed to get a clearer breakdown of that in december. those numbers will matter more than the first round, which sent the baseline going forward. whenever you described, that 945,000 that have gone through the process but have not selected a plan, that is buoying the white house. all people have to do is click on a health plan. what they are hoping is that people are actually shopping, comparing plans and taking their time, they are not stuck at a blue screen error message.

they are hopeful that those people are in the marketplace. host: 975,407 according to hhs. november 1, that is the date that the administration -- guest: november 30. host: a lot of dates.thank you for that. that is the next key date, explain what you are looking for to happen. we have already seen come over the weekend, expectations being lowered. guest: it has been a steady process of lowering expectation for what november 30 is going to mean. the enrollment system on healthcare.gov, where most states are going to sign up for the new subsidized tax credit waste insurance plans on the exchanges, it has not worked well. -- it hasrely work. barely work. it has slowly gotten better.

the white house has called in a team of tech experts to fix the site. they said by november 30, we will have the enrollment system up and running for the vast majority of users. that has been the amorphous part we are trying to pin down. we have seen reports suggesting that that is 80% of people trying to sign up. it is going to be hard for us to pinpoint on the outside whether they actually achieve that. that is the magic they are -- that is the metric they are working with. host: as we go back to calls, one tweet. "congress is using the aca as an excuse to do nothing." baltimore, you are on with kyle line..democratic caller: thank you for c-span. i was curious about something, you did touch on this somewhat. considering the fact that aca was enacted three years ago, not last month, three years ago.

obviously, there has been some transitioning in 2010, 2011, 2012. transitioning people out of the bad plans into other plans. has there been analysis on how many people were rotated into new plans during that period, and what the real numbers are with respect to cancellations? whether these were cancellations that happened last month or an accumulation of policies that have been canceled over a period of 3 years. guest: you are right that there have been studies done, some figures show that this churn in the individual market, where people are losing their plans, they have been losing their plans for a long time. their benefits have been changing. these plans change constantly. they are always transitioning people.

what is different about the recent wave is that a lot of the cancellation letters specifically cite the affordable care act. you could argue that that is insurance companies using the cover of the health law to do what they have always been doing, moving people off their old plans and onto new ones. in some sense, it is the result of the affordable care act implementing more stringent and it hashensive benefits. resulted in some of the changes going on. host: phil from florida. caller: i was recently hospitalized for three days, i was charged tens of thousands of dollars for services that should have cost a minute fraction. the primary problem with health care is obviously the cost of services. obamacare does not address that. the insurance policies that are available are very expensive. my question is, how many people do you think will actually sign

up for these policies? do you agree that the problem with health care is the cost of services? thank you. guest: from a consumer perspective, cost is king. everybody wants to know are they going to pay more in premiums? what will happen with personal health care costs. the affordable care act has mechanisms that limit out-of- pocket expenses. if your insured, you should not pay more than about $6,350 in out-of-pocket expenses a year, that is with a bare minimum plan. the law does take to on some degree the share of costs that fall on people. the number of people who sign up, the white house is hoping that about 7 million in role in the new exchanges in his first year. that is the goal of the cbo and what actuaries think needs to in order to make the cost

work. host: retailers are wary of the health law, they are afraid of losing business. walmart and true value, two of the big companies pointed out here, saying the aca will take a chunk out of consumers' pocketbooks. they might be spending less and stores.less in the stores. there is a tweet here. how are the sign-ups going in states that started their own exchanges? guest: there is a clear division. when they released numbers, the states that elected to run their own exchanges, by far enrolled more. 14 states, maybe a couple do not report fully, they all had far more sign-ups. even if those did not meet their targets, the division was clear.

states running on healthcare.gov had a fraction of the moment.-- of the enrollment. host: three governors write in "the washington post." washington, kentucky, connecticut -- how we got obamacare to work. they have an op-ed in the washington post about their efforts in their states and how things have been going. they make a point that the aca has been successful there. in our states, political and community leaders grasp the importance of expanding health care coverage and have avoided the temptation to use health- care coverage as political. guest: it is hard to say that there weren't politics and play here too. but for the most part, they are right. governor beshear in kentucky have the ability to establish an exchange and expand medicaid, he could bypass a legislature. because he could implement that without the resistance of the legislature, they were able to see with the law looks like

