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Monday October 13, 2025 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Info
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com Facebook – www.Facebook.com/billmeyershow
6:35 Dr. Jane Orient M.D. , Executive Director at the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons – www.AAPSonline.org
October 7, 2025
Health Watch: What to Do about ACA Subsidies
A major sticking point in reopening the government is the extension of expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. Without these subsidies, insurance premiums will double for those receiving them. Because of this, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is breaking ranks with the Republican Party.
It should be obvious that government benefits, once granted, are virtually impossible to take away, and a subsidy “cliff” will be politically disastrous. The subsidies were necessary to mask the fact that affordable options were being taken away, and extremely expensive coverage mandates were being imposed. The cliff was needed to mask the long-term cost of the bill.
So, what can be done now? One suggestion is a conditional extension of the subsidies combined with measures to reduce costs, based on an understanding of why costs are outrageous. The graph below shows the enormous increase in administrators, and the legislation associated with it.
All that administration is supposed to decrease “unnecessary” care. It is time to ask how many tests could be bought for the price of the staff used to deny them. For the price of a $1 million administrator, 2,000 CT scans @ $500 (possible in independent facilities) could be obtained, or 82 spine surgeries (lumbar laminectomies @ $12,230 at Surgery Center of Oklahoma).
We don’t know how much time is wasted by physicians and nurses in documentation that serves no purpose except to justify billing—but it may eat half their time.
Republicans reneged on their promises to repeal ACA. So, how about promising that “if you like your ACA plan you can keep your ACA plan,” but the following changes will be made to allow affordable alternatives to arise:
- all federal insurance mandates are repealed, so you can buy an affordable catastrophes-only plan;
- the ban on physician-owned hospitals is repealed;
- payments are site-neutral;
- all medical payments including individually owned insurance (not just employer-owned insurance) are payable with pre-tax dollars; and
- other freedom-expanding measures are actively explored.
Additional information:
- AAPS reform proposals
- “Making American Medicine Great Again” (2016)
- “MUDA: The Cause of Medical Cost Increases” (2001)
Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, jane@aapsonline.org
7:10 Andre DiMino (De MEAN-no) is an engineer and the CEO of a medical devices company. He is also the president of the Italian American One Voice Coalition. He is regularly called upon to discuss issues regarding Italian Americans. He has been seen on CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, CBS, NBC and other national networks and shows, as well as stations in all the major markets.
https://www.iaovc.org/andre-di mino-communications-director/
Italian Americans are applauding President Trump’s signing of a proclamation reaffirming the second Monday in October to be Columbus Day. The president’s proclamation attempts to “reclaim”, what Trump calls, the famed explorer’s extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue. In recent years, many states and cities have ignored the federal holiday and instead have celebrated Indigenous People’s Day recognizing the contributions Native Americans have made to the country.
“This does not have to be an even/or proposition,” says the president of the Italian American One Voice Coalition Andre DiMino (see short bio below). “We applaud the president for recommitting to the Columbus Day holiday while also understanding that our Native American friends need their own day to celebrate their many achievements. In fact, that is what One Voice’s new alliance with the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) is all about.”
For more than a year now One Voice has been regularly meeting with the prominent Native American group in order to bridge the cultures instead of pitting one against the other. Many members of NAGA support Columbus Day while also understanding that both cultures are part of the great American mosaic of peoples. President Trump declared that the second Monday in October is officially “Columbus Day”—as it’s been since 1934— during a Cabinet meeting late last week.
So, what does the proclamation mean and how can the news of One Voice’s alliance with NAGA finally end the war over Columbus Day?
7:35 Kevin Starrett from Oregon Firerams Federation www.OregonFirearms.org
8:10 Dr. Dennis Powers, www.DennisPowersBooks.com with today’s “Where Past Meets Present”.
