Roby Brock: Welcome to this edition of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal report. I'm your host, Roby Brock. I sat down with Senator John Boozman earlier this week to talk about some of the big action in Washington, D.C., that centered around health care and farmers aid. Senator John Boozman is our guest on today's Northwest Arkansas Business Journal report.
Joining me now, Senator John Boozman of Arkansas. Good to have you with us, Senator. Good to catch up.
Senator John Boozman: No thank you, Rob, thanks so much for having me and looking forward to it.
Brock: You and I are talking late on a Thursday afternoon. There was a huge two votes in the Senate today on health care. A Republican sponsored plan failed fifty one to forty eight. A Democrat sponsored plan failed fifty one to forty eight. Uh, tell me what's next.
Senator Boozman: I think the next step is, is that we'll come back, work in a very bipartisan way to try and figure out a path forward. And that path to me is what do we do to lower costs in the future? Uh, right now we're talking about continuing the Obamacare subsidy that was put in place during the COVID years because of very special circumstance. Now, as we try and withdraw that, we find that in doing so, there's groups that would be disadvantaged significantly. So, we've got to take care of that. And I think probably what you do is you go ahead and extend those for a while.
And then in the meantime, work on concrete steps that would actually lower cost for the future. Because the reality is, we can't keep going in the same direction. And it's not only it's not only the Obamacare plan that's not working, but also, you know, all Arkansans, regardless of what insurance that they've got. Generally it's Blue Shield, but their premiums are going up significantly. And so this is just a huge problem for not only Arkansas but throughout the country.
Brock: Now, one of the reasons I've been given as to why those premiums are going up significantly is because there was not a deal worked out on the extension of the subsidies there. So it sounds like you're agreeable to maybe an extension of those subsidies. What is something different from that that could be done to fix what you feel is broken in the health-care system?
Senator Boozman: Well, I'm agreeable for an extension. If, along with that, we have some reform. Because with any business, any entity that is going to be around very long. It simply has to be such that that the costs don't continue to skyrocket like they are now. I don't understand the feeling, though, that the regular insurance that you get from your employee or whoever has gone up because we're not doing the Obamacare subsidies, those don't have any, they don't have anything to do with each other. So, uh, again, Obamacare doesn't work. And, uh, it's not only the subsidies gone up, but the premiums are going up and have been for a long time.
So we need more competition. I've got the same car insurance that I had when I was sixteen years old, the same company I've lived in various states of, had different jobs, but I've been able to maintain that. That's not true in health insurance. And so we've got to figure out a better mechanism or the system is going to implode. Medicaid is a huge problem. That's that's a part of any of this. But it's the same thing. You know, it's to the point now it costs so much to provide. And we're paying the providers so little that many providers aren't taking it anymore. Same is true of Medicare. A lot of doctors are limiting the amount of patients that they'll accept that are on the Medicare program. So it's all tied together. And this is something that we simply have to address.
Brock: Quick follow up question. Has your car insurance gone up over those years? That same car company?
Senator Boozman: It has, but you know what? If that I have the ability, though, to look to another car company. Um, And if I get a better deal there, you know, I can. I can choose that car company. And in Arkansas, that's not true. You know, you're stuck with the prevailing provider. And I think that's the difference and that's why if you look at the amount that my car insurance has gone up compared to health insurance increases, I think that you'll find that it's minimal. I don't know the numbers, but I would suspect it's minimal compared to the increase in health care costs.
Brock: Let's talk about farmers' aid this week. Uh, package gets rolled out a twelve billion dollars assistance package for America's farmers. Is twelve billion dollars going to be enough to stop the bleeding of what we've been seeing in agriculture?
Senator Boozman: I think that's really a good question. And to be honest, I don't know. I suspect it's not. And if you watched me in the white House, in the cabinet room across from the president as I visited with him and visited with him later on. I left the door open that this is great, and I think the president is genuinely concerned about the farm community in rural America. They've been good to him. He understands that, and he understands that food security is national security. But I did leave the door open that Congress would be willing to step in, I believe, if we need additional funding.
Brock: So what else is still being explored? I know Congressman Rick Crawford has told me he's got a piece of legislation in the House, uh, that attacks some of this problem. I know you guys have been working on some things behind the scenes as well as publicly. What do you see as being the next step for farmers' support?
Senator Boozman: Well, I think it's kind of a continuation of this step. And what we're trying to do is, is have a bridge. When we did reconciliation we were able to significantly do a generational increase in the risk management tools that farmers have, things like crop insurance and ARC and PLC. That's all great, but you don't get it until October of the next year. So they will get a significant check then. But you know, how do you get to them? And so that's what this is all about with the twelve billion. So we need to figure out if we need additional funding. If that's the case again Congress will step up.
But really we've got to figure out what we're going to do in the future. As I visit with the economist at USDA, as I visit with the great land economists throughout the country, whether it's Texas A&M, we've got a great economist at the University of Arkansas, Missouri, the list goes on and on. They all say the same thing,it doesn't look any better in the future. So we've got to figure out how we can change that. And that's going to involve really aggressively trying to get new markets. The United States is no longer the big dog that everybody looks to. Production has increased dramatically all over the world. So that's the problem. China, it used to be a reliable market. Now is an adversary. And you don't know you know they're going to cut us off when they're mad. It's kind of like going back to the Cold War in those days when Russia used to do the same thing. So, uh, we've got to really identify how we can just change things dramatically so that our farmers can make a living.
Brock: That's Senator John Boozman. You can catch our full interview at NWAbusinessjournal.com. That's all for this edition of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal report. I'm Roby Brock. We'll see you next time.
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