even more out of line in coming decades. we have a medicare cost crisis, but it s more true that we have a national health cost crisis. we cannot solve the medicare cost problem unless we solve the problem of cost for all of our nation s health care. people want health care, and the average cost is rising very, very rapidly. this country spends more per person on health care than any other country, and by no metrics are we getting the most for our money, so there s clearly a problem of what we re getting for all the money we re spending. as educated as i feel like i am, i still feel disenfranchised from the conversation. the the health care conversation? yeah. don t get it. there is a feeling of all these benefits we used to get are getting harder and harder to come by because of the costs.
we have a cost crisis. we must bring it down. number two, we have to cover all americans in a very reasonable and healthy way. now, it s not clear that you need 2,700 pages to get that accomplished and there is so much noise in the bill that it is not clear that it is going to happen. and, in fact, when i heard today, i said, wait a minute. this sounds like they re just starting the process, not ending it. most importantly i couldn t figure out what dollar they were going to save in that whole discussion on cost saving. they weren t saving money at all except maybe the fbi would come in and get a few crooks. to be fair the republican plan as it was outlined didn t seem to offer the access you ve been talking about as well. 3 million potentially more americans. we ll talk about that in a second. dr. jauhar, you say the president s plan doesn t go far enough. you support it but you wish there was a public option. which isn t on the table, as you heard today. you heard david gergen talk
at least evenly balanced on both sides and i doubt it moved the needle in the way on public opinion in the way the white house had really hoped. it certainly didn t turn out to be a trap for republicans. they came ready to play this time. yeah. it was a very smart discussion. no question. i watched all of it. dr. healy, republicans, you ve heard this. they want to start from scratch. basically anything short of that is unacceptable. deal breaker. is that a realistic approach? as you know, you re a doctor. a lot of people waiting for this to happen. they ve been suffering without health care insurance. you talked about that. starting from scratch, what they re really saying, starring with a clean slate, they have a lot of building blocks, good ideas. what are the ones that belong in this bill? you and i have read this 2,700 page bill and it s filled with a lot of nonsense and a lot of things that don t focus on the two issues. we must bring down the cost. we have a cost crisis. we m
lot of building blocks, they have a lot of ideas. what are the ones that belong in this bill? you and i have both read this 2,700-page bill and it s filled with a lot of nonsense and a lot of things that don t focus on the two issues. we must bring down the cost. we have a cost crisis. we must bring it down. number two, we have to cover all americans in a very reasonable and healthy way. now, it s not clear that you need 2,700 pages to get that accomplished and there is so much noise in the bill that it is not clear that it is going to happen. and, in fact, when i heard today, i said, wait a minute. this sounds like they re just starting the process, not ending it. most importantly i couldn t figure out what dollar they were going to save in that whole discussion on cost saving. they weren t saving money at all except maybe the fbi would come in and get a few crooks. to be fair the republican plan as it was outlined didn t seem to offer the access you ve been talking about as well. 3