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On Friday\u2019s broadcast of HBO\u2019s \u201cReal Time,\u201d Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argued that while Obamacare has gotten people insured and saved the government money, \u201cDo we need reform? 100%. I\u2019m the first person to say the system sucks, it\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Host Bill Maher asked, \u201cWhere is Obamacare? What do we need to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Emanuel answered, \u201cSo, look, we got 25 million people insured. We\u2019ve saved the federal government, through Medicare, more than almost $4 trillion. So, those were the positives. All that time, Republicans were trying to repeal it without a plan about what to do for people who didn\u2019t have insurance or for the costs in the country. And then Trump comes in, and he gives a big tax break, some of that $4 trillion, to the thousand billionaires in the country, and he throws a bunch of people off Medicaid and out of the exchanges. Do we need reform? 100%. I\u2019m the first person to say the system sucks, it\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emanuel added that there shouldn\u2019t be deductibles for people who have illnesses because the idea of a deductible is to keep people from overusing things that are \u201cdiscretionary\u201d, and people with illnesses aren\u2019t being discretionary, and \u201cat 5,000, $7,000, it\u2019s not discretionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow <\/em>Ian\u00a0Hanchett on Twitter\u00a0@IanHanchett<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n