Coming Up: Special “Grand Canyon” Edition of ‘This Week’
EmailPresident Obama took Michelle and the girls to the Grand Canyon last weekend. We’ll be there this weekend with Senator John McCain…our exclusive headliner.
McCain has spent most of the August recess with the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. He tweeted about meeting Moammar Qaddafi in his tent. We’ll talk about all that plus what’s been happening here at home while he’s been overseas. Is bipartisanship on health care dead and buried? Where can McCain and Obama work together – saving the national parks?
George Will is back on the roundtable this week, along with former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum. They’ll be debating all the week’s politics with This Week’s Nobel prize winner – Paul Krugman – and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
See you Sunday.
- George Stephanopoulos
Santorum Clarifies Concerns on Women in Combat 
Gulf of Mexico to Become Gulf of America?
Whew! I’m glad that George Will will be back. I’m liberally moderate or moderately liberal, and I like Mr. Will’s conservative take on issues. Please have others be quieter when he is giving an opinion.
Posted by: Jo Ann Miller | August 20, 2009, 8:32 am 8:32 am
I am glad George Will is back, although I am converted democrat, I feel George has very level head opinion. Better keep him for us.
Posted by: Samia Gohara | August 20, 2009, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Actually McCain spend a good part of his recess in Arizona at Canyon deChelly and talking to members of the Navaho Nation. They have huge health care issues and get their care from the government. He may have some interesting stories about the Navaho’s had to say!
Posted by: Susan | August 20, 2009, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
George:
Please ask Senator McCain why the people should trust his views on healthcare reform since he took more money than any of his colleagues in the Senate from the insurance lobby – over $500,000 in 3 years. Washington-Post March 2009. Thanks.
Posted by: Sandra | August 20, 2009, 4:22 pm 4:22 pm
Sandra, ask Mr. Obama why we should trust him, with Unions pouring hundreds of millions into his election bid last fall. Your argument about McCain isn’t well formultated. All politicians take funds from lobbyists….Just to remind you that’s why Mr. Obama was elected to go to Washington…Transparency, and change…remember. What a bill of goods. If he truly wanted reform he would listen to a few of differing views on healthcare. We know now that the majority is NOT for his public option. Take a look at the most recent polls.
Posted by: claimAmericaBack | August 20, 2009, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
Senator McCain:
The Navajo, Hualapai, Havasupai, Hopi, and Kaibab-Paiute tribes have all testified in support of the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act, while you and Senator Kyl have written a letter opposing this Act. Why are you not supporting the Native people who live in and around the Grand Canyon and their desire to stop uranium mining in their homeland?
Posted by: William in Flagstaff | August 20, 2009, 4:59 pm 4:59 pm
Teddy Roosevelt said that we should leave the Grand Canyon like it is because man can only mar it. That’s what thousands of uranium mining claims around the park threaten to do. Why isn’t Senator McCain choosing to protect the Grand Canyon against this threat?
Posted by: Rob | August 20, 2009, 5:38 pm 5:38 pm
George:
Please ask Senator McCain why he opposes efforts to protect Grand Canyon National Park’s watersheds from uranium mining despite resounding support for such protections among the public, local elected officials, business owners, all northern Arizona tribes, research scientists, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California?
Perhaps you could give Senator McCain the opportunity to explain to his constituents exactly who, aside from the uranium mining industry, he represents on this issue.
Posted by: Bill M. in Flagstaff, Ariz. | August 20, 2009, 5:47 pm 5:47 pm
Please ask Senator McCain why he continues to use the “what Mo Udall wanted in the 1984 Wilderness Act” argument to support his stance favoring uranium mining near the Canyon when Mark Trautwein, Udall’s leg director who actually wrote the bill, directly disputed McCain’s version of events when he testified before Congress a few weeks ago. McCain’s own pollster did a survey in June showing 66% in Arizona support banning uranium mining near the Canyon and the water supply for 30 million people.
