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Senate Bill Could Be Several Weeks Away; Premiums For Pre- Existing Conditions; Soon: White House Hold Press Briefing; Unemployment Hits Lowest Level In 10 Years; Labor Dept: The U.S. Added 211,000 Jobs In April. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 05, 2017 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Wolf Blitzer. It is 1:00 p.m. here in Washington and wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us.

We're keeping our eye right now on the White House briefing room. We are waiting for the briefing this hour. It's the first since House Republicans won the vote on their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. We're going to take you there live as soon as it starts.

And, in the meantime, what is next for the bill? It's a date with the Senate. But don't expect a quick resolution there. Some Senate Republicans say it could be a month to a month and a half before they have a working plan of their own.

Joining me now from Capitol Hill is CNN Congressional Correspondent Phil Mattingly. We have CNN National Correspondent Jason Carroll. He is in Bedminster, New Jersey with President Trump. And CNN MONEY Senior Writer Tami Luhby is in New York.

So, Phil, let's start with you here. What is the first step now for Senate Republicans?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Find consensus. And that seems simple. But, look, the same ideological divisions we saw play out, kind of, so -- in such a crystalized manner over here in the House, exist in the Senate but with a much slimmer margin for error.

And they've made clear, they are going to rewrite significant portions of the bill that was just sent their way.

Now, if you look what's actually happening right now behind the scenes. Senators have formed a working group. Thirteen Republican senators, leadership, committee chairs, and really spanning the ideological spectrum of the conference to try and figure out a path forward. They know they can't take something to the floor without really having it fully fleshed out, really knowing where their votes are.

Now, what they're actually going to look to change, well, think about the core of everything we've been discussing over the course of the last six weeks, the Medicaid expansion, the structure of the tax credit, the Obamacare regulations and the infrastructure of that bill all together, even the House decision to defund Planned Parenthood.

All of those issues, Brianna, are on the table. Whatever the Senate eventually brings forth. And as you know that this is going to take time. This is going to take a lot of effort behind the scenes. But whatever they bring forward is undoubtedly going to look very different from the bill we've been talking about over the course of the last 40 or 50 days -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Jason, tell us a little bit about what President Trump is doing in -- maybe in response and, sort of, what's incoming when it comes to something that he said as he was celebrating this victory. He was talking to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. He had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a failing health care. I shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better health care than we do. But we're going to have great health care very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You have better health care than we do. He is saying that about what is really a public option that resembles more what Bernie Sanders would want than what House Republicans would want. This is becoming quite an issue, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And expect this issue to be brought up multiple times during the briefing which is going to be taking place just about half hour from now. I mean, there -- look, are going to be a lot of questions here. Who's covered? Who's not covered? What sort of policy changes we might see when the Senate gets ahold of this.

Very clear, though, up until this point, though, Brianna, that the president and the vice president, for that matter, have worked very hard to get this legislation where it is, at this point.

Looking forward, the vice president for his part is going to keep making those relations, best relations that he can up there on the Hill. He's been attending a lot of Senate policy meetings, up until this point.

There is some thought that the president might start making calls as soon as this weekend. But there's also this thought that you want to wait for the Congressional Budget Office to, sort of, weigh in with its findings before you get that real heavy push.

The president, for his part, feeling optimistic. You heard -- you heard him there speaking to the prime minister of Australia. He also tweeted the following. He said, big win in the House. Very exciting. But when everything comes around with the inclusion of phase two, we will have truly great health care. Phase two obviously meaning when the Senate gets ahold of this particular part of the legislation.

Looking forward to the briefing which is scheduled to start just about half an hour from now. You're not going to see the familiar face we're accustomed to seeing up there giving these public briefings. Sean Spicer -- Press Secretary Sean Spicer has another obligation. So, instead, we're going to have Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Deputy Press Secretary, having her first public briefing -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Tami, let's talk about phase one, though, what we saw in the House bill. Break this down for us. You can't have everyone winning. There are some winners and there are some losers here.

