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CNN Larry King Live

President Accepts Wilson's Apology; Dr. Andrew Weil on Health Care Reform

Aired September 10, 2009 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, "You lie!" -- the two words a conservative Congressman now wishes he never said to the president of the United States. Democrats didn't like him, Republicans won't defend him.

Is Joe Wilson's apology enough?

Plus, Dr. Andrew Weil -- one of America's best known physicians will examine Barack Obama's health care reform plan.

Does he agree with the prescription or should we scrap the system and start over?

We'll tell you how to protect your family, too, from the flu epidemic.

It's next on LARRY KING LIVE.

Good evening.

We begin with two outstanding folks to discuss their side of this important issue.

In New Orleans, James Carville, CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist.

And in Dallas, Texas, Nancy Pfotenhauer, the Republican strategist and former adviser to John McCain.

Before we get into this Joe Wilson fiasco, is -- James, is the president going to get a bill?

JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, CLINTON SUPPORTER: I think so. I mean there's a pretty good -- a great deal -- a pretty good bit of optimism. I talked to a number of people today. There's some sense that something is going to be coming out of the Senate Finance Committee. But, you know, this is -- this thing has been tried by many presidents and, you know, the ditch is littered with corpses of people that tried this and failed.

So we'll have to see. It's a tough slog, but something tells me that these guys are going to end up with something at the end of this process.

KING: Nancy, Do you think they will? NANCY PFOTENHAUER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you know, I think, the jury is out. A lot depends on what is actually moving forward. I mean you -- you look at the president's poll numbers on handling this issue and his disapproval is up to 52 percent, which is pretty -- pretty significant. And, you know, there are certain things that could be done relatively easily and that I think the Republicans support.

And, you know, the question is why aren't we talking and moving forward on those things?

Why don't we just do a bill that increases interstate competition, that goes after medical malpractice, maybe, maybe, maybe removes the tax bites against individuals purchasing insurance.

But right now the Democrats have had their head handed to them, if you will, this August and they know it.

KING: All right. Let's take care of this 15 minute story which people still might be talking about today.

CARVILLE: Right.

KING: Republican Congressman Joe Wilson heckling the president last night.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reforms...

(BOOS)

OBAMA: ...the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.

REP. JOE WILSON (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You lie.

(BOOS)

OBAMA: Not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: James, do you think all of this is a -- is an after effect of some of the wacko sides on both sides of this -- radio talk show hosts on both sides who may go over the deep end, that produce something like this?

CARVILLE: Look, first of all, he was completely erroneous. We ran a thing from PoliticoFact, also FactCheck.org. So -- so he doesn't know what he's talking about. But that's nothing new. He didn't know what he was talking about on the Iraq War, either.

Look I don't think this guy really regrets it. I think he's pretty much in the mainstream of the modern Republican Party. He's pretty proud of himself. He issued some kind of written apology. He never talked to the president personally. And he's bragging today about all the support that he's getting.

Rush is behind him 1,000 percent. The only thing Rush is mad about, he said he shouldn't have apologized.

So the real powers in the Republican Party are not upset with this guy at all and he's feeling pretty good about himself, I think.

KING: Nancy, do you think the bill covers illegal immigrants?

PFOTENHAUER: Well, you know, there -- the legislation that I've seen is completely silent on whether or not anyone would ever have to prove that they were a U.S. citizen. And so the way the president -- you know, the president's remarks were very carefully drafted and kind of waved a magic wand and immediate -- and over instantly 17 million people got insurance because he just took the illegal immigrants off the books, if you will. That's -- that's really nothing that's been dealt with yet on the Hill.

I think it was completely disrespectful and inappropriate for those remarks to be made. I think it was as bad or worse than when the Democrats booed President Bush when he was talked about Social Security reform.

KING: John McCain, on this program last night...

CARVILLE: Yes, again, every Independent...

KING: ...said it was totally, totally disrespectful.

PFOTENHAUER: Right.

KING: What are you adding, James?

I'm sorry.

