The "Rest of the Story" on David Asman of Fox Business

David Asman of Fox Business, who was a guest on my program a few months back, spoke with passion about a terrible incident that happened when his wife and him were traveling to London, England. In his own words, from an article in the Wall Street Journal, he talks about being approached by an employee of the hotel they were staying at: "'Mr. Asman, could you come down to the gym? Your wife appears to be having a small problem.' In typical British understatement, this was the first word I received of my wife's stroke. We had arrived in London the night before for a two-week vacation. We spent the day sightseeing and were planning to go to the theater. I decided to take a nap, but my wife wanted to get in a workout in the hotel's gym before theater. Little did either of us know that a tiny blood clot had developed in her leg on the flight to London and was quietly working its way up to her heart. Her workout on the Stairmaster pumped the clot right through a too-porous wall in the heart on a direct path to the right side of her brain. Hurrying down to the gym, I suspected that whatever the 'small' problem was, we might still have time to make the play. Instead, our lives were about to change fundamentally, and we were both about to experience firsthand the inner workings of British health care." He goes on to make one of the most eloquent arguments I have heard about the horrors of socialized medicine.

What stayed with me in that interview was the amount of "heart" he had in this discussion about saving his wife. You hope every man or woman would have the same amount of passion in wanting to save his or her partner. In Asman it was awe aspiring. I understand more so why this is the case after learning the "rest of the story." A friend of mine, who knew how much I liked Asmen refereed to me an article from the Miami Hearald called "A Revolutionary Love Story."

It reads like an adventure novel with a romantic bent. In it, Asman describes his adventures as a journalist in Nicaragua in the dangerous days of the Communist Revolution. While there he is introduced to Marta Cecilia, a revolutionary herself who grew to find that the communists were merely offering another brand of totalitarianism. She quickly gave up her government job, which made her a threat to the new regime and even became a critic of the revolution. With people being arrested left and right for criticizing the government, it was clear Cecilia had to get out. During all this drama, Asman and Cecilia fell very much in love and an amazing story unfolded that resulted in their life together as a family with children in New York City today. The article reads like great fiction, but it is absolutely true. I'm only scratching the surface. I suggest you read the entire article yourself. To hear my interview with Asman, click here.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business, the longest running show on AM 650 (M-F at 11 am) in Houston, Texas and on AOL Radio. His articles often appear in Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, USA Today, and other national media. Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal calls Price the “best business talk show host in the country.” Find out why and visit his blog at www.BizPlusBlog.com and his show site at www.PriceofBusiness.com. You can also find Price on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com.

Socialized Medicine on Strategy Room

My second appearance on Strategy Room (FoxNews.com) this past week moved to a topic that hits close to home to me -- socialized medicine. Eric Bolling had already navigated the panel through his 3 PM hour through a plethora of topics and they were primed by the time I got on the show.

My mother came right off the boat from England. She was a war bride who left her family to join her spouse in the United States. She was young when she did this, a mere 18 years old. Maybe, as a result, she was one of the biggest fan of England you would ever find. She would go on and on about the "virtues" of British socialism and how "terrible" it was that people in this country were responsible for their own health insurance. Having had visited with members of my family in "the old country" many times over the years, my instincts tell me that my mother would have likely had a very different view of British socialism if she lived under it.

My aunt (her sister) use to tell me how such a huge portion of every paycheck was devoured by the socialized health care system, she was amazed by the large number of people who were subsidized to not work, and was disgusted by how it became almost impossible for the average Brit to buy their own home. Regarding health insurance, she said national health care is "great until you need it." It provides "enormous peace of mind" until you actually get sick. Ironically, this aunt eventually died in the British health care system. She was diagnosed with cancer and could not believe how slowly the government dragged its feet in her treatment. Things were even worse when it came to my grandfather when he became ill. Doctors informed my family that treatment options were "limited" because he no longer paid taxes. My aunt was convinced my grandfather died because of the rationing of health care (a common problem when the government controls or owns anything).

This anecdote hits close to home, but the facts support her argument that socialized medicine does not work:

• According to England's own National Institute of Health, eleven percent of the population of England has very expensive private health insurance. This allows them to get treated as a person, rather than a crowd, and to be able to hold their doctor accountable in a way you can't have when the government is your vendor.


