Louisiana senator on Obamacare, upcoming ACIP hepatitis B vaccine vote and Tylenol

(CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about Obamacare.

According to Brennan, President Donald Trump proposed that federal payments should go to people so they can buy their own healthcare instead to insurance companies, which the president said is "far better and far less expensive" than Obamacare.

This prompted Brennan to ask Sen. Cassidy if he is coordinating with the White House on this proposal, to which Cassidy said:

"We're absolutely in communication with the White House and with the administration, because there's a lot of stuff that you have to work out to do that. But let me give a little meat on the bones of what the President's speaking about. If you look at an Obamacare policy now, there's a $6,000 deductible. Democrats are fighting to lower the premiums. You lower a premium on something which has $6,000 deductible, it's basically a catastrophic policy. Now, I like to speak of the cost of being insured, not just the cost of the health insurance. The President is proposing that we take the $26 billion that would be going to insurance companies if we just do a straight out extension, and by the way, 20 percent of that $26 billion, 20 percent will go for profit and administrative overhead, give it directly to the American people in an account in which 100 percent of the money is used for them to purchase health care on their own terms. Now- now, that makes them an informed consumer. It also helps address the need to have coverage for that deductible, and if they get that policy with a higher deductible, they can actually lower their premium. It's a sweet spot, lower premiums, help with the deductible, making the patient the informed consumer, the President and I are united. We should all be united about that."

Brennan followed up by asking the senator if the proposal he's coordinating with President Trump is for people to buy their own insurance policy or if it's to use a flexible spending account for related healthcare needs, as well as asked Cassidy if there are restrictions on how they can use the money, and Cassidy said:

"There's two types of premium tax credits. There's the baseline premium tax credit, which was part of Obamacare, that would stay in effect, and people would still buy a policy. For example, they get in a car wreck, something disastrous. They need somebody negotiating on their behalf with all the providers. That stays the same. What we're talking about the shutdown was over the enhanced premium tax credits. Policies have become so expensive under Obamacare that under Joe Biden, Democrats passed another subsidy on top of the first subsidy. That's what we're fighting about and what Republicans are saying, and I like to hope Democrats will too. Hey, wait a second, if we can have lower premiums and help people with their deductible by giving the money directly to the patient. By the way, 20 percent doesn't go for insurance company profit and overhead. 100percent goes for health care. Why don't we unite Republican and Democrats in doing that? That's where the President is. You got to figure some things out. But we're a lot further along than you might imagine."

When asked if he wants to fix or eliminate Obamacare, Cassidy said, "You've got to work with what you have. But on the other hand, Obamacare was a top heavy, administratively heavy type system in which a lot of money is a lot of money, and responsibility is taken from individuals and given to insurance companies."

During the interview, Brennan and Cassidy talked about the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting in a few days to potentially vote on changing the the hepatitis B vaccine schedule for infants as well as consider the safety of vaccine ingredients, like aluminum.

This led Brennan to ask the senator if he was comfortable with what they are about to put to a vote, and Cassidy said:

"I'm very concerned about this. As it turns out, my medical practice focused on hepatitis B, and so we know that because of a recommended dose at birth of hepatitis B vaccine, recommended, not mandated, the number of children born contracting hepatitis B at birth, or shortly thereafter, has decreased from about 20,000, 20 years ago to like 200 now. That's effectively a clerical error. We have decreased incidence of chronic hepatitis B by 20,000 people over the last two decades with this kind of recommendation. And by the way, if you're infected at birth, you're 95% likely to become a chronic carrier. The vaccine is safe. It has been established, and these ingredients they're speaking of have been shown to be safe. This is policy by people who don't understand the epidemiology of hepatitis B, or who have grown comfortable with the fact that we've been so successful with our recommendation that now the incidence of hepatitis B is so low, they feel like we can rest on our laurels. I'm a doctor. I have seen people die from vaccine-preventable disease. I want people to be healthy. I want to make America healthy, and you don't start by stopping recommendations that have made us substantially healthier."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Cassidy talked about Trump's comments when he told women not to take Tylenol or give it to their kids as it's based on a theory that it somehow causes autism.

In a social media post back in September, Trump said to break up the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate shots, which was endorsed by Acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill, possibly due to the same theory.

This prompted Brennan to ask Cassidy if he was concerned by this kind of suggestive linkage at the top of the CDC and from the White House, and the senator said:

"I'm a doctor, and so I'm going to go where the evidence takes me. And the best evidence is a study out of Sweden with two million children that found no causality, no association, if you will, between taking Tylenol in pregnancy and getting autism. And of course, that concerns me, because there's going to be a mom out there, again, I'm a doctor, I talk to I talk to patients, in a room, and her child has autism. She took Tylenol for a high fever during pregnancy and now she blames herself. That's just the way mamas think, and that's wrong. We don't want her to think that. The best evidence is that there is no relationship, by the way, if you have a high fever during pregnancy, that may be a risk for autism. Now, of course, if you're pregnant, talk to your physician before you take anything, but point being, the best evidence is that there is no relationship between the two. And I don't want women putting themselves on a guilt trip when the best evidence shows not. By the way, the President has spoken out strongly in favor of immunizations in other cases, and I noted, when he got his physical, he got the flu and COVID shots. So the President has demonstrated that he believes in immunization."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Cassidy, click here.