Reforming High Healthcare Costs and Hospital Inequities

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. What is today is Congressman Jason Smith represents the great state of Missouri, and there’s so many things happening, and I like Middle America that I tend to find out that Middle America is he has common goals and one smart people. Well, Jason Smith, give us an update.

0:22 Where the heck are we?

0:25 Speaker 2 Well, it’s always great to be with you. And of course, you know, I love what I refer to as God’s country in Missouri. So here in Washington, we’ve been We’ve been pretty busy this past week. I actually brought in some of the largest hospital CEOs, actually the largest for profit CEO and the largest non for profit CEOs to

0:49 look and analyze the skyrocketing costs that all Americans are faith in. You know, some of the issues that were addressed, for example, is the integration that’s going in the system where hospitals are incentivized to purchase independent medical practices because they receive higher reimbursement rates whenever they do that over what doctors do. And so we’re looking at ways to

1:18 create monopolies in healthcare. We want more competition, we want more access, and we want it to be more affordable. That’s why we called in the five largest health insurers just a couple months back, and we’ll be bringing in the drug manufacturers as well. But we have to address the skyrocketing costs and healthcare. It’s it’s just getting out

1:37 of control.

1:39 Speaker 1 It’s out of control for sure. And I was talking to Senator Marshall, who’s also doctor before, and the fact is, if I go for an MRI and I give them my Blue Cross card, they charged me three three hundred dollars.

1:57 And if and if my doctor call up at I don’t have any insurance, I could pay him four hundred dollars in cash. So five hundred dollars in cash an they do the MRI.

2:09 Speaker 2 It really depends on the clinic. This is one of the things I brought up yesterday, John Is. There was a gentleman in Florida that I highlighted. He had an emergency CT scan in the hospital. It costs thirteen thousand dollars through the hospital. He had that same follow up CT scan in a doctor’s office. It cost him seventy

2:33 nine dollars. Like this kind of stuff’s crazy. There was a family in California that their child got bit by a snake and that hospital charged them three hundred thousand dollars to treat their child that was bit by a snake.

2:51 I mean, it’s pretty outrageous. One of the things, John, that I also brought up was New York Presbyterian, right there in your home state. The CEO was to find and I asked him how his flagship hospital in Manhattan off of sixty eighth Street can be designated as rule because I haven’t seen very many farms in Manhattan none.

3:12 Speaker 1 He’s the biggest farm in Manhattan is a Central Park.

3:17 Speaker 2 That’s exactly right. But but that hospital is designated as rule because they can get special benefits. There’s a loophole in the system that allows him to do it. That’s why they do it. But he’s not by himself. There’s four hundred and twenty five different hospitals that have done that over the last six years. And these are things

3:36 we got to clean up.

3:38 Speaker 1 I agree with you one hundred percent, and it how does how did he get out of control? Actors? I mean, you’re also chairman in the Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in Congress. What is your mission? What do you want to clean up? First?

3:58 Speaker 2 Well, healthcare is so broken, absolutely so broken, and I think why it’s gotten out of control is so many people are not willing to rock the boat when it comes to looking at these issues and pointing the facts out.

4:11 When you get to Washington, DC, you talk about the lobbying arm of healthcare, they have so many people hired up here trying to protect their carve outs, their special reimbursements, their special provisions. And when you start trying to shake shake the ship man, people start getting nervous. But this is a time that this titanic starts turning because it’s

4:35 not going to end well if we don’t. You think about just hospital hospitals alone. We spend one point six trillion dollars a year in costs just to hospitals. And when you look at all of the average Americans debt, seventy five percent of all medical debt that Americans have is owed to hospitals. We have to look at it.

4:59 But it’s not just hospitals. It’s health insurance, it’s drug manufacturers, it’s device medical device manufacturers. There’s a lot of a lot of inequities that we have to we have to address.

5:11 Speaker 1 That is a lot of inequities, especially, I mean, you feel that hospitals should be a little more honest than that, don’t you.

5:21 Speaker 2 Well, hospitals are what do provide care. Health insurance companies don’t, so you’ve got to give them credit for that. But they’re using the system. Like one hospital CEO said to me, Chairmen, just know in healthcare will follow the dollar. So when you think about that, it’s all about the dollar. It’s it’s more pocketbooks rather than patients, which which makes me

5:48 extremely nervous. I’ll tell you some of these non for profit hospitals that we’ve been looking at, they have incredible tax tax incentives, tax exemptions, but a lot of them are nothing but hedge funds with hospital deads and so like, these are things we have to look at and make sure that they’re doing the appropriate community care and they’re

6:10 falling through with their tax exempt status.

6:14 Speaker 1 Well, like I say, as wow, I mean, I’m glad you’re on top of it. What we got another minute or so left? What else is bothering you? Chamming Aways and Means committee, that’s the most important committee in Congress?

6:27 What else is bothering you? Well?

6:30 Speaker 2 Of course, the economy is something that I’m watching NonStop, and there’s a lot of different factors in the commodity, in the in the economy that you’re looking at. Sure would like to see those interest rates to go down.

6:44 And I’m looking looking forward to Kevin Warsh being confirmed in the United States Senate, just recently passed out of the Senate committee. He’ll do a great job. He’s a New Yorker actually, so he’ll he’ll do a really good job.

7:02 And I look, I look for interest rates to go down that will help grow the economy. But you know, one of the positive things that we did this week, we in fact passed the First Lady’s Initiative for helping the foster kids. This is something that she came to the Ways and Means Committee just two weeks ago advocating for.

7:27 We had six different pieces of legislation created from that when we met with her and these foster kids, and we passed the most transformative foster care changes in thirty years just this week out of committee. So you know, there is some some positive things coming from that direction.

7:49 Speaker 1 Well, Congressman Jason Smith, let’s stay informed and thank you for what you do, and let’s straighten out America because America needs straighten It looks like we went off the wrong path.

8:03 Speaker 2 It’s exactly right. We can’t ever give up on America, but we’ve got to make it better every day. It’s always great to be with you, my friend.

8:11 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, and stay in touch. Thank you.