>> House Ways and Means Committee Chair Ritchie Neal. A Democrat
has defeated yet another attempt to end surprise medical billing. Which seems to be
incredibly important as people are getting sick from the pandemic. So, it turns out that
Nancy Pelosi of all people wanted to bake in a provision regarding medical billing.
And essentially regulating it and ending it
within the stimulus bill. So as the intercept reports Wendell Primus,
the senior Policy adviser to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And the most powerful staffer on the hill
had plans to send a proposal on surprise medical billing to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
By Monday night however, that effort had been rebuffed. That's interesting. How
did it get rebuffed? We should find out. Well, in terms of which committees would
deal with this type of provision as the Intercept reports. The issue fell under the jurisdiction
of Energy and Commerce committee. Whose chair Representative, Frank Pallone of New Jersey.
Hammered out a tough reform the bipartisan issue with his Republican counterparts.
But Neal decided to do some tricky maneuvering in order to ensure that
his committee. The House Ways and Means Committee could essentially have their own
recommendations. Their own legislation on what to do about surprise medical billing.
And as you can imagine. Since he's funded by private equity firms. Who love absolutely love
this type of predatory behavior. His approach was incredibly watered down and ineffective. So Neil,
however invented jurisdiction for the Ways and Means Committee. The panel has
jurisdiction over taxation and he linked the issue to government revenue in a rollout roundabout way.
And put forward his own proposal that was much more favorable to the private
equity industry. And so some of you might be wondering, well, why do private equity firms
want surprise medical billing? How does it benefit them? Well, they have essentially
set things up in a way where they would profit off of surprise medical billing.
Private equity firms have purchased providers and arrange service to maximize the number of
times and out of pocket doctor can treat a patient.
Those bills are then exponentially higher landing at the feet of both patients in
the form of CO pays and deductibles. And insurance companies who pay the remainder.
And for those of you who are wondering, okay, what exactly is surprise medical billing?
It's when you do everything right. Right? You got your health insurance that you're overpaying for,
you got the health insurance that is not covering most of the things that you needed to
cover. But you're gonna go to an in-network doctor, you're gonna get in-network care.
And then what they do without telling you, without informing you or asking you for your consent.
They'll have one healthcare professional. Who's out of network and be part of the
treatment or part of the care. And then you end up
paying the costs for that out of network care that you didn't even know about.
Rich Neal, a Democratic Representative, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Wants to
protect that kind of predatory behavior. >> So, let's break this down a little
further. First of all, you kill the Lacey with an
excellent article on the intercept. So great job reporting by her.
And the mention of wonder Primus in the beginning and their Pelosi staffers really important.
Because he's, deeply connected to the healthcare industry. He is not at all a good guy. He's
one of the biggest opponents of Medicare for All. He makes republicans look like choirboys
compared to how hostile he is to Medicare for All.
And even he is saying. I mean, we got to end surprise billing, don't we?
That's a booby trap built by the richest people in the country.
For average Americans, that bankrupts them and steals their house from them.
That steals everything they own it and does it in a way that there's nothing they could do about it.
I mean, it in their most desperate time.
I mean, we got to end that at least don't we? Even corporate Democrats have done that
Machinio says no. I take more money from Blackstone a private equity group
than anybody that's these top donor. And he says so since they're my top donor, surprise.
I'm backing them and not my voters. And so if you go to the hospital, and you did everything right
and like Anna said. They the part that enraged me the most is they do this on purpose. And they
try to get as many out of network doctors as possible to do the rounds in the hospital.
So Lingo well, you didn't know it, but he was out of network when you were really,
really sick. You should have asked if he was out of network, which, by the way,
even if you did, he's already there. I don't even know that you could do anything about it.
Sorry, he did the rounds. And so now you owe us an ungodly amount of money. I remember when
I was going door to door campaigning, one woman said, she was like 68. And she said,
Well, look, the thing that I'm most concerned about is if I get sick.
I'm sorry, she wasn't 68 she was under 65. And she said, I'm trying to get to medicare. She said,
because the one thing I'm worried about is if I get sick before I get the Medicare,
I lose this house. There's no chance I could keep it. Right. And then what am I gonna do?
I'm gonna be homeless and sick. And so corporate democrats like Richie Neal ago. Yeah, but you
didn't contribute to my campaign and private equity groups did. So, even though all the other
corporate democrats and some Republicans to agree and we could pass this bill, no my donors say no.
And then the national media and corporate democratic zombies.
Have the nerve to tell us. You're doing a purity test. Richard, Neil's a Democrat. So
you should bow your head and accept that he's taking these legalized bribes. And bankrupting
people on behalf of his donors, you should accept that you should accept celebrate it.
No, I don't. Richard Neal is one of the most corrupt people in Congress
and I cannot wait to defeat him. We're gonna go back and finish
the job. Alex Morris ran against them. He lost because Ritchie Neal
helped orchestrate a smear a homophobic smear attack against them last time around.
And until the intercept again stepped in and corrected the record. All of
the mainstream media went along with the smear. Next time we're gonna come
from Virginia and we're gonna finish the job. I don't accept these corporate cult
democrats in their alternative backs that yeah, I'm progressive but I hate the average American.
And I work on behalf of private equity no deal.
No deal at all. We will primary you and I swear to God will defeat that guy.