CARVILLE: I was just saying every Independent person that looked at this has said that this guy was wrong, the president is right. And like I say, he did -- he didn't even know about the facts about Iraq and the weapons. But that's neither here nor there.

I don't think this guy feels very bad about this. I think he's proud of himself. He's already trying to use it to raise money. I think the Republicans, you know, said that the leadership asked him to apologize. He -- he issued a statement and called Rahm Emanuel. And I don't know that people should be upset about this. This is pretty much what the Republican Party is today -- talk radio and down to sort of white Southern male base. I mean that -- that's what it is and we shouldn't be surprised at that.

PFOTENHAUER: He has been uniformly condemned by the Republican leadership. He did not represent the Republican Conference when he made that comment. And that's clear, James.

I mean, I think -- how many people have to say we do -- we do not believe it was respectful or inappropriate?

So, I mean it clearly did not. It hurt, it didn't help.

KING: Yes.

PFOTENHAUER: And it didn't move the debate forward.

CARVILLE: He's a -- he's a folk hero...

KING: I'm a little surprised, though, that there are people who are defending him...

(CROSSTALK)

KING: That's James.

CARVILLE: Right.

KING: Anyway, Wilson has apologized. The president has accepted.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILSON: Last night, I heard from the leadership that they wanted me to contact the White House and state that my statements were inappropriate. I did. I'm very grateful that the White House, in talking with them, they indicated that they appreciated the call and that we need have a civil discussion about the health care issues. And I certainly agree with that.

QUESTION: Mr. President, do you accept Wilson's apology?

OBAMA: Yes, I -- yes, I do. I'm a big believer that we all make mistakes. He apologized quickly and without equivocation. And I'm appreciative of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You can tell that Nancy Pelosi was certainly upset with the look she gave to it. This -- this story will be gone tomorrow.

I'm shocked, James, you said that people were mad that he apologized?

CARVILLE: Yes. Rush Limbaugh was furious at him. And we're going to find out a little bit more. Some facts are starting to come in about Congressman Joe Wilson. And I think we're going to find out. I think this story will probably be around for a couple or three more days here. He's got some interesting things that -- interesting causes that he's espoused. And we'll find out as it moves forward.

But, again, today, he was bragging about the support he had. And he was using this to raise money. He's no more sorry for this than...

KING: Nancy...

CARVILLE: ...at all.

KING: Do statements like that, Nancy, hurt your cause -- the cause of the Republican Party?

PFOTENHAUER: I -- I -- I think that there was probably no one more upset -- no -- no group of people more upset about those comments than the Republican leadership. I really -- I mean they -- they've introduced at least five different bills on health care reform. They want to talk about the substance. They win on the substance, if you will. And I think that they'd be happy to support something that they thought was good.

But they will not support things that are terrible public policy, things that are going to dramatically increase the deficit, things that are going to increase taxes, that are going to put an individual mandate, shove it down people's throats. They're not going to support that and they shouldn't.

CARVILLE: Well, there could be...

KING: All right. I'll get James' comment in a moment.

Vice President Biden predicted today we'll have a bill by Thanksgiving.

Do you think that's possible?

We'll talk about it after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back.

The president made a very strong case last night.

Let's watch a moment of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge. And out of this blizzard of charges and counter charges, confusion has reigned. Well, the time for bickering is over.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: The time for games has passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: James, do you think he can get everybody in the Democratic wing to get together on this? CARVILLE: No. No one has ever been able to get everybody in the Democratic Party together on anything.

But do I think he'll get enough to get a bill through?

Yes. And, look, I think the president came here genuinely in faith wanting to be sort of bipartisan. The Republicans (INAUDIBLE) because they're not going to vote for anything that he puts up. They can't. They'd all get primaried. I mean, just listen to talk radio. Listen to the Joe Wilsons of the world. Listen to what people are saying.

And I think that he's come to the realization that they've wasted a lot of time giving the Republicans 180 amendments and offering to sit down and talk with them about tort reform and everything. They're not going to be for what he proposes. And it's time for him to -- and I think he recognized that and get beyond it and produce a bill and get it done.

KING: Nancy, there are many on the left who say that the Republicans, especially the right-wing of the Republicans, don't want health care reform.

