Hold-On for Dear Life! Craig Gottwals Talks to Armstrong & Getty

in their lives. No more benefit of the pre existing condition, no more having your children doing your policy until twenty six years old, no more having Medicaid expanded to cover long term healthcare in the needs of our children with pre existing conditions, and returning to a time where being a woman is a pre existing medical condition. The people know that, and that's why the Republicans are rushing. They want to get it done so they can overturn the

Affordable Care Act. So the very sad one Jerry Nadler pooped himself right then, the very smart and crafty Nancy Pelosi clearly decided on the Sunday Shows and sense that the way to handle this Supreme Court thing is we can't we can't stop them, but we just got to make people scared of Republicans not having the Senate because with the with the Supreme Court in the Senate, they are going to destroy Obamacare. That's what the Supreme Court

is going to do. And then so then I was listening to one of my favorite right leaning but fair podcasts and they said, no, that's way, way overstated. And I thought, I have no idea what's up for discussion, But I know somebody who does know. Indeed, that would be Craig got Wall's Craig the healthcare Guru, formerly known as Craig the Obamacare Lawyer, attorney, law benefit consultant, and the the keeper of the Benefit Revolution webs etcetera. Greig,

how are you, sir? I am well, how are you? Gentlemen? Oh? Just just terrific, really awesome, dude. It's really twenty man, really enjoying the news cycle, feeling close to our fellow Americans. It's just smooth sailing is going great anyway. Um, so, what what is your take on this upcoming decision? How's

it being misreported? What? What's the reality here? Well, this thing has been potentially the most misreported story on on the Affordable Care Act or or Obamacare, whatever you want to call it, because, um, we we really have not had an individual mandate ever. Uh, going way back to the beginning of Obamacare, they put an individual mandate in.

The logic was you need to have an individual mandate because you've got to have the healthy people buying in as well as the sick people so that you balance out premium and insurance works as it's intended and we don't end up with what they labeled a death spiral. Right, So that's how insurance works. But if you'll remember all the way back into the into the early teens, immediately once Democrats passed this law, they realized, what will It is not politically popular for us to be finding our

constituents who cannot afford healthcare. So at peak lunacy, at peak insanity, and Obamacare they had administratively, not through legislature, but through bureaucrats in d C. They had created thirty two different exemptions to the individual mandate, and it was wonderful things like things that said, if you've received the p g n E shut off notice in the last six months, you don't have to buy obamacare. If you had a death in your family last year, you don't

have to buy obamacare. And our very favorite one, are very favorite one was if you feel, yeah, that's right, feel that the exchange plans are more expensive than what you have available to you otherwise, then you don't have to buy Obamacare. I don't think. I don't think the word feel should be in any government statute of any kind.

And so eventually, to skip ahead a little bit, the individual mandate only applied to two percent of people, right, that's right of Americans were able to pass the very very low i Q test that said, oh my gosh, all I gotta do. All I gotta do is pretend I tried to buy Obamacare and the website was down and boom, I'm exempted. So yeah, okay, two of Americans

ever paid this fine. So the reason this is significant is because Judge Roberts cast the deciding votes saying Obamacare in the original review was legal because the penalties for not buying it in the individual mandate were attacks and not a penalty. So it's okay that it came up in the House. Was it that has to start all taxes. Uh, and it's it's a little legally complicated, but it's all about the individual mandate being attacks. Yes, So in Supreme

Court looked at it and Judge Roberts sp Court. Justice Roberts decided that, yeah, Obamacare can stand. So take one step beyond that. The administration and the people that supported the law made the argument that, oh, we have to have an individual mandate because without the individual mandate, the

whole law crumbles. That was the Obama administration's argument. So it goes to the Supreme Court five cour decision with Judge Roberts saying, yet, the individual mandate is integral to the law, and we can save the individual mandate as a tax, all right. So then immediately after that, Democrats started looking at it did what I said, They put all these exemptions in the individual mandate never actually compelled

anybody to buy anything. So fast forward all the way to where we passed a law Congress, President Trump signed it, Congress pasted it. It was the tax cuts law that said, you know what, the individual mandates really a joke. We're going to reduce the tax of the individu. We're gonna keep the individual mandate in there. That's fine for for legal reasons. But we're gonna reduced the penalty of the individual mandate to zero dollars. And everybody agreed to it,

Democrats and Republicans. It was a bipartisan passage. All right. We send some very very creative, very creative conservatives who really hate Obamacare and want it gone started bringing cases. In fact, there's a dozen or more states that brought this case. The most popular one is Texas versus A s R. A s R. Being the secretary of HHS. We've spoken to. He's a close, dear friend of ours. Go on, he's he's a good friend of the show.

