Senator Wyden: "Status-Quo Caucus Led By Powerful Insurance Interests" Blocking Competition In Health Reform (VIDEO)

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon) appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting" today to discuss his New York Times op-ed on how to improve the flawed health care reform bills currently making their way through Congress. Wyden says his proposal would force the insurance companies to be exposed to competition, thereby offering people real choices when it comes to picking their health insurance:

The bills that being written here on Capitol Hill not only don't give people choices like members of Congress, they don't give any choices at all. By law they are going to barred from holding insurance companies accountable.

Host Dylan Ratigan asked why anyone in D.C. wouldn't want to "unleash the natural forces of competition in health insurance." Wyden pointed the finger at the insurance lobby: "Ultimately the status-quo caucus led by the powerful insurance interests don't want this kind of competition."

Health policy Guru Ezra Klein also joined the debate and proclaimed himself a fan of Wyden's proposal.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Send us tips! Write us at [e-mail] if you see any newsworthy or notable TV moments. Read more about our media monitoring project here and click here to join the Media Monitors team.

Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

04:19 AM on 09/22/2009

WYDEN-BENNETT = WHAT ALL AMERICANS NEED:

[Thanks&Congrats to Dylan for his Strong Support of Excellent Solution!]

0BAMA="Choice+Competition+Portability" = Quality+Affordable Coverage+Accountability

Current 5 Bills now = Over 85% are legally prohibited from choosing any options?

Wyden = “Free Choice Proposal” = Empower Consumers to make GOOD CHOICES

0BAMA often said = "You should get the same deal that members of Congress get"

Wyden = Universal coverage model like members of Congress+Fed employees

Private&Public Choices=Competition=Lower Cost+Negotiate Fair Provider Pricing

Internet Health Coverage Exchange so 100% of Americans (including 180 Million with Employer Coverage) can simply Compare&Rank 1,300 Insurers+Medicare Public Option on Total Annual Cost, coverage, deductibles, co-pays, etc. Then make a choice! STRONGEST Medicare Public Option is HR 676 Medicare Choice OPTION!

If Medicare Public Option is ranked for 1,300 Insurers by ANNUAL COST then Medicare will frequently be the Best Plan (Near Top in the Sorted List) so competition will be the key to having market competition!

Put Consumer in driver seat = Turn Tables on Insurers

Wyden+Bennett of Utah, Republican co-sponsor is NOT backing off from his support

Senator Bennett = Says we need choices and competition for private sector

Wyden-Bennett Bill = Stabanow + Cantwell + Merkley on board

Insures lower prices+increase coverage to compete =Best way to inscrease Innovation

Accountability= If insurer rips you off in Sept 2009 then Jan 2010, you CHANGE

INTERNET EXCHANGE =1,300 Insurers (ZIP state allowed)+Strongest Public Option

[PhilipTaylor]

04:21 AM on 09/22/2009

What is WR0NG with BAUCUS?

Puts Burden on Midd1e-C1ass

No Competition + No Public Option

Wrong on 1NCENTIVES + TAXES + PENALT1ES

Insurance Lobby = Baucus Bill ="status quo" for 180+ million without choices

Insurers = Call all the sh0ts because people don't have choices or accountability

Insurance model=Cherry p!ck hea1thy people and sending s!ck people to gov programs
1nhumane and 1ndefensible

Employers and insurers=Pa1s + Love Status Quo=1nsurer Profitable& employer agrees

But current bills = DO NOT give people the dea1 the President talked about

Increasing pool of customers by forcing purchase of coverage requires but no Competition to keep quality high and prices low

Baucus has it WRONG = Isolates 180 Million people have no Private+Public CHOICES

[DestinationsUnknown]

06:55 PM on 09/18/2009

The Ambassador of UK - ON C-span denouncing all the GOP Lies

Denouncing all the GOP Lies

Nelson states-

He said if we went with a full public option -- which he called a government plan -- it would drive the price down and hurt private companies.

Yes Senator-

DRIVE THE PRICE DOWN!

THAT IS IT SENATOR- THAT IS WHAT we call BENDING THE COST CURVE

A term that you and the congress on the take do not want to educate the ignorant on

BENDING THE COST CURVE

According to Nelson- Public Option ' would drive the price down '

Exactly Nelson- Thanks

[DestinationsUnknown]

06:53 PM on 09/18/2009

Aug 27-2009- on C-Span-

Tom Scully- Bush's CMS Administrator stated Medicare Advantage, Part C- is overpaid!

