united states and u.s. territories will receive a united states national health insurance card and id number. w do they plan to pay for this? >> how long is it? >> it's just how to pay for it. maintain current state and federal funding for existing programs. a modest state tax on all employees an all employers of 3.3% each, a 5% health tax on the top 5% of top income earnerings. a small tax on stock and bornd transfers, closing corporate or tax loopholes for the highest 1% of income earners? >> do you know about the bill, sir? >> i do not know of a house bill. but i have heard of similar proposals and it has come from the liberal left in america. i understand that. i respect their philosophies, i respect their views, but obviously i would vehemently oppose such a proposal. but that's what we are looking at as it comes from the people in this country, in all sincerity who believe that a government run health care system is best for america. by the way, if you like that, you'll love cash for clunkers. but the point is, but the point is, that i would never support such a proposal, i have seen tho

united states and u.s. territories will receive a united states national health insurance card and i.d. number. how do they plan to pay for this? >> how long is it? >> it's just how they say they will pay for it. maintaining current federal fubd funding, a modest payroll tax on all employees and all employers of 3.3% each. a mod test tax on the top of the 5% of income earners. a small tax on bond transfers. repealing the bush tax for the highest 1% income earners. do you know about this bill and the validity? >> with typical senate snobbery, i do not know of a house bill. i have heard of similar proposals that has come from the liberal left in america. i understand that. i respect their philosophies and views. obviously, i would vehemently oppose such a proposal. [ applause ] >> that is what we are looking at as comes from the people in this country in all sincerity who believe that the a government-run health care system is best for america. if you like that, you will love cash for clunkers. the point is, that i would never support such a proposal. i have seen those proposals around and obviou

united states, and u.s. territories, will receive a united states national health insurance card and id #. >> boo! for state programs. a modest payroll tax on all employees and employers of 3.3% each. a 5% tax on the top five% of top earners. a small tax on stock and bond transfers. closing corporate tax loopholes and repealing the bush tax for the highest 1% of income earners. do you know about this still? >> in typical senate snobbery, i do not know about that bill. i have heard of similar proposals coming from the liberal left in america. i understand that. i respect their philosophy and respect their views, but obviously, i would vehemently oppose such a proposal. but that is what we are looking at. there are people in this country who believe a government-run health care system is best for america. if you like that, you will love cash for clunkers. [laughter] the point is, i would never support such a proposal. i had seen the proposals. obviously, the public option, to whatever degree it is, is the beginning of the and the private health insurance in america because of the advantage that it wo

health care in this country, far more than any other nation. the united states, canada and france are the only country where private insurance accounts for more than 10% of spending on health care. the united kingdom offers universal health care coverage through it's national health service. the program is publicly funded but the public some happy with that system. britain's system requires fundamental change. kitty pilgrim has our report. >> reporter: go to a doctor in britain, you won't have to pay when you leave. it's the same at the hospital. all health services are publicly funsed by the national health service, funded by taxes. for that reason, a survey revealed only 2% of people in the uk who had a medical problem did not seek treatment because of costs. peter pitts in the center for medicine in public interest, a nonpartisan research group says the upside is limited coverage. >> mediocre care for everybody. >> reporter: the british government sets the budget. it's charged with determining what will or will not be paid for. critics you can out 0 that drug treatment for alzheimer's, cancer and other certain conditions are not included on a l

the liberal economist victor fusion once wrote that national health insurance will probably come to the united states in the wake of a major change in the political climate, the kind of changehat often accompanies a war, a depression, or large-scale civil unrest. unquote. so i wouldn't have the nerve to stand here and compare communist revolutions to the new deal and national health insurance, but a rider into new republic says yes, the left uses these things. so he said it, not me. but he is making the same point that usually it is in fact more power that the government sees in time of cut crisis, not a diminution of its power. so in 9/11, you did have all these things that happened after the shock. then we had the economic shocks of 2008. almost seven years to the day after 9/11. and what happened in? did threpublican administration summon up the spirit of golden friedman and deregulate and privatize and cut government spending, as naomi klein wld predict right now, post the picketed the government always do in times of crisis. it sees new powers over the economy. it dramatically on the federal res

