MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. SCHULTZ: How do the conservatives plan to address a system where there's 14,000 Americans who are losing their health care every day?

To help us answer that question, we're joined tonight by Republican Senator and Dr. John Barrasso of Wyoming.

Dr. Barrasso, Mr. Senator, great to have you with us tonight.

SEN. BARRASSO: Thanks, Ed.

MR. SCHULTZ: Will you -- you bet. When you hear "public option," what do you think? What does that mean to you?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, it means a Washington takeover of health care in this country. It means that people will ultimately lose their choices. It'll be such a tilted playing field that it's not what the people of America want, which is a system like Canada or a system like England, where you undoubtedly run into delay in receiving care, long waiting lines where people in Canada -- you have, what, three-quarters of a million people right now waiting for an operation, three and a half million waiting to see a doctor. And if you even get to your family doctor, then you end up in a situation like people are in Canada, where they're waiting 17 weeks, you know, four months, just to see a specialist.

MR. SCHULTZ: Isn't that a fear tactic you're playing, Senator? How do you know it would be like that in the United States if we were to offer up a public option to the American people?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on MSNBC the other morning said that. If you have such a plan like this and a Washington takeover, what you end up doing is raising taxes, which the speaker just said on national TV, on your show, that she's willing to do, and you end up limiting services.

And, you know, I practiced medicine in Wyoming 25 years. When you were at Morehead State, you saw it. You saw the people coming down from Canada to the Fargo-Morehead area for health care, because they couldn't take the time to wait in Canada.

MR. SCHULTZ: Well, actually, Senator, respectfully, no, I never saw that. In fact, I have a sister who lives in Canada who doesn't complain about health care, and the majority of Canadians don't complain about it either. And where is this wave of Canadians coming down to the United States? I respect your opinion, but I respectfully disagree.

Now, when it comes to taxing benefits, would you be in favor of that? Where's this bipartisanship going to come from? What are you willing to compromise on? What are the Republicans willing to compromise on?

SEN. BARRASSO: I want to work in a bipartisan way, and I want to work to give people incentives to stay healthy. And that's the way to help keep down the cost of their health care. Fifty percent of all the cost of health care in this country, Ed, are on just 5 percent of the people, and they're the people that eat too much, exercise too little, and smoke. And that's -- if we deal with those 5 percent of the people, we can save enough money to solve the rest of this problem. It's giving the right incentives all across our country.

We did it in Wyoming. I was the director of the Wyoming health fairs. We blood-tested people for high cholesterol, for prostate cancer, for thyroid conditions, detecting problems early. That's what we need to do to get part of this plan is a real incentive program to keep people healthy.

And then we have a whole change in society from when this system was put into place back in the 1940s. We have people changing jobs seven, eight, nine times. The health insurance ought to stay with them. It ought to belong to the individual person, not to the company that they're working for. And we ought to let people buy insurance across state lines. If they can shop around for a better deal, they ought to be able to get it. Those things will help keep the costs down, Ed.

MR. SCHULTZ: But Senator, I really think a public option clearly would help keep costs down. Competition is a great thing. Right now you say that you don't want a Washington takeover. What I think, what a lot of Americans think, is we've had an insurance industry takeover where they deny coverage and they dictate what the rates are. We get no explanation. And over the last eight years, I have to say the conservatives, when they were in power, did nothing to keep costs down. And I think that's really where we have to go.

Senator, good to --

SEN. BARRASSO: Nobody should stand between a patient and their doctor -- not an insurance bureaucrat and not a Washington bureaucrat either, Ed.

MR. SCHULTZ: Well, if they've got a check in their hand that's going to pay the bill, I think a lot of Americans would go along with that. And, by the way, under Medicare there is choice, correct?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, Medicare is the biggest deadbeat payer in the country. It is also the biggest system for waste, fraud and abuse. And I'll tell you, this government ought to be ashamed of itself.

MR. SCHULTZ: Okay, please come back. Let's continue our conversation.

SEN. BARRASSO: Happy to do it, Ed. Thank you very much.

MR. SCHULTZ: It's good to have you with us. Thank you.

SEN. BARRASSO: My privilege. Thank you.

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