“I admire the fact that President Clinton and Sen. Clinton tried to reform health care (in the 1990s). But I believe they did it in the wrong way. It goes to the point of accountability. Their theory was you go behind closed doors, you come up with your theory with the help of your technical experts. You don’t even invite members of Congress from your own party into the negotiations and discussion. And while they were behind closed doors, the insurance company was busy shaping public opinion as well as maneuvering Congress, and by the time they released it ... it was dead in the water. Now, I would do things differently. I would have a table, around which you’d have doctors, nurses, patient advocates. The insurance ...companies would get a seat at the table; they just would not get to buy every chair.
“And I would put my plan forward ... and these negotiations would be on C-Span ... so the public would be part of the conversation and would see the choices being made. ... That builds in accountability in the system.”
Chronicle staff writer Joe Garofoli contributed to this report. E-mail the writers at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com and jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.bizzyblog.com/ObamaSFchronInterview011708.html
Someone should call CSPAN and find out if they have been approached by Obama to put the pay to play discussions on CSPAN...lol.