Eighteen states in total, actually, with Texas saying, okay, look, you you you argued in twelve that the individual mandate was necessary. Otherwise the law crumbles, and we've all agreed now that the individual mandate is zero. So therefore it is no longer attacks by law. There is no authority for this thing, and the law must fail. Federal court agreed, Appellate Court agreed. On November tenth, our new Supreme Court with eight or nine people on it, whoever knows, we'll

hear this case. So you can have a tax of zero and still call it a tax. Therefore the entire act is no longer coherent or whatever, and it goes away. Then yes, according to this is the legal argument. Right, So this is these are these are professorial types in in law in law classes saying and it's it's creative. I have to hand it. The legal argument is strong, and it says you you saved this law on the individual mandate. The individual mandate is no more, therefore this

law must crumble. It's a very creative argument. Well, now, the other side of your sume, as we mentioned in the introduction, is your benefits consultant. You're an expert on health insurance and company plans and the rest of it. If indeed the Supreme Court agrees with that legal reasoning, Uh, the next day are the exchanges closed and nobody has health insurance? And Nancy Pelosi's right on their own right exactly what what are you suppose would have no way,

no way under the sun that happens. Let me jump ahead to the punchline, which I think will surprise you guys, and then we can work backwards. Obamacare is here to stay, at least that which is left of Obamacare. Obamacare is so dramatically changed from what they were talking about passing in two thousand nine. These the these, this thing is completely different. It's it's way more insurer and public friendly

at this point that it's gonna stay. You're going to have kids on the plan until they're twenty six, you're going to have exchanges. You're probably never going to have an individual mandate again, which is great because that's what most conservatives and libertarians objected to, was the government compelling them to buy something they didn't want. That was the whole thing. Oh Jack, that's cute. You're so annequated. Do

you worry about our friend Boomer for things? Okay, Um, so Jack, let's let's just play with some numbers here and again. People are gonna be like Craig has changed his tune. Well, I've changed my tune because a few things have happened in right. Um, Obamacare was originally scheduled to cost under a trillion dollars. It's now going to cost two trillion because because of all these changes, because they're not going to pay for the individual mandate, it's

gonna be two trillion soon, it'll be three trillion. Right, It's gonna grow However, the alternative that five I just sent you guys the poll last night of the Democratic Party of people that identify as Democrats support Medicare for all that costs thirty two trillion dollars over ten years. So at this point in the new world order of we don't pay for anything, we're running our our debt

up to thirty trillion rapidly. I think the best thing that fiscal conservatives can do is hold on for dear life and embrace Obamacare, because what's coming after Obamacare is going to be devastating to our economy. While that is some some that's some real politic right there, bless my suspenders, that is something because you told us, well you told us years ago that we were ten years out from single pair of healthcare. It was just gonna happen. I don't know how close you think we are now. I

think it happens by that wow wow and again. But this is this is not rooting interest. This is just me watching guyst of our country, watching how we print money, watching how we spend watching how neither of our bilateral choice, as you say, Jack, give a rip about fiscal fiscal that that's dead as a concept. And you know, I want the truth. The core, the core of conservativism is recognizing what is. If this is what is, that's what is.

I mean, whether you like it or not. Um, what are the chances anybody loses protection for pre existing conditions? Less than a five chance? So you fishing? Yeah, we've we've handed out those goodies. We've handed out protections on existing kids on the plan until they're twenty six, exchanges with taxpayer dollars available to assist you in buying those plans. We've handed out those good We've handed out the expansion of Medicaid right. Um, those are never coming back. That is,

that is take back, that is the democratic platform. You will lose protection for pre existing conditions. Oh yeah, yeah, that's the threat right now. And you will be attacked by rabid unicorns. If a CBS on the court, you're going to lose your protection. Women will become second class citizens, etcetera. And there is practically zero chance of that happening under any circumstance. This is why you tune in, my friends

to hear the truth. Politically, you know, that's the thing. Politically, I don't know how you combat that because Trump has said many times over. He is for protecting UH exists. And I don't know how you combat that. Right. So what you're saying is, and this is really something. The conservative choice, the fiscally conservative choice, is to embrace Obamacare right now and to try to hold onto it. That's believable. I really do. I really do think that's our best

bet at this point, because we can. We can patch up Obamacare and limp along here. Now. The one piece of Obamacare that that if Trump is reelected and we get a conservative Congress, the one piece of Obamacare that still needs to change that would be great for liberty is eliminate the employer mandate, because right now we have we still have an employer mandate where you know, all employers with more than fifty employees have to buy insurance.

It's yotta gayoa. Get rid of that, and then this thing is no more than a high risk pool for ten million people. That's the other thing I want to I want to throw it out there, guys. When we passed Obamacare, we had thirty to forty million uninsured in America. Okay, today we have twenty eight million uninsured in America. All this, all this a lot, all this for hardly moving the

needle at all. The cost, the political capital, the rallies, the fights, the rhetoric, all of this for really not moving the needle at all on the supposed goal of the damn for the love of heavens. So we will have a link at Armstrong and Guinea dot com to Craig's recent writings on this stuff. It's absolutely terrific. Craig got Wallas, Craig the healthcare guru, attorney law benefits consultant. When are we going bass fishing man? Hey, you know what the boats in the shop? I get it back tomorrow.

So all right, let's talk Craig, Thanks a milion, nice job. All right, we'll talk. So I should say the supposed stated goal of the whole thing, because the goal of the whole thing, as we've talked with Craig about before, was to get single pair of healthcare. This was a way to get there, and every dependent on the government for every and it's been successful, correct, successful? Um, Okay, there you go. That answers that. Army Strong And when you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to know

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