without the political wall or trip wire at every turn. kentucky is an example that everyone points to, this is a state where it is working it was designed. host: kyle cheney is health policy reporter for politico. he is with us, taking your questions and comments about all things health care. the policy, the rollout, the politics as we have been talking about. one of the voices out there this weekend was senator john barrasso of wyoming. he was on one of the morning shows yesterday to talk about health care. [video clip] >> it is time to start over. this health-care law is terribly flawed. it is broken. it has failed the american people. they are losing insurance,

losing their doctor, their premiums are going up. there is going to be a massive taxpayer bailout needed just to deal with the impact of this health-care law. this is not with the american people want. the president did not need to destroy a good health care system to try to make a better one for my that is what we have now. host: one of the gop voices out there. guest: senator barrasso is a doctor, he tends to come from the perspective of someone who has lived in the health system. i think he would be hard-pressed to find people to agree that today's health care system is good. his argument is that the system under obamacare would be far worse. he is talking about starting from scratch, an idea that republicans continue to speak very calmly about. is increasingly difficult, the longer the affordable care act is implemented and the more people that sign up.

even though the numbers we talked about on the low side, it is still about 500,000 people who now health care or are in line for health care in january who did not before. talking about starting from scratch and ripping obamacare off the books is a taller order. host: speak more about that. in "the weekly standard," they asked the question what will republicans offer to replace obamacare? that word "replace," what might happen? this anything significant come? -- does anything substantial come? guest: this has been the republicans' problems is the affordable care act passed, articulating what a replacement would look like. we hear ideas like allowing states to sell across state lines. they use the catchphrase "patient centered care" a lot. the few other ideas floating around in republican circles that do not have the sweeping nature of the affordable care

act. maybe that is by design. also, the affordable care act does rely on republican ideas that were brought together in a way republicans can no longer support quickly. a lot of those ideas were from the republican will chest,-- tool chestmaking it hard to articulate the alternative. host: here is a tweet. "will the dems who voted for the upton bill has a primary challenge so we can vote them out." guest: they were reacting to their district. it is a great question, whether they will draw -- there will be a more robust debate on the democratic side about the future of health care. one of the things we have heard, if the affordable care act falls apart or if democrats run away from the affordable care act, one of the places they will turn is to single-payer.

the idea does not have a lot of political support the states.-- these days butit is something a lot of people on the left would like. if the affordable care act continues to languish, you may start hearing those voices on the left. whether they challenge people in the primaries or not, i don't know. you may hear that argument raised a little more. host: pennsylvania, lauren is on the line for republicans. welcome. caller: thank you for c-span. i appreciate it. i am commenting on nancy pelosi's statements. and barack obama's statements. you can keep your health care plan if you would like to. those of us in the republican party and the tea party are warned about this when we spoke about how people were going to lose their insurance. it is a very simple concept, when you have more mandates to provide free services, they are going to increase the rates.

just like any company what, they cannot afford to pay for that. taxpayer money supporting like the government does. it was a complete lie. at the president not said that, he would not have won the election. that is the simple fact in regards to why he said what he did. he had to say it or he would not have been reelected. after the election, this whole year before all this happened, all we heard about was how it was a mandate. the people elected him were in favor of the health-care bill. they were in favor of the bill because they were told that they could keep their current insurance policy. they were not bad policies, it did cover what they wanted. it did not cover new mandates by the health care bill, mental health, men paying for maternity

care, women paying for prostate cancer. for them to say that the health- care -- that barack obama's reelection was showing favor of the health-care bill. sure it was, now it is not. guest: you raise some interesting points. one of the things that people sometimes forget is that the president and insurance companies were pretty much allies in getting this bill done. you mentioned the mandates, a good point. on the flipside, there is the big mandate, the individual mandate. that requires most people to purchase insurance or face a penalty. that is one of the most reviled revisions of the law. that was a provision fair by insurance companies, it would put more people in their plans. including younger and healthier people who do not cost as much to cover. you're are right about new

mandates that cost more and can add cost, but by adding millions of new people into the plans -- into these private plans, the hope was that they would balance out that cost and make the law work financially. host: fred, texas, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to remind everyone what has actually occurred in the years since president obama took office. you will recall that there was a meeting on the night he became president of gop leaders. they promised one another that they would not vote for anything that he was supporting. they have followed through on that in the years between. recall that the gop members of congress had the opportunity and

did participate in planning for the act. and then they just quit. and would not vote for it. the main thing that i want to say is that the gop members of congress are in direct opposition to the terms of the constitution of the united states. the constitution specifically states the responsibilities of congress, both of the house of representatives and the senate. host: let's hear from -- guest: what that alludes to is how difficulty politics have been. one of the things that have been

