E-mail a friendSen. Bill Nelson
airdate October 13, 2009
Bill Nelson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. A lifetime Floridian, he previously served six years as a member of the state Cabinet and 12 years as a congressman. He's an expert on NASA, who, after intensive training, spent six days on the Space Shuttle Columbia as a payload specialist. Since, he's worked to protect the environment and been an advocate for space exploration. Nelson's assignments include the Budget, Armed Services and Finance committees—the latter of which is key to healthcare reform.
Florida's senior senator explains how the public option would work if voted into the healthcare bill. (2:35)
Full Interview (12:04)
Sen. Bill Nelson
[Begin film clip.]
"Sen. Max Baucus:" Ours is a balanced bill that does bend the cost curve, that does lay the foundation for continued progress. It lowers the federal deficit, ends insurance industry discrimination, expands coverage, and improves quality. It also guarantees that in the United States of America, no person will go broke just because he or she gets sick.
"Male:" Aye. Ms. Stabenow.
"Senator Debbie Stabenow:" Aye.
"Male:" Ms. Stabenow, aye. Ms. Cantwell?
"Senator Maria Cantwell:" Aye.
"Male:" Ms. Cantwell, aye. Mr. Nelson?
"Senator Bill Nelson:" Aye.
"Male:" Mr. Nelson, aye.
[End film clip.]
Tavis: Scenes from the Senate Finance Committee late this afternoon, which took a major step toward healthcare reform by approving what has become known as the Baucus bill. This bill represents the most comprehensive congressional action on healthcare since Teddy Roosevelt first proposed universal healthcare nearly a hundred years ago.
For more tonight, pleased to be joined now by a key member of the Senate Finance Committee, Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida. Senator, an honor to have you back on the program, sir, thank you.
Senator Bill Nelson: Thank you, Tavis, it's a privilege.
Tavis: What do you make of the bill that was passed today? You voted for it, but what do you make of it?
Nelson: It's a good first step. Of course, it was a necessary step. We had to get it out of the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over these matters. It's a good, solid vote - 14 to nine. It's bipartisan, with Senator Snowe of Maine voting with all of the 13 Democrats on the committee. So I think this spells good things ahead for us being able to get healthcare reform.
Tavis: When you said, "Spells good things ahead," you used the word bipartisan, and technically - underscore the word "technically" - it is bipartisan, since one - one Republican voted for it. But why do you think it portends good things ahead if bipartisan means only one Republican voting for it in committee?
Nelson: Because I think on the floor it means more than one. I think Senator Collins, her colleague from Maine, will now be seriously considering voting for it, and who knows - when it gets around to final passage you might see a half-a-dozen or a dozen Republicans.
Once the intensity of the spotlight comes in on this, do you want healthcare reform or you don't? And it's put just in those stark terms; I think you're going to see a lot more bipartisanship.
Tavis: In the clip we saw a moment ago of the chairman, Senator Max Baucus, laying out all the things that this bill does include, obviously the thing it does not include, the bill passed today, is the public option. There are two votes on two different types of public option during committee hearings. You voted for both; both of them went down in defeat.
So this bill passes but without the much-talked-about public option. How should Americans read that?
Nelson: Well, I think we will have a chance of passing it on the floor. Now, I voted against one version, but I voted -
Tavis: That's right, that's correct.
Nelson: - for the other one, and I think there's a very legitimate case to be made and we may be able to get the votes to get the public option in. What is a public option? First of all, you're talking about only about 25 percent of the marketplace. That's covering the people that are not covered now, uninsured, and those who have individual as opposed to group policies that they can't afford it.
And so that's about 25 percent of the market, all right? The insurance companies are going to bid for that business. Now to keep them honest, to keep those premiums down, let's put a government-sponsored, nonprofit insurance company in there to compete with the insurance companies and that's what the public option is.
And I think that the case for it is sufficiently strong, that we may have a chance to get it in before the final passage comes around.
Tavis: When Barack Obama was running for president he made it clear that he would not support something that did not have a public option. Howard Dean, the former chair of the Democratic Party, said that if there is a bill passed that does not have at the center of it a public option that we're really wasting our time because we're not really talking about healthcare reform here.
