Republicans say Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) let the cat out of the bag on the Senate health care reform compromise today. After the ardent public option supporter extolled the virtues of the Senate compromise plan that expands Medicare coverage, Republicans seized on his comments as evidence that the plan was a backdoor to government-run, single-payer coverage.
Weiner told the New York Daily News that the Medicare buy-in plan under discussion in the Senate “would perhaps get us on the path to a single payer model.”
“[T]his is one idea I like a lot,” he told the paper.
Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and John McCain (R-AZ) seized on Weiner’s comments when they stopped by the Senate press gallery to talk Medicare with reporters this evening. They clearly enjoyed attacking the fragile Democratic compromise with the words of one of the party’s own.
Thune said that quote was all he needed to hear about the plan. He told reporters that the “goal” of people like Weiner was a single, government-run plan for all Americans. Citing the quote, he said the Medicare buy-in plan “appeared to be another step in that direction.”
McCain said that, over time, the plan would make health insurance companies “competitive with the federal government.” That’s the goal of progressives, McCain said, and “that’s why Weiner said what he said.”
McCain, Thune and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) also said hospital groups were opposed to the plan because expanding Medicare, which the trio said pays about 80% of health costs, would mean hospitals would lose money with every new Medicare patient they see. The net effect, they said, could be the shuttering of existing hospitals and slow the growth of new ones.