used as a bludgeon, not a single republican voted for the iteration of the affordable care act that passed into law. because of that, it has been easy for republicans to look back and say this was a democratic bill that passed purely along democratic lines. this was not some great bipartisan entitlement. this was purely ran through by a democratic congress. that has made it difficult to gain traction around the country. it has been easy for republicans to fight it. the republican points to massachusetts, but that law had huge bipartisan support in the state legislature, making it easy to go back and fix things when they did not work and tinker with it. host: here is a little bit from the ident late last week. [video clip] >> those who got cancellation notices do deserve and have

received an apology from me. they want, whether we can make sure that they are in a better place and that we meet that commitment. by the way, it is important to note that a whole bunch of folks in congress and others who made this statement, they were entirely sincere about it. the fact that you have got this percentage of people who have had this impact, i want them to know that their senator or congressman, they were making representations based on what i told them and what the white house and the administrative staff told them. it is on us. it is something that we intend to fix. host: kyle cheney? guest: the president has been getting an earful from congress,

democrats in congress, about the fact that they stuck their necks out for him when he said if you like your health plan, you can keep it. democrats parroted him and believed him, believed what he was saying was correct. that made it politically salable to their constituents. now he is out there covering for them. saying if they said that based on what i said, it is on me. i was not -- i did not asterisk that with the fact that some people would lose plans. host: kyle, new hampshire, independent caller. caller: hi. my problem with the whole thing, maybe it should have been called the deplorable care act. it does not address all of the other medical insurance is that we have. we have insurance is on our workmen's compensation, on our houses come our business, our cities, our states.

all of them have medical coverage is. why do we need that? why not one, single-payer, then we just take and eliminate all the other insurances? there is more than enough money. why have medical costs gone from 5% when i was a young man to 16%. guest: the cost of entitlements, and the fact that health care consumes 1/5 of the u.s. economy. that is something that both sides address. the debate has been how do you address that, reforms to medicare and social security, now the affordable care act. the partisan divide has prevented the wholesale look at how to attack those. as for single-payer, i alluded to this earlier, there has not been a whole lot of political constituency pushing for single- payer because it has been a

nonstarter politically. particularly in the center and on the right. whether that gains traction is an open question. host: there is a tweet here, i wish the caller was on the phone. what percentage of health care spending is spent in emergency rooms? guest: that is a good question.i don't know the number. it is a part of a goal of the affordable care act, get people out of the emergency rooms. as a place where people go to get their primary care, if they get a cold or a minor injury that you could call your doctor. they go to the emergency room, way more expensive than if you had insurance and saw your doctor on a regular basis, prevented illnesses. the idea is to get that percentage down. that is a cost driver in health,

emergency care. host: what do you make of what bill clinton had to say last week just before a president can out and made the change? guest: that put the white house in an uncomfortable position. this is right at the time of the upton bill being talked about and scheduled to vote about it on friday. before that though, president clinton came out and said president obama has got to make good on his progress that if you like you're playing you can keep it, even if that means a change in the law. since then, president obama endorsed the fixed that did not involve a change in the law. president clinton stepped out a little bit in front of president obama and put them in an uncomfortable position. obama stops short of addressing the upton bill, he has issued a veto threat. clinton forced the white house's hand. is that to help hillary if she

decides to run? we are still three years away from 2016, tough to say and evaluate the politics of that. it did force the white house to take a stand, which happened not to be the standard bill clinton identified. host: prior to the upton bill last friday, with the president can on asked for was being described as an administrative mix. how does it work? is assigned by administrative order, is there legislative action? guest: although they have issued is a letter that they sent to state insurance commissioners from cms, one of the agencies implement the law. it says, just so you know we will not enforce the minimum standard provisions for plans in the individual market for people who currently have them. if those are going to be canceled, we will look the other way and say you can continue to implement those.

you touched on the legal basis. hearing a lot of people who say there is not a legal basis. the law has certain requirements, they are saying we will take a hands-off approach and not enforce it. host: what is sliding on the ground? these minimum standards, will be allowed to continue? guest: this is only for people in the individual market. people who are shopping for plans on their own. these are plans that might lack basic benefits. whether it is numbers of primary care visits, they might have really high deductibles and cost sharing. while the affordable care act says you cannot pay more than $6,300 a year out of your own pocket, plans on the individual market might come with double that. people are at more financial risk. the affordable care act requires changes to these plans. host: marion, maryland, independent line.

caller: thank you for taking my call. everyone seems to be concentrated on the signing up process for obamacare, not the type of care that we will eventually receive. the problems that we are experiencing in our county is that the doctors already are putting signs up in their offices that they will no longer accept medicare patients. i am a medicare person, i am 72. our doctors are no longer being primary doctors. they no longer can admit you to the hospital. only a doctor employed by a can -- by the hospital can admit you. the end result, our hospital is going under. we have one hospital in our county. that is our problem here.

just about everything you say is backwards. we need to concentrate on the type of care that we will be receiving. i have one question. understand, in the law, legal residents can be covered. that would mean anyone with a green card. i am wondering if you could verify that. they are not saying illegal immigrants, they are saying legal residents. host: thank you. two good points. guest: the law does allow legal residents to shop on the exchange. that is considered a good thing, they want more people, younger, healthier people.and a lot of transplants to this country tend to enroll in these plans. that is a case, legal residents

are permitted. people who are undocumented are forbidden from accessing any of the affordable care act benefits. that is a point of contention among some people. they are still able to access emergency rooms if they have a catastrophic illness or injury. in some sense, they are still contributing to the cost of health care. as for your point on medicare, there are huge issues with medicare that go beyond the affordable care act. that does interconnect with medicare a little bit. the issues in which doctors are accepting medicare, issues of entitlement reform. that is the subject of budget discussion beyond the aca. host: a tweet here, a bigger picture view. still do not understand how this is going to keep costs down. guest: the affordable care act?

what we touched on earlier, if more people have insurance, this is a law that is primarily about access to insurance. more people get coverage, the more they are able to see doctors on a regular basis, they do not have to worry about do i go to the doctor or pay the rent. when you get people out of the emergency rooms and into primary care, they are not experiencing of himthese catastrophic illnesses with as much frequency. it reincentivizes the way care is provided, smaller scale it also does some things to encourage doctors not to just prefer a bunch of tests to get paid but get paid based on how their patients do, the outcomes for patients. host: dan, oregon, kyle cheney with politico. the gop line. caller: good morning.

i was curious on the affordable care act. it has a build an argument. has a built in argument. they are going to be people who get it for nothing and people are going to have to pay for it. i was curious on the number that are signing up for obamacare across the country. those are the ones that are going to get the subsidies or get it for free. how does this pay for the fact? my other question, i got this screwed up. host: dan, we will let him go. guest: this is the idea. these people -- the people getting covered now, they are still in the health-care market when they get sick or injured. so the idea is if they have access to a plan, even at no

cost to them, they are still seeing doctors in a way that they were not able to earlier. yes, the law does provide no- cost or low-cost coverage for people of low incomes, that is who it is geared at. the idea is to get these people covered so that they are not seeking emergency room care. a lot of younger, healthier people who often go without coverage because they do not want to pay for it, by compelling them to do so with the individual mandate that most people do not like, you are getting younger and healthier people into the pool to bring down costs for everyone. host: perspective from "the new york times," a congressional memo piece.

the lesson is seen in the failed law on medicare in 1989. host: they go back to 1989 and draw a comparison. guest: if anyone will take part in that, supporters of the aca. i take that back, you see cyclical issues in entitlement rollouts. for example, medicare part d in 2006. there was a rocky rollout, but today people love medicare part

d and the prescription to benefits. that story sounds like the rollout, it was not something people wanted but turn out to be catastrophic for people who were behind it. you can look back at these episodes in history about how previous entitlements played out and defined support for your position in any of them. democrats look at medicare part d in 2006 as the parallel. a rocky rollout, today it is part of the landscape no one would touch. host: a photo in a new york times piece, 1988. president reagan has grown weary of the catastrophic coverage act. president bush saw advantage and -- his vice president saw a political in it. it talks aboutangry older voters storming a car carrying a congressman. the history of the catastrophic coverage act is a cautionary

it illustrates the political and policy hazards of presentingsweeping changes to consumers who may not be it provides a rare example of lawmakers -- guest: that is exactly what the supporters of the law are terrified of. that is because there is evidence out there -- the law can be entrenched, it is not so entrenched that you cannot do something about it. one of the arguments that the democrats have put forward, this is not going anywhere. it is the law of the land. republicans will never repeal this while obama is in office. that history tells you that laws do not necessarily become the law of the land and remain settled. host: texas, democratic line for kyle cheney of politico.