TAMI LUHBY, SENIOR WRITER, CNN MONEY: Sure. And there are going to be people who win. The younger people who will be able to have lower premiums. There are going to be healthy people who may have more choice. And there are going to be people in the middle class who are now going to get subsidies. People who make now $48,000 or more, they don't get help buying premiums with the Obamacare. And those premiums are pretty expensive.

[13:05:02] The Republican plan for the tax credit offers more help to the people in the middle class. And don't forget, the wealthy are not going to have to pay all of those Obamacare taxes.

When it comes to the losers, there are 24 million fewer people who are going to have insurance in 2026, according to the CBO. There are going to be a lot of lower income people who are not going to be able to afford coverage because the refundable tax credits are not going to be as generous as the Obamacare subsidies. You're going to have older people who are going to be charged higher premiums by insurers and this is going to be a big problem for a lot of people.

KEILAR: All right, it certainly is. Tami Luhby, thank you so much. Jason Carroll and Phil Mattingly, we do appreciate that.

I want to bring in now Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. She served as a vice chair for the Trump transition team. So, Congresswoman, you were a yes on this repeal bill.

Twenty of your Republican colleagues said no, though. Some of them had concerns about how many Americans with pre-existing conditions will be covered by this plan. We're showing, as well, we have a screen that shows you some of the things that qualify as a pre- existing condition. Some discretion. Quite a bit of discretion up to the insurance companies on that.

To be clear on this, is there part of this bill that you have reservations about? If so -- if so, which part?

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: I think that there is an excellent piece out today that addresses the pre-existing component. It was done my Kathy McMorris Rogers who personalizes this issue with her and I would encourage the viewers to look it up and give that one a quick read.

KEILAR: Republican congresswoman in House leadership, we should mention. Yes, for people not familiar.

BLACKBURN: Yes, that's exactly right. That's right. And I encourage them to read that.

You also have the MacArthur and Upton Amendments that address this. And, Brianna, I think it's important when you look at the history of how pre-existing conditions became an issue, you go back to 2006, and it was a Republican bill that first brought forward those accountabilities that were necessary to put on the insurance industry to make certain that individuals with pre-existing conditions be covered.

What we're trying to do is to refine that process and to make certain that everyone has access to affordable health care.

KEILAR: You're talking -- you talk about these amendments. Some of them would -- if you had, for instance, a state that decided to use waivers so that there were folks who had pre-existing conditions, they could be moved into high risk pools. The idea being that there would be money put aside to back stop those costs.

BLACKBURN: That's right.

KEILAR: But everywhere I'm looking at the assessments of this as we -- right now, the Congressional Budget Office has not weighed in on this. All of the assessments say it's not enough money, in that case, to back stop and to be able to pay what it would take to cover, effectively those people with pre-existing conditions.

BLACKBURN: I probably have more faith in our states, our state legislators, and also our health care delivery systems. There are so many people who come to us every single day and someone like me who is on health subcommittee.

And they're saying, look, we have ways to innovate. We have ways to deliver more efficiently. We have the innovations and technology to deliver more effectively the utilization of health care informatics to make certain that those with chronic issues are gathering information and that is being held and processed appropriately.

So, Brianna, I think our states are looking forward to the opportunity. I had a phone call yesterday from a state legislator who said, you know, we've waited a long time to see Medicaid block granted back to the states. And we're looking forward --

KEILAR: Can you pledge -- can you say to people who are worried, who have pre-existing conditions, can you say to them that they do not need to worry about their premiums rising? Can you say, can you pledge that that will not happen?

BLACKBURN: I think that individuals are going to be very pleased with the options that are there. You can look at the --

KEILAR: But what about the people --

BLACKBURN: -- Gary Palmers (INAUDIBLE.) KEILAR: -- what about individuals specifically with pre-existing conditions?

BLACKBURN: Well, this is what I'm saying. Look at -- yes. And you look at the Palmer Sweigart (ph) language that does the invisible risk pool that has worked so well in the state of Maine. And putting that into play, the goal is to make certain that these individuals have access, better access, more continuation of access.

And one of the problems with the change with the --

KEILAR: Will their premiums rise, Congresswoman?

