MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

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Joining us is the author of that amendment, Democrat Maria Cantwell from the state of Washington.

Good evening, Senator. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D), FINANCE COMMITTEE: Good evening, Lawrence.

O‘DONNELL: I know you had a long night last night, but could you tell us what exactly would your amendment do? It‘s not one that a lot of us had time to study before you introduced it.

CANTWELL: Well, I want that ability to negotiate on behalf of the people of my state so that we can drive down the cost of insurance. As you were pointing out, the insurance costs have skyrocketed and the insurance industry is here trying to protect that, and it‘s a question of whose side are we going to be on? Are we going to be on the side of the people in giving them more negotiating power or are we going to let the status quo keep driving up insurance?

O‘DONNELL: Now, Senator, your plan is option for all 50 states. Your state already has a plan like this, but if I‘m a governor of one of the other 49 states, I would have some reluctance to start a plan like this because I‘d be worried about whether it has a dedicated funding stream in the future. I mean, might this be subject to appropriations two or three years down the line after I started up in my state where federal government comes along, it says, "We‘re going to cut it by 50 percent"?

CANTWELL: I don‘t like the bill as it is now when we are subsidizing expensive insurance by giving tax credits to buy that insurance. It‘s not going to drive down the price. But instead, if we allow, and I‘m more than happy to give this power to, you know, all the federal government, but right now what we can do is push Republicans on the notion, they like states rights, and then the state can decide whether it wants to opt in and negotiate on behalf of its citizens. So, I‘d like Republican governors to tell me, no, they don‘t want to bargain and drive down insurance costs for their citizens.

O‘DONNELL: Now, you got Chairman Baucus on this amendment, but you couldn‘t get Olympia Snowe and you didn‘t get Blanche Lincoln on your side. What do you think it would take to move them closer to your position on this?

CANTWELL: Well, I think the bill will come out of committee with this language on it, which means I think it will have a very good chance to stay in the bill. And I think, as Republicans find out more about it and hear from their individual states, they‘re going to realize that this is a choice between whether they‘re going to stand with the insurance industry or whether they‘re going to stand with the people of their state.

And with premiums having gone up 120 percent, that means people are paying $7,000 or more for insurance now than the same benefits they just had a few years ago. And so, if we don‘t stop that continued increase, then we‘re just going to continue to put more U.S. families into bankruptcy. So, this is about governors and about us standing up for the people of our country.

O‘DONNELL: Now, most of the Democrats in the finance committee, including you, are able to hold off the Republican amendments attacking the tax provisions in the bill. When you get out on the Senate floor, where it‘s a much more free-wheeling environment and the chairman doesn‘t have complete control as he does in that finance committee room, don‘t you expect a lot more arguments over the tax provisions in the bill?

CANTWELL: Well, you‘re going to hear a lot of things thrown at this and basically people say, "Well, let‘s not do anything." But I think that we know if we do nothing, those insurance rates are going to double again in the next 10 years.

And as Jay Rockefeller was saying, are we going to do something for people that gives them that safety net, that security? Because if you‘re making $40,000 a year or less and you can‘t afford insurance because of its exorbitant rates, are we going to continue this foolish policy of sending people to the emergency rooms for their health care? I don‘t think so. And that‘s what we have to fight to make sure that we get the message out that this is the kind of bargaining power that we need to give to the American people.

O‘DONNELL: Senator, your committee voted for a tax 35 percent or 40 percent tax on health insurance plans that are worth more than $8,000 from individual, $21,000 for a family, these so-called Cadillac plans. Won‘t that tax automatically and virtually, instantaneously, drive up the premiums for those kinds of plans and/or provoke dramatic cuts in benefits for people in those plans? And so, the Obama plan promise "If you like your plan you can keep it" starts to fall apart if that plan that I like and want to keep falls apart in my hands, doesn‘t?

CANTWELL: Well, that‘s the vote we‘re going to have next Tuesday and this is about continuing to move a process forward. But, personally I‘d like to drive more money out of reforms. I want to control the cost of health care. I want to drive down the cost of premiums.

If health insurance is raising about 8 percent a year and inflation is only 2 percent, that‘s where the issue is. We need to keep health care more in line with the rate of inflation. And so, we ought to be talking about what we‘re going to do to drive down the costs of those premiums.

O‘DONNELL: Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, many thanks for your time tonight.

CANTWELL: Thank you.

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