MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Yes, it‘s just such a funny matter when we have people dying all over the country. Joe, you are done; 68 percent of the people in Connecticut want a public option, and you are taking money from an industry that is fighting reform. That‘s who you‘re representing.

There‘s no doubt about that. We have senators like Lieberman that are trying to hijack health care reform in this country. It‘s petty. It‘s selfish. And it‘s all to get attention.

Majority Leader Harry Reid made a courageous move when he listened to the base by putting the public option, of some sorts, in the Senate bill. Now you have Lieberman out there running out spouting off right wing bullet points, and threatening to filibuster. What a team player.

Strip him of his chairmanship now, Harry. He is not a fair player. He‘s a turn coat. And now you have the Democratic caucus out there, who is out there helping, you know, the Republicans kill health care reform. You know what that is? That‘s being a traitor. That is selling out to the special interest and not representing the people, and laughing about we‘ve got so many people dying in America because they don‘t have insurance.

You know, even with what we have right now, it‘s going to help a lot of Americans, who would die if they didn‘t get health insurance through the public option?

Joining me now is Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the Help Committee. Senator, I‘ll take a moment to separate you from that commentary, because I know he‘s one of your colleagues. Are we going far enough for the progressives in this country? It is part of the base Democratic party platform, universal health care. We‘re not anywhere near there, are we?

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), HELP COMMITTEE: What‘s tremendously exciting is that it‘s just a couple months ago that folks were saying that the public option is dead; it‘s gone; it‘s toast; it‘s over. And a group of us kept saying no way, this is critical to controlling costs in health care, and we‘re going to keep fighting for this and we‘re going to win this.

Now we‘re much, much closer. We might end up with an opt out, where parts of the country say no thank you. But in a few years, when they see that their health rates are much higher than their neighbors, we‘re going to be back on track.

So I‘m just celebrating the resurrection and the success. And I applaud Harry Reid for putting that public option in the bill he‘s sending to the floor.

SCHULTZ: What kind of message do you take from the House today when they came out with a watered down public option?

MERKLEY: What they did--and I think you‘re referring to that they‘re not going to tie it to Medicare rates. Is that the point?

SCHULTZ: Exactly. Exactly. They‘re not going to do that. This is watered down. And you have conservative Democrats out there across the country who got their wish, because Medicare reimbursement rates weren‘t what they want them. So this doesn‘t go far enough, in my opinion.

MERKLEY: I‘ll tell you, there was a very real policy problem with tying it to Medicare. It goes back to the fact that states are compensated in Medicare at different levels. Oregon and Iowa and a host of other states are very low on Medicare compensation. The result is doctors are not taking Medicare patients, and even sending them letters saying, I‘m sorry, I‘ve been--

SCHULTZ: So you pass a public option and you go back and get the money, because this isn‘t going to start until 2013 any way.

MERKLEY: I was going to say, that would be the key. If we tie it to Medicare, we have to bring up all those states that are getting the short end of the stick, because what would happen if we otherwise tied it to Medicare, in Oregon, is we would accelerate the number of doctors who kick all of the Medicare folks off their list. It‘s already a big problem.

So that‘s why in the health bill--you might recall in the health bill, it was actually progressives all agreed that under the current Medicare structure, we couldn‘t tie it, and we would have to negotiate. So I had to plead a little bit of guilt on that one.

SCHULTZ: Senator Merkley, I appreciate your time tonight. Thanks so much.

MERKLEY: It‘s great to be with you.

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