3533 - ICE's Kabuki Invasion of LA and the Coming Medical Collapse w/ Hasan Piker and Dr. Rob Davidson

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Episode: 3533 - ICE's Kabuki Invasion of LA and the Coming Medical Collapse w/ Hasan Piker and Dr. Rob Davidson
Release Date: July 8, 2025
Host: Sam Seder
Guests: Hasan Piker, Dr. Rob Davidson

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Introduction

In Episode 3533 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, hosts Sam Seder and Emma Vigland delve into pressing political and social issues affecting the United States. The episode primarily focuses on the intensified actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles and the looming crisis in the American healthcare system due to significant cuts in Medicaid and Medicare. The discussion features insights from Hasan Piker and Dr. Rob Davidson, a West Michigan emergency physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care.

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ICE's Operation Excalibur in Los Angeles

The episode opens with a critical examination of ICE's recent operations in Los Angeles, dubbed "Operation Excalibur." The hosts express concern over ICE's aggressive tactics, describing them as a form of "terrortizing" communities, particularly targeting immigrant neighborhoods.

• Emma Vigland emphasizes the racial undertones of ICE's actions:

  "Going after the soccer nets feels also racialized. If this is a park where immigrant communities play, it seems like that's the design."
  [06:28]

• Sam Seder likens ICE's presence to a "terror move," highlighting the intimidation factor:

  "It's a terror move. If this happened late at night and there were books to be burned, it would be crystal clear. But it's not. This is there."
  [07:32]

Footage of ICE officers confronting residents at MacArthur Park in LA is discussed, illustrating the palpable fear instilled within the community. The hosts note the strategic targeting of Latino and immigrant populations, aiming to suppress their visibility and presence in public spaces.

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Impact on Immigrant Communities

The discussion shifts to the broader implications of ICE's intensified presence, particularly on undocumented individuals who have grown up in the United States.

• Sam Seder highlights the vulnerability of DACA and DAPA recipients:

  "There is probably close to 500,000-600,000 DACA recipients, maybe a little bit more. These are people who were brought to this country as little children who have spent 10, 15, 20 years living here as Americans and are now terribly afraid."
  [08:07]

The hosts express concern over the economic and social consequences, including potential labor shortages as fear discourages individuals from participating in the workforce.

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Coming Medical Collapse: Medicaid and Medicare Cuts

The second major topic involves the alarming cuts to Medicaid and Medicare resulting from the recent "billionaire benefit bill." Dr. Rob Davidson provides an in-depth analysis of the repercussions these cuts will have on the healthcare system, especially in rural communities.

• Dr. Rob Davidson describes the severity of the situation:

  "This is the biggest change in healthcare in 60 years since Medicaid and Medicare came on board."
  [28:08]

He explains how reductions in Medicaid funding will lead to hospital closures, increased premiums for insured individuals, and overwhelming emergency rooms already struggling with capacity issues.

• Emma Vigland underscores the impact on preventative care:

  "It's also going to make it much less likely... if you want to seek out preventative care or see a doctor because you're having an issue, it might be too much of a burden for you."
  [39:16]

Key Insights:

1. Ripple Effects on Healthcare Providers:

   • Loss of Medicaid funding will force hospitals, especially in rural areas, to cut services or shut down entirely.
   • Dr. Davidson notes:

     "People with insurance, people with Medicare, people with employer insurance are going to be paying more for premiums because insurance companies aren't going to eat that cost."
     [28:08]

2. Economic Burden on Insured Individuals:

   • Higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs will strain even those with insurance, delaying necessary medical treatments.
   • Dr. Davidson remarks:

     "Even people with health insurance... making $20 an hour with a $2,500 deductible, they can't afford healthcare either."
     [36:42]

3. Long-Term Health Consequences:

   • Deferred medical care will lead to increased emergencies and chronic health issues.
   • Dr. Davidson warns:

     "More people having strokes, more people having heart attacks... it's really devastating."
     [28:35]

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Strategies for Resistance and Advocacy

In response to these challenges, Dr. Rob Davidson outlines actionable strategies for healthcare providers and communities to mitigate the impact of these cuts.

• Dr. Davidson advocates for community organization and active resistance:

  "People are going to have to resist this in an active way. They are going to have to make a decision at one point, you know, how much they're willing to do because things are going to get a lot worse before there's any opportunity for them to get better."
  [12:55]

• Committee to Protect Health Care:
  Dr. Davidson emphasizes the importance of joining and supporting organizations like the Committee to Protect Health Care, which aims to advocate for vulnerable populations and influence policy changes:

  "We need to be involved. We need to speak up and we can provide the apparatus to be able to do that."
  [53:11]

---

Guest Segment: Hasan Piker

In the latter half of the episode, the focus shifts to a lighter "fun half" featuring live interactions with Hasan Piker. The segment includes humorous exchanges and merchandise promotion, providing a contrast to the serious discussions earlier.

• Hasan Piker jokes about the show's production quality and interactions:

  "This is crazy production. What do you mean this is crazy production?"
  [54:34]

The segment serves to engage listeners with a blend of humor and casual conversation, maintaining the show's dynamic and entertaining atmosphere.

