Usamah “Sam” Husseini

I asked Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), if the problem — as the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee has argued — isn’t the “public option” — but the private option. I questioned her about Aetna and New York Life Insurance being among her largest contributors as she opposes an enhanced Medicare-for-all (or single payer) program — as well as even a mere public option: “I do what’s best for my constituency and the American people, it has nothing to do with the contributions I receive” the senator said.

I asked Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.), if health insurance mandates don’t amount to a subsidy for the insurance companies. She claimed “What we’re trying to do is find the most cost effective way to cover everyone in America.” Which is odd, since single payer (Medicare-for-all) is widely recognized as being the most cost effective of any method currently being discussed because it gets rid of the massive overhead of the insurance companies — see PNHP’s backgrounder. Instead, Landrieu insisted that private insurance be central to any plan. She said: “I’m not carrying water for the insurance companies.”

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), was asked the same question about mandates being subsidies, he said: “Don’t worry about the insurance companies, believe me we’re going to take care of them.” He dismissed a Medicare-for-all proposal as being too ambitious while criticizing insurance companies practices. Even though Rockefeller comes from a wealthy family, he raises money for his campaigns and the number one sector isfinance and insurance. He dismissed the relevance of the poor performance of the Massachusetts plan plan — see PNHP’s crit — saying that it didn’t have a public option, which Rockefeller called “magic.” Rockefeller seemed to correct me about driving being a right when we digressed on that, from my cursory look around, he might be right legally.

Republican Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that government doesn’t do healthcare well, but said he still supports Medicare and Medicaid. When I asked about other government programs being allowed to do bulk purchasing, like the VA does, Pawlenty raised concerns about the government being a monopoly. A presidential aspirant, I asked Pawlenty if Israel had nuclear weapons; he spoke generally about telling the “truth” while not actually saying that Israel has nuclear weapons.