This is what OBAMA wants to CUT!

Back door elimination to Medicare Med Advantage is now unfolding as to why this was infiltrated into Medicare.

Mr. Scully admits that Med Advantage turned out to be tactfully wrong- he would not admit the other failure- the philosophical failure.

Yet they continue to scare the seniors with their 'death panels' rhetoric.

Scully admits politically- no one wants to tell those 10 million seniors on Med Advantage that the benefits that were subsidized by tax dollars to Insurance companies will no longer be given thus they will not get the benefits they thought they were going to get.

GOP will not - will never admit what they set up has failed miserably.

Just like GOP will never admit MED D failed miserably.

Back door elimination to all democratic institutions- that is the C-Street Philosophy.

[CherokeeGirl]

01:21 PM on 09/18/2009

Senator Wyden's intentions are good, but he doesn't address who's gonna make the insurance companies offer the low coverage robust plans in the first place? The only way to make them do that is to provide an "example" in the public option. They can use that plan to model and repurpose their products to offer something to compare with it, or they go out of business.

Senator Wyden is correct in his approach that we preserve capitalism with choice and competition, but his ammendments don't seem to me to address how to get the competition in place.

As Senator Wyden says, with "some of these bills" only 25 million people will be able to participate in a public option. That's what I was afraid of, they would remove eligibility of many to help big insurance.

All I know is, yesterday the Baucus bill was dead, and this morning fresh and new there's a new gang of 4. Who made the decision to hand this important legislation over to four senators who take huge amounts of money from special interest and only represent red states that lost last November?

This isn't the change I voted for, and it won't stand. They can mess around and do the shell game all they want. We are watching closely. We have to watch like a laser beam as they "tweak" the legislation this week, bowing to Olympia Snowe instead of doing what the majority of Americans want.

[DestinationsUnknown]

06:52 PM on 09/18/2009

Aug 27-2009- on C-Span-

Tom Scully- Bush's CMS Administrator stated Medicare Advantage, Part C- is overpaid!

This is what OBAMA wants to CUT!

Back door elimination to Medicare Med Advantage is now unfolding as to why this was infiltrated into Medicare.

Mr. Scully admits that Med Advantage turned out to be tactfully wrong- he would not admit the other failure- the philosophical failure.

Yet they continue to scare the seniors with their 'death panels' rhetoric.

Scully admits politically- no one wants to tell those 10 million seniors on Med Advantage that the benefits that were subsidized by tax dollars to Insurance companies will no longer be given thus they will not get the benefits they thought they were going to get.

GOP will not - will never admit what they set up has failed miserably.

Just like GOP will never admit MED D failed miserably.

Back door elimination to all democratic institutions- that is the C-Street Philosophy.

[DestinationsUnknown]

06:54 PM on 09/18/2009

The Ambassador of UK - ON C-span denouncing all the GOP Lies

Denouncing all the GOP Lies

Nelson states-

He said if we went with a full public option -- which he called a government plan -- it would drive the price down and hurt private companies.

Yes Senator-

DRIVE THE PRICE DOWN!

THAT IS IT SENATOR- THAT IS WHAT we call BENDING THE COST CURVE

A term that you and the congress on the take do not want to educate the ignorant on

BENDING THE COST CURVE

According to Nelson- Public Option ' would drive the price down '

Exactly Nelson- Thanks

[tlgeiger62]

12:10 PM on 09/18/2009

Dylan Ratigan was ON FIRE this morning on his show. He took apart one rethug who stuck his foot so far down his throat it'll take him DAYS to get it out. The guy pretty much ADMITTED that the GOP isn't doing anything because they aren't in power to which Rattigan basically read him the riot act about how it is NOT about getting VOTES, it is about representing the people they were elected by. Really wish that conversation was in the news this morning.

[CherokeeGirl]

07:21 PM on 09/18/2009

Yeah! Did you see when Brad Blakeman was running off at the mouth yelling "just wait for 2010 when republicans take over some of those dem seats..." and Dylan said something like "Okay, you just keep stealing us blind and we'll see if we can do something about it next time you are in power."

KACHING! That's when I knew, Dylan is my new best friend.

That other guy, later, the one that Nora was interviewing. Man, he knew he was lying and when they called him on it he smirked and laughed like they were playing a game of poker face.

