MSNBC Countdown w/ LAWRENCE O'DONNELL - 18 Sept. 2009: Interview on Health Care Reform.
O'Donnell quotes new study that says that more people die of lack of health insurance than die of murder and drunk driving COMBINED. He then speaks with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent.
SANDERS: We should fundamentally embarrassed that we remain the only industrialized country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all our people. We spend almost twice as much. And now we're talking about tens of thousands of people dying because they don't get to the doctor on time. And add to that, that this year about a million people will go bankrupt, bankrupt, because of medically related bills, and you've got Republicans out there saying 'Sorry. We don't want to do anything. We're preferring politics over dealing with this serious problem.' And in the midst of all that, if we don't act, health care costs are going to double in the next eight years. So we've got to move and we've got to make this the strongest and most progressive bill we can.
O'DONNELL: Now, the Baucus bill in the Finance Committee, as he's introduced it, has been greeted by a large round of boos from both Democrats and Republicans, but in President Obama's address the other night, he essentially endorsed the Baucus bill completely, especially on the point that the final bill must be paid for and must not add a dime to the deficit. This is the only bill coming out of any committee that does that, so how can the President get behind any other approach?
SANDERS: No, no, no. Of course it has to be paid for, but one of the reasons that many people are booing the Baucus approach, among other things, is that it does not contain a public option. And a public option is important for two points: No. 1, the American people should have a choice - about whether they want to stay with their private insurance or go to a public plan, a Medicare-type plan. Second of all, in terms of cost containment, if you don't have a public option in competition with the private insurance companies, what is going to stop them from raising their rates higher and higher and higher? So, Lawrence, when you talk about cost containment and the need to have something that is affordable for the American people, that is why you need a public option. Unfortunately, while our committee does have that, the Baucus plan does not.
O'DONNELL: Now, Jay Rockefeller, a member of the Finance Committee, has pledged that he will vote against any bill in committee and on the floor that does not have the public option. Will you join him in that pledge?
SANDERS: Well, I am going to do everything, you know, we don't know what this bill is gonna look like, but
let me tell you something... In my state and all over this country, people want a public option, we've got the votes to do a public option. And I just told the White House today, that is what I'm going to fight for. And in addition to that, I happen to believe that long-term, the only real solution in terms of providing comprehensive universal, cost-effective health care is a single-payer system. And I'm gonna fight in this bill to give states, states, the option to go single-payer if that's what the people of that state want, because, long-term, I think that's how you can deal with the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste that the private insurance companies are generating through excessive administrative costs and CEO compensation packages.O'DONNELL: Senator, I think the evidence is with you on single-payer's unique ability to contain costs, but given that that's not one of the components of any of the bills, and certainly is not something that President Obama is backing. In the approach President Obama is currently taking where he insists that it not only not add to the deficit, but actually, as he puts it, bend the cost curve down, given that the Senate Finance Committee is the only bill that does this, do you see it as I do, that President Obama seems to now be locked onto the Max Baucus approach?
SANDERS: What you're missing here is that is the finance committee's jurisdiction, it's not the health committee's jurisdiction, so they were uniquely within the Senate, obliged to deal with financing, so I think that's the issue there. But ultimately, what you're going to see is the melding of these two bills. I want to make sure that the funding of it is as progressive as possible. In other words, I am very concerned within the Baucus bill that there is going to be a tax on so-called 'Cadillac health-care plans.' Well, a lot of working people and unions have given up wage increases in order to get good health insurance. I don't think they shold be taxed.
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