gwen: special program this week. your questions...our answers... all on the hot topicf this hot month...health care tonit, on "washington we." gwen: thquestions are coming fast d furious... >> why are we inviting 15 million illegal ae-invaders, who broke federal law, into our health care system? >> why you continue to support a nazi policy as ama has epressly suppord the poliy, why a you supporting ?" >> on what planet do you spen most of your time gwen: but who do you trust to give you the answers...? the esident is trying... >> we'rgoing to have to cut

throu a lot of nonsensout ere, a lot of absurclaims that have been made aut health insurae reform. gwen: but is it too little too late? >> call your nator. stop the government taeor of health care gwen: we asked for your uestions and hundrs of you sponded. tonight's answers come fm the repters who have bn covering thstory... ceci connolly o"the washington st"... peter aker of "the n york tis"... ftali bendid of "the wall street journal"... and jeanne cummings of politico >celebrating 40 years of journalisticxcellence, live fm our nation's capital, th is "washington week wi gwen ifill," produced inssociation with naonal journal. coporate funng for washington week i providedby -- >> we knowwhy we're here.

to redefine air travel for a ne generation. >> to ensure our forces re safer an stronger. >> to ke the world we share to tomorrow and beyond. >> aroun the globe, the people boeg are working together t make a differee. >> that's why we're her >> it creates half the electricity that seals our dream we have more thaany place on earth. we're working on cleaner wys to use coal every day. there is more informaion at n.m.a..org. jor fundg is also provided by the anenburg foundation, the corporati for public broadcasting and contributis to your pb station from viewers ike you. thank you. thank you. oncegain, live from

shington... moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good ening and welcome to special "washgton week" roundtable on health care reform... if it's hot where you are, it' quite possible that the elevated teerature is caused by more than summerunshine. for president obama, the headwinds he has encotered on this signare domestic issue remind hiof this time last year. htold suprters as much yesterday... >> you will recall hat the republicans have just nominated their vice presidential candidate an everybody was -- thmedia was obseed with it ancable was 24 hours a day and oba has lost his moj. there is soething about agust going int septemberwhere everyone in wra gts all wee-w d up. up." 50 percentf those polled w disapprove of the present's handling of health care...a decline refcted in hioverall approval rangs as well.

that increasing public skepticism extends to congress as well. >>you can stand up d tell us your answer on oba care. we dand an answer now gwen: well, the interest of generating light oveheat, we decied to takeour questions to our washington week truth squad here.. we gotundreds of them, from 42 states and a few foreign countries too...we'll get to a many as wcan... butirst, an upte...how real ceci s all ofthis sketicism we'rseeing? >> it is certainly ral. as we all kow, plls are snapshots inime and the last several eks have not been a good period f this white hou. they have lost contol of the message. they havbeen caught by surise about the rection to the idea of drpping this governmensponsored option that is somimes known as a public plan. it's interesting, thou, in our pling, the new poll tha's come out, president obama still remains prett persally

popar. his own favorability ratinis 57%. that's a goo, healthy number for a presidt. then y ask thequestion, hw do y feel about his ability to make the right deisions? wellit comes down to 49% and thenwhen we ask, hw do you feel he is doing interms of handling the helthcare ebate, it dropsown to 4% approval. so you c see that e public still likes m, and that's te good ns for the white house becausthey're going to have him selling his thing right after his vacation. but in erms of the details, the public is onfused at a minimum and upset in many nstances. gwen: peter,presumely th folks the white house are lookin at numbers of eir own which reflecthe same kind of erosion. do they have a plan what to dother than ripping up t trops of the democrat national cmittee as he did yesterday? >> that's part of the pay. as a certai poin the white house is cognizant tt the idea of a bipartisan pl is unlikely. in the end, it's going a demoats-onlybill.