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Conclusion

Episode 3533 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder presents a compelling analysis of current political actions affecting immigration enforcement and healthcare in the United States. Through incisive discussions with Dr. Rob Davidson and engaging dialogues with Hasan Piker, the episode underscores the urgent need for community advocacy and policy intervention to address the escalating crises in both immigration practices and the healthcare system.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder on ICE's Actions:

  "It's a terror move... This is how they terrorize local neighborhoods."
  [07:32]

• Dr. Rob Davidson on Medicaid Cuts:

  "This is the biggest change in healthcare in 60 years since Medicaid and Medicare came on board."
  [28:08]

• Emma Vigland on Community Impact:

  "People are going to have to resist this in an active way."
  [12:55]

• Dr. Rob Davidson on Healthcare Premiums:

  "People with insurance... are going to be paying more for premiums because insurance companies aren't going to eat that cost."
  [28:08]

---

For more detailed discussions and insights, listeners are encouraged to tune into Episode 3533 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder available on Majority.FM.

Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, July 8, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, Downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Dr. Rob Davidson, West Michigan emergency physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care. On what next for Medicaid and Medicare. Also on the program today, with the Texas death toll over 100, Trump administration is desperate to fight the obvious claims that cuts to the national weather system didn't hurt its response. Also on the program today, Trump and Netanyahu have a fascist off at the White House. Discuss Gaza ethnic cleansing plans. And it's Taco Trump once again flippity flopping on the firmness.

[Emma Vigland]

More like folding tacos fold.

[Sam Cedar]

Tacos fold. They can also be limp. And his firmness on his import tax deadlines, I should say I like it semi firm. Meanwhile in la off brand Gestapo launches Operation Excalibur by attacking soccer nets in an LA public park. IRS to now allow churches to endorse candidates reversing decades old non tax prohibition. RFK sued over the COVID vaccine banishment. Trump reverses on Ukraine weapons ban and real estate moguls mobilize in a panic over Zoran Mamdani. And lastly, the cute story of a Mike Lawler staffer who weirdly found herself in an anti Mike Lawlor signal chat under a fake name.

[Emma Vigland]

Huh.

[Sam Cedar]

All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome ladies and gentlemen.

[Emma Vigland]

It is Newsday Tuesday and here I am.

[Sam Cedar]

Hello. Here is Emma once again. Just a reminder, Brian Solo today, day two.

[Emma Vigland]

You're doing great.

[Sam Cedar]

It's a whole new set of challenges. Every day we try and bring up some other problem that's new.

[Emma Vigland]

Some last minute things we have to worry about right before the show.

[Sam Cedar]

We've made it extra complicated for Brian today by welcoming an in studio guest who will be here probably for the fun half, maybe for a minute or two in the free half, but he is host of the Twitch stream, Hasan Nabi. What is it? It's Hasan Piker will be here.

[Emma Vigland]

Well, I don't know anything about him but that sounds a little terroristy. I mean I'm really scared. Automatic.

[Sam Cedar]

We had to go through our handlers at the ADL to make sure that everything was okay and also build out the studio because he's like 8ft tall is my understanding.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah. So glad we raised those ceilings last night.

[Sam Cedar]

Yep, that took a lot of work. Brian has been working overtime doing Both construction and now a lot of focus gummies.

[Emma Vigland]

Focus gummies.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's talk about today, the ice, which was by all accounts literally, I'm not being facetious about this, bankrupt in June. It was being reported the first week in June, I think it was in Bloomberg that it was $1 billion underwater now buoyed by the passage of the Republican reconciliation tax cut benefit bill. One of the biggest expenditures, no, I should say the biggest expenditure in this bill, it was 100 billion that was given to defense, but several times that given to essentially immigrant roundup and detention. And by immigrant, I mean just about anybody who didn't come over on the Mayflower.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean, just to give people a sense, that's a 265% annual budget increase for ICE's detention budget just in that bill.

[Sam Cedar]

It's insane.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean, it's fascistic. It's fascistic.

[Sam Cedar]

That's.

[Emma Vigland]

We're living through it. We're living through it.

[Sam Cedar]

And almost as if they wanted to do their own parade to show off their newfound strength, they assembled a squad of ICE guys off Brand Gestapo.

[Emma Vigland]

They got to put on a costume.

[Sam Cedar]

Today and did an assault on it's MacArthur park in Los Angeles. And essentially we're there to what appears to be terrorizing children and assaulting cones on the field that people use for soccer.

[Emma Vigland]

Well, I didn't know this because I'm not from la and people I'd seen some LA residents say that it's a park that borders Koreatown and a heavily Latino neighborhood in Los Angeles.

[Sam Cedar]

So.

[Emma Vigland]

And then going after the soccer nets feels also racialized. If this is a park where immigrant communities play, it seems like that's the design.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh yeah, it's to send a message. It's scary. It's. This is a terror move. This is a terror move. And let's not, let's not kid ourselves. It's a, it's a terror move. If this, if this happened late at night and there were books to be burned, it would be crystal knocked. But. But it's not. This is there. Nothing is going to come back exactly the way it was. Nothing is going to be exactly the same. But it's the similar dynamic. How do we terrorize local neighborhoods? And this is the way they chose to do it. There's no sound on this one. You can see them marching and it's obviously been sped up just a little bit. They're doing this big sweep of like just a soccer field, an empty soccer field.

