Frederica Freyberg:
For more on health care reform, we move over to the Democratic side of the aisle and welcome Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Madison. Thank you for being here.

Tammy Baldwin:
It's a pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:
We asked Congressman Petri why he voted no. Why did you vote yes?

Tammy Baldwin:
Well, this is an issue that is of such importance to the constituents that I represent. There's not a day that goes by that I don't hear the stories about what's wrong with our current system, many, many people who are left behind or who risk financial devastation even though they have health care coverage because of the gaps in our system today. So I think this is an extraordinary opportunity, and I was very pleased to work to improve the legislation in our committee and to vote to advance it for full House consideration when we return in September.

Frederica Freyberg:
And I want to talk about your committee work in just a few minutes.

Tammy Baldwin:
Yeah.

Frederica Freyberg:
But first I want to ask, what effect are these town hall meetings across the country and here in Wisconsin having on house members?

Tammy Baldwin:
Well, I think it's evolving as this month plays out. Early on, we were seeing what appears to be a very orchestrated attempt to disrupt, to silence voices both for and against reform, because when you're drowning people out you're not able to hear suggestions either to improve or to perhaps stop the legislation. But I see that changing as word gets out of these disruptive tactics. And all of a sudden I see more people who have been pushing for health care reform for many, many years saying, gosh, it's our duty to come to these town hall meetings and to participate in every way that there is to let representatives know what the citizens think. So our phones are ringing off the hook. We get emails on a daily basis. And what we're seeing is as the month plays out, more and more people saying, you guys have got to get health care reform passed this year, and you've got to do it right.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, you are holding town hall meetings but by phone. Why by phone?

Tammy Baldwin:
Well, it's a new technology available to members of Congress that allow us to reach many more people than can come to neighborhood town hall meetings. I was amazed to learn that this technology provides us to place about 50,000 outgoing phone calls at once and allow that many people to participate in a live town hall meeting. They can call in, just press “star one,” I think to get in the queue to ask questions. There can be lots of questions that are handled. And of course there's not the opportunity to disrupt in the way that we're seeing. But I also think that the face-to-face meetings are very important and that's why as we plan out the year, we plan to make sure that I am in all my communities for live town halls, and we also present this telephone town hall opportunity at other recesses.

Frederica Freyberg:
I want to move right into some of the opposition and what they're saying. Congressman Petri cites this cost. What do you say about that?

Tammy Baldwin:
Well, the promise of the president and the commitment of Congress, both houses, is to pay for it. This will not add to the nation's deficit, and that’s a commitment that’s been made. As we progress in developing this legislation, over half of the cost will be covered by savings and greater efficiencies within the current system. We know that we spend more than twice as much per person on health care than any other industrialized country that covers all of its citizens, and we get poorer outcomes. That suggests that there's a lot of efficiency that can be added to our system and a lot of waste and redundancy that can be extracted. So, that's about half of it. And then we do know that we will have to have additional fees. The idea behind this is it's shared responsibility, employer, government, individual all contributing so that we can have a health care system that covers all.

Frederica Freyberg:
What about these so-called death panels?

Tammy Baldwin:
They don't exist and I think that this has been a really interesting discussion on end-of-life care. And I think it started with a lot of misinformation, but as that's been more widely dispersed, we're actually finding we have a teachable moment here in the United States. We're all going to die, but we all hate to talk about it. What could be better than talking to people earlier on in their lives about what all their options are and allowing them to express their wishes either in writing with a living will or durable power of attorney or to their loved ones and their physician so their wishes can be respected when that time comes?

Frederica Freyberg:
So that doesn't mean it's a cost-saving measurement that someone from the government decides whether or not you should get that kind of care.

Tammy Baldwin:
Absolutely not. And frankly, the reason these discussions are so important, often people find that they have their wishes disrespected, and in fact they get treatment contrary to their wishes. What is more important than having your own wishes respected about end-of-life issues?

Frederica Freyberg:                               
What about the coverage of abortion? Congressman Petri says while it is not in the package, it's not named in the package, it's also, there's no language about it, and so his fear is that it will be paid for with government funds.

Tammy Baldwin:
And that's actually not true. He sits on a different committee than I do, but in the Energy and Commerce Committee, we dealt with the issue several times in the markup. What is guaranteed in this is no federal tax dollars will be used for abortions. But we're not going to tie the hands of private insurance companies that may or may not choose to offer that as a benefit. It's a legal option. And we're not going to interfere with those decisions as long as they use the private premium funds.

Frederica Freyberg:
I want to get to some of the things you did in committee. Specifically, you offered an amendment that cuts costs to the government for prescription drugs in the public plan by allowing negotiation with drug companies to reduce prices. But now I read that President Obama has hatched a deal with Big Pharma that would disallow this negotiation and disallow re-importing drugs from Canada or Europe. What is your reaction to that?

Tammy Baldwin:
We were aware of the discussions that have gone on between Big Pharma and the White House prior to our committee work. But we didn't really feel that that bound members of Congress as we tried to develop the best legislation possible for the American people. And where we can find additional savings by using the bargaining power of Medicare, for example, or the public plan as you described, we ought to be doing that. I think it's good policy.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, thank you very much.

Tammy Baldwin:
Thank you.