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Corker says Obama wants health care 'political victory'
Cap-and-trade won't pass this year, Corker says
KINGSPORT — President Barack Obama is aiming for health care coverage reform primarily as a “political victory,” U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said in a meeting with members of the Times-News Editorial Board.
“If you sat down and met with him, you’d say ‘He doesn’t have his feet on the ground right now,’” the Tennessee Republican said of Obama’s view of reform. “He feels like a guy who just wants to score a political victory. But he doesn’t feel like a guy who knows what he wants our health care system to do. One day he’ll have somebody on a Sunday (talk show) program float ‘The (government-run health insurance) public option is not necessary.’ And then they see how everybody reacts. And then he’ll come back the next day from the White House and say ‘No, it has to be part of our deal.’”
Corker noted that in his last encounter with Obama, he encouraged the president to make reform the focus of his first term and not to try and rush it through Congress.
“What I shared with the president is ‘You do not want 100 senators in 60 days changing the (health care) delivery system,’” Corker said.
Corker’s idea of reform includes medical liability reform, cross-state competition among insurance companies, tax credits to buy coverage, and a plan to deal with pre-existing conditions.
He insisted those ideas would go a long way toward keeping the uninsured — including an estimated 842,000 uninsured Tennesseans — from showing up at hospital emergency rooms.
“We have 40 Republicans in the Senate,” Corker explained. “My guess is you get 37, 38 (GOP) votes for those (ideas). I think we could get numbers of Democrats to support that, too. ... I think many of them are very concerned about this public option, very concerned about some of the financing schemes being put in place. ... I think we could agree on 80 percent of the deal. ... I said ‘Mr. President, we could get 70 to 80 votes for that and go way down the road to solving this problem.’”
Corker opposes a government-run public health plan, taking more than $400 billion out of Medicare to leverage a new health care program, and expanding Medicaid to cover higher-level income groups.
He will have done town hall-style meetings in more than 30 counties before taking his ideas back to Congress.
“It’s been inspiring to see all the large numbers of people who come to these (town hall) meetings,” Corker said. “I hope it continues for years. ... People care, and I’m talking about people on all sides of these issues.”
He said people are surprised when he admits America has a problem with its health care coverage system.
“Literally my first comments (at a town hall meeting) are ‘We do have a problem,’” Corker said. “I’m walking into a room full of people who think I’m not going to say this. I start out by saying ‘I personally believe we do need to have health care and health care insurance reform.’ Everybody looks at me quizzically because the large numbers of people there are opposed to the (Obama) administration, but there are a lot of people there supporting the administration, too.”
One big problem, he pointed out, is there hasn’t been much discussion about dealing with reductions in Medicare reimbursement to health care providers.
“The (Medicare) trustees have said it’s going to be bankrupt in 2017. It has $40 trillion in unfunded liabilities,” Corker said of Medicare, which serves America’s seniors.
The government-run public health option, he added, began as the notion of everyone being on Medicare.
“Medicare reimburses (health care) providers at about 70 cents on the dollar,” Corker said. “So if everybody wants Medicare, your Blue Cross plan or whatever you have here, it actually has to pay for whatever Medicare doesn’t to keep our health care system afloat. That alone would be highly problematic ... 119 million people would move into (Medicare). You want a healthy private sector out there focusing on new innovative techniques in health care.”
America is 37th in the world in health outcomes because of people’s lifestyles, but it still has the best health care system in the world, he stressed.
“This is the place in the world that if you have heart disease or cancer, you want to be,” Corker said. “A public option, to me, would dumb that down greatly.”
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Tracy....
I work every day, and have done so most of my life. I have insurance.
I don't think anyone wants anything for free. (well, most of us that work to get what we have)
I think it is just better that the government regualte healthcare as opposed to the insurance companies and medical providers. We are stuck in the middle somewhere between price guaging and practically no insurance for elevated cost.
Right now, we pay taxes, and others that do not work get free ins, food stamps, and free housing. Never a complaint about that. Thats what we need to protest.
This is why our system is so backward. Lets not help the working people who are trying, but lets help those who do nothing, continue to do nothing.
Tracy, just because there are people out there that do the jobs some do not want to do, does not make them lazy or crazy, or needing to get off their butt. Someone has to do the backbone work of this country, and news flash, most back bone working jobs do not provide decent insurance, so these people can not get or keep insurance for 44 years. I am fortunate to work a job where I have decent insurance for now. But it could close next year or two years from now. I am 41, have worked all my life, and have a retirement plan, but if my business closes. I will be stuck with no insurance. Do you say I should deplete my savings to pay for medical care, or is it somehow my fault?
I don't like lazy people, and do not believe in free rides, but you are living in the past, when companies did not go out of business every 10-15 years. You are being a little selfish and uncaring, because if I am going to pay my tax dollars to give to anyone, I would much rather give to the working class, than the lazy ones who refuse to work.
No, Richard, what it is, is a little thing called "putting things in perspective."
The Republicans who are currently railing against healthcare reform (those who do support "some kind" of reform...I wonder where they have been the past 15 years??) didn't seem to have any problem spending billions to fight a war against a country that was no threat to us. This, following the insistence by members of the administration that "we" know where the WMDs are; that Rumsfeld doubted the war would last "6 months"; and that revenues from Iraqi oil production would pay for the war.
Wait...before you spout off about how safe Bush kept us due to the war on terror, the previous president kept us safe from further attack for the same amount of time yet did so without running off and invading, oh, Africa and fighting a 6+ year war.
Yeah, it was all done in the name of protecting America from further attacks, but Bush was also quick to remind us that we were rescuing the Iraqi people from a bad man so that they could live better lives.
Thus it is perfectly fine for our Republican representatives and senators to throw billions at Iraq to better the lives of the Iraqi people and not get a dime in return, yet they won't do the same for the American people when it comes to providing health care to those who cannot afford it.
Tracy, you need a big fat dose of reality. You just got lucky.
There are people who work 2 and 3 jobs to provide for their families. Since these are either small businesses or part time they probably don't have insurance.
I hope you don't eat your words and find out how it really works these days in the healthcare system.
Times aren't like they were when you were coming up. You come out of college with a huge amount of debt to begin with just so you can get a decent job. You probably won't see wealth building until you are in your mid-late 30's - if you are lucky enough to keep a job the whole time.
You are looking at the world through a rosy lens. 44 years ago times were very different. You could work hard, build a business, serve in the military & get an education and job, or have a high school diploma & get a good paying job. It does not work like that anymore.
Times have changed & we have to change with them. I know it scares folks, but the time has come to work with what we have - not what we wish things were.
HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. THIS IS AMERICA WHERE HEALTH CARE SHOULD BE A RIGHT AND NOT A PRIVILIGE. TIME TO VOTE ALL OF THEM OUT OF OFFICE WHO DON'T BELIEVE IN THAT RIGHT!
I absolutely love it. Nine months after he left office, people are still using George W. Bush and the Iraq War as justification for passing liberal policies. Seriously folks, its time to move on.
John, you would think that in 45 years, you could have found something! Why do you think we all should now pay for your choices when it didn't work out for you. Maybe we should shave something off of your retirement to help me in my retirement 25 years from now! That would be as fair as what you are asking: Taking my hard earned money to support you, right? How about everyone standing on their own two feet and accepting the responsibilities of their own choises. Why do you think you are entitled to my money to support you? That Communistic idea is obsurb!
John, if that was an issue for you to have the insurance, why didn't you change jobs?
I can not believe how crazy and lazy people are today. Get off your lazy butt and work like I did for 44 yrs and you will have money and insurance to take care of youself and fanily.
Don't wait for a hand out or free money.
This year I have had near $50,000.00 in health care cost and $2,000.00 out of pocket and inurance cost about $250.00 a month. Now that's not too bad a return on money spent. Change I don't need.
