dr. coburn, i very much appreciate the idea that market forces and consumer choice can really control our health care costs and improve the system but i worry it doesn't operate like a true market not just because of government involvement but because of the imbalance in information between consumers and insurance companies primarily but also consumers and their actual care. i'm wondering if you've considered the patient's senior choice act supports tools to help seniors understand what they're choosing when they choose their health plan, not just the monthly premium which is probably the clearest thing on your paperwork but also the kind of benefits you're receiving, the care, coordination and other supports you're receiving and out-of-pocket costs you're exposing yourself to. >> i think that's a great statement and a question. we have looked at that. that's part of what this organization is going to be that's going to control this system. we have it right now we have 15 supplemental plans in medicare. we tell them what you can put out, what you have to put out. it's not any different th

dr. coburn asked your predecessor, mr. mcswain that what the indian health service was doing to protect the patients and employees and it was a specific hospital he was familiar with, clairemore in oklahoma. they were working with local jurisdictions so law enforcement could protect patients and staff at that facility. four years later. again it was not something that you were charged with, you inherited this problem but it's four years later and there's still not really been an adequate resolution to the problem. can you maybe help address what needs done resolve this matter? >> yes. well we are aware that the issue at clairemore indian hospital is serious and needs to be resolved as soon as possible. i just recently was briefed by staff. it looks like we've been working very closely with the department of justice and the bureau of indian affairs and they have outlined some administrative and possible legislative options. and so the next step would be to decide what our priorities are for those options, and then to consul

dr. coburn is a physician by training and practice up until this year, a businessman by background. he was elected to the senate in 2004 after three terms in the house of representatives. he currently serves with distinction as a member of the senate committees on the judiciary where he's the only nonlawyer, on homeland security and government affairs and on finance. and in response to the current medicare crisis, the senator has introduced the seniors choice act, which aims to reduce costs through a variety of means, including competitive bidding for benefits and increasing cost sharing by wealthy americans. the senator will speak briefly. he has then graciously agreed to take questions after his remarks and you can follow us on twitter and tweet live at hudson institute using the hash tag seniors choice. he's agreed to take questions from the audience here and at home. without furst adieu, i introduce senator tom coburn and turn the podium over to him. [ applause ] >> well, good morning. we probably don't have anything in front of our nation that is more critical both for our nati

article from dr coburn and i like to quote him you actually says we're spending trillions of dollars each year and nobody knows what they're doing the executive branch doesn't know the congressional branch doesn't know nobody knows do you think they're turning a blind eye and they don't want to know or is it just not enough people to deal with the problem with that what do you think it is. once again it's like it's like a cancer you give government a chance and you're going to grow and grow and grow and the left hand isn't going to know what the right hand is doing and that's why we're having all this overlap explicitly in the military budgets you know. different departments of the military are paying for the basics same basic services of a good share so you know i would say they're doing it in a mean way they're just doing it in a way that is just ineptitude and the only way that we're going to bring this country back on track is to have a whole thyra sale of the federal state and local government i'm talking about a fifty percent reduction in government spending well there is certa

dr. tom coburn, who is a member of the united states senate. dr. coburn, i would ask you to weigh in on this health care bill. you've talked through the years so often about what this health care bill is doing to medicine, the impact it's going to have on patients, the impact on the economy, the impact on jobs. i'd like to you talk to us today about what you're seeing as we are literally on the time of the second anniversary, and tell us how's this panning out. it's been the law now for a couple of years. what's the reality of this legislation? mr. coburn: thank you. the reality is we're committing malpractice. let me describe what i mean by that. in medicine, when a patient comes in, listening is a very important aspect. as a matter of fact, there's the axiom in medicine that if you listen to your patient, they'll tell you what's wrong with them completely. the more time you spend, the more effective you are at gaining that. the reason that's the axiom in medicine is because you don't want to treat symptoms of a disease. you want to treat the real

dr. coburn ask your predecessor what the indian health service was doing to protect the patients and employees said it was a specific hospital he was familiar with, claremore. resolve someng to jurisdictional issues. it is four years later and was not something you were charged with. you have inherited this problem but there is in -- as not really been an adequate resolution to the problem. can you help address what needs to be done to resolve this matter? >> yes, we are aware of the issue at claremore indian hospital and it is serious unease to be resolved as soon as possible. i recently was briefed by staff. it looks like we have been working closely with the department of justice and the bureau of indian affairs. they have outlined some administrative and possible legislative options. the next step would be to decide what our priorities are for the options and to consult with the tribes. some of those options to involved whether the tribes will be helping us with this problem. we would be happy to discuss the details of those options with you and work with you on this issue. now that i have

