Pawlenty says he'd lead charge to opt out of federal health care

Posted at 9:16 PM on October 23, 2009 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)

Gov. Pawlenty told ABC's Topline webcast that he would lead the charge of opting out of any federal health care bill that would include a public option.

The proposal is gaining traction on Capitol Hill where House and Senate Democrats are taking the temperature of their members to see what plan works. No word on how the opt out plan would work or when it would kick in. So theoretically, Pawlenty may not be governor if and when the plan kicks in. If a decision was required by next year, he would also face a DFL controlled Legislature that would be less likely to back Pawlenty's "charge" to opt out of a federal package.

Here's the transcript from Topline.

ABC's David Chalian: "Would you opt out, would Minnesota opt out of a public option?"

Gov. Pawlenty: "I don't know if I would opt out but I personally would like to opt out because I don't like government run health care. We shouldn't call it the public option we should call it what it is which is government run health care.

They are desperate, the Democrats are thrashing about, to figure out some way to get government run health care into the final package, embedded into the final package. And their rationale is we have to keep the private sector honest. So what's next then? If you don't like the price of toilet paper toothpaste would you create a government Target or a Wal-Mart to keep the private sector honest. It's a ludicrous proposition that government is going to come into this space and compete directly with the private sector. Whether it's opt in, opt out, trigger, I don't care. I don't like the idea..."

Chalian: "You would lead a charge in your state to opt out if that option was available?"

Pawlenty: "Well, I think so because I don't like government run health care."

ABC's Rick Klein: "I can understand you saying that it's not right for Minnesota. Would you have a problem with that being there for other states as an option. It may not be right in Minnesota but the governor from another state may say 'That is what I want."

Pawlenty: "Well there is a philosophical issue here about what should the federal government be doing and one of the things that they shouldn't be doing is continuing to add entitlement programs to their portfolio. They put on a pathway to bankruptcy every entitlement program that they currently run, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and others. Why would we give them another one when they can't even run the ones that they have?

Klein: "But what about the states having that option? If a state says this is right for it, do it. If it's not right for it then don't do it?

Pawlenty: "In terms of the state option, it's better than having them mandate it but I still don't like the idea, philosophically, of government run health insurance. I think it's a bad idea."

UPDATE: DFL state Rep. Tom Huntley tells the Pi Press that any opt out strategy would require legislation and he said lawmakers aren't interested:

"Why would you say no to something (when) you don't know what the details are?" Huntley said. "This is the typical Republican 'just say no' to anything on health care."

Comments (4)

Fortunately, we only have one more year of this jacka&&. Do the media people ever stop to ask, "What about Medicare, TImmy? Do you think people should have Medicare?" No, they give him a pass.

I sincerely hope that when Pawlenty runs for president, the opposition candidate -- Romney, likely - runs a barrage of advertisements that says that Pawlenty opposes Medicare and will cut Medicare. It's just insane, this notion that we would not have the ability to get into the federal option. It's just nuts.

Posted by teo | October 23, 2009 9:54 PM

Since Pawlenty doesn't like government-run health care, he should immediately give up his health insurance from the State of Minnesota. I also expect him to refuse Medicare at age 65. We WILL have single payer sooner or later because it is the ONLY way to cover everyone and keep costs down. Until that day, thousands of people will die for lack of health care and thousands will have to declare bankruptcy because of their health costs.

Posted by Suzanne | October 23, 2009 11:06 PM

Minnesota already has a public option for people who can't get insurance in the private market. It's called MinnesotaCare and currently has about 150,000 enrollees.

Posted by Tom | October 24, 2009 6:46 PM

The Governor appears to have no concern for the living conditions of the constituents that he serves, especially those that are not as blessed in life as he. My impression is that he would do away with all publicly funded health care programs (just as he recently terminated funding for Emergency Assistance for persons experiencing devastating life circumstances). Governor Pawlenty has also attempted, for most of his luxurious employment as governor, to eradicate the current health care program for Minnesotan's who fall between cracks of having optimal health coverage provided by an employer and not being destitute enough to qualify for Medical Assistance or other Community-based "free" programs. This program is called MinnesotaCare and has been very successful in providing for these citizens(and yes, even unemployed people are citizens). The words that I have heard come out of this man's mouth often appear to make sense, but his actions have proven contradictory to these words and his insincerity may be the cause of much needless pain and suffering, due to the fact that their needs regarding the ability to care for their health are not able to be addressed. It's not the citizen's fault that the systems are failing -- should their needs suffer due to ineffective corporations? Millions of dollars are constantly being spent for corporations to analyze the effectiveness of their companies. Is it really that difficult to find intelligent responsible people to come together for the cause and get something accomplished without this constant childish bickering? Tim Pawlenty was very fortunate to have coerced Minnesotans to swallow his lies and elect him as the Governor of Minnesota, our traditionally Democratic state. It's just too bad that his motives appear to be more career driven rather than driven by the needs of the public.

Posted by Angel | November 4, 2009 8:48 PM

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