[Emma Vigland]

And we're hearing reports that Latino people in LA in Particular, but it's all across the country are afraid to go out in public, are afraid to go to the grocery store, are afraid to exist in society. And this is another attempt to, to put folks in the shadows and make them feel afraid. And there's reason to be afraid. Like some of these other reports out of L. A of mothers being disappeared. And then you have lawyers calling the government and saying, and they're like, oh, we have no record of this person. Well, then where is she?

[Sam Cedar]

Keep in mind that there is probably close to 5,500-600,000 DACA recipients, maybe a little bit more. And these are people who are brought to this country as little children who have spent 10, 15, 20 years, 25 years living here as Americans who are also now terribly afraid. DAPA folks similarly situated, they have a American child and. But they've been living here for 10, 20 years. They're not going to work. I mean, it's beginning to cut into both in LA's and California's economy. That border town in Texas now there are reports, similar reports. People just aren't showing up to work and we are on the cusp of a bunch of major harvesting. And I would imagine, based upon what you're going to hear later in the program from the secretary of usda, Agriculture Secretary, you're not going to see a lot of people going to harvest stuff. We got more footage of these stormtroopers invading a park in la. Here we go. Good thing they have all this gear and their camo for their urban warfare. Like, what are they marching on?

[Emma Vigland]

It looks like that guy. I don't know if that's a journalist or just a photographer for the photo op. I mean, aren't they. They're going to try to use this to market.

[Sam Cedar]

How embarrassed do you have to be to be out there marching and we're going to an assault, a jungle gym. Here's Karen Bass, who. And I mean, I think, you know, what is clear is when a guy like Zoran Mamdani wins in New York or seems to be on the precipice of winning in New York or has captured the nation's, that type of candidate ends up becoming a template for other politicians in the country. Here is Karen Bass. This is, what is this, 13 or 14? This 13. Let's start with this. Here she is at MacArthur Park. Sound any comment? Mayor? My comment is they need to leave and they need to leave right now is unacceptable. Who did you speak with?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Mayor.

[Sam Cedar]

Who did you speak with on the phone just now? Who did you speak with on the phone of customs. So apparently the one of the off brand gestapo guys gives his phone to Karen Bass to speak to the head of customs and says, get you people out of here. And he's like, we're going to leave. Can I have my phone back? I mean this is just like, are you kidding me? It's a. Understand as much as these people, like the crews you're seeing in la, the crews that we've seen videos, they are the top ICE guys. And then it just, the drop off from there is probably exponential. And then they're going to hire 10,000 more of these essentially mall cops. I mean that's basically what they're going to be doing. They already can't get, they get the washouts from the police force and these are going to be wall cops.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean mall cops rather, I mean mall cops. That is like the, almost maybe the better case scenario because these people seem to get off on this. If you're signing up for this, it's likely, but there was a. I missed this over the weekend, but apparently there were ICE officers who went to a school in the LA school district and were caught on surveillance camera like peeing on the school grounds, publicly urinating outside. Like they're just before being asked to leave.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's play this clip.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean, is this, by the way, if these weren't like the Gestapo protected by Donald Trump and the command, the administration, are you allowed to like whip it out in a school park? I mean on school grounds? It seems a little like this should be a charge, but it's not going to be because these guys all cover their faces. I mean we all need to watch it.

[Sam Cedar]

But like behind the, they're both peeing behind the buildings.

[Emma Vigland]

It just, it like what are they doing? Why are you on a school, on school property at all?

[Sam Cedar]

It's disgusting.

[Emma Vigland]

There, there. And some of the reports too out of the area of like waiting outside of elementary school graduations. The administration is enabling the child traffickers and sexual assaulters across the country because this is just like now a part of American society that masked people in unmarked cars can come up and take mothers and daughters. I mean, of course men too. But you worry even more about like say sexual violence in those other situations. That's where my, my mind goes to how, how do people know if an ICE agent doesn't identify themselves? It could be anybody that's taking a kid or a woman or a mother or a father, of course.

[Sam Cedar]

Here's Karen Bass later at a press conference. Frankly, it is outrageous. And un American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks. It's outrageous and un American that the federal government seized our state's National Guard. It's outrageous and un American that we have U.S. marines who are trained to kill foreign soldiers overseas deployed in our American city. This is going to increasingly become the story over the course of the next six to 18 months. And even if the Democrats can take control of the House, it's unclear what kind of authority they can exercise over what ICE is doing. It's going to involve people organizing, resisting at times, whether it's reporting on ICE sightings through that ICE Block app or other apps. It's going to involve. There are examples of communities that when ICE comes in, they have been successful in pushing ICE back and out because again, these people are not trained for this. Something horrible is going to happen, there's no doubt about it. And, and it's really probably just a question of when. But people are going to have to resist this on an active way. People are going to have to make a decision at one point, you know, how much they're willing to do because things are going to get a lot worse before there's any opportunity for them to get better. We'll talk more about this and we'll play you that clip. We'll play that clip later in the program of Brooke Rollins, who is the AG Secretary. And just, I can't. I can't get past that. But we will talk about that in a bit. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Dr. Rob Davidson, West Michigan emergency physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Healthcare, on what the implications of this billionaire benefit bill that just passed and what the potential is of helping people get health care moving forward. But we'll talk about that in a moment. First, couple words from our sponsors. 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[Emma Vigland]

Fair.

