MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC Interview With Senator Patty Murray

Subject: Health Care Reform

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Q Democratic Senator from Washington, Patty Murray, joins me now.

Senator Murray, good to have you on the show.

SEN. MURRAY: Well, nice to talk to you.

Q Senator Murray, now I know you said in the past that the idea of taxing employer health insurance premiums was a non-starter, but given what the president seemed to suggest yesterday, are you and other congressional Democrats now open to this as perhaps a compromise position to get things through?

SEN. MURRAY: Well, I think at a time when our economy is struggling and a lot of people haven't had a pay raise in several years or worried about their job, talking about taxing employers' benefits today is seriously an issue for many of us. I am not enamored with the idea, but I do know this, what we have today, the system we have today is unsustainable. Premiums are rising three times faster than salaries today.

So for a lot of businesses and their employees, what we have today is unsustainable.

So all of us are saying, let's put all of this on the table. Let's take a long, hard look at it and let's make a good decision about how to change the structure of what we have today so that all Americans are secure in the future.

Q Senator Murray, over the last couple weeks we've seen the president join together with a number of members of the health care industry and they've announced things like cost savings and other things. But I've got to admit when I look at that I'm a little skeptical and I say to myself, is any of that ever really going to prove to be real?

Do you and other congressional Democrats share the same skepticism? And if so, what do you need to do to make sure that the Pharma companies and others actually ultimately drive down costs?

SEN. MURRAY: Well, we're going to have to see some real proposals on the table and some real results because at the end of the day what we're all looking for is a health care system that is sustainable into the future, can't be done on empty promises. So we'll be looking at how real it is.

Q Senator Murray, you talk about the weight on the economy right now. One of the things holding the economy back are concerns about our growing budget deficit. Its helped to hold interest rates higher than they otherwise would be. Medicare is one of the biggest drivers of this.

What else can Congress do and put on the table to rein in the long-term costs of Medicare? One of the things that nobody wants to talk about is gradually raising the retirement age. Is that on the table? Is that part of this discussion?

SEN. MURRAY: Well, there is no doubt that the cost of Medicare is having a huge impact on our economy because it's part of our overall health care system. There's two things we can do that can radically change that, one is to focus on preventive care so that we don't have a population over 65 that is dealing with extremely healthy, costly concerns that impact all of us. That's part of our health care bill that's not talked a lot about.

The second is how we pay for health care today? It's a system based on how many times you see your doctor rather than paying for quality outcomes. That's a debate we're having today to try and rein in the costs of Medicare so that we have a better system in place. But it's an overall system of health care. We have to focus, obviously, on the cost of Medicare, but without looking at how we change the whole system so that Americans have access to care throughout their life and don't end up extremely sickly and costly at the end of their lives, we can't fix the problem that we have today in terms of our budget.

Q Senator, how about the retirement age? Is that on the table?

SEN. MURRAY: Well, the health care financial decisions are being made in the Finance Committee, not in the Health Care Committee that I have. I have not seen that on the table today, in fact, what I am hearing is that too many Americans today literally limp into Medicare at 65, barely making it because they don't have health care today.

So, again, we have to fix the entire system so that we aren't putting so many people at risk at the end of their lives.

Q Senator Patty Murray from Washington, thank you so much for joining us.

END.

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