NBC "The Ed Show" - Affordable Care Act Implementation

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SCHULTZ: And we should point out that the insurance exchange website
in the state of Oregon has not gone live yet. It`s not operational. So
Congressman Peter DeFazio is correct. No one in his state has signed up
but 18,000 people in Oregon have send in paper applications for ObamaCare.

You think there`s a need for it? You think there`s a demand? You
think there`s a desire for it? Absolutely.

How about Minnesota? How`s it working there? Joining me now is
Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota. Congressman, good to have you with
us tonight.
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REP. KEITH ELLISON, (D) MINNESOTA: Always.

SCHULTZ: On the Upton Bill, you, of course voted no. You did not
vote .

ELLISON: Strong no.

SCHULTZ: .with the Republicans. There were 39 of your colleagues who
decided to do it for various reasons.

Does this weaken the position of the Democrats because it strengthens
the talking points for the Republicans? John Boehner`s going to be able to
run around for a year now saying the Democrats don`t even believe in their
own bill and what they`re doing. We now have a bipartisan bill that passed
and Harry Reid won`t touch it.

What does this do to the Democrats?

ELLISON: Nothing. We need to stand up and we should. What we should
do is talk about the importance of going from a situation where we had 50
million people without any health care. We had people with lifetime
limits, people being thrown up after they got sick, and we`ve changed and
we`ve moved on from that. That`s what we need to do.

We need to talk about the bad old days and the fact that the
Affordable Care Act brings us into a better reality. And that`s where we
need to stick regardless of .

SCHULTZ: Congressman, does .

ELLISON: . the website didn`t we fix yet, of course.

SCHULTZ: Does it need a legislative fix?
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ELLISON: No, it does not.

SCHULTZ: I mean, right now. Does it really need a legislative fix?

ELLISON: No. Absolutely not. What we need to do is get that website
cranking the way it should be. They`re working on it everyday. It is
getting better everyday. And it will get fixed. Its technology, they`re
fixing it. And we need to just keep signing people up and in the reality
is this cancellations that we`ve seen, many of these were high deductible
plans with a lot of exclusions.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

ELLISON: And, you know, a lot of these things led people to financial
ruin. And we`re -- we`ll rid of many of them.

SCHULTZ: Why is it working so well in states like California and
Minnesota and Kentucky and Rhode Island and Washington?

ELLISON: Because .

SCHULTZ: I mean, it`s interesting where it`s been accepted .

ELLISON: Right.

SCHULTZ: . on the state level. It`s working. How`s that in your
state?

ELLISON: It`s working great in Minnesota and as a matter of fact,
we`re quite proud of MNsure as we call it. People are signing up. People
are getting in. You know, we had a low number of people who are uninsured
but we had too many because no one should be.
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But, you know, because our state and our legislature and the people of
our state insisted that they get an alternative to the bad old days. It`s
working in states where Texas like where the governor wanted to sabotage it
and they have the sort of the highest uninsured in the country, you know,
it`s not working as well, but the people of Texas need health care.

SCHULTZ: Yeah, and big time.

ELLISON: They need it. They deserve it.

SCHULTZ: It`s one of the worst days.

ELLISON: And they deserve better than -- well, they deserve better
than the governor`s giving them right now which is, you know, they`re
rejecting Medicare expansion which is, you know, just basically not helping
out.

And those folks, I hope they remember who help them and who didn`t.

SCHULTZ: Well, that`s going to be interesting to see if they do in
the midterms. I was told yesterday by Charlie Crist .

ELLISON: Right.

SCHULTZ: .I n Florida, he sure isn`t going to run away from it.

ELLISON: Good.

SCHULTZ: And I think that Democrats will be making a huge mistake
from running away from ObamaCare. And then the White House is saying that
almost 5.5 million Americans will be uninsured because of Republican
governors` failure to expand .
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ELLISON: Right.

SCHULTZ: . Medicaid in their states. Ore Republican governors more
interested in politics or helping their own people.

ELLISON: Well, I think that they are interested in keeping people
desperate for and that allows them to be able to demagogue and that allows
them to try to do something, make a political way out of it.

But here`s what it doesn`t do. It doesn`t help people get health
care. It doesn`t get a family the health care that they need when they get
sick or injured. And in my opinion, now, that`s unfortunate. And so, you
know, for those people who live up on to those governors who won`t help
them, you know, I think that those folks really need to figure out if they
can do better because they are not being well served.

SCHULTZ: Should the Democrats -- I given you an example. I got a
phone call today from a lady down in Florida. She said she finally got
into the exchange. She`s tried everyday to get on the phone, she finally
got in, got the deal done. It`s a platinum plan that she`s going to take
and she`s going to save her -- she and her husband had to get a $2800
reduction in rates for the year.

ELLISON: Wow. Awesome.

SCHULTZ: What -- Should the Democrats, you know, circle the wagons,
mount the charge, go over the Hill with these stories. I mean, this is
where - this is what`s happening out there and all we`re hearing is
comparisons to Iraq and comparisons to Katrina, instead of, you know, $2800
to a middle class families are hell a lot of money.

ELLISON: It`s a lot of money. Let me tell you this. I mean, the
Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act 45, 47 times. They
tried to kill it in a Supreme Court and they failed. They lost at the
election at the voting booth and now they`re trying to kill again. I don`t
know why anybody is surprised that they`re doing these things.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

ELLISON: Of course they are. I mean, because look if the Affordable
Care Act works and it will that`s something that is dangerous to them
politically so they`re trying to stop that from happening. And we have to
have the same level of fortitude to make sure it does work. So think about
it.

SCHULTZ: And expanding Medicaid in state and creates jobs.
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ELLISON: Yes it does.

SCHULTZ: That is another thing Republican governors just don`t want
to see happen under the Obama Administration.

ELLISON: Well, how many good jobs bills have you seen from this
Republican .

SCHULTZ: None of them.

ELLISON: . House? No, they`ve been not into that.

SCHULTZ: None of them. Congressman you can interview me anytime. I
love it. Good to have you with us. Congressman Keith Ellison with us here
on the Ed Show tonight.

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