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[Tyler Sherman]

Set to enact the largest cuts to Medicaid in decades, Experts are warning that many struggling hospitals in rural communities could close their doors. On Thursday, moments before the Senate passed the bill, Curtis Medical center in rural Nebraska announced it would be forced to shut down, saying it was in part due due to the anticipated changes to Medicaid and cuts in federal funding. Local data shows the next closest urgent care facility that accepts Medicaid is nearly 30 miles away. Joining me now is Tyler Sherman.

[Sam Cedar]

He's registered and that's basically, I mean, all you need to know about that. That is a story that we're probably going to hear over and over again. Rob Davidson, what, I mean, I can imagine what your reactions are to what we're going to see, but give us a sense of how widespread you think this is going to be in terms both on the provider side, but obviously what it's going to mean to people who are going to lose their health insurance.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, I mean, this is critical. I've been an emergency doctor more than half my Life now for 27 years. I've been working in a rural community in Michigan for 23 of those years. And, you know, Medicaid is about a third to upwards of 40% of our patient population coming into the ER. And so if those folks lose insurance first, it's cruel to those individuals. Right, because they won't have affordable healthcare. People still have to come in if they're having chest pain, if they're having a stroke, if they're having, you know, signs of appendicitis. They now will just be saddled with huge bills, most of which they won't be able to pay. We just got an email from the CEO of our entire system. This is not some liberal activists out there. This is someone running a massive hospital system in Michigan who said this is going to have ripple effects throughout the entire system, throughout the entire state, because if those folks come in and have uncompensated care, hospitals have to make that, make that up somewhere, Right? So people with insurance, people with Medicare, people with employer insurance are going to be paying more for premiums because we know insurance companies aren't going to eat that cost. So this is, this is devastating. Biggest change in healthcare in 60 years since Medicaid and Medicare came on board.

[Emma Vigland]

Can you expand on that the care piece, the phrase just escapes me. But when they have to come in because the federal government says if you come into an emergency, uncompensated care, Federal government says if you come into an emergency room, they have to treat you. That burden on hospitals that already ERs are just completely swamped here, this is going to make that problem worse exponentially, it appears.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

I mean, even right now, when we're not having, you know, flu season or any major, like RSV and kids season in the winter, we're boarding people for upwards of 24 hours. I just worked a shift the other day, and I had someone finally leave having a heart attack after 23 hours in the emergency department to go to the big regional heart center because they didn't have any beds. That problem is going to explode because more people, I mean, we're talking people who can't get colonoscopies, can't get mammograms, can't get just routine diabetic care or afford insulin. They're going to come in in crisis, and they're going to go to the only place they can go. I love Emtella. Emtella is the law since 1986 that has said if you have an emergent condition, you will be seen, you will be cared for. I love it. I'm a bleeding heart, and I want to take care of patients. And everybody deserves health care. So the problem is it still costs something. You know, it still costs to have those people seen and have them admitted and have surgery or whatever else they need, and someone is going to pay that price. It isn't the hospital. It isn't the insurance company. It's those people who, you know, are going to be paying higher premiums. And then in the end, what's going to happen is what they're talking about in Nebraska, hospitals will just close. You know, people having a heart attack will have to go another 30, 40 minutes, up to an hour away, suffering worse consequences. I mean, it's really devastating. And we got to keep telling this story because the Republicans own it. They did this, and this is going to have massive effects on everyone.

[Sam Cedar]

At this point. We have really only, for the most part, CBO sort of modeling as to how many people are going to lose their health care based upon this. I think there's some other outfits that have done their own versions of this. CBO is saying it could be upwards, like 14, 15 million people. I mean, it could be more. It's not going out. You know, it's. It's not happening for Another two years, in which case, you know, you're going to see a growth of, we have population growth. I mean, who knows what the economy is going to be in that instance. Do we have a, I mean, do you, within the context of your locality or within the Michigan system, do they have a sense of how many patients we're going to lose? I mean, this is just the, the Medicaid part. No one is really sort of like contemplated the Medicare part yet because that's an automatic result of the deficit that they're going to run. There are Paygo rules and I guess it theoretically could be avoided, but I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't see how it would be with this Republican Congress. So are you guys like, how does, how do you plan for this?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

I mean, you plan like they're doing in Nebraska, you know, these budgets, they're projecting out what, five years or so probably around that and projecting a loss of all of that revenue. When we're talking about small hospitals, critical access hospitals, rural disproportionate care hospitals in big cities, these are places that depend upon A, Medicaid patients, B, the provider tax that the final bill is reducing. That's a way that hospitals and our states raise money from hospitals, get federal matching dollars, and then bring back more money to those hospitals. When all of that is going away, the hospitals have to plan out and what they can provide. Now, maybe your hospital doesn't close down, but maybe they shut down outpatient lab for a period, maybe they shut down X ray, maybe clinics will close, you know, access to care. And that's not just people with Medicaid. Right. Anybody who's in that community, I mean, I work in a place that's an hour to the big regional heart center and stroke center, right. So we see people, we can provide them with emergent care and then we get them down the road to somewhere that can do more definitive care. But those critical early moments are like saving parts of people's brains, saving parts of their heart, helping them avoid long term disability. And the Republicans have said, yeah, we don't care about that. And the reason we know that the Paygo piece, where Medicare will likely lose funding, won't be fixed by the current Congress. Most of the opposition to this bill was not from sort of vulnerable Republicans who supposedly didn't want to vote against Medicaid. I mean, Thom Tillis gave the most impassioned speech and he's not going to run free election because he knew it would sink him in the eyes of the gop. It was the Freedom Caucus, it was these deficit guys that said this isn't bad enough, you're not cutting enough, you're not killing enough people. So we want it to be worse. They're not going to come to the rescue. Medicare, it's very disheartening as a guy who's been doing this for so long and I know my colleagues all feel the same way, but we're there now. The Committee of Direct Health care. We got 36,000 docs around the country. We've been speaking out as this thing's been rolling up. We've been having press calls and press conferences in Republican districts. We're making plans to do that for the next 16 months so people understand what they just did to them in their communities and then they can vote them out accordingly.

