President Pressured on Health Care, Examining the Public Option; Voting Violence in Afghanistan; Targeting the Taliban; Inside a Health Care Cooperative; Painting for Health Care Change
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, John. Your future health care is on our minds right now. We're going to tell you what's going on at the White House to try and reach a consensus with Congress. Listen to this. A 600-pound teenager is seeking donations for surgery. Here's the question that we're asking you -- should gastric bypass be paid for him by his insurance company if he wants this? Interesting story. Also violence aimed at voters. New Afghan attacks two days before the presidential elections. Hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. I'm sitting in for Heidi Collins. It's Tuesday, August 18th, and you are now officially in the CNN NEWSROOM. All right, here's what we're going to be focusing on. Two major stories this hour, health care and hurricane season. Our Suzanne Malveaux, she's at the White House where officials are clarifying comments, keyword here is "clarifying comments" on the public option. Our Elizabeth Cohen is going to break down the health care debate and try and get to what's critical for you. We're going to be talking about co-ops today, by the way. And then we're also watching what's going on in the Atlantic. The hurricane season is well into it. Could Bill make a beeline for the Atlantic coast? Bill or Anna, which is it? Let's start with this. It's make-or-break month for health care reform and a lot of supporters of the public option are wondering if that element of health care reform is even going to happen now. Given what the president's been saying for the last couple of days. I mean there's been hint the administration over the weekend could just totally drop the option just to get something passed. But now there's a different signal. This morning. It's coming out of the White House. White House aide Linda Douglass has released a statement. I want to read it to you. Listen to this. What's your take on this? "The president has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and it must increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals." "The public option is the best way to achieve those goals." This is interesting. Almost like parsing words over the last 72 hours. So the president is responding to pressure, it seems, from both sides now of the health care debate. Our Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House this morning. Suzanne? I think most Americans would want to know from you, what gives? Is public option in? Is public option out? What's going on?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Rick, you know, this can best really be summarized by what was happening last week when the president didn't have anything on his public schedule. He was quietly meeting with his senior staff at a health care reform staff, trying to figure out what's on the table here. What can possibly pass? They knew they did not have the votes necessary in the Senate on the Senate side for the public option. So what are we seeing happen here essentially is that they are de-emphasizing the public option saying it is not the only option, it's the best option, it's the one the president really likes, but in the absence of really pushing it forward, what seems to be bubbling up to the surface? What's percolating? They are trying to show some flexibility here because they are trying to attract some Republicans, the moderate, the fiscally conservative Democrats, and they're also trying to reassure those who are very concerned that those private insurance companies are going to go out of business. So de-emphasizing one thing, this public option, seeing what comes to the surface, that is this co-op idea that you're going to talk about a little bit later. It is all a part of the process because they are very clear about this one thing, Rick. That whatever the president signs, if he signs something later in the year, it's not going to look like the legislation, the ideas that we see on the table today, or even yesterday. So they are trying to get a sense of what's out there and what sticks.</s>SANCHEZ: Well, yes, speaking of sticks. If this thing is such a big sticking point, look at this way. If the Republicans say we're not going to vote for this thing if it has a public option and you have most of the Democrats, at least the non-Blue Dog Democrats saying we're not going to vote this thing if there isn't a public option. Is there a possibility that nobody's going to vote on anything then and there's not going to be health care reform?</s>MALVEAUX: Well, that certainly is the risk. That's the political risk that you take, that's the reason why you hear people like Linda Douglass emphasizing those two points. Really, you know, they don't have to put a label on any of this stuff right now. There are labels, of course, but this could be kind of potpourri of a lot of different things, as long as they feel like on the end, they come away with something that is slowing down the cost of health care as well as providing some sort of competition for these private insurance companies. If they can say yes, we've done that in the end, they can say, hey, you know, we won here, victory, we got something on the table, we've got health care reform. There's a reason why they're being deliberately fuzzy in all of this, Rick. Ultimately, when it's all said and done, they want to say, you know, we came out on the winning side of this thing.</s>SANCHEZ: Or it could end up like Hillary Care take two when we're all done with this, as well. We'll be watching and I'm glad we've got you to do that for us. Suzanne Malveaux, good reporting. We thank you. Also, this is what else we're going to do. We're going to take the public option into the examination room, so to speak. This is a new segment that we're going to be calling health care right now. Let's go over to our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, try and break this one down for us.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Rick. Some people love the public option, others hate it. But you know what I think a lot of people don't even really know what it is. So that's what we're going to do today. Let's take a look at what exactly is the public option is in both the Senate and the House plans as it stands. The premiums for it would be 10 to 20 percent lower than private insurance and basically it would -- the government would pay for -- would fund most of this program, the government would administer it, which is why people have problems. It's similar in many ways, Rick, to Medicare. Everyone's familiar with Medicare. It's government-paid, government-sponsored health insurance for everyone 65 and older. In many ways the public option would be Medicare for younger people, Rick?</s>SANCHEZ: You know, when you look at the plan, though, you can't help but wonder if it's like Medicare and if it's like, in many regards, Social Security, for example, is there a place for the government to step in and either boost or compete with some of the folks out there in the health care industry? The private health care industry?