MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

DEAN: Lots to talk about with Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He is the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Committee and he serves as assistant to the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Chris, welcome to the show.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Great to be with you, Howard.

DEAN: Chris, I know the House is doing a great job on this. But why haven‘t we seen—why haven‘t we seen Democrats in the Senate take a stronger bargaining position with the Republicans? Why give away something as fundamental as health care reform as the public option?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, you‘re absolutely right, Howard. We‘ve got to have a public option in the plan that we send to the president‘s desk. We‘re all still hoping that the Senate Finance Committee bill will have a public option.

If they don‘t, we‘re going to press hard. This has got to be in the bill that we send to the president‘s desk. We‘ve got to create more choice for consumers and more competition for the insurance companies.

I don‘t think anyone was surprised to learn that the insurance companies are fighting this. These are the same companies that have seen their profits go through the roof over the last seven years. In fact, if you look at just the top 10 insurance companies, their profits have gone up about 430 percent over the last seven years, while everyone‘s income stayed flat and while their premiums were going through the roof.

So, we‘ve got to have a public option to create that competition and to give Americans more choice.

DEAN: Some Democrats are saying that there needs to be compromise on the public option in order to get the bill passed. But 72 percent of Americans say they want the choice of a public option. Does that mean that what the American people want is already dead in the Senate?

VAN HOLLEN: No. I certainly hope not. It‘s certainly not dead with respect to the bill that we‘ll send to the president‘s desk.

The American people are exactly right. If you want more choice, you want to bring down premiums, you need that competition. There are parts of the country where the private insurance companies have huge monopoly lock over the markets. We need to provide that competition. As the president said, we need to start keeping these insurance companies honest.

You know you‘re getting somewhere when you get a lot of resistance. And as you get closer to making this happen, you get more and more fight from the insurance companies, and we have to stick up for the consumers. And it‘s pretty clear that the Republicans support the status quo, and there‘s a good reason for that, which is their allies, the insurance industry, that has provided huge amounts of campaign contributions, supports the status quo, with respect to not providing for a public option.

DEAN: Chris, voters were promised change they can believe in. Are you concerned about what may happen to our party in 2010 or 2012 if we don‘t get any change at all?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, we‘re going to get change. I‘m an optimist, Howard. I believe that the will is there. I believe, when our members go back to talk to their constituents over August and early September, they‘re going to hear about the need to provide for the public option, to provide for real competition.

The status quo is not working. In fact, as we well know, most people who currently have health insurance are already paying a hidden tax of over $1,100. And those are the people who already have insurance.

And so, we‘ve got to fix a broken system so that we can bring down their premiums, bring down the cost to the government and to the taxpayer, and that‘s what we‘re going to get. And a public option is a critical part of creating those choices and competition.

DEAN: How much of an issue do you think this is going to be in 2010 and when everybody‘s up for re-election in the House?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think our whole record, of course, will be an issue and the big question when you look at that record will be: Did we follow through on the promise to change direction in this country? And a big part of changing direction was trying to fix our health care system in a way that preserves what works but changes that part that is broken.

So, I think the American people are going to hold us accountable, as they should, on whether or not we‘ve received—we‘ve achieved real health care reform. And I do believe that having a public option is a critical piece of that.

DEAN: Congressman Chris Van Hollen, thank you so much for your time tonight.

VAN HOLLEN: Thanks, Howard.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source