'I Don't Know If You Understand This Or Whether You're Just Mouthing The Democratic Talking Points'

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sec. RFK Jr. fired back at Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) about his comments on Medicaid.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Clyde. Mr. Harder. Thank you so much. Secretary Kennedy, I'd like to start by

00:06talking about your personal story. You've talked openly about your battle with addiction, and I

00:10want to thank you for being so open about talking about your road to recovery. As you know, addiction

00:16is a real crisis. Tens of thousands of Americans died this year from overdoses. My community knows

00:21this all too well, and all of us have been to far too many funerals. So, Secretary Kennedy, I'd like

00:28to start by just grounding us in the reality of what treatment like that actually looks like. As

00:33I understand it, you were 15 up until when you entered into an inpatient rehab facility. You

00:39credit the care you received there as a turning point. Do you have a sense of approximately how

00:46much money your family spent on your addiction treatment? Well, I spent the money on my addiction

00:53treatment. And at that time, the rehab was probably like $800 a day. I think today, they're much higher

01:05than that, many of them. Yeah, I think that's right. My understanding is that the private rehab facility,

01:11like the one that you went to, would cost in today's dollar for that same treatment over $286,000 out of

01:18pocket, just for addiction treatment that I think we can all agree, Republican and Democrat, is

01:23absolutely necessary to make sure that we're keeping our communities safe. I bring this up because-

01:28There are, Congressman, there are many really gold star rehabs that do it for a tiny fraction, like

01:34$20,000 to $40,000 a month. There you go. I bring this up because in my community, the average salary is

01:41$40,000. So most folks in my community can't even afford $20,000 or $40,000 per month. And most of the

01:49folks in our area rely on public clinics that are mostly financed through Medicaid. About half of my

01:56district is on Medicaid. And the recent budget that is being discussed in the House right now would

02:02leave 50,000 people in my community without health insurance. So Secretary Kennedy, my question for you

02:07is why do you think that a community like mine doesn't deserve access to that same basic health

02:14care provided by Medicaid that you benefited from? I do believe that, yeah, I do believe, and that is the

02:22design of the Medicaid program. So do you disagree with the cuts that are being proposed for Medicaid

02:28right now? Oh, the cuts to, you know, this is a, I don't know if you understand this or whether you're

02:35just mouthing, you know, the Democratic talking boys. The cuts to Medicaid are for fraud, waste and

02:43abuse. And I'll tell you what that means. It means that because of Doge, we were able to determine,

02:49and it's about 8 million people who would be affected. Because of Doge, we were able to determine

02:55that there are a million people who are claiming Medicaid from multiple states. That's illegal. It's theft.

03:01You're not allowed to do that. There are another million people who are collecting both under

03:06Obamacare and Medicaid. Mr. Secretary, that has nothing to do with the budget that's actually being

03:11proposed in the House. These are the only cuts that are being made. These are the only cuts that are

03:13being made to Medicaid. That's not true. Yes, it is. There are another million illegal aliens. We

03:20announced a law yesterday, yesterday, a rule yesterday, we're not going to pay illegal aliens anymore.

03:25And guess what Gavin Newsom did this morning? He said, we're going to take all the illegal aliens off the

03:30California Medicaid rolls because the feds aren't paying for them anymore. So the compassion ends.

03:35Secretary, let me focus you on the actual numbers of the budget that's being proposed.

03:40The last group, the final group. Secretary, I've gained my time. I think

03:42what you are saying is absolutely inaccurate in terms of the 13 million Americans that will lose

03:48access to health care. Let me tell you, the folks in my district are not actually getting

03:52Medicaid at another state. They can't travel to get at another state. The clinics that are providing that

03:57lifesaving care are the last resort for Bocanari. Let me tell you the last category.

04:02Last category is adults who are able-bodied, who refuse to look for a job, to volunteer,

04:13to get a job, or to show that they are in certain or to take a part-time job.

04:20I agree with that. That is absolutely not true. The vast majority of folks in a community like mine who are on

04:26Medicaid are working. They want to work. People want to be able to make sure that they have no danger of losing their Medicaid.

04:33That's just not true. We've seen in time after time, including in Arkansas and Florida and other states,

04:38that when you put more red tape, yes, but we've seen this chapter before. When you put more red tape

04:44in front of people actually getting that life-saving care, you're going to prevent people from accessing

04:50health insurance. Medicaid is for poor children. It's for women, for mothers, and it's for the

04:58disabled. It is. And 13 million of those people are going to lose health insurance if this budget

05:03becomes lawful. They're already losing their health insurance because of all the able-bodied people

05:07who are not working for, looking for jobs on Medicaid. Secretary, I'll just close by saying this.

05:12I hope that you remember the grace that was given to you during your darkest days.

05:16And I recommend that you come to a district like mine and stare at a single mom who has young kids,

05:22who's at risk of losing her health insurance because of more red tape. Stockton, California,

05:27come on out. We'd love to have you. And I hope that you can actually explain why this program is going

05:31to make her life healthier and help with the actual outcomes that we're talking about because

05:36I think that's a hard case to make.

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