How do you respond?

PFOTENHAUER: Well, they've introduced at least five bills. And they can -- you've got -- you've got -- my goodness, you've got Price, you've got Gingrey, you've got Shadegg, you've got Paul Ryan, you've got Tom Coburn. They've introduced at least five pieces of legislation. They have asked to sit down. They have real plans. And like I said, there is -- there is a -- a body here that -- that people could agree on. Everybody supports opening up insurance to interstate competition.

I just think that what we're going to see here, though, and I -- and I just have to -- I have to disagree with James. I think we're going to see a stimulus retread where they, you know, they give lip service to bipartisanship, they write it in, the House and Senate leadership, they ram it through in the Senate side on reconciliation. And, you know, frankly, I think the American people lose there.

CARVILLE: Well, but, look the Republicans have been...

KING: James, do you think that might happen?

CARVILLE: No. Look, the Republicans have been in power for eight years. The average family premium went from $6,000 to $12,000. The truth of the matter is, is we spent over 1.5 times as much as the next industrialized nation. (INAUDIBLE) a lot of people are making a lot of money off of this system and they're going to fight very hard to keep the status quo. And the Republican Party is very committed to the status quo in health care.

And it's time for the president -- hopefully he sees that now. And I think that's why he's having somewhat of a better week. The Republican Party didn't even want him to talk to school kids. Let's not be absurd. They're not going to compromise with him on health care. They don't want him to talk to schoolchildren and...

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: -- we just accept that.

KING: Nancy...

CARVILLE: We move on to what we're dealing with. There's no sense in getting mad about it. It's just a fact of life.

KING: Nancy, you...

CARVILLE: It's like getting mad at air.

KING: Nancy, you must agree that in the insurance industry, there's somewhat a degree of greed.

PFOTENHAUER: Well, I'll tell you what, they're all -- these are the -- the vested interests are all basically in bed with the Democrats on this. You've got the insurance companies, the pharmaceuticals. They've all been -- you know, they've been co-opted, if you will, since the beginning.

The people who are arguing and fighting this plan -- and, by the way, we got no new details -- again, big broad brushes, lots of promises, the price tag is in the trillions for this thing. So any talk of lowering your health care costs because of this is ridiculous.

But, you know, we did -- the people who are arguing against this are average Americans who are extremely upset. You've got a lot of senior citizens. You've got a lot of small businesses. And you've got a lot of women who are the health care decision makers for their families. And they're not -- they don't want to hand the -- the wheel over to the government.

KING: But they don't want to leave it with insurance, do they?

PFOTENHAUER: No.

CARVILLE: Right.

PFOTENHAUER: They want -- they want patient-centered health care. They want the doctor-patient relationship to be, you know, right up front. Health care is moving, science-wise, in a more and more individualized manner. We're being able -- we're able to map the human genome. We're able to -- you know, there's individual medical protocols. They want to move into the opposite direction, that has failed in other countries and that is very much a one size fits all. And the American people know that they suffer.

CARVILLE: Right.

KING: James...

CARVILLE: This is the definition of success, is that premiums doubled in eight years under the Republican rule.

PFOTENHAUER: You know...

CARVILLE: The definition of success is -- you know, Nancy, if you don't want me to talk, go ahead.

PFOTENHAUER: No. No, go ahead.

CARVILLE: OK.

PFOTENHAUER: I just...

CARVILLE: The definition of...

PFOTENHAUER: ...I...

CARVILLE: -- the definition of success is that we pay over one- and-a-half times as much per person for health care as the next industrialized nation in the world, which is Switzerland. We produce less. Our outcomes are nowhere near as good as what they should be. Somebody wants to change it. The status quo in this country -- you can't -- and, again, to get mad at the fact that the Republicans are ideologically doctrine -- they are dominated by the talk radio Southern wing of the party is like getting mad at air or grass. It's just there. And that's a fact of life.

KING: Nancy, are...

CARVILLE: And we have to deal with that, just like it's a fact of life that they want the status quo.

PFOTENHAUER: Again, how many pieces...