The Talent Irrigation District
By Dennis Powers
Residents long ago realized the value of water for this Valley and its economy. Jacob Wagner in the early summer of 1852 diverted some of the creek water (which now bears his name) that ran through his property, thus introducing irrigation. It wasn’t until 1916 that the Talent Irrigation District (“TID”) was formed as a Quasi-Municipal Corporation and under contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation”). A board of three elected directors governs the district, has the ability to issue bonds, and is the largest irrigation district in Southern Oregon.
In March 1920, the first organized area, named the McDonald Unit, was completed at a cost of $250,000. The construction built a needed diversion dam and canal. This comprised 1,600 irrigable acres, with the water supplied from McDonald creek, a Little Applegate River tributary, and from Wagner Creek, a Bear Creek tributary. Shortly thereafter part of the Talent Lateral was constructed to bring water from Bear Creek. Irrigation was not only needed for homes, but for the acres of pear, apple, and other fruit trees.
The land for Hyatt Reservoir was acquired by 1923. The capacity of Hyatt Dam is 16,000 acre feet of storage, impounds Keene Creek, and is at the southern end of its created Hyatt Lake. Additionally, construction of different siphons (large steel pipe), a water tunnel, and lateral canals to bring this water to the first area (and later Emigrant Lake) began.
The TID in 1920 began purchasing the necessary land for Emigrant Reservoir, located just south of Ashland, but the work didn’t start until 1929. The dam had a capacity of 8,500 acre feet, drained approximately 58 square miles, and flooded a maximum area of 230 acres–thus creating easily accessible Emigrant Lake for boating, swimming, and fishing.
The Great Depression caused the TID to be reorganized due to the bankruptcies of farmers and irrigators; World War II halted all construction but for maintenance needs. In 1956, a new reservoir at Howard Prairie was constructed with a normal surface area of 2,000 acres, being 4- miles long and 1/2- to 1-mile wide.
A much larger earthen dam by Reclamation, nearly doubled to 204 feet high, greatly expanded Emigrant Lake in 1960–with continued construction of laterals to bring water to where needed. Water from Hyatt Reservoir, Little Hyatt Reservoir–further downstream on Keene Creek–and Howard Prairie Lake, the larger reservoir 3 miles to the east, is carried by the Ashland Lateral Canal to Emigrant Lake, the storage reservoir near Ashland.
At this time, the project area includes land in and around the cities of Medford, Phoenix, Talent, and Ashland. The TID has 3,530 accounts with 3,000 land owners, both commercial and residential, that provides irrigation water to 16,300 acres of land in its district.
With its water supply from a number of creeks emptying into the three lake-storage reservoirs, TID’s system consists of 230 miles of siphons, canals, and lateral distributions, all of which need to be maintained year-round. Although a normal irrigation season begins in mid-April to early October, transferring needed water to growing seasons, the irrigation season under drought conditions starts later and ends earlier.
In 2021, owing to drought conditions, TID cut the water supply off in mid-July. Even if water is not delivered, customers must still pay, as water usage is not metered: Users pay for the maintenance of this complex irrigation system, regardless as to how much is available. (Note: The City of Talent purchases its water from the Medford Water Commission by a 24-inch water main; this currently provides water to the cities of Talent, Ashland, and Phoenix.)
Unfortunately, the water supply situation did not improve in 2022. The reservoirs were extremely low: Hyatt Lake (14% of capacity), Howard Prairie Lake (11%), and Emigrant Lake (12%) respectively, in April. However, owing to stronger, longer winter rains and snowpack for the streams and reservoirs, this improved each year to where in September 2025, for example, all lakes were greater than 70%.
Notwithstanding these fluctuations, what life would have been like without the TID is not measureable.
Sources: Patrick Lynch, “Research Paper on History of Talent Irrigation District,” March 1959; Talent Irrigation District Website at TID Website; Holly Dillemuth, “TID Water ‘more than likely’ to turn on for Limited Time,” Ashland.News, April 6, 2022.