What do you make of the fact that with regard to your sense that you may still get a public option, the word is that that's just not going to happen, and if it doesn't happen is it really healthcare reform if there is no public option to make the industry competitive?
Nelson: The answer to that is yes, because again, we're just talking about a small part of the marketplace, a very necessary part, which we're putting in what's called a health insurance exchange.
But remember, Tavis, there are many different ways to skin a cat. It doesn't have to be the Senator Chuck Schumer version that I voted for. It could be what people call a trigger, that if the health insurance companies don't bring down the rates and there's not genuine competition, then a public option nonprofit company is triggered into place at a point in the future to offer that.
So you see, there are many different versions that you could come up with that I think have a chance of passage.
Tavis: One could quibble about these numbers, but the number most often bandied about is that there are about 47 million uninsured Americans, as we have this conversation now. This bill at best will cover about 29 million Americans, we're told. Talk to me about those numbers, about the gap between the 29 and the 47, and whether or not this really is, again, meaningful healthcare reform if that many millions of Americans will not be impacted by what passed today.
Nelson: Well, if those numbers are correct, and I assume they are, you will have covered an additional 29 million that don't have coverage now. Now, that's a good thing. Now what about the remaining 18 or so million? Well, that doesn't mean that as this is being implemented over time, and this is phased in over the next several years, that doesn't mean that you can't add and change and massage the law so that you extend it into those remaining ones.
Again, this is just the cut that we have come out with in this version. It's going to get changed along the way in the amendatory process, and then on the final version of the bill if there are people that are still not going to come into the system because they don't get subsidized enough or there's not a severe enough penalty, whatever it is, we can always work with that to perfect it as we go forward.
Tavis: To your earlier point about the fact this is going to be phased in, when will most Americans feel the impact of whatever ultimate healthcare reform you think the president's going to sign come Thanksgiving?
Nelson: Well, some of the reforms go into effect immediately. A lot of the subsidies and setting up the health insurance exchange occurs along about 2011 and 2012. So that's where you have to have time to set up these complicated exchanges that are going to be in each state in order to take care of those that are uninsured.
Tavis: Finally here, and we could do a whole show talking just about this, but your honest assessment as to who really won here. One could argue, as I suspect you will, that the American people are the winners here today, and once we get this bill, whatever it's ultimately going to be, signed into law, I could debate you all day long about the fact that the real winners here are the lobbyists.
If I had the time I could run a long list of things that were conceded out early on in this process that the healthcare industry lobby wanted. To what extent did the lobbyists really win here with all the things that did not get in this bill?
Nelson: Well, it's a fact of life - we are in a special interest politics where anybody that's affected by legislation can come and make their case. Some of them have won and some of them have lost, but we've still got a long way to go and they'd better strap their seatbelts on because if it's going to be good for health reform, we're going to make a good-faith effort to get it despite they may be objecting to it.
Tavis: Before I let you run, I know you've got a full schedule there in Washington, you also sit, of course, on the Senate Armed Forces Committee. Last week the eighth anniversary of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan, all kinds of conversation, as you well know, in Washington right now about what the president is going to do in Afghanistan, what his options are in Afghanistan.
I don't wanna color the question too much, but share with me your thoughts on the situation in Afghanistan right now that's facing the president and this decision that we're all waiting on about the troops.
Nelson: Well, he's trying to make that decision now with the advice coming in from all the military, and he ought to hear all of that advice from his advisers, from the secretary of Defense. He heard the different options, the three options, just last Friday from General McChrystal, and then the president, as the commander-in-chief, is going to make that decision.
Now I personally believe that there's going to be an increase of troops. What amount it is I think is going to be a broad consensus by all of his advisers, including those in the Pentagon. So we've got to get it right in Afghanistan because it's too much. We don't want to walk away from, again, Afghanistan like we did in the late '80s after the Soviets got whipped, and then when they left, we left, and that created the vacuum that brought in bin Laden using that as a sanctuary. We don't want to do that again.
Tavis: Fair enough. Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, always a delight to have you on the program. I know you had a busy day with that Senate Finance Committee vote on healthcare. Thanks for taking a few minutes, I appreciate it.
Nelson: Thanks, Tavis.
Back to October 13, 2009