Posted by: Thomas | August 20, 2009, 6:10 pm 6:10 pm
Yay! For the past few weeks, I would just have to skip the round tables, because George Will wasn’t there. I’m a ‘screaming liberal’, as my in-laws call me, but I LOVE George Will. He is both logical and hilarious, and I look forward to the moments when he puts other screaming liberals in their place with a well-placed zinger. Oh, and his expressions whenever Sam Donaldson opens his mouth are priceless.
Posted by: Julie G | August 20, 2009, 9:24 pm 9:24 pm
Senator McCain:
Please ask Senator McCain why he is not supporting efforts to protect Grand Canyon National Park and the Grand Canyon watershed. It appears he has lost touch with the land and the people of Arizona.
Posted by: Sandy | August 20, 2009, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
Nice. George Will and Krugman are back. They make an excellent round table!
Posted by: Andre Kenji | August 20, 2009, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
I believe that Congress nd the President do not have the knowledge necessary to make wholesale changes in our total Health Care area. They should concentrate on fixing medicare. Then if their solution works we might have more faith in other ideas.
Medicare pays some where between 50% and 80% of the tru cost of medical care. Any “Public Option” will be a political football and well end up in a similiar position. The will make matters worse.
I hear the words “we are a rich country”. The Controller General has told Congress and the Administration many times taht we are on an unsustainable spending spree. Our future commitments to Teachers, Government employees, Military veterns, police and firemen, medicade, medicare and Social Security we financially bankrupt our country. So why would Congress talk about adding another commitment, eventually we will all suffer for over promising benefits to the electorate.
Posted by: Lyle W Hughart | August 21, 2009, 4:20 pm 4:20 pm
Amazing. McCain does not have the guts to do a town hall, a face-to-face with his constituents.
Posted by: newz4i | August 21, 2009, 8:56 pm 8:56 pm
Dear “ClaimAmericaback”, respect the Office, and address Our President as “President Obama”, Mr.Obama or Mr. President, PLEASE. Furthermore what have you loss? America was not yours in the beginning, your people stole it from the true Americans. Your forefathers was brought over to this country after King George kicked all the undesirables out of England. The King was cleansing that Country and sent your kins to one of the 13 original colonies which actually was a holding state for all those criminals(murderers, thieves, prostitutes, and yes LIARS)Hm-mm, we all know why you all act like you do..”apples don’t fall from the criminal mentality tree”. and ,one more thing, Columbus did not discover America..he got lost and the Indians found HIM!
Posted by: truthbetold | August 22, 2009, 8:50 am 8:50 am
We’re so glad to know that George Will is back. He is the standard of excellence at The Round Table.
Posted by: jo nichols | August 22, 2009, 9:22 am 9:22 am
There’s been surprisingly little network coverage of the Leonard Peltier parole decision. It got nary a mention on any of the major broadcast networks’ evening newscasts last night. Perhaps, though, it’d make a good roundtable question? Even thoughts from the Green Room would be welcome.
Posted by: Josh Braun | August 22, 2009, 9:37 am 9:37 am
Please find out how those who oppose a public health insurance option to create more competition defend this $1 BILLION DOLLAR PLUS BONUS PAID TO UNITED HEALTH CHAIRMAN William McGuire – (Wall Street Journal- “April 18, 2006) Here is the start of the article:
Health-Care Gold Mines: Middlemen Strike It Rich — Rewarding Career: As Patients, Doctors Feel Pinch, Insurer’s CEO Makes a Billion — UnitedHealth Directors Strive To Please `Brilliant’ Chief
The Wall Street Journal
April 18, 2006 Tuesday
SECTION: Pg. A1
LENGTH: 2657 words
HEADLINE: Health-Care Gold Mines: Middlemen Strike It Rich — Rewarding Career: As Patients, Doctors Feel Pinch, Insurer’s CEO Makes a Billion — UnitedHealth Directors Strive To Please `Brilliant’ Chief;
New Questions on Options — Selling Trout for 40 Cents a Pound
BYLINE: By George Anders
[First in a Series]
MINNETONKA, Minn. — When William McGuire switched careers in 1986, he was so restless that a pay cut of more than 30% didn’t faze him. Health maintenance organizations were booming, and Dr. McGuire wanted to help run one. So he jettisoned a six-figure income as a pulmonologist in favor of an HMO management job that paid about $70,000 a year.