KING: Nancy, you want to comment?

PFOTENHAUER: How many pieces of legislation do they have to introduce, James?

There are real plans that have been put forward on the table. And you want doctrinaire.

How about doctrinaire liberal?

The American people have spoken on this. They do not want a government plan. And they want bipartisanship. So if they -- if the Democrats try the typical shell game where it's lips area, again, ala the stimulus package, where it's lip service and then pass the party line, the American people are not going to accept that. And about 64 percent of them have said that how people vote on this legislation will be a major factor in how they vote in the next elections.

KING: All right. We will -- we will devote a lot of attention to this in the days ahead.

Thanks so much.

CARVILLE: All right.

PFOTENHAUER: Thank you.

KING: James Carville and Nancy Pfotenhauer.

CARVILLE: Appreciate it.

PFOTENHAUER: Thank you.

CARVILLE: (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Dr. Andrew Weil is here.

What does he think of the president's big health care reform plans?

We'll find out in 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back.

It's great to welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE -- too long a time between visits -- Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. The number one "New York Times" best-selling author. He wrote "Healthy Aging." And now his new book, "Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future." There you see its cover, published by Hudson Street Press.

Forgive me, Andrew, but the title sounds a little -- isn't it silly, why our health matters?

Why wouldn't it matter?

DR. ANDREW WEIL: Well, it certainly matters to us individually, because when we lose it, life doesn't become very worth living.

KING: No kidding.

WEIL: But it should surely matter to us as a nation.

KING: So you're referring to this nationally?

WEIL: Absolutely. As you just heard, we spend more per capita on health care than any people in the world. And we have very little to show for it. Our health outcomes are dismal. We've been paying more and more and getting less and less for it. And if we don't do something about this, it will sink us economically. We'll be spending up to 20 percent on our gross domestic product on health care. And we can't sustain that. It will make us bankrupt.

KING: Now, this is what the president said about his goals for health care reform.

Let's watch a segment here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The plan I'm announcing tonight would meet three basic goals. It will provide more security and stability to those who had health insurance. It will provide insurance for those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses and our government.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: It's a plan that asks everyone to take responsibility for meeting those challenges -- not just government, not just insurance companies, but everybody, including employers and individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Before we get to some specifics, overall, Andrew, what did you think of the speech?

WEIL: Well, I think the -- the trying for reform is laudable. But I think the speech and the plan barely scratched the surface and they miss the point.

The point is we have to get the cost of health care in this country down. And to do that, we have to shift our efforts toward prevention and we have to change the nature of medicine. And I hear nothing in the speech about that.

KING: And we're going to take a break and come back and get into this in a major way.

The book is "Why Our Health Matters."

The author is Dr. Andrew Weil.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The book "Why Our Health Matters," the guest, Dr. Andrew Weil.

OK, if you -- if you could make some changes, give us some that you would make right now. Be -- be -- be the king.

WEIL: OK. First of all, we don't have a health care system in this country, we have a disease management system that's horribly dysfunctional and getting worse by the day. And the vast majority of disease that we're trying to manage is lifestyle related and, therefore, preventable.

So what we really need to do is to shift our energies away from disease management toward making people healthy and preventing them from getting sick. And that means that I think a society wide effort of -- of everyone pulling in the same direction. You can't have the government telling us to eat more fruits and vegetables and at the same time, through its subsidy program, ensuring that fruits and vegetables are the most expensive things in grocery stores and all the unhealthy stuff is the cheapest. You know, everything has to work together here.

Secondly, the kinds of interventions that we're using to treat disease are way too expensive because they're dependent on technology. I include pharmaceuticals in that. We need a new kind of medicine in which doctors know how and patients accept low tech, high touch approaches to the treatment of illness.

Some immediate things. I would immediately ban direct to consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs. That's been a disaster for patients and doctors and a great boon to the drug companies. No other company -- no other country in the world allows that except New Zealand. Stop that right away.

Secondly, I'd set up an office...

KING: And what else?