These people have something really nasty in the woodshed of their souls.

[balancedsolution]

09:48 AM on 09/18/2009

Dylan Ratigan for President! He seems to understand the Issues.

i'd also have Elliiot Spitzer as AG

[cornelison]

05:59 AM on 09/18/2009

American taxes are wasted on politicians who owe their allegiance to corporate interests. Nowhere is this more evident than in the health care debate. Republicans should be dumped from their health care plan & stop using a govt.-run hospital. They won't learn any lessons because the insurance companies will most likely give them free coverage.

[lcdbsez]

06:56 PM on 09/17/2009

Get the $$$$ out of politics.

Prohibit tv/radio political ads, you eliminate the need to raise money for them.

Eliminate the need to raise obscene amounts of money, and you don't need lobbyists.

Get rid of the lobbyists, and you solve the problem.

Solve the problem, and we get our country back.

[consumerist]

11:06 PM on 09/17/2009

Agree. But, how can that be done? Not only we need the answer to the question "who will bell the cat", we need to find out "how to bell the cat".

[cornelison]

05:50 AM on 09/18/2009

You understand the problem well. The other half of the problem is that some voters need to put aside some time to understand what's happening in their country. Those on "the right" want us to believe that Obama is taking away the country. He's not the one who is owned by the health insurance companies. You know who's going to pay for those anti-health demonstrations & lobbying? The policy holders in America, that's who.

[Vxx]

04:11 PM on 09/17/2009

Corporatism is not capitalism nor freemarket. The corporatists do not want competition.

[iMissMollyIvins]

12:17 AM on 09/18/2009

Amen! I've been saying that for years.

[consumerist]

04:06 PM on 09/17/2009

To all who are surprised by the "obvious news" from all our news media and also drunk on hope/change, I have only one word "duh?"

[lcdbsez]

06:50 PM on 09/17/2009

con --

Got some anger issues, hmmmm?

Read your profile.

Get some help.

[consumerist]

11:04 PM on 09/17/2009

Angry with the political/business/social leaders? Yes! Anger issues? No. I haven't been affected by the recent crash in the financial/housing/employment, but have friends and colleagues who have been. Since I still have the ability to empathize, it makes me angry about these crooks. But, very interesting that you bothered to comment on this.

[bigdaddyvike]

04:02 PM on 09/17/2009

Golly- DO YA THINK? Talk about a moot point. Baucus is the slimiest, most paid off of any of 'em. And he's in charge of this thing? I fail to understand this every day I read about it..

[cornelison]

05:52 AM on 09/18/2009

The 46,000,000 Americans without health insurance would agree with you. A compromise on a health bill ignores the uninsured.

[take10]

03:18 PM on 09/17/2009

WalMart uses Chinese made products to put American made products out of business. Foreign auto makers are allowed to come into our country and put American auto makers into bankruptcy. Tax payers bailout American businesses who take the money and pay foreign companies who also do business in the US and rip us off in the same manner. The employment rates in India, China and other countries are going down due to jobs leaving the US for cheap labor with no labor standards. We are fighting two wars to give to people who don't really care about us a better shake that we are getting, and at a cost we can't afford. On top of all of this, we are now going to give guarantees to the insurance industry that they will never ever again be held accountable for the wrongs they do to American citizens. Then we, essentially, use the IRS, a taxpayer government entity, to enforce the mandate that each American must contribute to the wealth of the insurance industry or lose their income tax refunds. Well if you wanted change, you should be overjoyed when President Obama signs this reassurance (not reform) bill in total disregard for the needs of the American People and for the greater benefit of the private insurers who have always had death panels which deny coverage and pay bonuses to their employees for doing so. That equals, death panels with hired hit men!

[layman]

03:52 PM on 09/17/2009

The US government as a whole needs a humongous reform and overhaul. All the craps that have been happened and happening are due to the malfunctioning of the US government structurally, infrastructurally and/ or operationally and otherwise. Congressionally, the law makers have become malignant cancers to the country as a whole.

[ultrabop]

04:04 PM on 09/17/2009

Damn right!