BLACKBURN: My hope would be that their premiums would not rise. We do know that with Obamacare --

KEILAR: But can you assure them. I hear that's your hope. Can you assure them --

BLACKBURN: Well, look at --

KEILAR: -- that their premiums --

BLACKBURN: Well, Brianna, --

KEILAR: -- will not rise --

[13:10:00] BLACKBURN: -- I think you have to look at --

KEILAR: -- as a result of this legislation?

BLACKBURN: Look at the promises that were made by then President Obama.

KEILAR: Well, no, this is something you voted on. I mean, this is --

BLACKBURN: That their premiums -- no, it is not.

KEILAR: I understand what you're saying. And, look, --

BLACKBURN: Yes.

KEILAR: -- we've talked all about the pledges. You can keep your doctor. And we -- you know, we know what happened, right?

BLACKBURN: And that premiums --

KEILAR: Would you --

BLACKBURN: -- would go down.

KEILAR: -- can --

BLACKBURN: Look at what has happened even this year.

KEILAR: But what about your plan? BLACKBURN: In my state of Tennessee --

KEILAR: Now there's a plan that you have voted on.

BLACKBURN: -- In my state of Tennessee -- yes, and I'm answering your question.

KEILAR: So, can you -- can you pledge --

BLACKBURN: In my state of Tennessee, --

KEILAR: -- can you pledge that their premiums will not rise as a result of this?

BLACKBURN: -- premiums are going up 63 percent this year. And you have a third of the counties in the state that only --

KEILAR: But, Congresswoman, --

BLACKBURN: -- have one survivor.

KEILAR: -- I'm talking about people with pre-existing conditions.

BLACKBURN: Now, those individuals --

KEILAR: -- Congresswoman. Congresswoman. Congresswoman Blackburn, I'm talking about people with pre-existing conditions.

BLACKBURN: And, yes, those individuals with pre-existing --

KEILAR: Are you pledging that their premiums will not rise --

BLACKBURN: -- conditions --

KEILAR: -- as a result of this legislation?

BLACKBURN: -- those individuals with pre-existing conditions have no coverage. So, their premiums are going through the roof.

KEILAR: Will their premiums rise?

BLACKBURN: What we anticipate --

KEILAR: Can you say --

BLACKBURN: -- what we anticipate is that individuals are going to see their premiums go down or stabilize and they are going to be able to have access to affordable health care. That is what they want.

KEILAR: OK. So -- but, Congresswoman, can I ask you --

BLACKBURN: Consistency and certainty

KEILAR: Congresswoman, please respect that I'm asking you a question because I'm not getting -- I'm not feeling like I'm getting the answer to it. BLACKBURN: That's because you don't want to hear what we have to say

about it.

KEILAR: No, no, I do. This is -- this is the big issue.

BLACKBURN: And I have -- it is a big issue.

KEILAR: Congress -- excuse me, Congresswoman, --

BLACKBURN: And pre-existing conditions is an incredibly important issue.

KEILAR: -- can you say their premiums will not increase as a result of this legislation? Because that's the knock right now on this.

BLACKBURN: The knock on this right now is something that those who do not want to see it succeed are going to continue to make.

KEILAR: Will people who have pre-existing conditions, --

BLACKBURN: And whether you or someone else who doesn't want to see it succeed, --

KEILAR: -- can you assure them that their premiums will not rise as a result of this legislation?

BLACKBURN: -- you're not going to give it a chance. The goal and what we are striving for and what our commitment is is to have everyone have access to affordable health care. They don't have that right now in the ACA marketplace. The premiums have gone through the roof. There are individuals -- look at what is happening in the state of Iowa.

KEILAR: So, will their premiums not -- their premiums will not go through the roof, people with pre-existing conditions?

BLACKBURN: Counties are going to -- the goal is to make certain that they do not. What we're doing right now is not working.

KEILAR: Can you pledge that it won't happen as a result of the legislation?

BLACKBURN: What we're doing right now is not working. We're losing coverage and the marketplace is imploding.

KEILAR: All right.