united states. >> reporter: he did not overcome questions about chappaquidick our incumbent carter. in the 1980s kennedy emerged as a force in the senate fighting for such causes as national health insurance and tax reform. as patriarch of his family he delivered the you'll gee at funeral services for john f. kennedy jr. after his death in a plane crash in july 1999. before and during the battle for iraq kennedy became one of the loudest anti-war voices in the senate. just as he did during vietnam. in 2008 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and show once again his resilience. while still undergoing cancer treatment he traveled to denver and gave a speech at the democratic convention. >> the work begins anew! the hope rises again! and the dream lives on! [cheers] >> reporter: ted kennedy was heir to a glamorous political tradition, with more than 45 years in office, one of the longest serving senators in united states history. abc news, washington. >> there are many people reacting to the death of senator kennedy. we start with a statement from the family. they write that they lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives but his faith and optimism and perseve

united states. [cheers] >> reporter: he could not overcome questions about chappaquidick or incumbent jimmy carter. in the 1980s kennedy emerged as a force in the senate fighting for national health insurance and tax reform. before and during the battle for iraq he became one of the loudest anti-war voices in the senate. just as he did during vietnam. in 2008 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, but kennedy would once again prove his resilience. while still undergoing cancer treatment he traveled to denver and gave an impassioned speech at the democratic convention. >> the work begins anew! the hope rises again! and the dream lives on! [cheers] >> reporter: ted kennedy was heir to a glamorous political tradition, more than 45 years in office, one of the longest serving senators in united states history. kennedy died before achieving what he called the cause of my life, national health care reform. as that passes this year as president obama hopes it will be in no small part due to the liberal lion from massachusetts. abc news, washington. >> i think some of you will remember him standing on a caboose next to his brother bobby's caskets in 1968. >> we go back to where the trains are running

united states. >> reporter: he could not overcome questions about chappaquidick or incumbent jimmy carter. in the 1980s he emerged as a force in the senate fighting for such causes as national health insuranceax reform. as patriarch of his family he delivered the eulogy at funeral services for john f. kennedy jr. after his death in a plane crash in 1999. before and during the battle for iraq kennedy became one of the loudest anti-war voices in the senate, just as he did during vietnam. in 2008 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and kennedy would once again show resilience. while still undergoing cancer treatment he traveled to denver and gave an impassioned speech at the democratic convention. >> the work begins anew! the hope rises again! and the dream lives on! [cheers] >> reporter: ted kennedy was heir to a glamorous political tradition, with more than 45 years in office, one of the longest-serving senators in united states history. abc news, washington. >> i think many of you will remember ted kennedy standing on the rail of a caboose going through the woods next to his brother's casket draped in an american flag. >> it's the memories, we're remembering those moments. linda so is live

health insurance currently in the united states already covers 27% of the american people and just covering 27% of the american people the government spends more than canada and the u.k. in their nationalizedt cannot imagine what that would be if we move towards that model. it is far more cost-effective to go with private health insurance. neil: what do you make of the argument that insurance companies, especially the for- profit ones, are the ones making off, and the ones getting letters from congressmen wanting to know how much they pay their people why they do not cover preexisting conditions -- i am sure you have heard all. what do you make of it? >> yes, i saw some of that. waxman -- first of all, i thought that was thugish behavior trying to intimidate -- neil: would you answer a letter like that? >> the health-insurance industry is very heavily regulated and he could have gone to any number of state government agencies, or federal government agencies and got the information he is looking for. now, to me, he knows that he will get it faster from a private insurance company and that is what he went that route. neil: i think he knows he can give it over the internet, but that is not th

understand, there is a reason why in the united states we spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation on earth. and there is a reason why the insurance companies year after year make huge profits and pay their ceos tens and tens of millions of dollars in compensation salaries. the reason for that is that these guys exert enormous influence over the political process in washington. right now according to "the washington post" the health care industry is spending $1.4 million every single day on lobbying alone, just lobbying. then gout our friends on wall street who precipitated the great recession we're in right now. they're spending a fortune to make sure there is not financial reform. then you have our friends in the oil industry and the coal industry spending huge amounts of money making sure we don't deal with global warming and greenhouse gas emissions so what you are doing, rachel, is extremely important and unfortunately it happens far too rarely. that is you are exposing how things happen and the power of big money in the political process and i applaud you for doing that. >> well, thank you. we're just trying to report what's