Savvy move. Today, the 58-year-old Dr. McGuire is chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group Inc., one of the nation’s largest health-care companies. He draws $8 million a year in salary plus bonus, enjoying perks such as personal use of the company jet. He also has amassed one of the largest stock-options fortunes of all time.
Unrealized gains on Dr. McGuire’s options totaled $1.6 billion, according to UnitedHealth’s proxy statement released this month. Even celebrated CEOs such as General Electric Co.’s Jack Welch or International Business Machines Corp.’s Louis Gerstner never were granted so much during their time at the top.
Dr. McGuire’s story shows how an elite group of companies is getting rich from the nation’s fraying health-care system. Many of them aren’t discovering drugs or treating patients. They’re middlemen who process the paperwork, fill the pill bottles and otherwise connect the pieces of a $2 trillion industry.
The middlemen credit themselves with keeping the health system humming and restraining costs. They’re bringing in robust profits — and their executives are among the country’s most richly paid — as doctors, patients, hospitals and even drug makers are feeling a financial squeeze. Some 46 million Americans lack health insurance.
UnitedHealth’s main business is offering health plans to employers and Medicare beneficiaries. Bigger employers usually pay employees’ medical bills out of their own coffers and hire UnitedHealth to administer the health benefit. Smaller employers pay an annual insurance premium to UnitedHealth in exchange for having the insurer take on the risk of covering employees’ health care.
The “risk” business has been a particular gold mine for UnitedHealth and its rivals in recent years. As health-care inflation eased, insurers still raised premiums at double-digit rates. UnitedHealth’s stock price tripled between January 2003 and January 2006, helped by acquisitions, although it has fallen back somewhat since the beginning of this year. UnitedHealth’s net income in 2005 totaled $3.3 billion, nearly four times the figure in 2001.
UnitedHealth directors in the late 1990s allowed Dr. McGuire the rare freedom to time his stock-option grants. In several cases the grants carried dates when the company’s share price was particularly low, allowing him to profit when it recovered. The company’s options-granting practices were among several scrutinized in a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal last month and are being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Journal’s analysis of 12 options grants to Dr. McGuire from 1994 to mid-2002 found that if the options had been randomly dated, the odds of their occurring at such propitious times were about 1 in 200 million. It raised the possibility that the options grants were backdated. Backdating an options grant isn’t necessarily illegal, but civil or criminal actions could be brought if disclosure of the practice were inadequate, securities lawyers say. A UnitedHealth spokesman said the grants were appropriate, but the company’s board is reviewing options-granting procedures.
The arrival of the $1 billion CEO would be a head-turner in any industry. But it’s especially controversial in health care, where “people tend to view each dollar of executive pay as money that isn’t spent on them,” says Jonathan Weiner, a health-policy expert at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. McGuire and his supporters say the U.S. would be in even worse shape if it weren’t for insurers such as UnitedHealth weeding out unnecessary treatments, bargaining with doctors and encouraging patients to seek out the highest-quality care.
Ever since missing a stock-market windfall in the late 1980s, Dr. McGuire has pursued stock-options wealth tirelessly, as an iron-willed leader surrounded by an admiring board. He declined to discuss his pay, but current and former directors talked at length about their desire to do whatever is necessary to keep Dr. McGuire happy.
Posted by: William Greenbaum | August 22, 2009, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
Why do all of you assume that people not approving of what President Obama is doing with health care is because people disagree with his proposals? Some may be disagree that he is not doing enough to push for a universal or single payer option and thus they would also answer the polls that they are disagree with him. Remember to report on what the question was and potential interpretations of the question. I’m annoyed with the media when you only provide part of the picture. No wonder the public is confused.