BLACKBURN: We have to take steps to stabilize it. Our goal is to make certain that everyone, pre-existing conditions or not, have access to affordable health care. That's what we're working toward.

KEILAR: All right. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, thank you so much.

BLACKBURN: The status quo is not acceptable.

KEILAR: Hope --

BLACKBURN: Thank you.

KEILAR: -- to have you back and get an answer to that question. We do appreciate you being with us.

BLACKBURN: I gave you one.

KEILAR: Coming up, we are awaiting the White House press briefing. As the president takes a victory lap on health care, is he ready for a bigger fight ahead in the Senate? We'll have our panel with us next weighing in.

[13:13:52]

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[13:15:00] KEILAR: All right. You're seeing live pictures there out of the White House. We're keeping an eye on this because the Deputy Press Secretary will soon be coming out and taking questions from reporters. A lot of questions as you can imagine because this is the first briefing since the House passed its ObamaCare repeal bill. We're standing by of course. We're going to bring that to you live as soon as it begins here in several minutes.

President Trump says the health care reform bill passed by the House could change a little bit in the Senate. That may be an understatement. Some Senate Republicans are already promising to start over and draft their own version of the bill. Senator Lamar Alexander telling Politico, quote, "we're writing a Senate bill and not passing the House bill. We'll take whatever good ideas we find there that meet our goals." Lets bring in our panel. We have Jeff Mason, he is a White House Correspondent for Reuters, CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston and CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia- Malika Henderson. OK, so it sounds Nia, like this is just getting completely scrapped. The senate republicans don't even want to touch it and they're going to start from scratch.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I think that's right. I mean, you always think of the Senate as sort of the cooling house. This was a hot potato in the house. They wanted to get it off their plate and move it to the Senate just to keep this momentum going around health care and make good on this promise. So yes, they're essentially going to start over. I mean, the one that was scored by the CBO, it wasn't deficit neutral. This has to be deficit neutral. I think the sort of flexibility with pre-existing conditions and the mandates around that, that's probably going to change in the Senate as well from the folks I've talked to who were senate aides. And so they've already begun some of the conversations about that. There were meetings yesterday on the Hill around this. So it's going to look different. And it might quite frankly be closer to ObamaCare light, right? I mean, that same -

KEILAR: Well, that's what I was going to say because the really controversial things here are to lower subsidies that help people afford health insurance, if they can't, and then how you're treating people with pre-existing conditions. And it sounds like republicans in the Senate are really worried about those changes.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Let's talk about the realities too, is that, this is not uncommon for the House of Representatives to put forth their version of what they think legislation should be and then the Senate doing the same as well. Also, you have Senate Republicans who are not in nearly as much political peril as you are House Republicans which is why we saw this rush to really get a political vote on the board yesterday, which we saw. But we did see from two very important people which just goes to talk to you about how long this could drag out. Two very people involved in the process in the Senate. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican Leader said that the Senate consideration will be scheduled following the completion, procedural and budgetary score keeping reviews. Meaning, the Senate is not really going to take any action on this until they see what the Congressional Budget Office does to see what they think will be the score, how many people will be kicked off or how many people will help. And then of course, Lamar Alexander who is going to shepherd it through the Senate says , you know, it's great, we're going to finish the work on our own bill - on our own bill, let's be clear about that -

[13:20:42] JEFF MASON, REUTERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not this one that they passed yesterday.

PRESTON: Right. And we're going to take time to get it right. I mean, those are pretty telling language from Republicans in the Senate.

KEILAR: Jeff, you've been watching President Trump go through a learning process through the different attempts to get this passed at least in the House. What has it been like watching that and what is your expectation about what he'll do now as Senate will be considering?

MASON: Well, I think based on what the White House officials are telling us, he's definitely really engaged and I think he learned from the first couple times about what - why they went wrong, why it didn't happened and is trying to avoid some of those mistakes. Now, clearly it's a win for him that he had this vote at all and that it was successful, very shortly after the 100 day milestone. And he wants it to - he wants to take it all the way to the finish line. So he's listening, he's sort of the person who at least the White House officials are portraying as bringing it all the way to the end after the legislative affairs director Reince Priebus and others are involved in the negotiations up on that part.

