MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Senator, can you tell our audience tonight -- thanks for joining us -- but can you tell us what this public option is?

SEN. SANDERS: No, I can't. Nobody can, because we're not there now. I would hope that the public option would mean Medicare for anybody who wanted to join us, and that is that you have the equivalent of Medicare for anybody of any age who chooses that option. Frankly, that is going to be very tough sledding to get that, because if you have that, people will gravitate to that system --

MR. SCHULTZ: You bet.

SEN. SANDERS: -- and private insurance will go down. And private insurance companies have enormous power, as you've indicated, here in Washington, D.C., as do the drug companies.

MR. SCHULTZ: Well, I think we need some definition from the administration and Democrats leading the charge on this, on what the public option is, because --

SEN. SANDERS: Well, I was just --

MR. SCHULTZ: -- if it's single payer, I'm in.

SEN. SANDERS: Yeah. But I was just at a meeting yesterday. There is no clarity about this. The fight is on. And I will tell you that the drug companies and the insurance companies will do everything that they can to prevent a strong public opinion plan; no question about that.

MR. SCHULTZ: And Senator, do you think that there's going to be a political fallout here for Democrats and the president if he has single payer off the table? And now it's official; he says it is.

SEN. SANDERS: Well, I think, with 15,000 physicians supporting the concept of single payer, with single payer being the only system that can provide comprehensive -- key word, Ed, comprehensive -- health care to every man, woman and child, single payer obviously should be on the table, in my view.

MR. SCHULTZ: Do you think, finally, these people who have double-digited us on rate increases, the pharmaceutical manufacturers, the HMOs, the insurance companies -- the president seems to be trusting the fox that's guarding the hen house. What do you think?

SEN. SANDERS: Well, I think he understands -- I don't know what's in his heart; I can't tell you that. I think he understands that right now in Congress, the big-money interests have so much power that single payer would just be a huge, huge struggle, which he probably could not win, and he chooses not to do that struggle.

MR. SCHULTZ: Senator, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

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