</s>COHEN: Right, Rick, that's exactly the concern. The concern is when you have premiums that are 10 to 20 percent lower that private industry could have a hard time competing. That's the concern. Now the authors of these bills, and I've talked to their spoke people, they say look, that's crazy. Insurance companies make a ton of money. They're going to be able to compete, plus there are provisions in the bill that say, hey, big companies, big employers, you can't put your employees on the public plan. It's hands off for you, at least for a certain period of time. So big companies would still pretty much by definition have to use private insurance, at least for a number of years.</s>SANCHEZ: And then there's something else that we're going to be considering today. This is going to be an interesting conversation. I think we're all going to be ending up learning a lot about what's going on. Elizabeth, thanks so much. We'll be getting back to you in just a little bit. We're going to hear more questions and opinions on health care reform at town hall meetings across the country today. And you know those have always been extremely interesting. Also Congressman Barney Frank's session in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, we'll have some of that. And Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is going to hold a town hall today in Chicago. Other congressmen are going to also hold town hall meetings, we understand, in Florida, in Oklahoma, and in Texas. If you want to know more about the health care debate and how the reforms could affect you and your family, check out the special "Health Care in America" section. It's on CNN.com. You can get the latest from the town hall debates, fact checks, iReports, and other health care news. Just go to CNN.com/healthcare. All right. Two days before historic elections in Afghanistan, there's something I need to share with you. There have been a round of fresh attacks that have rocked the capital. Two developments, first of all, a rocket strikes the presidential palace in Kabul, and a suicide bomber has targeted a military convoy. I want to take you through some of these. This is the latest violence since the Taliban insurgents vowed to disrupt Thursday's historic elections. CNN's Atia Abawi is in Kabul. Atia, what do we know at this point about these attacks? Can you take us through them as best you can?</s>ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what I can tell you, Rick, that it is intimidation. It's an intimidation from the insurgency here in Afghanistan. Targeting internationals, coalition troops as well as Afghans. And today's car bomb in the capital city of Kabul, we have at least seven Afghans killed and 53 injured. Among those killed were two U.N. employees, U.N. local nationals. We are also hearing from the coalition troops that they had deaths, as well. We still don't know the nationalities or just how many troops were killed. And that is -- just coming, like you said, just two days before the second ever Afghan presidential election. It's a form of intimidation. We saw another car bomb here in the capital city on Saturday, killing seven Afghans, as well, and injuring more than 90. And when I spoke to a 21-year-old girl who told me she had a voting card, she wanted to go out and vote in Thursday's election, but that blast made up her mind for her and she will not go out and vote. Rick?</s>SANCHEZ: You know, any time you have these elections, we saw the same thing in Iraq and we've seen it also in different parts of the world, including Latin America, there are forces that will come together to stop the election from happening. And that may very well be what we're seeing there in Afghanistan right now. I understand, and I want to ask you about this, I understand that yesterday you went to one of these election rallies. We've seen in the past where these things can get very dangerous, they can turn on a dime. What was it like for you being in that crowd? How worried were you? And what did you do to protect yourself?</s>ABAWI: When you go to these crowds in Afghanistan, whether it's Afghanistan or Iraq, any war zone, like you've mentioned, you do have a sense of intimidation because there are crowds. You have a presidential candidate coming. There could be forms of attempted assassination for these presidential candidates. And when we were there, you also have the spirit and the energy of the crowds. We had gentlemen climbing on fences, ripping the fences down just to get a closer look at one of -- Dr. Abdullah, the presidential candidates. We saw a stand carrying dozens of journalists just fall. Later on I saw a journalist with a bloody hat. And his head kept bleeding but yet he still kept shooting the event. As a journalist, you go to these stories, you know you have to go to these stories to get it out to the world. But what's amazing is watching these Afghan people knowing that they're at a risk still have the spirit to come out, the spirit to actually go to a political rally and a place where the average Afghan says that they're disenchanted by the government and the political process.</s>SANCHEZ: And I bet any time you hear any kind of noise in the background, a cheer or fall or anything else, you end up ducking and who's to blame you? Atia Abawi, one tough cookie, my thanks to you for bringing us that information from that area. Meanwhile, President Obama is urging patience with the Afghanistan war now. His message is aimed at those who know the difficulties of battle. In fact, those who know it all too well. They are the Veterans of Foreign Wars. So yesterday, at their annual convention in Phoenix, the president called for patience.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight, and we won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick nor easy. But we must never forget.</s>SANCHEZ: The president also stressed, by the way, this is not a war of choice. He says if the United States ignores the Taliban, it's going to provide an even greater safe haven for al Qaeda, its cousin. Also this morning, Afghanistan says it has taken two terrorists off the streets. They say one is a Taliban commander who was injured in an attack from a drone. One of those small planes. It's pilotless. The other is a spokesperson for the militant group. Now one would think that a militant group would possibly not be able to have a spokesperson. They do. There you go. The bank bailout funds were supposed to keep money flowing to some of the borrowers, so why is it now that we're learning in some recent reports that bankers are still reluctant to lend and to whom? Our money team is going to have the answer on that one for you. Here's Jacqui.</s>JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. Hurricane Bill getting stronger, packing winds around 100 miles per hour now and will likely become the first major hurricane of the season. The latest on where it's headed coming up in your forecast.