KEILAR: Can he have the same kind of sway with Senate Republicans when you consider that they have - look, just the numbers are tougher for them? And also, you do have some republicans who are more moderate than you would see in the House.

MASON: For sure, I think that's a good question and I think the pre- existing condition that we were just talking about, that piece and President Trump's background on that piece where he's actually always been very supportive of that being in health care legislation will be key on that. HENDERSON: In some ways I think the sway is that republicans have to get something done on this. I mean, this is what they campaigned on. And so, I think it's going to be very difficult for them not to do something and get something out of it and pass it back to the House.

MASON: And I think that has been his main message in his phone calls with lawmakers. Because we said that we would do this, we have to do it and do it now.

PRESTON: But just because the Senate does something right and just because the House has done something doesn't mean they're actually going to agree. And they could do all they want and there's potential that nothing comes out of this. There is that potential.

Going into recess for republicans, what does that look like and how does that affect the process, Mark?

PRESTON: Well, it all depends how organized the democratic opposition is to this. They do seem like they're organized. If you're watching Town Halls next week where House Republicans are back and you hear a lot of people that are angry, understand that they have probably been mobilized or energized by the left in order to do so. But it still for a lot of republicans upwards of 20 or so could really face an incredible amount of backlash and could perhaps lose in 2018 because of this vote.

KEILAR: Is this one of these issues Jeff, health care that if you touch it, it sort of has a taint? It seems like there's no way to make most people happy and ultimately there's always a backlash against it.

MASON: Totally. Well, we certainly saw that with democrats when they passed ObamaCare. And I think their hope right now is that that's going to taint and hurt a lot of the republicans who took risky votes in the House yesterday and who will be going back to their districts and running for reelection next year.

KEILAR: Thank you so much Jeff Mason, Mark Preston, Nia-Malika Henderson. And coming up, bouncing back. The brand new jobs report shows unemployment at its lowest level in ten years. So how much credit does President Trump deserve? Our panel will weigh in. Plus we're standing by for the White House Press Briefing and questions about how the President will get the health care bill through the Senate. Those are live pictures that you're looking at. We'll be monitoring this and we'll be right back.

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[13:25:00] KEILAR: All right. We're keeping our eye here on live pictures at the White House while the President is at his golf club in New Jersey. One of his aides at the White House is going to be speaking to reporters at any moment, the Deputy Press Secretary giving her first briefing. We'll be keeping an eye on this as soon as she takes the podium and we will bring that to you.

And some good news for the White House. April saw some pretty string job numbers in the U.S. CNN Money Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans explains for us. Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN MONEY CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the headline here, 4.4 percent, why is that number so notable? It's the lowest jobless rate since before the recession, since before the economy blew up. Since before millions of jobs were lost, businesses closed down, factories closed and the world economy was on the brink. 4.4 percent is also a level many economist consider approaching full employment. There are about 5 or 6 million people who've been kind of left behind be the economic recovery, they have dropped out of the labor market, are not looking any further, there no real reason to explain why they're not in the labor market. There also about 5 million or 6 million jobs there open today. So there's a real interesting mismatch here going on that will be a policy problem for this President and this administration going forward. Let's talk about where the jobs were created. 211,000 net new jobs. You cans see that's more than double what was created in march where there was a little cooling off a sediment. But it looks as though companies are hiring again, Brianna. And they're hiring in financial services. They're hiring in health care. 37,000 new jobs in health care in the month. When you go back to when ObamaCare was signed, a million and a half new health care jobs had been created. This is a critical area, an area that has seen so much job creation in part because so many people were leaving the ranks of the uninsured and coming in as paying customers into the system and so hospitals have been adding facilities and adding jobs there. Manufacturing also a notable category here, Brianna. 6,000 manufacturing jobs created in the month. Really when you look at the last three months, you've seen job creation, the same period last year, you saw manufacturing job lost? So many economist, Brianna are crediting President Trump and his rhetoric, it's not his policies for causing job creation, a little more job creation in the manufacturing specter. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Christine.