Transcript
A (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts, Radio news. Nicole. Malia Takis, Republican from New York is with us in studio in Washington. And it's great to have you back on Bloomberg TV and radio.
B (0:13)
Good to be with you.
A (0:14)
Is this a Republican or a conservative concept, the idea of capping interest rates on credit cards or something that you're comfortable with?
B (0:21)
Well, I think in general, a lot of Republican members, including myself, have expressed concerns with any type of price controls. Right. That's not something that we generally believe in. We applaud, applaud the president for trying to address this issue of affordability. And quite frankly, 29% is a little bit ridiculous. Right. I mean, you know, I can go to loan shark down the block in my district and basically get a better deal.
A (0:43)
Yeah.
B (0:44)
The issue I think is no, no, of course we don't. I'm just joking.
A (0:48)
Button Island.
B (0:50)
But the reality is, is that, you know, how can we address this? I actually was speaking to somebody who represents a credit union the other day and they're capped at 18%. How about that? So maybe, maybe 18% should be more of what we're looking at for a one to kind of bring it in par. But I think this is going to be a real big discussion on Capitol Hill because I can tell you I was a member, member of the Main Street Caucus, which is more, you know, center right. Members of our conference, a lot of them have expressed concerns about this in our last meeting, which took place on Monday. And so I do believe that this is really, really going to be going to be something that he's going to get a lot of opposition to on the Hill.
A (1:30)
This falls into the whole affordability category. You can come at this from a lot of different ways, whether it's, whether it's pharmaceuticals. Obamacare subsidies is one that we have been talking about a lot. And as the Senate prepares to go home today, there are some saying that this Bernie Moreno bill is going nowhere, that it's time for a new plan. Open enrollment is closing. Where are we in this debate?
B (1:55)
Yeah, look, I think that the president just a little while ago came out with his great health care plan and we're currently reviewing that. It does hit on a lot of the points. I mean, I think one of the big issues where we see some opportunity is pharmaceuticals. Right. He's proposed his most favored nation. He wants to pay Americans to pay the same price that many other countries are paying. Why are we subsidizing the research and on top of it paying the highest prices? So he has a point with that But I think the bigger issue is PBM reform. If we want to rein in those PBMs that are those middlemen between the insurance companies and the pharmacies and in some cases is vertical integration where the insurance company is the PBM and the pharmacy. And that is, I think, a real problem because we're seeing them put small mom and pop pharmacies out of business, are dictating what their competitors are making, and they are have no transparency in terms of, you know, what's going on in the middle, in between phase and how much they're profiting. So in fact, our committee next week, Ways and Means is going to be having these health insurance executives that do also own these PBMs come before us. And the questions, it's going to be interesting, especially when we, when we asked them, you know, about the 230 increase in profits and, and the premiums increasing at the same time despite those taxpayer subsidies. That's going to be a big topic, I think, in the next couple of weeks. Interesting. And we'll see where that goes. But I'm hopeful that we're still going to get something done a bipartisan way, if not through reconciliation. What the president proposed today could be done through the reconciliation process, which means only Republicans are needed to pass it.