One of the opportunities that prompted star business reporter Maria Bartiromo to jump from CNBC to Fox Business Network was the offer of a Sunday morning business show on Fox News. On Sunday, Bartiromo debuted her new show and got off to a strong start, promising to offer viewers something different than a mere wrap up of the week’s news.
“Unlike other Sunday morning programs who only bring you Washington’s talking heads, we’ll discuss how to recreate opportunity and get America back into a position of economic and financial leadership,” Bartiromo promised.
After her brief intro, the show jumped to its first guest, Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, who pointed out that Obamacare is a major change in the USA, but before the host got much farther into the interview Baritromo broke to a short report on Obamacare delivered by Fox News’ Eric Shawn.
Shawn gave an overview of Obamacare, noted that critics say that the real numbers do not jive with Obama’s claims, and said that in fact there are quite a few problems with Obama’s claims. But Shawn’s most shocking stats were on the number of uninsured that signed up for Obamacare.
“A McKinsey survey found only 27 percent of those who bought Obamacare insurance were previously uninsured. But that was up from a mere 11 percent in January.” Shawn went on to say that fully 1/4 of those who Obama claims signed up for insurance never even paid for their new insurance. (This Forbes article addresses the subject)
Shawn also pointed out that Obama’s goal of covering the uninsured seems to be unfulfilled.
Bartiromo then went back to Cosgrove who noted that 3/4 of the people who have signed up for Obamacare have found that their new policies are more expensive than they were paying before, another broken Obama promise.
Cosgrove also predicted that healthcare would end as a locally controlled industry and become one increasingly controlled by big corporations buying up once locally run hospitals–he likened it to the massive consolidation in the airline industry–all because the government will be cutting what doctors and hospitals are paid.
Next Bartiromo welcomed Clinton appointed former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers who spoke on how Obamacare will affect the job market. Summers scoffed at claims that the ACA would hurt employment and claimed that an insured population was “stronger” economically. He also discussed the effects of Japan’s consumption tax hike and worried that it was a country that is the “underestimated risk story” of the world. He also discussed a possible stimulus effort in Europe.
Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier was next up for Bartiromo. In a pre-taped interview, the pharmaceutical company company CEO said that his company was in favor of more people getting healthcare but thought it was way too early to determine if the ACA was helping or hurting that goal. He also had no idea how it al might eventually affect the pharmaceutical industry.
Lastly, Bartiromo introduced a panel peopled by Obama advisor and ACA architect Jonathan Gruber, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer, and Fox News’ Ed Rollins. The panel discussed more of the effects on the nation resulting from Obamacare with Obama’s advisor disputing that Obamacare is driving up premiums. For his part, Rollins felt that the whole Obamacare mess would contribute to gains for the GOP in the 2014 midterm elections. Rollins also said that Obamacare will be the law for the foreseeable future and that Congress is making no moves at all to change that.
The show was well paced, free of glitches, and got off to a steady start.
With Bartiromo’s debut, the show previously in that Sunday morning time slot, Sunday Housecall hosted by Jamie Colby and Eric Shawn, is now pushed back to 12:30 eating into a half hour of Sunday’s America’s Newsroom.
Baritromo also hosts Opening Bell With Maria Bartiromo weekdays on Fox Business Network starting at 9AM each morning.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.