[Sam Cedar]

There's a two part challenge here. Right. I mean, one is communicate what is about to happen. I mean not about, but you know, 12 months off, 16 months off so that people can, can vote accordingly prior to that time. I imagine we're going to see some hospitals start to pare back over the course of the next 12 months and identifying those, you know, either closures or limiting of services as a function of this, of the impending bill. Because like you say five year plan, if I know I'm going to lose 25% of my revenue two years from now, for sure, or 35%, I'm going to make my cutbacks now so I can sort of like smooth that out a little bit. But is there also like anybody talking about the potential? Because these cuts are not going to be implemented until 27, 28 of the potential in the 28 election to come back in and reverse these things.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah. I mean the hope is. Right. I mean the reality is almost nothing can get done because of the filibuster. So it all has to happen through this process. Right. You get 50 plus one and you can get these.

[Sam Cedar]

Reconciliation.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, reconciliation. And so the reality is if we can reverse this trend in 26 and have a Republican House in 27, we can limit future damage. Right. Because they're not done. Right. There's still more money to give to billionaires. There's still more poor people you can take away from that. I'm sure they can find ways to do that. But then you have to keep building. I mean this is a multi year, multi election process to then in 28 get the right people in. So starting in 29. And you hate to have to think this way every time. It's how they think. Right. It's how they run, how politicians go. So we all have to kind of adapt. But yeah, in 29, you can get back some of that funding. I suppose you can do a budget bill that is, you know, will raise taxes on billionaires, which we of course should be doing. And we'll get healthcare for people who need it, which is frankly, in my opinion and most of our opinions, everybody, like everybody deserves healthcare. So, yeah, that's.

[Sam Cedar]

I imagine, you know, you have colleagues at your hospital whose patients that they see on a regular are Medicaid patients. Like what, what are they starting to hear or what are they starting to tell their patients who may not be able to see them in 12 months?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think those hard conversations are starting to happen. I think as providers, we try to avoid the kind of doomsday and doom and gloom conversations and even, I mean, talking about coverage at all. I mean, the reality is when we go in a room, we don't look at someone's insurance. You just go, you see them. But when you're making plans for them, getting a test or getting admitted or getting a prescription, you have to have the conversations. Because even people with health insurance in this country, you know, more than 50% of employer plans are high deductible plans. People making 20 bucks an hour with a $2,500 deductible, they can't afford healthcare either. Right. They can certainly afford cancer treatment or major surgery better than if they didn't have insurance. But routine care is still tough. So I think, yeah, those are starting to happen where people maybe they have to start kind of storing up on certain meds that they won't be able to get or get some of their tests out of the way sooner rather than later. Don't wait for down the road. I think those are the tough conversations that we shouldn't have to have, but they put us all in the position of having to do that. I will say I had an OB come down just a few weeks ago as this was all being contemplated. And you know what we have all heard 40 some percent of the deliveries in this country are people on Medicaid. She said, I don't know how we keep an L and D, a labor and delivery unit open, given that. Right. So now what I mean, is it just going to be home births if you live in a rural area? I mean, okay, sometimes that works out great, but I've seen catastrophic outcomes of home births that haven't gone well in communities that. That is a predominant Mode of delivery. We don't want to kind of make that our default system in a lot of these places and they might force us to do that.

[Emma Vigland]

Well, I mean that fits in nicely to something I would love if you could expand on is how this is going to affect preventative care. If you're somebody that feels like hey, I'm not feeling great, I have an issue. But you're in a community where the rural hospital has closed and in many cases this is like the only hospital in an hour radius. It also makes it much less likely one that yes, if there's an emergency you could pass die in the ambulance, but also if you want to seek out preventative care or see a doctor because you're having an issue, it might be too much of a burden for you, especially if you can't get off work. Like that's some of the stuff that I'm worried about seeing as well.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, I mean, you know, again, it's not just the rural hospitals, it's the entire rural health system. So you know, with the hospital or the outpatient departments, it's, you know, for ours it's just kiddie corner. Across the parking lot is a multispecialty clinic with family docs and pediatricians and surgeons and observers and specialists who come from the big hospital an hour away and come up and see people for their aftercare. If that all goes away, you do, you have people who aren't going to be managing their diabetes as well as they should or their blood pressure. Now you have more people having strokes, more people having heart attacks. Again, the ripple effects, it isn't far fetched to try to envision this dystopian reality. It will happen. Sometimes it happens slowly enough. People don't quite recognize the root causes of it. I think that's why organizations like the one I run and others shows like this, I mean we have to keep telling people, we have to keep reminding people like all of this dysfunction of the system. The Republicans own it now, right? They hung the ACA around the necks of Democrats after they passed that. And it wasn't until years later people realized, okay, imperfect but man, it sure made a real difference in a lot of people's lives. Particularly expanded Medicaid under the aca, but affordable insurance, you know, tax subsidies, another thing they didn't address, that's going to go away and another 4 million people lose insurance and another some 10 odd million are going to have more expensive insurance because of that. I mean.