caller: hello, thank you. people need to know that the corporations who are worried about the affordable care act -- they are talking about job loss. it is very sad that a person has to keep a crappy job just because they have health care benefits for an ill relative. now they have choices. this has just happened to my nephew. he was able to move to another job because he is now going to be able to have health care, even though his wife has a pre- existing condition. secondly, we have a wonderful system in this country. the problem has been access. i think that needs to be emphasized. access is the problem. emergency room care is the most expensive care in the world. the republicans put up a plan, i

think it was romney, it covered 5 million people. i mean, they are the ones that won vouchers for medicare and so forth. lastly, if people do not want to sign up for the affordable care act, they should keep whatever crappy care they have. who do you think they will blame when they get sick? guest: job lock, the first point you made, something i have heard and to make this point a bunch to support -- i have heard nancy pelosi make this point. if you leave a job, you are no longer tethered to a bad job. you can start your own business without the risk of not having insurance.

there is a potential transformative element there. one that the proponents like to talk about. you also mentioned the point on access, which is true. emergency room care is extremely expensive. axis is not the only issue.-- access is not the only issue. one of the problems they saw in massachusetts, which past and access law in 2006 under romney, you could get everyone in the state insured and still have soaring costs. they have passed subsequent legislation to tackle this. it is not a panacea just to get everyone covered, it may have some benefits. host: twitter, "end of life treatment is the primary driver of costs?"

guest: end of life treatment gave birth to the political argument over death panels and issues about dealing with people as they dash at the end of their lives. one of the things that people in the medical world say there is not enough of that kind of hospice care, palliative care that helps people cope with death. in some sense, that is a there areto costs. options that most people don't know about. not in the way that people who worry about death panels described, but there is an option for people to do it in a more controlled way towards the end of their lives with input from doctors that they are not accessing now. host: another tweet. "what is the affluent person wants to buy more insurance than

the single-payer?" guest: there is the cadillac tax, the tax on cadillac plans that are really generous. that is to get out the overly generous plans that people are enjoying themselves for people that whenever used. host: arlene, florida, democrat. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to address, when mr. obama said if you like your plan you can keep it. in my opinion, he lived up to that. the reason i say that is because, as we know, when the law was implemented in 2010, the old plans were grandfathered in. at what point do insurers have the obligation to tell purchasers, in 2014, these plans

will be obsolete. show them other options. i hear a lot of blaming president obama. i do not hear a lot of culpability being placed on the shoulders of the insurers themselves. at what point will we start hearing these insurers being held accountable? can the administration do better in presenting exactly what these plans contain and what they really are worth, basically nothing. thank you. if you could elaborate on that? guest: thank you. the president got into trouble over his semantics. your point is one thing that they try to make as this issue became more combustible in recent weeks. the president always knew that insurance companies could pull

the rug out from under you. his point was they do not have to, they can grandfather you in. his issue comes because people knew at the time that although they could grandfather you in, a lot of them would not do that. to say it unequivocally has gotten him into political trouble. he has apologized. in that sense, that is where the furor comes from. i don't think insurers will take the blame for that. when plans reoffer these canceled policies, they have to also let the plans observers know what they do not cover, what benefits are omitted from that that would be there if they sign up for an affordable care act plan. that puts the insurers on the spot, you can have your old plan, we will not cover you in x, y, and z situations. you might be better off in the marketplace.

host: thomas, san diego. independent caller, hey there. caller: 5% of the market, individual plans, causing this much chaos. most of us get our insurance through employers. the last couple years, my contribution to my employer plan has gone up considerably. i am promised by my cfo that is going to go up next year. how much is this going to cost us, what effects this is going to have when 80% start getting premiums going up? i wonder if that was why it was postponed. is anyone looking into that affect?-- effect?guest: you raise an interesting point point. the employer mandate was geared at a small subset of large employers.

