FOX "Interview With Senator John Barrasso" - Transcript
Interview
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MR. GALLAGHER: The president's latest push for health care reform not sitting very well with Republicans, even some Democrats. Many on the right are concerned that they're being left out of the loop because the president has, at times, met exclusively to talk about universal health care coverage with Democrats, and now his own party is even asking, who is going to pay for all this?
Senator John Barrasso is a Republican from Wyoming. He is also a medical doctor, and Senator, thank you for joining us.
You heard the president earlier. I'm not sure if you did, but he was talking about pay as you go, talking about bringing down the deficit. He wants to bring down the deficit and nobody has any answers as to how he's going to pay for this multi-trillion dollar universal health care plan.
SEN. BARRASSO: You know, it's very disappointing to see the president do this because the president has said, number one, you know, our country is out of money. He said the budget is unsustainable. He said that the debt is crippling us and if he tries to force this Washington takeover of all of health care in this country, you know, he's going to break both of our kneecaps, I mean, it's just the kind of thing that is going to cripple us.
We cannot afford to do this at this point, plus it's heading in the wrong direction, a complete government Washington takeover of health care, you're going to be talking about a big bureaucracy --
MR. GALLAGHER: Yeah.
SEN. BARRASSO: Big taxes, really, big government and you know what you're going to get? You're going to get less care --
MR. GALLAGHER: And Senator --
SEN. BARRASSO: When the government gets involved as Medicare has done, yes.
MR. GALLAGHER: Yes. Remember the campaign promise that he is only looking to affect the 47 million people who don't have insurance, that we can all keep our private insurance and now I see studies that say up to 119 million people may lose their private insurance.
Do you buy that study? Is this what's going to happen?
SEN. BARRASSO: I believe that's exactly going to happen with a Washington takeover of health care, which is what the president is pushing. You know, 85 percent of people in America are happy with the care they have; they just don't like the price and we need to do everything we can in a bipartisan way to deal with that and to help families.
My wife is a breast cancer survivor. We know that side of health care. I've been practicing medicine for 25 years. I know that side of health care.
So we've seen it all. But you're going to disrupt the lives of many, many Americans who don't want to be disrupted because they --
MR. GALLAGHER: I have heard you say, Senator, your wife was treated in Canada under their system that she wouldn't have had the same result that she got in this country.
SEN. BARRASSO: That's exactly right. We have the best care in the world, and actually a member of parliament from Canada two years ago, diagnosed with cancer, she's a strong supporter of the Canadian health care system, she came to California for her health care, came to America because we do a better job with prevention. We do a better job with early detection and we do a better job helping people get earlier care, and therefore, get the care they need because when you deny care to Americans, which is what's going to happen with the president's proposal with this Washington takeover of health care, when you deny that care and it's not just a delay, but it's ultimately a denial of that care that we're going to lose people.
MR. GALLAGHER: But we're hearing two different sides of this story, Senator, I mean, we hear people on the opposite side of the spectrum. We're hearing the Ted Kennedys of the world saying, look, the government is not going to tell you what procedures you can and cannot have. That is simply never going to happen. You as a doctor telling us the opposite, that the government is going to sit there and say, you can't have this procedure, you can't afford this procedure and if you want this one, you've got to wait in line.
SEN. BARRASSO: The president's stimulus plan had a $1.1 billion plan in it to try to take a look at procedures and decide what to allow to be done in the United States based on effectiveness and they're talking about dollars, cost-effectiveness. I've operated on people from Canada who have come to the United States, come to me in Wyoming to take care of them because they had family members there and they had to wait too long in line for Canada. Well, the president is proposing this Washington takeover, which is just going to be like the Canadian plan where, right now, three-quarters of a million people waiting in line for procedures, one in ten are waiting in line to see a primary care physician and once you see the primary care physician, there's a four-month wait to see a specialist.
MR. GALLAGHER: Senator, I've got to go --
SEN. BARRASSO: And I'll tell you, that's not something Americans are going to tolerate.
MR. GALLAGHER: I've got to go. I've got ten seconds left. Are they going to end up, are you guys on Capitol Hill going to end up taxing everybody's health benefits, which the unions are not going to like at all?
SEN. BARRASSO: I'm going to work for affordable health care for all Americans, focus on prevention, focus on healthy lifestyles, focusing on keeping people well and allowing them to afford their insurance.
MR. GALLAGHER: Senator John Barrasso, Dr. Barrasso, thank you, sir.
SEN. BARRASSO: Thank you.
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