• In countries such as Canada it is common for people to head to the US for much of their health care (particularly urgent). Many individuals will go to a veterinarian to get tests, like MRIs, because the waiting lists are too long with government doctors.


• In Australia's socialized health care state, more than half of the population has private insurance.


• More than 60 percent of innovations in health care are from the United States with a much smaller part being carried by the rest of the world. If the US chooses a socialized system, innovation will be severely damaged because it is the incentives in our system that promotes changes and improvements.

One of the best discussions I have had on the subject was with David Asman of Fox Business when he was a guest on my show (then called the Houston Business Show). While visiting in England his wife had a stroke and barely survived. Because of his resources he was able to get her the best care possible in that country, but concluded that an indigent person in the United States has a better opportunity for recovery than the best insured in England. The harsh reality is very simple, why would we believe that a government that can do so few things effectively, could handle the huge task of providing for all our health care needs?

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business, the longest running show on CNN 650 (M-F at 11 am), AOL Radio, and CBS Radio. Eric Bolling of Fox News and Fox Business says that Price’s Blog “is very influential and moves the blogosphere.” Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal calls Price the “best business talk show host in the country.” Find out why and visit his blog at www.BizPlusBlog.com and his show site at www.PriceofBusiness.com. You can also find Price on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com.

Among the Reasons I Like Fox business

I have been a faithful viewer of Fox News for years and I was giddy as a young teenager at a Hanna Montana concert as I waited for the launch of Fox Business last October. I have not been disappointed. Fox Business has made extraordinary strides in bridging the divide between Wall Street and Main Street, it has developed a personality driven network (versus purely an issue focus) that is necessary in producing quality programming, and it has more resources available on finance and business than any other network (aided recently with its purchase of the Wall Street Journal.

Fox Business is also very entrepreneurial. In spite of the vast resources of its parent company, News Corp, the network has used some good old fashioned guerilla marketing to get the word out on the network. Recently, I wrote a post about Neil Cavuto's absence at Fox Business due to his battle with MS (fortunately he is back). Within a day of that post I received a call from Fox Business thanking me for the article and to see if I would be interested in having Cavuto and other personalities on my show. My decision required very little deliberation.

Before I received that call I had already enjoyed visits with Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalist Pig (a regular on Fox's popular Cashin' In) and Charles Payne of Wall Street Strategies (and a regular on Money for Breakfast). Everyone associated with the network is eager to get the word out to others. Since the network has contacted me I have had great interviews with Alexis Glick (Vice President of Business News and an anchor of Money for Breakfast) and David Asman (Forbes on Fox and America's Nightly Scoreboard). In the next few weeks I am scheduled to interview Neil Cavuto (Managing Editor of Fox Business and anchor), someone whom I have long been interested in having on the show.

Besides being an innovative approach to marketing, the contacting of Fox Business to our media only reinforces its commitment to Main Street business, because that is what my show is largely about. Just one more reason Fox Business is one of my favorite networks.

Kevin Price's articles are found daily in national publications such as USA Today, Chicago Sun Times, and Reuters. Subscribe to his newsletter here.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review.

CNBC's Fox Business Channel Survey

According to MediaBistro.com, CNBC wants to know what Fox Business viewers think about the new company:

In what appears to be one of that newest CNBC viewer surveys, the network wants to know what you think of the competition. A screengrab posted yesterday on Inside Cable News by way of the Reportercaps message board showed a CNBC survey asking respondents to rate the CNBC and FBN personalities, in a rating from excellent to poor, or unfamiliar.
Some of the Fox Business anchors on the list were David Asman, Alexis Glick (formerly of CNBC), Dagen McDowell and Cody Willard.

It is interesting that news of such a survey comes from the CNBC camp rather than Fox. I expected to see such long before Fox Business was launched if, for no other reason, to know how to posture themselves in this new environment.

If I have said it before, I have said it many times, I like both CNBC and Fox Business. In fact, I'm watching The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch while working on this. But if I'm CNBC, I would be worried about Fox. The network is much more personality driven than CNBC, in my opinion and I believe most people find that attractive. It will be interesting to see how the battle between these two networks progresses.

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