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Published January 25, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," November 15, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: It's a sizzling question, and more importantly, a serious one for all Americans. Does President Obama's fix really fix anything?
ABC News political director, Rick Klein, joins us. Good evening, Rick.
RICK KLEIN, ABC NEWS POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hi, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: So, does this fix anything, the fix? What's the word on it?
KLEIN: So I look at it through the political prism and a policy prism. I think he may zero for two, at least so far. On the politics, you had 39 Democrats today bucking the White House on this and voting for a bill that the White House has said they need to veto because it would un-do ObamaCare.
On the policy, if you the key was to be able to say to people, if you like your plan in 2013, you can keep it in 2014, you still can't say that with a straight face because you have several states that have already said they're going to ignore what the president announced yesterday. And you have insurance companies that have to buy in and actually offer those plans. He'll be able to say, if you lose your health cover, it's not the federal government, it's not ObamaCare's fault. But he won't be able to say, you definitely get to keep the coverage you have.
VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think the reaction from the White House is tonight? They had yesterday with the fix. They had the vote today. Are they like high-fiving and dodged a bullet or are they freaked out? What do you think?
KLEIN: I think they are happy to have Congress out of town and have the weekend here. They had to pull off the Band-Aid with what they talked to yesterday, with the president said in that extraordinary series of admissions about -- and the apologies that came kind of every few minutes during that hour. But I think now they need to fix the problem.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Is it actually -- here is what I don't get. Is it the president's bill let's everybody who got cancelled, is that you can now, if it's offered, you can now --
KLEIN: If it's offered.
VAN SUSTEREN: If it's offered -- which I'm not convinced it will be offered.
KLEIN: Right.
VAN SUSTEREN: But if it's offered, you can buy into it. The bill today -- and it's for one year. The bill today, the Fred Upton, the Republican bill says the same thing, except one thing. He said, allow people who weren't cancelled who weren't part of that group they could buy into it if it's offered.
KLEIN: That's right.
VAN SUSTEREN: So that's the difference. And the president said he would veto it.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Why? Why does he care?
KLEIN: It's not just a one-year fix because the whole -- the thing is that the fix that the president put forward yesterday actually could hurt the law. Probably will hurt the law. Because the whole idea of these substandard policies, they have to be phased out to make the financing of ObamaCare work going forward. You can maybe get away with it one year. Their concern is, if you do over a longer period of time, the new reforms don't make any sense.
VAN SUSTEREN: I can't figure out why the insurance companies would resurrect these old policies. Under the new scheme, they sell you a menu. You have to buy a lot of things you don't need, which means you overbuy.
KLEIN: Yeah.
VAN SUSTEREN: Which means, it's like buying a camera that you don't know how to work it, but you pay all the money to buy all the other stuff you can't use. If they have to go back to reissuing the other policies, they are more refined and cheaper. So what's the incentive for the insurance companies to try to resurrect these policies?
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: They'll make less money.
KLEIN: It's hard to see. Look, they had less benefits attached to them. They will be some insurers, no doubt, and some state that pressure insurers to do this and to offer what they offered in the past. But they are not under an obligation to do it. We're just talking about what the ObamaCare -- what the enforcement from the Obama administration comes. But that makes it a real problem. It's at the same time that you have the structural failing on the front end, this website that still isn't working. People can't sign up if they want to. This is a week of real concern about whether this whole thing is going to work.
VAN SUSTEREN: I follow the money. If the insurance company can't make more money by resurrecting them, it's not going to happen. I don't see how they make more money by resurrecting these old policies.
KLEIN: And there will be people who were told, initially, they would be able to keep their insurance, told again yesterday they would be able to keep their insurance, and they may not be able to keep their insurance.
VAN SUSTEREN: And now it won't be there. And the president can't force insurance companies to all of a sudden reissue this insurance?
KLEIN: No.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Nice to see you.
KLEIN: Thanks.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/is-obamas-plan-a-fix-if-it-fixes-nothing