dr. coburn is a physician by train and practiced up until this year, a businessman by background.o the senate in 2004 after three terms in the house of representatives. he currently serves with stinks as a member of the senate committees on the judiciary where he's the only nonlawyer. on homeland security and government affairs and on finance. and in response to the current medicare crisis, the senator has introduced the senators choice act which aims to reduce costs through a variety of means including competitive bidding for benefits and increasing cost-sharing by wealthy americans. the senator will speak briefly. he has then graciously agreed to take questions after his remarks. and you can follow us on twitter and tweet live at hudson institute using the hash tag seniors choice. so he's graciously agreed to take questions both from the audience here and at home. and, ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado let me say what a great honor it is for me to introduce senator tom coburn and turn the podium over to him. [applause] >> good morning. we probably don't have anything

dr. tom coburn shares his thoughts on this case with cbs this morning. later today our bruce leshan will be back inside the courtroom to hear the arguments. you can see his reports live on 5:00 and follow us on twitter or go to our website wusa9.com on your computer or startphone. >>> -- smartphone. >>> the woman accused of shooting a gay man at an ihop in northwest d.c. heads to court hurs. the 27-year-old is charged in the crime. a 31-year-old gay man was shot. he is now recovering. the march 11 incident is being reviewed as a possible hate crime. >> in the beginning of the whole incident before this incident happened, there was some epitaphs that were used by people involved in this group. all of those things will be considered going forward as to whether they fall under the enhanced penalty for the statute. >> the woman is charged with aggravated assault while armed. >>> the maryland senate is willing to roll the dice on expanding gambling in the free state. they pushed the idea toward a vote sometime in the spring and it would allow prince george's

dr. no, senator coburn who refuses to allow them to establish any new boards, commissions or agencies went along with this. why doesn't the house pass this? speculation is okay, too. krista is reaching for the -- please, somebody. >> technically the house did pass it but it didn't include the language of the bill. >> we did pass it. it's just the language. one concern that we have is that most of the problems with foia have been problems since the existence of the law. there's agencies stone walling, there's excessive fees. in fact, there's actually a list on the national security archive of findings from a 1974 oversight hearing that have the exact same issues that they have now. and i think that one of our concerns is that we want to get a lot more information about what is going on in these agencies before we pass legislation, which is one of the reasons why we are doing a lot of work with gao and we're doing a lot of background research from a starting point to see what exactly is causing these delays. for instance, there's a lot of referrals that are going on. and i think we are very

dr. tom coburn threw their support behind him.his as today's nbc news "wall street journal" poll has romney leading doesn't look like much, but it's very consistent. 38% over 32% over santorum. paul and gingrich at the bottom at 13% at this point. the money has long been on romney when you look at the capital markets and their views and how they express them. then at the bottom of that chain, you look at intrade where people can put their money behind their opinion. they have had mitt romney's chances of being the nominee 80 to 90% for months. let's bring in the mega panel. imogen lloyd webber, tim carney, and mr. cedar. he will be the nominee according to the math. and there's a lot of denial about the fact that that's what's going on. this is a very close race. but it's a consistently close race that breaks towards romney all the time. >> two things we have been waiting for. can romney break above 50%. he hasn't really done that. if newt drops out, santorum could beat him. but ron paul is not going away. that's not as relevant.

dr. coburn has talked about, ipab, an independent board that will make coverage decisions and reimbursement decisions, when you cut reimbursement, you're going to chase doctors out of the system. as you cut reimbursements, you're going to defund the hospitals' ability to keep the door open in rural america. but let's look at the things that aren't obvious. what does that effort by ipab do to innovation in health care? what companies are going to go out and put $1 billion on the line for development after new drug or a device given that they don't think they can recover enough through the reimbursement system to could have their research and development, much less the approval process of the products? it would be a vastly different america if in fact all these drugs that are breakthroughs and the devices that are so effective at keeping us living longer are sold in europe and south america and asia, but not in the united states, because we've now developed a health care system that doesn't allow them the ability to recover that money. match that with the lack of choice. today in this country

dr. coburn asked her predecessor, mr.cswain do with the indian health service is doing to protect patient employees, claremore and in hospital in oklahoma. he indicated the agency was working to resolve jurisdictional issues to local law enforcement could protect patients and staff at the facility. it's four years later and again it is not sent you are charged with. you inherited this problem, but for your site if they're still not banned inadequate resolution to the problem. could you maybe help address the needs to be done to resolve this matter quite >> yes. where were the issue at claremore indian hospital is seriously needs to be resolved as soon as possible. i just recently was briefed by staff. it looks like we've been working closely with the department of justice and the bureau of indian affairs and the outlines an administrative and possible legislative options. and so the next step would be to decide what our priorities are for