WEIL: I'd set up an office of health education in the Department of Education with adequate funds to get serious about K through 12 health education, starting with teaching kids about what health is and what lifestyle choices promote it. I think education is something that we could really be serious about.

You know, I heard the president last night talk about prevention very briefly. And he talked about mammograms and colonoscopies. To me, that is such a superficial aspect of prevention. You know, the meat of prevention is about teaching people how to make the right choices about food, how to keep your body physically active, how to deal with stress.

KING: Yes, but -- but -- I understand that. But that's changing a whole philosophy.

What do you do about 300 million people...

WEIL: We have to change a whole philosophy...

KING: ...many of whom need that colonoscopy tomorrow...

WEIL: Larry, we have to...

KING: ...to find out if they have colon cancer?

WEIL: We have to -- of course we do that. That's part of prevention. But that's an insignificant part. At the moment, insurance companies happily pay for drugs, for procedures, for expensive diagnostic tests. There's no reimbursement for doctors to sit with patients and give them advice about proper lifestyle choices.

Our priorities of reimbursement are completely backward. We don't pay for preventive strategies. We pay for intervention.

KING: Does any country do what you want? WEIL: No, I don't think so. And I think we, in a way, have the best chance of doing things differently, because there is a stronger movement here toward reforming medicine. You know, there is a real movement toward changing the medical curriculum, toward teaching doctors the things that they're not currently getting about nutrition, about mind-body interactions, about low cost therapy other than pharmaceutical drugs.

So I think we have a very good chance of doing this here -- better than any other country. Maybe China -- you know, China has a great tradition of integrating Eastern and Western care. For instance, the average cancer patient in China gets integrative treatment. They get chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and, also, very sophisticated herbal therapy to minimize the toxicity of those treatments and increase the efficacy.

Here that cancer patient is very lucky if they can get that kind of treatment.

KING: So you are not optimistic?

WEIL: Well, I'm...

(LAUGHTER)

WEIL: I guess I'm -- it's the best of times and it's the worst of times. I think that as the economic crisis in health care deepens, which it certainly will, it's going to force this deeper kind of change. At the moment, all I hear the argument about is how we're going to give more people access to the present system and how we're going to pay for it. And to me, that's not the issue. The present system doesn't work and it's going to take us down. We need a whole new kind of medicine. We need a -- we really need to work at making people healthy. I heard nothing in the plan that's going to make us a healthier nation. That can only be done through (INAUDIBLE)...

KING: We're going to find it...

WEIL: Yes.

KING: (INAUDIBLE) obviously, through education.

But how do you start that?

We'll find out in a minute.

By the way, are you worried about H1N1 influenza -- swine flu?

That's tonight's Quick Vote question. Go to CNN.com/larryking and let us know.

And we'll talk about that -- the possible killer flu, a pandemic, what you can do about it, with an expert, Dr. Weil, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: Before we move back into the heart of the book and some other ideas -- brilliant ideas that Dr. Andrew Weil has, the book, "Why Our Health Matters" -- let's talk about swine flu.

First, do you fear a major pandemic in this country?

WEIL: Well, I think, that's a possibility. My daughter, who is a freshman at the University of Colorado, had the swine flu a couple of weeks ago. She got over it in five days. She was moderately sick, had a little cough afterwards.

You know, fortunately, that's the way this disease is looking at the moment. And the dire predictions of it turning into something much more serious, so far, haven't come true.

If they don't come true, I think we can all take a deep breath and be thankful and look at this as good practice, because, inevitably, at some point, a serious strain of flu is going to come around.

So for the moment I think...

KING: There will be?

WEIL: There will be a lot of cases, but it doesn't look as if it's that serious.

KING: There will be two shots, the standard flu shot, which you can get now. A lot of places have it.

WEIL: Yes.

KING: Then the 1st of October the Swine Flu shot. Do you expect it to be effective?

WEIL: I think there's a good chance it will be effective. I don't know that I would want to be first in line to get it. I would rather wait and see and just be sure that it's safe, and that the reactions to it are OK.

KING: Do you agree that everyone, if they can afford it, should have Tamiflu handy?

WEIL: No, I'm not so sure of that.