they have 60 vot in the sena and they have a siable majority in the house. they're not going to s that when people ask th that. no, of cose we want a bipartisan lan. you heard the president yesterday, look, he ys the republicans have made a calculated decision to de me a victory st as hey did wth clton in the 1990's. you can hear n their voice ho th have basically come to the idea that tey're going to ave to shove throh what they wnt. the caucus are complicatein their own way. gwen: we have so many qestions fromur viewers. i'll start with tis general on for you naftali. what are the top reasonsfor the increasing costs of hlth care and how do th plans from obama in cgress address them? this is fro wes in illinois. >> i mean, obviously, ther is an array of thngs that are going into this and an rray of different theories. one of the b reasons th eryone talks about is te inceive system that we have set up right nowncourages doctors and paties to get as much hlth care and as many procedures apossible rather than focusing othe ones that

might be for eective. it isn't an incentive for that one of the things that lawmake on both sides are wrstling this -- and you're seeing ths right now specifically with the nate finance cmittee that met last night, x members of hat committee, they're tryg to figure out toget that nder contl, how to reward doctors for better jot cmes rather than ordering ny tests as possible. gwen: yu mentioned he gang of six, republicans, democra trying to come up th a midle ground i have a questionfor you, jeanne, from bobn california. he says arica elected a democrat majity to congress and the ite house. how in blas, he writes, did he end up with asubcommittee of equal representation by the minority? >> well, i thinkthat in the senate, th have 60 votes, but it's an ilusion nature nuber. en the democrs are not ited around one pan. so that's part of it. ey had to come up wiha compromise at was going to appeal to the broadestumber of democrats and hopully some

republicans asell. and those moderate republicans who are in the egotiations in many ways reprent the oices of the conseative democrats who are not in he roo in aition, the white house from the begning said they did want bipartisan pla. if possibl they wantd to ee that creaed. and so it was a goal to try to work with therepublicans. three stepped forward, and i don't think max bacus was epared to walk away fom those three until it'scertain they can'come to terms because baucus would like to have republican vots onboard. gwen: we have a lot of questions out the role of the senate but want to get to acouple of nuts andbolts questions. a t about medicare. ke in mind there is not one bill everyone has agree on. people stl want to know peop like ruth from new york o writes, i am medicare. would be required to purhase ditional insuance?

>> no, there a no changes like that envisioed to the medare program. while we're on the subjectf what is required und medicare an what's no, there has beena lot of confusioabout this ia of end oflife counseling. there is not i any presen bill ny mandatorend of life coseling. so in tes of pople -- gwen: that's whatwe have bn hearing. >>hat's right. fothe people that are on medicarenow, they're over65 yes old or disabled, 45 million of thm, they'll basically ke their same policies. some of tem by ga coverag, that is what rh may be rerring to which i extra coverage. you n't have to do that we an get in some of thepolicy changes within medicare. for benficiaries, thngs will stayretty much the same. gwen: nap tally,here is nother medicare question for yo. to achie univers health care, this s david rom wyomng and tah, to achive universal alth care, why nt cover everyone unde mediare, it

sms simpler than crating new pros? >> there ve been proposals that effect. one of the sloganyou'll hear medicare for all. it'a system that peoe like. it's popular. it seems to work. that's one of e proposals. the problem is, jst doing it that way wouldfirst of all be very expesive and i would be an enormous additional government progr or entitlement which lot of people are oppos to. so between the financesand the sort o philosopy. at probably isn't going t fly. gwen:eanne alluded to this question oinfluence and to the degree differt members of ngress and the white house a being fluenced by people o either side of the issue. he is a question from doug in colorado, ter can handle this. how much doe the health industry snd on lobbying and political contribtions. i want to yo pick up on that as well. >> you may kw the actually number. they're increasing this yr and they're on differentides of thisssue. that's what rely interesting and complicatedabout this. inhe 1990's, hd you a much mormon lithic opposion part