[take10]

04:09 PM on 09/17/2009

Layman, I agree with you and I add that term limits would be of greater value than anything we could do in the near future, The problem is, that the ones responsible for enacting it are planning to spend the rest of their lives in office. We have never seen any reforms come from police policing police, and we will never see any serious move in the direction of term limits unless we get off our arses and let them know that government is our employee. When lawyers took over our government, we lost the voice of the common man who often made the difference in how well government responded to those who were his neighbors. That was a long time ago, and we are long lost in this shamble of an entity call the Congress of The United States! Serfdom is alive and well in these unUnited States of America!

[lcdbsez]

06:45 PM on 09/17/2009

take --

But this is the way the weepublican Party -- which is, and has always been the political arm of the Big Biz Mafia -- planned it. They've been trying to do away with the unions, dismantle the manufacturing base, undermine public education, privatize everything, and basically suck the treasury dry for 70 years -- ever since FDR.

Part of it is out of spite for FDR, but most of it is pure greed.

Their ultimate goal is to turn the US into a Mexican-like economy -- where a few select corporations/families control all businesses and natural resources -- with an authoritarian political structure like China, and religious fundamentalism as the controling mechanism.

[take10]

08:25 AM on 09/18/2009

It seems that way now! If a business is too big to fail, it's too big to exist. Monopolies have always had a distinct advantage over smaller businesses. When a business owns 49% of its competition, their control is as if they own the entire entity. It also fails to stop collusion among the business leaders who fix prices and everything else they derive income from. And, you may as well identify the radical Christian right as our Taliban. The difference between here and Afghanistan is, they already have control of at least 1/2 of our government and substantial influence of the other. The American people are in no better condition because of it. Our government treats us like they are a business and we are consumers. Every dime government receives, comes from taxpayers. What we give to or spend in/on other countries seems to take precedent over our needs at home. Our priorities have become so screwed up, we may never return to sane policies!

[ThanksMatt]

03:14 PM on 09/17/2009

We are looking forward to Health care reform not Wealth care reform...

[Eykis]

03:19 PM on 09/17/2009

Y
E
S!!!

That is the ticket~

[ThanksMatt]

03:29 PM on 09/17/2009

Absolutely!

[Eykis]

03:12 PM on 09/17/2009

Baucus and Wyden were displayed by Faux & Friends this morning thusly:

Baucus (R-MT)
Wyden (R-OR)

All any of their viewers would know is two RETHUG senators were not liking the bill.

Faux Noise - get them off the air NOW.

[Eykis]

03:14 PM on 09/17/2009

Faux does this all the time. If Rethugs have problems, they label them as Dems.

When two DEMOCRATIC senators do not like the "wealthcare" bill, SUDDENLY, they are RETHUGS.

[ThanksMatt]

03:16 PM on 09/17/2009

Wealthcare and Healthcare bill : this is really just THE line we need to use!

[cornelison]

05:56 AM on 09/18/2009

Too much attention to Baucus drives me nuts. A few Senators can be allowed to control what happens to Americans. The Republicans have made up their minds to always vote "no." They're focused on 2010 while thousands of Americans lose their health care insurance.

[stbernardmom]

03:10 PM on 09/17/2009

When I growing up, yes, I am a senior, there was an expression that we were taught,
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water"
It means that just because something is wrong, you don't throw the whole thing out and start all over. That would be like tearing down a house because your kitchen faucet is broken.
The health care system needs to be adapted to help people that can't currently afford health care. Health care costs needs to be reigned in. Of course, it is not perfect, but it is not something that can't be fixed.
The whole system does not need to be thrown out. It just needs adapting. The government runs many health care systems already.

1. Military Health Care for active duty military
2. VA Health Care for veterans
3. Medicaid for low income
4. Medicaire for Seniors and disabled.
5. SCHIP for children

There is no reason that these systems already in place can't be adapted to work. And work on reigning in big health care costs. If the big health care cos are going to get 30M new clients, they can give a little or a lot.

[Eykis]

03:14 PM on 09/17/2009

Medicare for EVERYONE. Simple.

[Bjarni]

03:23 PM on 09/17/2009

Simple in theory yes. But there are many problems with it.

One problem that I can think of, why would a person spend all the money and time to get a degree in medicine if the Government is going to set the cost of all his operations? (Medicare sets a standard for how much they will pay for procedures, which currently is less than the cost is for the Dr. and the staff that do the work, which is one of the things that has driven the cost for the rest of us up) With medicare for all, the cost cannot be shifted onto anyone else and will with that the company either has to reduce the salary for all it's employees or close up shop.