[Sam Cedar]

I wanted to just touch on that in particular because I Think, you know, we hear a lot about the Medicaid. The Medicare stuff is sort of like people, I think, have barely touched upon the cuts to Medicare that are going to end up coming. But there's also, like you say, a massive amount of people who are either going to be losing their health insurance through the ACA exchanges or be paying 2, 3, $5,000 more annually because of it. And do we have numbers on that, of what the implications of that are in terms of people, or is that wrapped up in the CBO 17 million figure?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

I think that's in the 17 million, but 4 million of that is considered that ACA piece where people will lose insurance. But another I've seen numbers around 10 million who will just have more expensive insurance. Their premiums will be higher. Yeah, it's almost. If you devise a bill to screw over the most people possible and make them the least healthy possible, this could be the perfect bill to do that because of how many aspects of the health care system that it completely unravels. Yeah, it's the CEO email we got. They said these cuts aren't waste, fraud and abuse. This is critical compassionate care. And I almost think we have to keep saying that.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, it seems to me that essentially what is being cut is it is essentially a repeal of Obamacare, or at very least the ACA part of it. Right. Like the expansion of Medicaid, the exchanges, as opposed to the patient protection elements, remain in terms of private insurance. But at the end of the day, when we're talking about, you know, 10 or 12 million or 13 or 14 million people losing Medicaid, that was the ACA expansion, and then another 4 or 5 million people losing their health insurance on the exchanges. That's almost half of the people on the exchanges, maybe a third of people on exchanges. But the prices are going up, rendering, granted, not the best of impact. The exchanges didn't do much in terms of making it terribly affordable. It slowed the rate of increase marginally, but it, you know, but it's basically a repeal of the Affordable Care act, and it was never really communicated that way.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, no, it's an end around. Right. John McCain with the thumbs down stopped in its tracks when they tried to do it, but that was effective.

[Emma Vigland]

The Democrats actually were able to stop that then, and they didn't message it the same time, same way this time.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, we do need to do better. But I think the reality is, I think doctors, patients, hospitals, I mean, I think hospital systems need to be brave and communicate to the public what this means. To their system and their community and not worry about like getting, getting called names by, by Trump. I think doctors need to be brave and stand up and communicate effectively. I, I was at a shift just about three days ago and that we had done a press conference in Lansing, Michigan and Tom Baritz, District, MI 7, you know, swing Republican district, about Medicaid cuts. And I was on the local TV and a guy came up to me, part of our janitorial staff who I've known for several years. He said, hey, I heard your speech. Thanks so much for doing that, I really appreciate it. And so we can get to people, we can explain this to people. We all need to do it because frankly, they're not going to trust politicians on either side. At some point they just throw up their hands and ah, it's all politics. They all, you know, they have a certain opinion of all the politicians. Yes, they need to do it, need to do better. But it's really on groups of advocates and as a physician, I mean I take that responsibility seriously and we do as an organization, you know, we're going to be there and yeah, we need to just keep talking about it and let people know what happened with this bill and what this means to them and their communities.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you have a sense of, of whether heads of these big hospital groups and I have my issues, I should say, with these big hospital groups. I mean, you know, we are at a very precarious point with the level of concentration we have of hospitals and the sort of contraction of our medical system as it exists already. And this is going to make it that much more precarious. But do you have a sense that there is a certain intimidation factor, that their response to this bill was muted because, and I imagine, you know, rural Michigan, I have some awareness of, of what the politics are going to be like in a rural Michigan area. And they're going to be somewhere, you know, between militia and you know, conservative.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

I think full on of militia, please. We're there. But yeah, and I live actually live in Betsy DeVos County. Right. We live live about a half hour from where, where she, where her biggest mansion is.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you think that there's a certain amount of intimidation factor as to how much people were able to speak up and say this is going to seriously inhibit, you know, obviously they're there for a profit motive, but they're, you know, it's going to seriously inhibit their ability to just sort of like serve X amount of people?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, I imagine there is. Right. I'm not in those rooms. I Don't work in the C suite in the hospital. But in the muted response, that's the only explanation, right? I'm sort of proud, a little bit surprised and proud that the CEO did send out this email to staff. Right. This is all staff, letting them know that the negative impacts and. And very clearly said, this isn't a political statement. This is just reality, what this is gonna do. And so, you know, they were pretty brave around Covid when people were saying, you know, vaccines and how they don't actually help and all that. And we knew that was all bs. They came out and defended, you know, the realities of COVID and the vaccines. I hope they are brave enough to do that. But, I mean, we've seen, right, the retribution just in public comments from the Trump administration. But. But who knows what else they would do, how they could weaponize the government against these big systems. We've seen in the media, right? People paying out to Trump and his cronies so they can get deals through. I mean, it's a dangerous time because people may put that before just communicating reality and trying to take care of their communities, but the reality is this is going to be so devastating, they can't just put their head in the sand and ignore it. So I guess we'll see. We'll see what they do next.