KING: No?

WEIL: First of all, indiscriminate use of Tamiflu has already resulted in increasing resistance of the Swine Flu to it. I think that should be held in reserve for cases of people who really need it. I think we should know how to get it or have a plan for how to get it, if you need it. You have 72 hours or so in which to take it. But I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket.

KING: Then do you have any grave concerns about it? WEIL: I think we'll have to wait and see. You know, the CDC is putting out updated bulletins on the Swine Flu very regularly. You can access these on the Internet. I think we should pay attention to what's happening. For the moment, I'm cautiously optimistic that it's not going to be that terrible.

KING: Is this a classic example of a government responsibility?

WEIL: Absolutely. And this is where, you know, public health is one of the areas that the government is responsible for, has a very good track record on. And I think that this will give us the kind of practice exercise for how we mobilize ourselves if a more serious disease does come around.

KING: Do we -- are there good preventive measures?

WEIL: Well, we all know about the value of washing hands. I don't know that this has to be done with alcohol. I think using hot water and soap is just fine. There are some interesting strategies. There is a Chinese herbal product called Astragulus (ph). It's a root. It's easily available in health food stores, completely safe. It has anti-viral effects and immune boosting effects. I often recommend this to people. You can take it regularly through the flu season. I think I will start taking that if I'm traveling and the incidence of --

KING: Is it a pill?

WEIL: Yes, it's a capsule, and perfectly safe. No side effects.

KING: What is it called?

WEIL: Astragalus. There's also a number of Asian mushrooms you can buy in various products, in liquid or capsule form, that have similar effects, that help your body defend itself against viruses.

KING: You are Harvard educated. A lot of times, though, when you mention these things, they seem far out.

WEIL: Well, I don't think they should anymore. First of all, there is good research on many of these. At the University of Arizona, Center of Integrated Medicine, which I founded and direct, we regularly train physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, medical students, and residents in the use of this. And these are examples of what I mean by low tech, cheaper approaches to disease intervention and treatment.

And, you know, there are so many things out there, from dietary change, use of exercise, the various mind-body techniques. None of these being taught in medical school today. This is medicine of the future. I call it integrative medicine. It has the great potential to lower health care costs by bringing lower cost treatments into the mainstream, that can produce outcomes as good or better than those of conventional medicine.

KING: Are you generally an opponent of the pharmaceutical industry?

WEIL: Well, you know, I'm no friend of the pharmaceutical industry. I think there is a higher mark-up on pharmaceuticals than any other commodity in the American market. The drug lobby has immense power over our representatives, both Republicans and Democrats.

Consider this, Larry: it's just astounding to me that over all these years the pharmaceutical lobby has blocked any legislation that would allow our federal government to buy drugs from Medicare at a discount. I mean, that's outrageous. How do we stand for that?

But I will say I think the pharmaceutical drugs -- the pharmaceutical lobby, these companies are just capitalizing on a mindset that has taken hold of both doctors and patients in this country, that the only legitimate way to treat disease is by giving drugs. If you told a doctor not to give a drug as part of a medical encounter, he or she wouldn't know what to do. If a patient doesn't get a prescription, they would think it's not a legitimate medical transaction.

How did we come to believe that the only way to treat disease is by giving drugs?

KING: Our guest Dr. Andrew Weil. His book, "Why Our Health Matters." It's a guaranteed best seller. Your questions for the doctor coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: There are questions for Dr. Andrew Weil. Washington D.C. on the phone. Hello. Hello?

CALLER: Hello.

KING: Go ahead.

CALLER: Yes. Dr. Weil, my question is --

KING: Don't turn your radio down or your television down. Go ahead.

CALLER: Are you fearful that if Obama's health care bill does pass, that these who did not previously have health care may be tempted to be less healthy?

WEIL: Well, I certainly hope not. I think that, you know, there is probably less -- there is more dependence in this country on the medical system than I have seen in other countries. You know, in many countries -- I say in Germany, for example -- people are much more self-reliant in matters of health. There is a greater tradition of taking care of yourself.