of the health care industry towardhe things that president clinton s talking about. this time you have a lot of health care, ortions of that lobby onhe side of what president obama is doingr at least on t side of some versi of what president obama hatalked about. there is st of a cross purposes at is point. gwen: ist real, this new shift in attitude? >> the new shift in attite -- en: among the indtry who say they signed on to e plan. >> theare conflicted. they are conflicte. they're spending $1.5 million a day on lobbying. it's on record o bcome the biggest television advrtising adversary war in washington since 1993. and they are conflicted because they don't knowwhat's going to come out and they're ty to influence th senate drafting of s legislation. all ofhe action is done in the house. so they know ow well they fard over tre. gwen: to belear, therere the different bills that came out of the hou, true? >> the have to be cobled together before the finl vote

in the house after the augt brk. they hava sense of -- the won their warsver there. those battles are prtty much done. but the senate, that game is wide open right now. so, for instae, the insurae mpanies are on tapto lose their supplemental payments medicare. they don't want to losthem. so they're working thesenate pretty hard try to preserve them over there so it'sstill in play. so it's not that the have come out nessarily against a piece of legislation because wdon't have one. so wt they're stilltrying to dos influence the detils that could sh up in the sente bill. as a onsequences, ou have health -- u have insurance companies standing up xt to the preside saying wee for it. meanwhile,their financing sme of the groups that are running oppotion to it. >>gwen, the main reason that some of theseindustry stakeholders have mained at the table is bcause they're drming of 46 million new customers. there is a bigeconomic inceive for them to get ths ssed. gwen: i want to acually pick up on that because one ofthe

questions which keep coming up witheople who wrote us was exactly who wou be covered an how would w be able to afford it. i willee if i can find one. maybe from frank in pnnsylvania and carol from calirnia, they th wrote this. won'thealth care cos rise for everyone if surance companies can't turndown people or instance ith health ca conditions? that's an excellent queson. it makes a lot of senseto think about it that way becuse health insurance is al about ris, but the ia is that the more people that you canbring into a health insurancpool, the more that you can sread around risk. and part of the gal in this health care rorm effort is to bring to cover those 46 miion uninsure w, some people say we shuld do it becauseof the wealthy nationit's the right thing to do. it's also to bring n a whole bunc of young healthy people o righ now don'tave heal insurance. they're known as t invincibs, generally in their

20's. nerally 1/3 o the popution areinvincibles. ifou bring them in, that brings down some of thcosts. i on't want to give the impression it's going to free. it's going to cost aood bit of money to cover46 million people. in tms of spreading the risk around, that sould elp. gwen:nd a half at ally, i want to follow on on that a a dierent part of the cost equation from joe in arizna and kathy in misouri wrote -- what about the pply side? what does the presdent's plan do to incrse the numberof nurses and primary are ysicians? >> ell, he has actlly talked quite a bit about at and any an has to provide money to help train professionals. weaven't focused onit a lot because it isn't a hobutton issues, wil i be coveredand how is thigoing to be aid for? there is a reasonable aunt of agreemenon it but there has to be mey for training of nurse and certain ind of physicians. it's something the pesident has saide doesn't wa to seein anyfinal package en: are doctors onboard wth the president's side ofthis,

medical professials? >> again, hey'll tell ou they're for health cre reform. it does depend on the detai. their version of it is not necessarily the same thing tt a lot othe different lamakers are talkng about n differt individuallements of it. broadly, they are -- >> the american medical association has been at th table. doctors are split onit, but there areprovisions in ere and they'll be massaged furtherthat woul try to encourage family doctors, you know the practice of that to exand because it's that sort of general practitioner that the knd of system the govrnment envisions right now where you're geting ur regular check-ups and tt sortf thing. we need a lot mor of them rather tn specialists. so there is money incentives for educional programs to encourage young dical students to goown that road to create a larger mass o that kind of doctor and nurses. gwen: i want to comeack to this uestion about sentor baucusand the people in