Posted by: K Boyle | August 23, 2009, 9:42 am 9:42 am
Hay George.
I see John McCain mentioned my idea to use the BRAC commission model to reform policy. As you know,I sent this idea to use the BRAC to reform healthcare to al the presidential candidates early in the campaigne. He mentioned it in the second presidentialdebat, but did not elaborate on the idea. We can reform heathcare using this commission and taking the politics out of the debate. Please make an effort to make this idea public. I believe this is the only way to reform healthcare in any meaningful way. If is broken and the poiliticians will never be able to reform it in the current enviroment, one piece at a time.
Leslie Jenkins
Posted by: Leslei Jenkins | August 23, 2009, 10:28 am 10:28 am
George…I can’t for the life of me see your continous courtship w/a stodgy disgruntled distorter of truth like John McCain.
Posted by: marta lee | August 23, 2009, 10:34 am 10:34 am
Are you kidding me, how do these guy’s think that a public option will create compition? It has already been pointed out to myself and fellow workers if there comes a public option my employer is going to drop our health care and force use on public health care. Can you really blame them, they cut cost. What company would not do that just to be a bit more competative. People need to becareful what they want for other people, it just might be what you end up with. Lastly if these politicans are not willing to go this health care plan then sit down stay out of the fray and you can not vote on it.
Posted by: Steven | August 23, 2009, 10:52 am 10:52 am
Here’s an idea! Why don’t we delink health care insurance from a job and operate it like we do with car or house insurance. You are required to have car insurance when you register a car and house insurance when you take out a mortgage. Continuing to connect health insurance and a job along with government option is simply going down the same old path.
Posted by: John | August 23, 2009, 10:57 am 10:57 am
George Will is back alright… with his same partisan hypocrisy. I’m sorry, but as soon as you become hypocritical you lose credit. Maybe he doesn’t even know he’s doing it? Well, let’s remind him… I got this quote from his own Washington Post Oped piece, which he does frequently. It was Dec. 4 2006 and he is AGREEING with McCain on increase in troops in Iraq and NEVER mentions “nation building” -
“And absent adoption of the McCain policy — a substantial increase in forces — America’s waning influence on events may derive from the increasing likelihood that the scant protection that American forces now provide will be withdrawn.”
- And what does he do today… goes on TV and says it seems like we’re ‘nation building’ in Afghanistan and decries Obama’s call for more troops… You make the call…
Posted by: J.T. | August 23, 2009, 11:13 am 11:13 am
I can’t recall who made the statement/comment today on This Week at the roundtable but…..the idea/suggestion that the doctor be re-imbursed for talking to a patient about end of life issues was interesting. I work in health care as a RN( for over 30 yrs now )and I have experienced very few doctors approaching this conversation with patients OR their families. I feel that this is not just part of their job but also an ethical responsibility. You would be amazed at the amount of care that is expended that perhaps could have been avoided if patients AND families would address the topic of living (healthcare )wills and advanced directives. Not a pretty subject at any point in life but one we all must face as we all we leave this earth as some point in time.
Posted by: Ellen | August 23, 2009, 11:23 am 11:23 am
George Wills comment about the cheering the billions the pharmaceutical companies make is only part right.
If the US could negotiate the wholesale price of drugs with the pharmaceutical companies like Canada, England and most of Europe do then we wouldn’t be spending 17% (and going up)of our GDP on health care.
My husband is in congestive heart failure… 2 of the 13 medications he takes are alone are almost $800 monthly. If we lived in Europe or Canada those 2 medications would (retail price) be slightly over $300.
As long as the U.S. subsidizes the health care of the rest of the world more and more U.S. citizens will be unable pay for for their health care. It’s very sad that one of the most educated countries in the world has almost 3rd world health care for 1/3 of it’s population.
