Media Availability With Senator Mitch McConnell Senate Minority Leader; Senator John Cornyn, Chairman, National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman, Senate Republican Conference, Following a Closed Policy Luncheon

Press Conference

Media Availability With Senator Mitch McConnell Senate Minority Leader; Senator John Cornyn, Chairman, National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman, Senate Republican Conference, Following a Closed Policy Luncheon

Subject: The Health Care Debate

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SEN. MCCONNELL: Okay, good afternoon, everyone. If I can -- if you can hear my voice over the noise.

Obviously, the subject of the week is health care. We know that in the course of the last 10 days or so, The Washington Post editorial board, the American Medical Association have both come out against the government plan. The president revealed Saturday massive cuts to health care providers like doctors and hospitals -- not to try to stabilize Medicare and Medicaid, but to be spent on extending health insurance to uncovered Americans.

We also have a CBO score on a portion of a bill that's been produced by the HELP Committee, of $1.3 trillion over 10 years, that still leaves 37 million Americans uninsured.

I think what we can say about the health care debate at this point is it's in a rather chaotic state. We don't have bills; we don't have scores; and at the same time, the majority is saying we need to act quickly. I think it would be highly irresponsible in the extreme to take up a bill that affects 16 percent of the economy without bill language, without scores, and on a rapid time frame for action.

The American people are just beginning to figure out what the majority may have in mind. We need to give them a chance to react and to speak to us about how they feel about the direction this is taking.

With that, I have behind me two members who are directly involved in this in the two committees: our conference chair, Senator Alexander, who's on the HELP Committee; and our NRSC chair, Senator Cornyn, who's on the Finance Committee. And now let me call on them to give you their take on this issue.

SEN. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Mitch.

As a former governor, I'm looking for a way to offer an amendment that will require -- or that will sentence every member of the United States Senate who votes for an increase in the Medicaid eligibility to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, a sentence to go back to their home states and be forced to serve as governor for eight years and try to pay for that and try to manage that.

Trying to expand Medicaid to cover Americans who are low-income and who need help is one of the worst possible ideas that's being presented right now. First, Medicaid is a terrible base because it's filled with fraud. The General (sic/Government) Accountability Office says fully 10 percent of it is fraud, $32 billion a year, three- fourths as much as we spend on -- on our prescription drugs for seniors. It's filled with lawsuits with 25-year-old consent decrees and inefficiencies.

Number two, increasing Medicaid coverage in the way proposed by the Kennedy bill would increase taxes so much in states that some would bankrupt and others would never get out of the hole. Let me give you an example. In the state of Tennessee, the Kennedy bill, combined with what Senator Baucus is proposing, would shift costs back to the state of Tennessee, which would create a $1.6 billion increase in the amount of money we have to spend on Medicaid.

A 4-percent income tax in Tennessee would only raise $400 million. So we would need about a 10-percent income tax in Tennessee in order to fund the increased Medicaid costs that are proposed by the Kennedy bill, and this doesn't even include the public option costs, the employer mandate costs, or the costs -- or some of the other costs that were not scored.

And then finally, expanding our coverage of low-income Americans through Medicaid would give them some standard coverage that none of the rest of us would want. Forty percent of doctors today refuse to service Medicaid patients in a full range of services. And if we dump more people into that, more of that will happen.

So we have a better alternative in the Coburn bill -- in the Coburn-Burr bill, which many of us support; in the Gregg bill, which many of us support.

In the Wyden-Bennett bipartisan bill, which I'm a cosponsor of, we would give dollars directly to the 58 million Americans who are low income and need better health care, rather than stuffing them into a government-run program called Medicaid that is substandard, that affords them poor care and, over time, will add to the federal debt by hundreds of billions of dollars and bankrupt some states.

SEN. MCCONNELL: John?

SEN. CORNYN: Back in Texas, when I travel the state, what I hear people tell me is, the number-one concern they have in our health-care system is it simply costs too much and prices too many of them out of the market. That's why, unsurprisingly, we have a large percentage of our population that's uninsured, because they can't afford to purchase the health coverage that they need.

Now, after we spend roughly 16 to 17 percent of our gross domestic product on health-care delivery in this country -- as Senator Alexander said, much of it wasted and eaten up by fraud -- we find that the Kennedy bill, the proposal by Senator Kennedy, not only costs more than a trillion dollars more on top of that, but it also basically pushes many people from the health coverage they have now onto -- into the uninsured ranks and presumably, ultimately, into a government plan.

So it is not a good idea to create a government-run plan or to otherwise force people to lose what they have now in order to reform this health-care system. And we can do so by cutting out the waste and the fraud, the misaligned incentives that reward physicians and hospitals for performing more procedures, and, instead of that, return value and prevention and wellness to our plan.

So, unfortunately, we are on a fast track on the health-care debate. Train has left the station. But we do not yet know whether that train will arrive safely with the passengers intact or whether we're watching a slow-motion train wreck. I think if we slow down, take care, make better decisions informed by good information -- like, how much is this going to cost; what's this going to do to our constituents in terms of increased taxes and the like -- then we can make better decisions and provide the kind of health care that will empower individuals and not the government.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Take a couple of questions, if there are any.

Q Senator McConnell --

SEN. MCCONNELL: Yeah?

Q -- administration officials, talking about the financial regulation overhaul, said they don't intend to merge all the various agencies into one. They've also said that they don't intend to -- (off mike). What is the reaction to the proposals -- (off mike) -- that they don't intend to ban the more complicated financial products that people may have invested in. (That's my understanding ?). What's your reaction to -- (off mike)? (Off mike) -- overhaul (financial ?) regulations?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, Senator Shelby and Senator Dodd have been talking about this financial re-regulatory issue for some time in the Banking Committee. I can only speak for myself on this because we've not had broad discussions within the conference. I intend to take my lead from them. They're our experts. They're the ones who are tracking the issue. And I'm going to be looking to Senator Shelby for his first reaction to what the administration's proposing.

Q Do Republicans remain concerned about the supplemental, given the lack of language about the photographs?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, as you know, Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Joe Lieberman took the lead. The issue was about the detainee photographs and the absence of that provision in the conference report. Senator Graham has been in constant communication with the administration, seeking a solution to the problem.

The Senate spoke rather overwhelmingly. Nobody thought it was a good idea to release the photographs. The president's also said that himself. As we all know, he could solve the problem with a stroke of the pen. He's not yet made the decision to do that. But since so many people are against the release of the photographs -- a hundred percent of the Senate and the president of the United States -- I'm optimistic that Senator Graham and Senator Lieberman will figure out some way to solve the problem.

Q (Off mike) -- suggesting that the health care bill (is moving ?) too fast (to complete ?) before the August recess?

SEN. MCCONNELL: What subject?

Q (The health care ?) bill.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well -- before the August recess? Absolutely. I mean, we're talking about 16 percent of the economy here. We don't have it -- and we don't have a complete bill. We don't have a complete score. And what has been scored is astronomical. (Off mike) -- is not ready to go forward. Now we'll see what happens in the two committees that the members behind me that you've just heard from are on. But this is nowhere near ready, and the American people are just now beginning to figure out what the majority may have in mind, and we're going to need to hear from them. I think we're hearing from them already about these suggestions.

Thanks a lot, everyone.

Q Thank you.

END.

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