congress in this. from gertrud in californi and thomasn wisconsin both want to know, it has bee reported senator max baucus receives major fundng from the hlth industry. how can he be obective, they want to know? >> well, mot of the key lawmkers on the key committees receive good bit of idustry money. that just where the contributions come. i mean, actully, if you stop and think about it over on the house sidethe energy and commerce cmittee, that is a g money commiee because of the industes that they regute and oversee. now, you kno, that said, there are l sorts of influenceshat ar coming into thse lawmaker all the me. think what most of them wod tell you is, you kow, campaign contributions is oneort of influence. thr home and their ditricts and eir states righnow are anher sort of influence. i think ey would say, you know, wefactor all of this in and do whate think is best. >> if yu look at how much money is at pla here when you look a

dvertising and dnations, i mean, the unionsgive a huge amount of moy to all of the democrats who are in coness. they have a sition on ths. the are so many interest groups who ca about what happenwith health carereform, it's had to sa that particular check had more influence thn these 10 other checks that ame from other groups a well. there just a whole lot o money around this. >> it is true people on the key health committees,hey get a lot of money fr the healh indtry. max bauc is an inteesting guy right now. he is on the ot seat. he is tryg to lead the bipartisan group that hathe last hope that the will be a deal. a lot of decrats are very unhappy with him. they are afrd he has been making too many concessio to the rpublicans. they are afraid he has dagged is out and they're ready to hae this wrapped up so tat they can psh forward wih perhaps a democrats only ill. gwen: peter - go ahead. i was going to ask you whether the white house able t maintainthe kind of arms length

they saiit will on tese loying issues. >> that's a ery good uestion. the president ismeeting in he oval ofce today wit tom dash shal whoas the fomer snate majority leader, someonehe wanted to makehis secretary of health and human serces until a tax lap knocked that nomination out. he is a vry smart erson when it comes to health car has written a bookabout it. at the same timhe is working or advising he industry atthe same time. multiple entanglementwith different players. is he anadvisor t the esident or the idustry? is he both friends on the finance committee, not so muh with max baucus or the thers. wherdoes everybody stand a how es everybody balance thse different ideas? it's a very complicated issue right now. gwen: it's not s simple to maintain rms length. a quetion from ames in californiaor you ceci, another nuts and bolts qestionbut we heard referencein our open.

asks will the taxpayer foot the bill for the overage for the millis of aliens in this country? >> absolutely not. everybody as said, eery democraticleader, the white hous etc., tha this is not about priding health ce to ilgal immigrants. gwen: whe is this coming from >> there has been a few hot button isues that have en introduced into the heal care debate. illegal immigration is onef them, abortion isanother, end of life is yet third. i think thee is consciously or unconsciouy an attempt o ejt these volile issues into the debate. it getspeople worked out bout t that otherwismight not be concerned about and such strong opponents. have seen tat interestgly across the boar in every volatile cial issue can nme, it's been brout into this. >> wt is really nteresting was watcng that town hall tht you owed a clip of barney frank. he is asked bout this issue, why are you coverin illegal aliens and he says we dont. they s read the bill.

he pic up a opy of the bill and the passage says there is o covage for illegalimmigrants inhe bill. they boo they don't believe him. there is aeep well of skepticismnd distrust and cynicism on some part of he electorate at least that ty don'believe the facts as thy are being presented them. gwen: even in t liberal districts. >> een in the liberal districts. gwen: willbortion or ferility treatments be coved under these bills, he wants to kow? >> aborion, n. fertilitytreatments, that i a good questio. can't say for cerain. i on't even know hat they ave thought a lo about i because generay what congress is trying to do is y that we would ike an independe board mainly of physicians,nurses, etc. to etablish what should be called the basic minimum benefits packa. no if you look out in the private marketpce right now, there are a few insurance plans

that covr fertility tretments, not a lot. so if that's a guide, my guess is it prably wouldn't. 's also quite expensiv i don't think it would all under this notion a basic package. gwen: jene,rita from kentucky wants to know wh isn't anyone discussing tort rform as a way of redcing healthcarecosts? >> because it's on brick too many. it would be hardo build. the presidentas acknowledged that lawuits have some ffect n the cost of health care. obviously, the conservatives and republicans d democrats don' agree on what degree. gwen: we eard dick army sayng -- >> theyhrow all kinds numbers out. you can talk to one sie they give you a bunch ofstatistics. you go to the other side you get a whole other set. it's hard to figure out f you're just lking to both sides.

