Dem asks, ‘Why do we even need the Health insurance companies?’

Dem asks, ‘Why do we even need the insurance companies?’

By David Edwards and Stephen Webster

Published: July 31, 2009

Updated 3 hours ago

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), hoping to force the GOP to put up or shut up on health reform, introduced an amendment Thursday night that would have repealed medicare, thereby forcing Republicans to show their support for the largest form of government-run healthcare in the U.S.

Speaking to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Thursday broadcast, he took his point even further and wondered aloud why America even needs health insurance companies.

“What we’ve learned is that government-administered healthcare works pretty darn well,” he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday. “It’s got low overhead and people like it. So, when my colleagues pound the drum and pound the podium about how they hate government-run healthcare, I guess they haven’t looked at what they get.”

The congressman added that he believes medicare works so well and is so simple that America does not need the health insurance companies at all.

“Why do we even need the insurance companies?” he asked. “What constructive role are they playing? They’re taking tens of billions of dollars each year and putting that into profits when that should have been going into healthcare.”

He declared that only a “true single-payer system” will work and said he plans to introduce legislation that would accomplish those ends. “It’s simpler and we know it works,” he said.

This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast July 30, 2009.

Download video via RawReplay.com