Speaker unverified: evaluation

Transcript context

…Why not? There are many other ways to reduce medical spending, and I really do think that we should look at those ways. There’s no more popular policy proposal out there for both Democrats and Republicans than having the government do price controls in more pharmaceuticals. That would really, really help with medical spending. I do not think making it onerous to get your knee repaired is a good use of anybody’s time. It is not a way to ration medical care. It’s not fair. It shouldn’t be that if you are going to get your knee repaired, it’s because you have Medicare and are good at paperwork. It’s not a nice way to ration. Even if we want to do these other policies to lower costs, there’s way too many knee surgeries. A lot of them don’t work. There’s also a problem with back surgeries. Shouldn’t we just be tougher and force people to go through more hoops? I know it’s not nice, but most ways of saving money are not nice. If it’s not an effective medical procedure, let’s be much tougher. Maybe not cover it at all. Just give people some cash.…

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