[Sam Cedar]

One last question, and this may be a little bit. It may be too early to see, but I have to imagine that if I am contemplating the idea of going to medical school and I'm, one, seeing the assault on student loan programs, and two, I'm seeing the assault on science and coming out of the HHS and the complete, like, attack on science, on medical treatments, on, you know, and then I see. And then I would imagine there's also sort of a separate pressure coming, like that guy who sends out that memo to everybody. They're not looking to hire new doctors right now, I would imagine. Do you anticipate. Do you have any knowledge of essentially, like a. A dearth of like, I would imagine we're going to see it from medical schools that their admissions or applications are going to go down because I just don't know how somebody says, like, I'm not going to go into this job.

[Emma Vigland]

As a doctor and put myself into debt.

[Sam Cedar]

Maybe I'll be an Instagram influencer and, you know, push beat Root or something, but I'm not going to go be a doctor.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah. I mean, I can speak anecdotally. So I'm in my mid-50s. Med school cost me about 70 grand. You know, 30 years ago, but I had a colleague who's in his early 30s, still paying off loans, and he brought this up to me. I didn't see the student loan piece of this because I hadn't focused on it. He said, I come from, like a poor family. He said, I would not have gone to medical school if those are my loan options. Right. If I was taking on that degree of debt and it was going to saddle me the way this new setup. And I don't have all the details, you've probably spoken about it and you will continue to speak about it, but it does make it prohibitive for people who aren't rich. So you're going to see rich kids going to med school, perhaps. And then the other piece I think we can look to is the impact of state abortion bans on people applying to medical schools and residencies going to residencies in those states. You know, factors outside of individual aspirations to be a doctor, to care for patients impact people's decisions to do that. In certain places, abortion bans had a decrease in folks in all specialties because they said, I just don't want to be in that place when practicing medicine involves potentially going to jail. And so, absolutely, I think we're going to see a chilling effect. And we already have a physician shortage in particularly these rural areas. I guess their secret is they close the hospital, close the clinic, there's no longer physician shortage because there's nowhere for them to work anyways. Yeah. Another thing.

[Emma Vigland]

Just one more question really quickly, Dr. Davidson. When we're talking about how our health care system has so consolidated already, and we see these Medicaid cuts that are going to dramatically affect the margins of even the largest conglomerates in the the country. Does part of the silence that you're seeing play into the fact that the administration is going to be responsible for any future mergers and overseeing that? And they're worried about. I heard this from somebody that works in corporate America, their biggest competitor. It's like the threat that they're going to be pitted against one another. And if they don't do what Trump says, that's going to be the one that gets selected for X contract. It seems like that could be playing out right now in the medical system in terms of the Medicaid cuts and their impact.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, I'm sure that's part of it. The other piece is private equity. Right. Their deep involvement in medical practices and hospitals. I have a good friend in Philly who just lost his job because his hospital, Crozier and Delco, Closed down and he's now driving two hours working night shifts in other parts of Pennsylvania while he's trying to find a new job. That piece as well, consolidation and private equity. And yeah, those folks certainly stand to benefit from the tax piece of this bill, but obviously want to stay in the favor of the administration or anyone in that administrative state that can kind of decide and determine what they can do next. It's sad that that's part of the calculus of these systems. We'll see when these cuts start coming through and they have to make these financial decisions based on the cuts. If that's a stronger impetus for them to speak out and to try to help push for policies that benefit patients, that eventually benefit them. I guess we'll have to see.

[Sam Cedar]

Aside from folks individually talking to their neighbors and folks organizing in their localities and, you know, looking towards organizations that are pre existing and whether it's unions or DSA or, I don't know, even local indivisible or. Is there specifically any way that folks in Michigan or in general can get involved in what you folks do?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Yeah, committeetoprotect.org, really anybody can come on and get involved in support financially, I suppose, but really, physicians, healthcare providers, we want you all to join up to be a part of this movement so we can, you know, we are all advocates daily for our patients, banging our head against the wall, getting things covered by insurance companies. We have the ability to be advocates in a wider sense and help protect our entire communities. And if you're in any number of these 40 some odd, you know, swing districts that are going to determine the fate of Congress in the next election, we need you to be involved. We need you to speak up and we can provide the apparatus to be able to do that.

[Sam Cedar]

Dr. Rob Davidson, Director of the Committee to Protect Healthcare, we'll put a link to that organization. Thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Thank you both.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, folks, we're going to head into the fun half of the program in a moment, but let's bring in our guest for the fun half or.

[Emma Vigland]

To preview the fun half.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Where is he? Oh, there he is. Oh, look who's, look who's come in. Just, just come right over here.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh, come over there.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Where's his headphones?

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, it's on, it's on the desk.

[Sam Cedar]

There we go. Hello. Look at this. Wow.

[Emma Vigland]

I do control this camera. So maybe go to a one shot and then we'll, we'll do the two shot.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Okay.

[Emma Vigland]

We were gonna fix this in the fun half.

