Health Care Costs Rise as Reform Remains in Standstill

As health care reform legislation remains stalled in Congress and Democrats negotiate behind the scenes to try to find a way forward, supporters and opponents of the bills remain committed to their positions. And Thursday’s news of rising health care costs again made clear what’s at stake.

Tonight on the NewsHour, health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser checks in on the debate. She talks to health care reform players and to ordinary Americans about health care costs and the status of reform. She hears from John Rother, head of public policy at AARP, which supports the current bills; Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the health insurance trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, which opposes them; and others.

Listen to two takes on the debate below, and watch Friday’s NewsHour for more.

Betty Ann Bowser talks to Phyllis Zalatorow, who testified before Congress about how her preexisting conditions have kept her from getting insurance, about why she wants reform:

And anesthesiologist Dr. John Preston, who opposes the legislation, discusses what he’d prefer to see: