In a Fox & Friends segment aired on January 27, 2017, the hosts introduce Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro, a cardiologist, to discuss the Affordable Care Act (ACA) amid President Trump’s push to repeal and replace it. The conversation references MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, the original architect of the ACA, who claims the law was never intended to help everyone but only the uninsured 20% of Americans. Dr. Di Pietro argues that while some elements of the ACA should be retained, the law has become a financial burden: premiums and deductibles have risen sharply, and many people—especially young adults—opt out of coverage because the penalty is cheaper than the premium. This creates adverse‑selection problems when those individuals later need catastrophic care, driving premiums up for everyone. She highlights that roughly 30 million Americans remain uninsured despite the ACA. Dr. Di Pietro suggests alternative approaches such as health‑savings accounts, tiered plans tailored to different age groups, and greater physician involvement in policy design. The segment ends with a call for lawmakers to consult doctors before making repeal decisions.
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Meanwhile, President Trump says he wants to repeal and replace Obamacare to help everybody, but the architect, the original architect of the Affordable Care Act, Professor Jonathan Gruber, says it was never supposed to help everybody. This law was never supposed to help everybody. The law was designed to fix what was wrong with our system, which was focused on the 20% of Americans who did not have health insurance or were buying it through a broken non-group insurance system. Well, Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro is a cardiologist who believes parts of Obamacare should remain, but feels it's been a burden on Americans. She joins us live right now. Good morning, Tiffany.
Good morning.
Okay, so he said it was never supposed to help everybody, just the 20% of Americans who didn't have— although right now after Obamacare, I think there are 30 million Americans who still don't have health insurance.
So it's a, it's a problem because what happens is, first of all, the people who had health insurance, all of their deductibles and all their plans went up.
Through the roof.
And what, what people don't realize is this is what happened. If you have— I'm going to use, for instance, a 21-year-old, and I'll say the word kid, in college, okay? And he says, well, I'm going to opt out I'm going to opt out of Obamacare because it's cheaper for me to take the penalty than it is for me to sign up through the exchange. Well, what happens is, for the next 4 years, that's great, until, God forbid, something catastrophic happens to that person. And now guess what? Now because there's no rules and regulations on having a preexisting condition, he jumps into the exchange.
Sure.
And then all of the prices go up for everyone because now we're accounting for all these people who are jumping in at the last minute.
I just don't get why the Democrats are clinging to Obamacare. In addition to 30 million Americans who don't have it, the people who have it are paying high premiums. Really high premiums.
Well, everyone's paying high premiums because they're having to pay for it.
And then there's the super high deductible. My daughter is on Obamacare. I know you've looked for Obamacare. You know that once you pay for the premium and then you have the high deductible, so much extra money comes out of your pocket because you never get to the deductible.
Right. Well, you're paying your monthly charge to have the insurance, and then on top of that, you have to meet your deductible. I don't think any physician in the country— you know, we care about people as a profession, so We do think that if you have a pre-existing condition, you know, you can't help you got cancer.
The new plan should cover that.
Correct, it should cover that. It should cover, you know, if you want to stay on your parents' insurance until you're 26. But at the same time, I will never ever, I promise you, need prostate care. Ever.
Right, but you've got that covered.
But I have to have that coverage. So, you know, there should be different plans that are available to different people for needing different things. For me, a healthcare savings account would be great. I can afford the high deductible, I can use pre-tax money to pay into that deductible, and that would be a great plan for me, but it might not be a great plan for someone who's in their 50s.
And Dr. Sizemore, before you leave, for the Democrats who are watching in Congress who say, you know, the president really shouldn't get rid of this because it's working— it's not working, is it?
It's not working. But I will say, physicians as a profession, we want to be involved in this because we're having an MIT economist, you know, an economics professor from MIT who's the architect— like, it's the matrix of this program without having physicians who are on the ground and seeing these patients being a part of this repeal.
Sure. Well, it's your department. They should talk to doctors before they do something.
Thank you.
All right, Dr. Sizemore, thank you very much for making a house call. All right.
