Hatch: I Believe Harry Reid, Who Said this Is a First-Step Toward a Single-Payer System

HATCH: "Look, I think this is a terrible bill. And that's not because I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I've worked as much on health care issues around here in the last 37 years as any number of people, and frankly better than most. I have a desire to have things work. But let me tell you, Senator Reid I think said it very well. They ask him, 'is this basically going to work', and he basically said that it's just a step on the way to a single-payer system, meaning a one-size-fits-all federal government run system. That's what worries Republicans, and I think it worries good Democrats, too. And I'm very concerned about this going into a socialized medicine situation, where we really, really can't control the cost, can't control the system, and we denigrate the system instead of helping it. So naturally I'm concerned about it, and a lot of republicans are concerned about it, and I even know some democrats who are concerned about it. This is not a simple bunch of political hacks working at it. This is a very serious set of problems. I don't envy you to be in your position, and have to answer all these questions, and have to be the front person in trying to make this thing work. All I can say is that yes, I'll try to help make it work if I can. But I don't think it's going to work, and that's the problem. And without costing American's an arm and a leg, and without really taking people's health care away from them. But I think there are sincere people on both sides who would like to solve our health care problems in this country, and just think about it, the president said 85 percent of America had health insurance they were satisfied with. Why didn't we just work on getting the 15 percent to have the health care that they need, rather than jeopardize the whole system, and to have all these problems that aren't going to go away very quickly, and may never go away?"