campaign you know, what election day but here you do not know. but it is very good. very good. things are definitely moving thanks to their hard work. [laughter] you should have brought him with you the. [inaudible] >> i have not met your husband. >> he is the guy with the beard. >> hello. how are you? >> i am great. >> is there a big delegation

going? >> there is. we're planning it. we are trying to figure that out.

legislation, that's extended until the year 2022. that's a fact. at least the fact is, that's

what the c.b.o. concludes in the letter. they say that is a fact. second, as a caring physician, i mean, does the senator think that -- that we as a country should try to find a way to provide health insurance for, you know, so many americans, some of the them lower income, who just don't have health insurance in our country? after all, we're the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't find a way to make sure its citizens have health insurance. i mean, you -- as a physician who sees patients, and when of whom can't pay their bills, and defer medical treatment because they don't have health insuran insurance, i'm just wondering if the senator believes that this country should try to find a way where its citizens have health insurance? mr. barrasso: the senator absolutely believes that we need to find a way to make sure that all of the steps o citizens of s country have insurance. and there are ways to do it,

allowing people buy insurance across state lines that don't take a 2,000-page bills. there are ways to do it to help get down the cost of care that will give individual incentives for people to buy their own insurance, give tax breaks to people. this senator believes we could do things with tort reform like loser pays. this senator believes we could allow small groups to join together to have a better ability to barring toin get the costs of insurance down. so this senator absolutely believes we need to find a way to get everyone insured. and there are people that need help in this country that don't have help, and we need to find a way to do that. but it is not this 2,000-page bill, mr. president. mr. baucus: might i ask this question and then i'll finish because i know my colleagues wanted to speak here. one of the basic underpings of this legislation -- underpinnings of this legislation is that we should change the way we reimburse providers, moving away from quantity and volume and a little bit more toward quawvment and i'm just curious --

bit more toward quality. and i'm just curious. this is not an antagonistic question. i'm just trying to get a physician ace point of view. so man-- a physician ace point f view. 's point of view. so many doctors think that's what we should do, move towards reimbursement on quality, coordinated care and focus on the patient rather than our current system which is -- which is -- which rereimburses more on quantity and the number of services provided, et cetera. but is that something you should we remembered pursue in this country? mr. barrasso: the current system is broken, mr. president. the reimbursementystem focuses more on doing things than on helping patients stay healthy and get better. and medicare has done a terrible job of that over the years in terms of paying for preventive services has not done that over the years. this is -- it is now december and the way the system is broken is, my busiest time as a surgeon

in wyoming is at the end of the year, people who met their deductibles, who have insurance, come into the office and say it's time for my operation, i have to get it done before the first of the year because of my -- my -- my deductible. it has been used up. and i want to have my operation that i'm not going to have to pay for. we have the incentives all wrong, mr. president, in this country in terms of health care. so we do not health care reform. but i don't think this bill is the way to do it, which is a government takeover of the government system in america. mr. baucus: mr. president, i've got to address that one. my colleagues want to speak. i think it's worth repeating over and over and over again. this lislation is designed to retain uniquely american solution to health care, roughly half public, half private. it's designed to make sure that patients can still