Posted by: Paula | August 23, 2009, 11:27 am 11:27 am
As long as we keep losing jobs, we need Universal Healthcare. Unfortunately, at this time,many peple don’t even have THE CHOICE to pay for healthcare or not-because they are not able to even find work! So for them, I say this coverage needs to be passed.
Then I think about someone like me. I have to work six days a week to clear $1200-$1800 a paycheck and my employer, for full-coverage, would have me pay close to $500 a month for insurance. That doesn’t even include deductables should I choose to go to the doctor. And I’m not even paying for a family! Do you realize, for people like me, and I’m sure many others, that’s 5% of my paycheck out the door for “just in case” coverage? Money I will never see again. There’s no thrift in this current plan at all-and we’ve got to get back to helping people save! The propaganda of health coverage has been built into our culture and it’s total garbage. 9 trillion dollars later and we still haven’t procured ONE BENEFICIAL THING for the American people. And don’t get me started on the corporate bailout.
Posted by: Teeny | August 23, 2009, 11:31 am 11:31 am
George, you are the John Stossel of politics. While you espouse neutrality, your continuing to have that nutball George Will and other Republican shills on your so-called roundtable. Will and the other neocon bobble heads just repeat Republican strategy of obstruction and disinformation. I have yet to hear anything approaching intelligent thought coming from these people. You may as well have Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity who are much better a slinging vitro and spittle.
Posted by: GaLiberal | August 23, 2009, 11:45 am 11:45 am
Also, I didn’t care for David Frum. That group does a wonderful job of patiently listening to one another and presenting their side well. I next to never agree with George Will, but I greatly appreciate his candor. David Frum, interupting hot-head whose opinion I am not interested.
Posted by: Teeny | August 23, 2009, 11:50 am 11:50 am
Plz can you quit bring that George Will guy to your show. Sometimes he just doesn’t make any sense. And who tells him you must frown ur face all the time on tv.
Posted by: Ugo | August 23, 2009, 11:52 am 11:52 am
Kudos to John on making a MUCH better comparison to what seems like a good model… Car Insurance! We already have state by state regs on health insurance companies… let’s handle it state by state and make it law that everyone needs it… to help ease the hit on families who are struggling, allow a tax credit, or give them grace period if they make below certain amount until it becomes workable and prices come down. Think of the possibilities- discounts for being an active member of a gym, just like good driver discounts, etc. The comparison to the Post Office doesn’t work because the Post Office is, hold your ears all you conservative knee jerks, a MONOPOLY. It’s law that certain mail (ex. non urgent letters) can only be handled by USPS AND ONLY USPS can access mail boxes.
Now there is still competition, but the market is basically controlled. I don’t even think there are a lot of Dem’s out there who would agree to give a Gov’t sponsored Health Care Co. (aka Public Option) those types of monopolies. Therefore we would need to give it tax dollars (which the USPS does NOT take to run) to level the field. Can’t do it right now.
So I think I finally see we don’t NEED a public option for reform that brings cost down… but we need to get a LOT tougher with Insurance Companies than we are. I don’t see Car Insurance Companies telling Congress what to do, YET they still manage to do pretty darn good. In fact it is a VERY healthy market with good competition… a model I think people need to look at more… So again, good point John.
Posted by: J.T. | August 23, 2009, 12:18 pm 12:18 pm
I must admit I never gave the concept of “state by state” health insurance a thought, but perhaps this might have some merit to it. My current health care and employer does offer incentives and some financial “rewards” for those who participate in healthy lifestyles or changes ( gyms, wt loss programs etc.) and this needs to be done on a broader basis. Along with health care reform talks involving monies, we need to start being better informed/educated on personal accountability for our health. The number of noncompliant patients being treated on a monthly if not weekly basis for not trying to do the right thing for their own well being is draining the health care monies. I am not exactly sure how to do this but I think about it frequently and hope this part of the picture gets attention too.
Posted by: Ellen | August 23, 2009, 1:52 pm 1:52 pm