Corker is one of the richest Senators but he didn't sit on his Butt and have it given to him.
Wake up we don't need the goverment to run any thing else.
And,what does Corker want?Not a political victory,I hope.
People are raising protest against what Obama is trying to do. Yet we sat around for 5 years while another president fought a useless war out of our country, running up the defecit in the first place trying to take care of others, but not looking out for Americans. Taking many of our soldiers lives needlessly. You did not see anywhere near the protest you see concerning healthcare reform. Now does that seem right?
Thanks Dennis.
Sorry about your bad luck.
Michelle, you are completely correct. I tore my knee up 3 years ago but could not take time off of work to have it fixed until I got laid off, paying for cobra, I had time to get it fixed, but could not afford the co-pay, while all of the lazy people were taken right in. I go on with a bad knee.
Another thing that people are not looking at is that jobs do not last 30 years like they did in our parents time. There is not any retirement with healthcare attached to it. The baby boomers have had their jobs replaced by computers and machinery. There is not going to be any health care for us when we get old. Somebody needs to wake up and realize that even if you are rich and hoard all your nuts, one medical condition can bring you down to poverty if you don't have the CORRECT coverage. I have heard of several people that retired with benifits that cannot afford their medications because they are in a donut hole. At the end of the day, not only is Obama trying to accomplish something, others are going against it just to get their name in lights. OH imagine that.... CORKER, Oh he will recieve free medical coverage from the government for the rest of his life, he don't need no fricken public health care.
And by the way....Corker is a fruit cake.
We need a complete change.
I have seen insurances where a person pays 100.00 biweekly for coverage with a 3,000.00 deductible and 100.00 copay for an ER visit, plus another 30% out of pocket. How insane is that? Thats not coverage, that is simply robbery.
Alot of people are still not getting the care they need, because of the out of pocket, deductibles and copayments. I hate that the government would have to dish out money and increase the deficit. But if you look at how things are now. We still have people who do not work at all that receive FREE healthcare. They do not pay taxes, they do not put into the system but continually take out. That should be stopped. Nothing in life is free, and these people need to stop their free ride. Make them work for the government. Paving roads, doing office work, daycare for each other's children. Grow a garden to feed their masses, Something! These people go to the doctor more frequently than anyone, because of lack of education. They should just open up free clinics for these people, not continually let them abuse the hospitals and doctor's offices.
I work every day and I do not want hand outs, but I think a more equalized healthcare system would be great. Why does it have to cost an arm and leg just to get basic health insurance? Because insurance companies have gotten out of hand. THey decide what a patient can and can't have. How many days a patient can stay in the hospital. That should be left up to the physicians. How does some insurance approval clerk sitting in an office in Florida know that a little elderly man who just had surgery only needs to stay in the hospital two days? All cases are different. The doctor should make that call. What does the patient need to make them well? That should be the question. Insurance goes up, hospital charges go up...and our pay barely eeks forward. I think we need a stop and check system. Most people say they do not want the government running healthcare, but right now the insurance companies run it. Who would be more fair?? I would pay a healthcare tax, if we all payed a tax. Stop all the disability claims, stop all the freebies. Make people work again. You want healthcare, WORK! You want to eat, WORK! You want a roof over your head, WORK! Its quite simple. You don't work you die out. LEts stop giving people everything they need. Yes the government should regulate healthcare, but it should come with a cost to those who want it. We are quickly becoming a lazy, greedy, selfish country. We need to get it together.
“This is the place in the world that if you have heart disease or cancer, you want to be,” Corker said. “A public option, to me, would dumb that down greatly.”
PLEASE!!! We are one the most unhealthy countries in the world. We spend billions and billions on healthcare and we are still unhealthy. Its simply a money racket.
A public option would not dumb that down, because greedy people will always find a way to milk people who do not know better out of their money.
To be honest most of our political leaders swing toward whoever hands out the most money.All we are is a policy number or Medicare/Medicaid/Tenncare number they can get another $100. up.