America’s Health Care: Affordability, AI, & Politics 11/21/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums expire on December 31st, but Congress has yet to come to a bipartisan agreement on policy ahead of that deadline. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) explains his party’s strategy and the affordability crisis for many Americans. Former CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Dr. Toby Cosgrove has hope for AI’s impact on health care costs; he discusses the future of hospitals and medical innovation. Plus, leaders in the industry have penned a concerned letter to President Trump, the HHS, and the FDA about rare disease research and investment. Outside of health care, President Trump will lower tariffs on some Argentinian food products, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will work with the U.S. on a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries - 13:48 Dr. Toby Cosgrove - 26:16 In this episode: James Lankford, @SenatorLankford Hakeem Jeffries, @RepJeffries Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:04.3	This is Squawk Pod, and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa.
0:08.7	On today's episode, The Health Care Standstill on Capitol Hill.
0:13.7	Looming over it all, a subsidy cliff approaches for the Affordable Care Act's insurance premiums.
0:20.1	House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joins
0:22.6	us. Tens of millions of hardworking American taxpayers are going to experience dramatically
0:28.5	increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles in some cases. Premiums for health insurance
0:33.0	will increase by $1,000 or $2,000 per month. It might not be all doom and gloom, though, for health care.
0:40.7	Former Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove is looking forward.
0:45.5	I think we're actually hitting on an exciting new time in health care, and that's around AI.
0:52.6	Those conversations, plus health care leaders have penned a
0:56.1	letter to the FDA and President Trump will lower tariffs for beef, chocolate, and coffee from Argentina.
1:03.9	Affordability, obviously, the big question. It's Friday, November 21st, 2025, and SquawkPod begins right now.
1:12.8	Stand Becky by in three, two, one.
1:15.7	Cue, please.
1:18.0	Good morning, everybody.
1:19.5	Welcome to Squackbox right here on CNBC.
1:22.1	We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square.
1:25.5	I'm Becky Quick, along with Andrew Ross Sork, and Joe is off today.
1:29.9	Well, it was quite a session yesterday. It was. We're watching. We saw a huge swing in the markets
1:35.5	yesterday. That reversal with Nvidia led through to the rest of the market. You did see a swing of
1:41.0	more than 1,100 points for the Dow over the course of the session.
	...

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