WATCH: Chris Hayes gets in shouting match with pro-Trump congressman over healthcare becoming more expensive
MSNBC host Chris Hayes (left) and Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY, right). Image via screengrab.
October 13, 2017
MSNBC host Chris Hayes seemed fed up with Republican claims that they're "helping" low-income people by gutting the Affordable Care Act before they have a replacement.
After Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) dodged questions about President Donald Trump's executive order that begins the process of gutting Obamacare by allowing young, healthy people to leave the ACA marketplace and purchase group plans across state lines. Many, including Hayes and a bipartisan group of governors, oppose Trump's order because it's already begun destabilizing markets and causing healthcare costs to rise.
"There are people in Oregon who just got an email today saying that their premium is going up right now at least eight percent," Hayes said.
Reed claimed he'd "been seeing those premium notices for years" -- and then Hayes went nuclear.
"This is gone up more, over and above, it is not just the same thing," Hayes shot back. "Yesterday the premiums were one thing and today they are 15 or 20 percent higher. So you have to explain to those people getting the bills in the mail why you guys in Congress, the Republican Party which controls all three branches of government, can't solve the problem without making them pay more money out of pocket."
Reed tried to claim the issue was "not about Republicans" but about both sides of the aisle in Congress, and then said he appreciates the people on the Problem Solvers Caucus on which he sits for their work "leading" the debate.
"But you're not leading!" Hayes exclaimed.
After a back-and-forth about the minutia of cost-sharing reductions and potential fixes to the issue, the host took one last jab at the New York Republican.
"I hope that you are successful in Congress in forestalling the disaster and have you back on the program, but given what we've seen so far, you'll forgive me for sharing the skepticism of a lot of Americans," Hayes said. "Godspeed, Congressman."
Watch their battle of words below, via MSNBC.