employers with more than 50 employees who do not provide coverage at all to workers. the affordable care act says you have to come in with compliance with the health care law, one of those requirements is if you are a large company, you have to provide coverage to your full- time workers. there is a lot of issues about how that works. the delay of a year caused outrage among opponents who said you are going to exempt employers, why are you exempt people who also have to get coverage.-- why don't you exempt the people who cannot escape the mandate? you are really talking about a small subset of large companies that do not already provide coverage. as for the cost of coverage that large company provide, that is an issue. that is separate from the mandate itself. as for large companies that offer insurance, it is the vast majority. we are talking about a small

subset that are enjoying the benefits of the delay that mandate. host: bill, kentucky, republican. caller: i would like to know why the democrats and obama are standing up and lying about this, saying it is going to be cheaper for anybody. if you had a pre-existing condition -- nobody is talking about -- talking about pre- existing conditions. my son's insurance went up 20% because of that. --en his son gets -- he will 26, he willhave to pay $300 a month, he can get it now for $80 a month. the younger people and the seniors are going to be hurt by this.

obama -- the democrats claim that the us having to buy insurance, the mandate, this is going to affect anybody under $100,000 except about 15 million who are going to get it for free. the rest of them are going to be costing $200 to $600 a month. when it started, i said that there would be 31 million not insured, the cbo has backed that up. about 14 million or 50 million will be insured. i would like to know why nobody is speaking to this. nobody is telling the cost of these people under $100,000, up to $100,000, they keep talking but put theubsidy.

cost to it, too. host: bill from kentucky. guest: the point you touched on at the end, there may be part of the cost of the overall law, the subsidy is designed for facing people who are facing premiums that are unaffordable. if you can provide a plan in your marketplace that costs less than 8% of your income, you are required to buy it. if your income is such that -- you are below 400% of the poverty level, which is about $11,000 for an individual, you will get help. that could be if you are just over medicaid, you may get a portion of your premium covered. if you are under that, you will get on medicaid. you talked about people under $26,000, those are younger, healthier people. those are the people they are trying to get insured to bring costs down. host: a tweet. john in north carolina. how long does it take before policies are canceled?

guest: i don't know the exact amount of time, it is an interesting point. one of the nuances in the numbers the initiation released administration released, the people enrolled have not necessarily pay their first months premium. that is how the insurance industry measures enrollment. you have to pay your enrollment before you are enrolled. one of the metrics we will have to watch going forward is how many people pay their first months premium. and how many make recurring payments. that shows that they are able to afford it. host: kyle cheney, health-care reporter for politico. a native new yorker who went to boston university and ran the campus newspaper. he moved on to the state house news service in boston. what percentage of politico's

resources are spent on the story? guest: it is huge. i have been at politico 1.5 years. even during the election last year, the intensity around the coverage, in washington, i have not seen anything like it. it is fascinating to be a part of and to cover. it does not show any signs of abating. host: how to get get up to speed on something so complex? guest: once you think you understand everything, you get a new wrinkle. it is a constant learning process. the question i get is have you read the whole thousand page law. the answer is probably not from beginning to end, but at some point or another, you have gone through every provision. host: take us back to the hill.

computer security with the affordable health care act. we have seen hearings about it. where is that issue right now, where is it headed? guest: computer security has been an issue, primarily because --e roman system is broken. the enrollment system is broken. republicans, not just republicans, people have found sets of vulnerabilities in the enrollment site. if people are entering an permission cannot be compromised -- can that be compromised by a hacker? i learned that the agencies overseeing this employ their own "ethical hackers" to patch these. it is a subject of intense scrutiny and oversight, especially from people who have questions about the law as a whole.

there has been tremendous assurances from the administration that these exchanges are airtight. if not, they are doing everything to make them airtight. that is part of the november 30 there is a teamdedicated to security as part of the triage team of repairing healthcare.gov. host: what other kind of hearings are you expecting? guest: no end to hearings we are going to see. part of this is a political statement. the republicans have said they want to use oversight as a tool, to put a microscope to the health-care law. in addition to what we have seen with kathleen sebelius and marilyn tavenner, they may want to hear from the top brass again as to whether they want to update their thinking on a law.

we may get more big picture stuff in december. host: more about life on the hill. here is "the wall street journal." making the point that immigration, tax reform, a budget breakthrough, things are on hold or frozen. what does it mean? guest: the affordable care act takes oxygen out of the room. it is so politically potent. it affects everyone's constituents. they are getting the most calls on it, too. it provokes strong feelings. the agenda has come to a standstill, there is evidence that some of these things were at a standstill already. the affordable care act, that is how you fill the vacuum at a standstill. -- we aresummer, when

living this program cause the u.s. house is about a gavel in and members will start their legislative day and hold one minute speeches on any topic. legislative work starts at 5:00 eastern. members will debate by bills including one to create a website to list all government any votes requested will take place at 6:30 eastern. now, live to the house for.