dr. coburn has talked about, ipab, an independent board that will make coverage decisions and reimbursement decisions, when you cut reimbursement, you're going to chase doctors out of the system. as you cut reimbursements, you're going to defund the hospitals' ability to keep the door open in rural america. but let's look at the things that aren't obvious. what does that effort by ipab do to innovation in health care? what companies are going to go out and put $1 billion on the line for development after new drug or a device given that they don't think they can recover enough through the reimbursement system to could have their research and development, much less the approval process of the products? it would be a vastly different america if in fact all these drugs that are breakthroughs and the devices that are so effective at keeping us living longer are sold in europe and south america and asia, but not in the united states, because we've now developed a health care system that doesn't allow them the ability to recover that money. match that with the lack of choice. today in this country

dr. coburn is not in the race today. maybe he would get involved. who knows.t: we will go to his state. christian is a democrat there. oklahoma city? caller: two questions. first one to the gentlemen, who came up with the individual mandate? who came up with it? it was the heritage foundation. the heritage foundation came up with the individual mandate. is that true or not true? guest: i do not know. i've heard people claim that. i know it has been bantered about for a long period of time. there were a lot of public figures to talk about the individual mandate. i am not sure where it originally started. actually, we had been talking about the single-payer system and that's what the individual mandate is all about. is the government forcing everybody into a health insurance program? it really started a long time ago. the term, "individual mandate," i'm not sure who started that process. host: i do not know that. michael, a republican in fairfax, virginia. go ahead. caller: i have two issues. the first one is to do with the natural resources committee. what is t

dr. tom coburn, that the system is broken. and it's inefficient.ether and fix this, regardless of what happens this week. so, gene, what do you think happened to many on the left? where were they so overconfident coming into this week that they were going to win 8-1, when i think from the beginning most of us thought that it was coming down to anthony kennedy? >> yeah. i have no idea. i have no idea why anybody thought this was going to be 8-1 or some people said 9-0, that -- i don't know, that scalia was going to lose his mind. or forget who he was. and also vote for the thing too. so i don't know why people thought it was going to be lopsided. it was probably always going to be a close thing. and it still is. and you can listen to what anthony kennedy said at the beginning of the hearing, and what he said at the end of the hearing, and you can decide that it goes either way. but i think that's the way it's going to be. >> well, that's the key. if you read anthony kennedy, what he said at the beginning of the hearing where he talked about this the

coburn. also a doctor, along with dr. dean. dr.ng earlier, tom, it was unfortunate that the white house was pushed into -- pushed into an individual mandate, and "the new york times" story talks about the m.i.t. professor who helped push them into doing that. do you think you can have a health care bill, tom, this health care bill, if the supreme court pulls out the heart of it, the individual mandate? >> i'm sure you could. the problem is, you're going to have uncontrolled costs. which you were going to have anyway. it's just going to be worse because the mandate helped lower some of the costs by putting that onto younger people. but i'm sure that you could have that. look, this thing is so complicated, i would tell you my hope not from the side of what i think about the health care law or not, that if you were to take that out of it, you would be better to get rid of the whole thing and start over. we still have problems to solve in health care. and the attempt with the affordable care act actually in my opinion didn't do it, and

coburn. he is a doctor himself. he did the survey and takes credit for it. according to it 75% of the physicians who responded say they do indeed oppose this law. dr. us now. a member of fox news medical a-team. you see him here all the time. he is professor the medicine at nyu langone medical center. good morning. >> good morning, martha. martha: you've been saying this for some time. now that you watch all this playing out in the supreme court, what is the message you want to get across as you listen to what the justices are saying about this law. >> i'm disturbed when i see only lawyers and pundits talking about this okay, forcing people to buy a product may be unconstitutional but then the administration says wait a minute, we all get sick and some of u have the to pay for when others get sick. that sounds nice in theory but in a doctor's office it doesn't work. if the doctor's office we're already full. like we say we'll sell 100 tickets in an event that can only fit 50 people. you try to squeeze in 100 people everyone gets upset. they will start quitting. start seeing more and more people. that mess is what obamacare is in the doctor's office

dr. coburn has talked about, ipab, an independent board that will make coverage decisions and reimbursement decisions, when you cut reimbursement, you're going to chase doctors out of the system. as you cut reimbursements, you're going to defund the hospitals' ability to keep the door open in rural america. but let's look at the things that aren't obvious. what does that effort by ipab do to innovation in health care? what companies are going to go out and put $1 billion on the line for development after new drug or a device given that they don't think they can recover enough through the reimbursement system to could have their research and development, much less the approval process of the products? it would be a vastly different america if in fact all these drugs that are breakthroughs and the devices that are so effective at keeping us living longer are sold in europe and south america and asia, but not in the united states, because we've now developed a health care system that doesn't allow them the ability to recover that money. match that with the lack of choice. today in this country