Here I think, you know, the advent of prepaid medical care encourages people to run off to the HMOs, to the health care facility for every minor ache, pain, rash, headache. You know, that's a waste of our resources. And I hope that covering more people does not continue to increase that trend.

KING: An e-mail question from John in Oakridge. I think we covered it, but "do you regard the Swine Flu vaccine, the H1N1, as safe?"

WEIL: I don't know. I think the chances are it is. I would like to wait and see until it starts in use. The chances are that it is, but I'm not certain.

KING: We have a blog question. A viewer who has Multiple Sclerosis posted to our blog, asking your thoughts on the blood type diet. She says she's been on it for ten years and believes it's helped.

WEIL: More power to her. If it works for you, do it. Personally, I don't see any scientific basis for it. I like to tell people that dogs have blood types, and it would come as news to some dogs that they should be vegetarians.

KING: All right. Question Tweeted via Kings Thing, that's our Tweet site. "How do we make parents accountable for the garbage they're feeding our kids?"

WEIL: I think this is a matter of education. You know, I have seen kids often be very effective change agents for parents and for families. If we get the information to kids in the ways that they can understand, maybe they'll demand better food of their parents.

But, you know, Larry, people are going to eat what's cheap and what's available. We made the unhealthiest food cheap and available. And some of that is because we subsidize unhealthy ingredients that are everywhere out there and are cheap.

And I think we also cannot let the food corporations do whatever they want. Maybe we have to experiment with a sin tax on soda and junk food. This is a strategy that has worked for cigarettes. It's one of the only strategies that has worked. Raising taxes, to a certain point, deters young people from buying them.

KING: We have an email question from Danny in Shanghai. "Do you think sodas and other unhealthy foods should be heavily taxed to discourage their consumption?"

WEIL: I think we should experiment with that as a method and see whether it works.

KING: What do you make of stem cells?

WEIL: I think the potential for stem cell research is enormous. I think there is -- this is a frontier of high-tech medicine that is very exciting. The possibility of regenerating portions of heart muscle that are damaged by heart attack, of severed spinal cord, of damaged organs -- this country has been set back horribly in stem cell research because of the years in which the religious right was allowed to dictate scientific policy. Fortunately, that's changed.

KING: Do you think fetal stem cell might be even more remarkable than embryonic?

WEIL: It's possible. There's also an interesting line of research on adult stem cells, which avoid the whole question of dealing with embryos or fetuses. The whole world of stem cell research is exciting, promising. Let's see where it leads us.

KING: How embryonic?

WEIL: How embryonic?

KING: How far along are we?

WEIL: As I said, I think we are behind other countries because we had a big setback. I think we're getting close to this. We're very close to being able to treat juvenile diabetes by using stem cells to regenerate Insulin producing cells in the Pancreas. I think these are right on the horizon.

KING: Does watermelon juice help with weight loss? That's not a question. Hold it, Doc. We'll ask it in 60 seconds.

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KING: By the way, the subtitle of "Why Our Health Matters" is "A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future." Things like stop making corporations rich, stop making our society poor, start each of us on the road to optimum health. A myth or fact about watermelon juice?

WEIL: All fruit juice is concentrated sugar. If people want to lose weight, the easiest thing to do is to cut down and stop eating products made with flour and sugar. So, no, I don't think watermelon juice is going to help you to lose weight, especially in you add it on to what you are already eating. Many schools --

(CROSS TALK)

WEIL: I said, in many schools that got soda machines out of schools, these are replaced with fruit juice vending machines. That's not that different. These are still beverages that are concentrated sugar.

KING: So what happened to fruits and vegetables as the healthiest means to live?

WEIL: Well, there's a big difference between fruits and fruit juice. Fruits are fine, but, again, in moderation. I think vegetables, you really want to go for, because they are full of protective compounds that help us defend against cancer and all sorts of degenerative diseases.

KING: Is Cantaloupe good for you?

WEIL: Sure. It's a good fruit. It's good for you.

KING: I like it. Got to feel it outside, though. Ottawa, Canada, called. Hello. Ottawa, hello.

CALLER: How are you some.

KING: Fine. Go ahead.

