NBC "Meet the Press" - Affordable Care Act Implementation
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
DAVID GREGORY:
Joining me now, Republican senator from New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte. Senator, welcome back.
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE:
Thanks, David.
DAVID GREGORY:
I know there's a delay between us, so we'll bear through that. Respond to Leader Pelosi, who in effect says that there is some hysteria politically around all of this; these things will get righted, and ultimately people will see the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. Do you not see it that way?
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE:
No matter how much Congresswoman Pelosi tries to spin this, this is a mess, David. I'll tell you what I'm hearing from my constituents. They're writing me about cancellation notices of plans they wanted to keep, rising premiums so their deductibles, some of them, are doubling. They're paying much more for health care. People losing hours because of the definition of the work week as 30 hours. And then less choice. I mean, in New Hampshire, there's only one insurer on the exchange; ten of our 26 hospitals are excluded.
So this really is a mess. And so she can try to spin it, but I think it's time-- you know, the president said that he fumbled the rollout. It's time for a timeout, which I've been calling for, so that we can go back to the drawing board and really talk about bipartisan solutions for health reform in the country.
DAVID GREGORY:
So the political headline this week was that the latest GOP Obamacare strategy, "Keep out of the way." Is that right? Is this being viewed as a new way to try to end Obamacare, end the Affordable Care Act altogether?
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE:
Well, I think what we're interested in is actually there are areas we need to address, rising costs in health care. That's a timeout for this thing. Let's go back to the drawing board. Let's not forget how this was passed, David. It was passed on purely partisan lines, no input from Republicans. And so that's what you get when you try to push it through.
And as the former speaker said on your show, and said previously, today when you played the clip for her, "We have to pass it so that you can find out what's in it." Well, now the American people know what's in it. My constituents are very unhappy with the notices they're receiving and higher premiums.
DAVID GREGORY:
But this is what the New York Times wrote this week about what the president's up against. The failures getting this rolled out, but also this: "Mr. Obama is battling a Republican opposition that has refused to open the door to any legislative fixes to the health care law and has blocked him at virtually every turn. There is no Republican proposal that I'm aware of that would seek to address the problems, basically 40 million uninsured Americans, that the Affordable Care Act seeks to address." Isn't that true?
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE:
Well, David, I would say this: Let's start with the principles that, in medicine, the first rule is to do no harm. And politicians addressing health care need to do no harm. We would like to get to some bipartisan solutions. Let's allow a greater competition. Why can't people buy insurance across state lines? If we can drive down costs, we can give people greater access.
Why not allow people to be treated the same in terms of tax treatment? Let's address pre-existing conditions. There were state high-risk pools we can buttress. But there are many ideas I think that Republicans are willing to work on a bipartisan basis on, but they have been so stuck on this law and trying to implement it, no matter what the cost, no matter what they hear from the American people.
DAVID GREGORY:
So what do you plan to present? What is a viable alternative that really solves the problem?
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE:
Well, I would say let's get to the table on a bipartisan basis and let's make sure that we have a plan that has more choice, not less. Let's have one where we're driving down costs and increasing competition. Have the insurance companies compete in a way that they aren't right now.
Let's get together and figure out what are the best models from the state law on the high-risk pools to address pre-existing conditions. There are many ideas I think that we could do that won't harm people who have policies now that they would like to keep. And I think that's the problem that we're seeing, is a law that harms so many people who right now were trying to do the right thing and have health insurance, and now they're receiving these cancellation notices and higher premiums. And it seems to me that we should work together to address this health care reform instead of the way this was done on party lines.
DAVID GREGORY:
All right, we're going to leave it there. Senator Kelly Ayotte, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE:
Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source