Fox News’ Dr. Marc Siegel Praises Trump’s Health Care Plan

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

EARHARDT: “All right, well we’re here with Dr. Siegel who is going through, we’re going to have a week-long segment going through each of the candidates and their health care plans. Dr. Siegel joins us here now. We’re going to start with Donald Trump. Let’s talk about his idea to repeal and replace the health care system, and Barack Obama’s plan. Is that even possible?”
SIEGEL: “Well, that’s number one here, and it is possible that you have a Republican president and a Republicre. It hasn’t been possible till then. Everyone’s talking about it. Now you could have repeal and replace if a Republican wins. If he wins. And he is backing getting rid of the individual mandate. He’s getting rid of that in his new plan that came out over the past week. And 10 million young Americans are not going along with that individual mandate and are paying the penalty. So it’s not working as it is. So he’s going to repeal and replace. He says, and the lines around the state, he wants to introduce more competition, and more choice by having — you could buy your health insurance in Nevada and bring it to New York. Portability of health insurance. Get rid of the idea that it’s an interstate monopoly that you have to have it in the state you’re in. He thinks that will drive down prices by introducing more competition. You’ll have a nationwide marketplace. I like that idea.”
EARHARDT: “Companies could sell across state lines.”
SIEGEL: “Absolutely. Another way to introduce choice and bring down cost is tax incentives. Any insurance you buy as an individual you’ll be able to deduct, just the way employers can do that. He wants more health savings accounts brought in. I love health savings accounts in the doctor’s office. Not only are they tax deductible but people like you and me know what we’re buying. We know that if I buy an echo cardiogram it’s going to cost $500. Or if I buy a chest x-ray it’s going to cost $300. If you know what it is you’re paying for you’re much more likely to be frugal about it. The fourth one is, drug prices. And this is fairly unconventional for Republicans. He wants there to be reimportation of drugs as long as the quality is there to bring more competition in to the prescription drug market.”
EARHARDT: “What does that mean? Bringing in drugs from other countries?”
SIEGEL: “Absolutely.”
EARHARDT: “And you’re for that?”
SIEGEL: “Because you can see that drug prices are up 10% in the last year alone.”
EARHARDT: “How can you tell if they’re safe, though?”
SIEGEL: “That’s a really big point, Ainsley. It’s hard to do that but we’ll have to institute a system to do that. He wants Medicare to be able to negotiate for drug prices. We’ve talked on this show about cancer drugs being astronomically high when they come out. Heart drugs. I like the idea of Medicare being able to negotiate pres the last point that he talks about is the immigration policy. If trump gets his wall, you’re going to get a lot less illegal immigrants flooding the hospitals of the south and the southwest. There’s no repayment for that visit. Enormous cost to those hospitals. 300,000 increase in the heroin trade in last ten years. If we could cut down on illegal drug importation through those southern borders, the porous borders, you’re going to see a lot less drug costs and a lot less health care costs in the united states.”
EARHARDT: “Lighten the burden on the hospitals.”
SIEGEL: “Absolutely. The key to the trump plan, and again there’s been some back and forth on this, but he’s becoming more consistent now, the key to the plan is more choice on the part of the individual, you buy your own insurance, less federal subsidies, and more competition introduced into the system.”
EARHARDT: “As a physician how do you feel about his plan?”
SIEGEL: “Well, I like it better than the current federal overlay. I think it’s very naive to think Medicaid, Medicare, everything that should be expanded, these programs aren’t working. ObamaCare is flooding the doctor’s office with people that have high deductibles, and narrow choices. Narrow networks of doctors. I like the idea of broadening the choices, and giving people their own incentives for paying out of pocket. Their own incentives for buying insurance. I like that. I think that will work better. Competition will drive down prices.”
EARHARDT: “All right. Thank you so much Dr. Siegel. Great to see you this morning.”