The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 3 – Guest Host Brian Mudd
Date: November 28, 2025
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show (iHeartPodcasts)
Host (Guest): Brian Mudd (in for Clay Travis & Buck Sexton)

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode, guest-hosted by Brian Mudd, focuses on the state of health care in the United States, critiquing the current insurance-based system under the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare), analyzing its shortcomings, and discussing the potential for a new approach — "Trumpcare." Mudd frames this proposal as a transformative fix, prioritizing price transparency, consumer choice, and direct control over health care spending, and he emphasizes the political and practical logic behind making such a shift.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Deep Critique of the Current Health Care System

• Obamacare’s Broken Promises:
  Mudd opens by satirizing early ACA messaging, mocking promises like "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” (03:45). He asserts that these guarantees were not kept, and the ACA became a massive corporate welfare program for insurers at taxpayers’ expense.

• Insurance ≠ Care:
  He identifies the core problem as conflation of health insurance with actual health care:

  “The greatest lie ... is that health insurance equals health care. ... It is utter BS.” (06:17)

• The Insurance-First Model:
  He argues the ACA entrenched a system where consumers have little price transparency, are forced to buy coverage they may not want, and too often end up paying for both costly premiums and their own care, while insurance companies benefit most.

2. Demand for Consumer Price Transparency

• The Black Friday Analogy:
  Mudd compares current health care shopping to a ludicrous scenario:

  "Imagine ... you go into a store, absolutely no prices anywhere ... they start putting stuff in your cart ... at checkout they say, 'hand over your card now.' ... Then two, three months later, they tell you what you paid." (08:58)

• Frustration and Anger:
  He repeatedly describes the system as “bat crap crazy insane” and a “criminal operation,” emphasizing it's unlike any other market.

3. The Trumpcare Proposal: A Dramatic Overhaul

• Shifting Subsidies to People, Not Insurers:
  Mudd highlights a recent Trump statement:

  “The only health care I will support or approve is sending money directly back to the people with nothing going to the big fat rich insurance companies who have made trillions ripped off America long enough. The people will be allowed to negotiate and buy their own much better insurance. Power to the people in Congress. Do not waste your time and energy on anything else.” (21:26)

• Senator Rick Scott’s Role:
  Mudd mentions having discussed the ongoing Trumpcare legislation with Sen. Rick Scott (20:00, 23:32), emphasizing Scott’s experience as a health care CEO and confidence in the plan’s design.
• How It Would Work:
  • Subsidies currently paid to insurers for exchange plans would instead go into individuals’ health savings accounts (HSAs).
  • Consumers could use these funds to buy only the coverage or care they need, ending federal mandates on what must be included.
  • Insurers would face genuine competition for consumers’ dollars, creating better pricing and transparency.
  • Mudd suggests that, if adopted, private employers could follow suit, giving employees control over contributions that currently go to group insurers (27:00).

4. How Much Could Be Saved?

• Actual Health Care vs. Health Insurance Costs:

  “For every American over the past year, we spent fifteen hundred and fourteen dollars on actual health care needs. ... [But] over $6,000 … for a health insurance plan.” (20:46)

  • Family plans average over $20,000 per year.
  • Mudd calculates that the average person can expect to save anywhere from 30% (for robust coverage) to 70% (for young and healthy) on insurance by shifting to this model (28:30).

5. Comparisons to Other Types of Insurance

Mudd points out people don't use auto or property insurance for regular expenses, only for catastrophic events, and argues health insurance should work the same way for large, unpredictable costs (29:35).

6. Caller Perspectives & Open Dialogue

Several callers offer insights:

Malpractice and Tort Reform

• Bob from Florida claims malpractice insurance is the top cost driver, referencing Rush Limbaugh's argument (32:56).
• Mudd counters:

  “The most recent analysis ... 2.8% of total health care expense is medical malpractice ... We can save between 30 to 70% by [the Trumpcare approach].” (34:00)

The Insurance “Giveaway”

• Jim from Tennessee laments that most people don't realize ACA is run by private insurers, calling it "the biggest giveaway to the insurance industry in 40 years" (35:18).
• Mudd agrees and pays tribute to Rush Limbaugh for his influence and legacy in talk radio (36:49).

Price Transparency and Antitrust Enforcement

• Don from Wisconsin says enforcing antitrust laws and requiring providers to charge everyone the same rate would almost eliminate the need for insurance outside of catastrophic care. He cites the Oklahoma Surgical Center as a successful no-insurance model (37:50).
• Mudd supports this, reiterating price transparency as the root solution (38:31).

7. Closing Thoughts and Political Framing

• Mudd wraps up by reiterating the strong popular and political case for shifting health care funds directly to people, predicting that “good policy is often good politics” (42:46).
• He challenges listeners:

  "If you could have all the money for an Obamacare subsidy provided directly to you in a health savings account as opposed to paying for insurance, would you want it?" (42:46)

• He ends on an optimistic note, urging unity and faith in fixing the system (43:30).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Obamacare’s Effect:

  “One of the greatest corporate welfare projects in American history, if not the absolute largest, was set into motion [by] the ACA.” [04:10]

• On the consumer experience:

  “We as consumers would be bat crap crazy insane forever going down that path in the first place.” [09:38]

• On systemic reform:

  “The key to solving health care affordability challenges is … consumer price transparency.” [08:21]

• On Trumpcare’s promise:

  "You could then have plans that are just for your specific needs, because remember, the Obamacare mandates would go away at this point..." [24:37]

• On political will:

  “Good policy is often good politics. … I can’t imagine a universe in which [Americans] say, you know what? I’d rather that money just go straight to the insurance company.” [42:46]

Important Timestamps

• 02:58 – Brian Mudd welcomes listeners, begins health care discussion
• 06:17 – "Health insurance equals health care" lie explained
• 08:58 – Black Friday shopping analogy for the broken health care purchasing system
• 15:40-16:54 – Ad break (skip)
• 19:29 – President Trump’s stance on not extending Obamacare subsidies
• 21:26 – Quoting Trump’s recent position on health care reform
• 24:37 – Explanation of how Trumpcare/Scott’s plan would work
• 28:30 – Estimated savings under consumer-directed model
• 32:56 – Bob from Florida: malpractice cost argument
• 34:00 – Brian Mudd counters with malpractice cost statistics
• 35:18 – Jim from Tennessee: ACA as insurance company giveaway
• 37:50 – Don from Wisconsin: calls for antitrust enforcement, cites Oklahoma Surgical Center
• 42:46 – Mudd wraps with political/personal challenge to audience

Tone and Style

Brian Mudd employs a mix of humor, frustration, and plain-spoken logic, channeling a populist, consumer-focused angle often found on this show. He’s direct, animated, and unafraid to use biting analogies (“bat crap crazy insane”) to emphasize systemic absurdities.

Summary Takeaway

This episode provides a detailed, fervent critique of America’s insurance-driven health care system, lampoons the false conflation of insurance with care, and offers Trumpcare as a market-driven, consumer-empowering alternative. Through listener calls and real-world analogies, Brian Mudd makes a case for using health savings accounts in place of subsidies to insurers, increasing price transparency, and making coverage genuinely affordable. The show closes with a call for policy rooted in personal and fiscal sense and a message of holiday unity and hope.