national health insurance. i've read a lot of the bills on the internet. sometimes the word american is referred to. sometimes the resident of the united statesreferred to. so i'm wondering, is this going to be comprehensive or is this going to eliminate certain groups in our country? the third point i would like to make is that private health insurance c.e.o.s are making an enormous amount of money. i won't mention names on the television but two individuals who run health insurance companies have amassed personal for tunes of close to $1 billion. because of -- not because. from health care dollars. so i think it's incumbent upon the government to really push this national health care plan. thank you. host: on the independent line, good morning, phil. caller: good morning, young lady. hi. host: hi. caller: calling about health insurance too. and one of the comments this morning is about the news networks and their coverage of it. and basically hypeably and a bunch of weirdness,. all dealing with barack. there's been one news broadcaster on cnn, lieu dobs, who has gone over nine different health care plans for of the world, like the dutch, th

nation into debt. we will pass reforms to insure that the health-care system doesn't just work for insurance companies, but for all the people of virginia and all the people of the united states. >> yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can. >> yes we can. >> there are those that want us to go down the same old path where we just throw our hands and say we cannot do it than about education because it is too hard. we cannot do anything about health care because it is too tough. a path for our children fall behind and workers lose out and watch jobs being shipped overseas. our health care costs keep rising. all we do is just bigger and point fingers. that is not the future that i except for the united states of america. that is not the future that creigh deeds except for the future of virginia. that is not what you want for your children and our grandchildren. so we are setting a new course for this nation. it is the one that mark warner and tim kane and creigh deeds have been blazing. been no more about that crisis. that is what he will do. that is why every single one of you is going to have to do the work to put him into office, to carry on the tradition of leadership,

whether or not national health insurance is passed with medicare, i'd like to ask you if you could work on getting all registered nurses in the united statested in the medicare fee schedule fee for treatment which is the same thing as free for service similarly the way the physicians are so quoted and paid. now, today, some nurse practitioners are quoted in the medicare fee schedule for selected roles. historically, no registered nurses were in there. nurse practitioner is a registered nurse with advanced education. it's my belief and i worked on this for years that all registered nurses who were licensed in their given states to practice registered professional nursing should be quoted in medicare fee schedules, which would provide more healthcare, rural, suburban, inner city, cheaper, more cost effectively. it would be like a physician expander or a nurse expander. nurses could then go out and become self-employed as a group, offices, specialized generalists, single partnerships. but it should be a career option for nurses. and the united states ought to consider that in the medicare fee schedules to have rns, registered nurses quoted fo

health insurance. it was also my concern throughout my life in the united states. these are the biggest issues we must solve. it would also help the economy. it would make us a healthier natione biggest stress has to be removed. it would also help -- it would also help the industry because they would have to negotiate with the unions. i used to negotiate contracts with the companies. the biggest things we had was the healthcare issue. that would be removed by taking care of it. also, by removing the stress it would make us a healthier nation. host: it is worthwhile to separate a couple things. there is the short-term situation with the recession, and then the long term things we want to do to make our economy strong. in the short run, stunned education, even the health-care legislation debated on capitol hillnow -- those won't do much in the next year. in the long run, they are crucial. having a strong educational system that creates a modern workers is to our competitive advantage. we are spending 17% of national income on health care, more than other countries. we need to contain it. every dollar you spend on health care is something you cannot spend elsewhere. both issues

if national health insurance is passed, with medicare, i would like to ask you if you can work on getting all registered nurses in the united statesfor treatment, which is the same thing as before service. similarly the wake positions are. -- the way positions are. -- physicians are. it is my belief, and i have worked on this for years, of all registered nurses that are licensed in their given states should be quoted medicare fee schedules. it would be cost-effective. nurses could then go out and becomes self employed as a group. it should be a career option for nurses, and the united states should consider that to have a rn's treated the same. >> when you talk about medicaid, as opposed to medicare, it has been a state issue. who gets to practice medicine and what they can practice has been a state issue. one of the issues is the dispute -- i generally have been on the side of the nurses. for example, anesthesiologists verses a nurse anesthetist, the states decide who does what. and i think the practitioner should be given the treatment you mentioned. if you have this question about whether or not midwives and nurses obstetrician