the president has acnowledged that somethg along thes lines ought to be ne, but he has said it has o be done after health care reform is pased. and the primary rason for that is it -- it's like abortio you cannotput an eplosive issue like thatit will blow it up for ure. gwen: wo knows what is happening right now. before we wind up, want to gt to a couple questns we have o the public optn, the so-clled publ option. that is thbasis for many questions wheer this is going to be a governnt-run insuranc ogram. am concurrently unmployed, will the plan give me an ption at is free such as one tt is in the united kingd? free, probably not unless she were to qualfy for medicaid which i our current ystem of health care for thepoorest of the poor in this country and even en, that is genrally not free. there are ill co-payments that individuals ke. so, no. the other hand,there is a

vision tht people limid income might get some kind of discount. metimes they're describ as subsidies thatcould go to this thing called theexchange, thik of it almost likea heath care bazaar, a markelace where there are lots ofifferent alth plans lined up and presumelthey would tell you the price and what kindf corage you would get and you can ry to pick on maybe th yourdiscount copon if you're eligible r it. now,hat doesn't get into the public plan wich is whole anotr issue tat we an -- gwen: but the pup ption would be onef the things thy could choose from at that bazaar? >> the ideais one offering from the gvernment, a nonprofit, so of no big c.e.o. million dostal his or multimillion dostal h. it's a fascinating hing. president obama h never felt that strongly about public option, ani know i can imagine thee-mails i'm about to get. gwen: fromnancy in washiton

state wants to knw hy the single ayer approac never gained tras, for instanc >> he was a supporter of ingle payer way bckwhen hewas a state senator i illinois. he uickly ce to realize in the united stateof america, that is not a plitically vible route t take and e is nothing if not a pragmatist. >> that is wy the publicoption is so controveral among crics, they see it as a trow june hor. if you put in a pubic opion that pivate isurers can compete against and ultimately of course government wil piece by piece take over thsystem. theyiew him as someone ho is secretly tryinto get there even though he said he is ot. gn: public option, going to happen still? >> i don't know. i ink that it's on lie suort right now. i think what we're -- i may come out of the house. i think thepresident ight now is centered on o goal. that is he has to have asenate

bill because youan't go to conference without ne. so i thi we have rched a point where co-op great, whatever. t him a bill so th can go to conference. if you have co-ops d a public plan, what you might look atis a trigger where you start out with co-ops, if they work teific, if not a pblic plan. gwen: th's what they're talking about in hese meetings on caitol hill that is going on. >> it is. the people who upport the publicption aren't sure they can get the 51 voths that they need to get this through. there ishis issue caled reconciliation which is ether or not they wi be able to pass at east some of the provisions ofhe health care vote ned. that ould be a huge delopment. gwenthe time flies y. we havea lot more qustions to geto. but we'll tackle more of your questions online,n a special expaded "washingtoweek" webcast. you can find it at pbs.org/waington week. and before we tonight..."washington week" condonces go out to the families of twoiants in our biness.

robert novak, one of th hardest-working d most influential shington columnists of his generation. and don hewitt, the cator of 60 minutes and dving force behind much of the century's best journalism. each in is own way changedhe y we do business. thewill be missed. as always, keep up with daily velopments on thenewshour with jim lehrer." and wel see you again right here, nt week, on "washington week." good night. >> corporate funding for "washinon week" is provided by boeing and he natonal mining association. major fundg for "washington week" is also prided by the anneerg foundation, the cooration for public broadcasting d by contributns to your pbs ation from viewers like you. thank you. >> we a

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