[Sam Cedar]

But look at this. Look who's in studio. Okay, wide. Now here, slide over your chair that way.

[Emma Vigland]

Okay, wait, now I can feel a.

[Sam Cedar]

Little bit closer, but okay.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, you want me to get like all the way in here?

[Emma Vigland]

Yes, but I'm gonna move wrong way.

[Sam Cedar]

There you go. Right there. That's fine.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh my God. You guys have such. This is crazy. This is crazy production. What do you mean this is crazy production? I can't believe like you gotta.

[Emma Vigland]

How great it looks.

[Sam Cedar]

Why do we have that line in between there?

[Emma Vigland]

This way?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Oh, my God. Wow. All right, there we are.

[Hasan Piker]

Boom. I didn't want to. I don't want to hide the Majority Report logo, but.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, look who's here.

[Emma Vigland]

It's going to be a little difficult. Look at that.

[Hasan Piker]

I don't need the headphones until. Unless you watch like a video, right?

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly, exactly.

[Hasan Piker]

Okay. I don't normally.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you have earpods or anything like that or.

[Hasan Piker]

No, no, I just only have like the apple, the, the big AirPods, so it's fine.

[Sam Cedar]

This is the first time I've ever seen you in person year. You have very large arms.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, that's. Oh my God. That's crazy.

[Sam Cedar]

I didn't even.

[Emma Vigland]

Coincidence.

[Hasan Piker]

I didn't even think about that.

[Sam Cedar]

No, I didn't.

[Emma Vigland]

I didn't get the same compliment when I walked in in my tank top today, but.

[Hasan Piker]

Yeah, you got real tan.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, yeah, the same reaction. Well, so much for the arm wrestling contest that we. We had planned for the fun half. I think we'll probably put that on pause. That water, incidentally, is for you.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, thank you.

[Sam Cedar]

Mug is for you.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, wow. 20 years of pausing it.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, there you go.

[Hasan Piker]

Majority Report Radio. What an incredible. What an incredible. Get this is. Is this available on the shop?

[Sam Cedar]

Yes, it is. But that one is for you. But we also do have some other merch that we're going to have you model in the fun half.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, absolutely.

[Emma Vigland]

You don't want to do it now?

[Sam Cedar]

None. Yeah, I guess we could do it now and then we'll go to the fun halfway. Secondly, fix my camera.

[Emma Vigland]

Fix your camera. Why are you in New York? I'm.

[Hasan Piker]

I'm doing an interview with Mahmoud Khalil. I'm doing something with Hasan Minaj. And most importantly, I was like, I have to. I have to come on the Majority Report. I was, I was ducking you guys. We have long.

[Sam Cedar]

We have new trucker hats in the, in the.

[Emma Vigland]

The merch store and we'll sell a lot more if you actually put this On.

[Hasan Piker]

Let me. Let me grab it.

[Sam Cedar]

It's a special one that we thought might be good for you, Max.

[Hasan Piker]

Oh, my God. Are you actually. Is this one of the hats for real?

[Sam Cedar]

It is one of them.

[Hasan Piker]

I love that.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah.

[Hasan Piker]

Max left.

[Sam Cedar]

There you go.

[Emma Vigland]

This is my idea.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigland]

I need to model it.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, exactly.

[Hasan Piker]

He's gonna piss some people off.

[Sam Cedar]

I think it might. All right, well, listen, we got to take a break and head into the fun half of the program where you can join us with our special guest today in studio. Just a reminder, if you want to support the program, join the majorityreport.com when you do. You know, I get the free show, free of commercials. You get the fun half as well. And you can im us and also just coffee.co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off left reckoning happening tonight. I think Matt's on break, but maybe. Who knows what he's doing? But check it out. It should be good. He doesn't seem to be fond of breaks. Yeah, Matt doesn't really take a break. It really just means more gaming, I think, is really what's going on. All right, we'll see you in the fun half three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Fun half.

[Sam Cedar]

Matt, what is up, everyone? Fun half. No me ke.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

You did it.

[Sam Cedar]

Fun half.

[Emma Vigland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's go, Brandon. Fun half. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint you, everyone. I'm just a random. Guys. It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigland]

Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

Women. Stop talking for a second and let me finish.

[Emma Vigland]

Where is this coming from, dude?

[Sam Cedar]

But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.

[Emma Vigland]

Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

Hi, this is me. You're safe. Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. If it's me. Oh, it's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm gonna go snow white. Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Cedar]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Chow down, man.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

I'm positively quivering.

[Sam Cedar]

I believe 96. I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 8, 5, 0, 11 half. 3, 8, 9, 11. For instance.

[Emma Vigland]

$3,400. $1900. 5, 4.

[Sam Cedar]

$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game, actually.

[Emma Vigland]

You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

But let me say this. You call it satire. Sam goes satire.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

On top of it all.

[Emma Vigland]

My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like, everything.

[Sam Cedar]

You do, without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We seen you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigland]

It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know, but you should. No, people just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled, folks. I love it.

[Emma Vigland]

I do love that.

[Sam Cedar]

Got to jump. Got to be quick. I get to jump.

[Hasan Piker]

I'm losing it, bro.

[Sam Cedar]

Two o', clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Cedar]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you.

[Dr. Rob Davidson]

Bye.

[Sam Cedar]

Love you. Bye. Bye.