CALLER: Hello, doctor. I have always admired you very much. But I have to disagree with you on fighting the reform of health care in this country. I feel, because I go down there every winter -- and I think that most of the doctors there are dictated by your insurance companies. It's not good health care.

WEIL: I couldn't agree with you more.

CALLER: They're afraid.

KING: Ma'am, where do you disagree with him?

CALLER: Because when they have to check with their insurance companies whether they can proceed with any diseases.

WEIL: This is a big problem that --

KING: Is that different in Canada? Hold it, doc. Is that different in Canada, ma'am?

CALLER: Of course, it is, because our doctors do not depend -- have to wait for an insurance company to say whether they can proceed or not.

KING: So I don't think you disagree with him.

WEIL: Absolutely not. In fact, one of the problems here is that American medicine has become totally reimbursement driven. It's not evidence driven. What's done in medicine is what's paid for. And the priorities of reimbursement are completely skewed. As I said, we happily pay for intervention. We don't pay for prevention.

KING: Back with more of Dr. Andrew Weil after this.

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KING: Back to Dr. Andrew Weil, author of "Why Our Health Matters." Is the whole problem, as you see it, doctor, in the concept of the system? And that even though there may be various types of answers to reform, Democrats and Republicans are both locked into the idea of the insurance company and the benefits therein?

WEIL: I think the arguments are at a level that doesn't even begin to touch the deep problems. And there are things we can do now, Larry. One of the big problems in this country is that we have far too many specialists, far too few generalists. We need many more generalists, meaning general practitioners, family medicine doctors, general internists. Country that's have more generalists have better health better health outcomes. We don't have people going into general medicine because it doesn't pay as well. It doesn't have the prestige. So the federal government should subsidize the education of doctors who go into those fields. That's a change we could make immediately.

And by the way, I have a call to action, with seven steps that people can take right now, that demand meaningful changes in health care. You can access this on my website, DrWeil.com. And this is above this kind of nasty politics. It's like creating an Office of Health Education in the Department of Education, banning direct to consumer pharmaceutical ads, demanding that insurance cover preventative strategies, mandating that integrative medical education be taught in medical residency programs and medical schools.

You know, this is all stuff we could do immediately. And if people begin to demand these changes, we can see, I think, the start of real changes in the system.

KING: Where do we go wrong or have we always been wrong?

WEIL: I think we went wrong somewhere in the middle of the 20th century, when medicine started getting mixed up with big money. Medicine was never meant to exist in a for profit system. The interest of those who run for profit medical care are fundamentally at odds with those of doctors and patients.

As dysfunctional as this system is, it's generating rivers of money that are going into relatively few pockets. And those pockets belong to people who don't want to see the system change. Medicine -- I mean it's so sad that health care is now routinely called an industry. You know, it was always thought of as an art, as a profession, as a caring profession. Never an industry primarily concerned with making money. That has distorted everything in this country.

KING: Do you favor some sort of public system?

WEIL: Well, you know, I favor including everyone. I think it is -- it's -- it's a given to me that a free Democratic society should guarantee basic health care to all of its citizens. I mean that's just as it guarantees basic security. But how we do that, whether that's publicly, privately, a mixture of the two, I don't know. I'm not a policy expert.

What I do know is if we try to do that now, given the kind of medicine that we're now practicing, it's unsustainable. It's a recipe for bankruptcy.

KING: We do not -- then it's a myth that we have the best medicine in the world?

WEIL: Absolutely. You know, the World Health Organization recently ranked our health outcomes on par with Serbia. Now the reason for that is we have so many uninsured people who don't have access to good medical care. But, you know, even in some of our biggest cities and our best hospitals, the quality of care is deteriorating. Rates of hospital infections are up. Shortage of nurses are acute. Medicine has gotten sloppy. I think these are all consequences of the profit-driven kind of medicine that we have today.

The system is just breaking down. The bottom line is you can't afford to get sick today. And the amount of money that we pay for health care and what we have to show for it, this is a national disgrace.

KING: More moments coming up with Dr. Weil. Next, health care crisis already here. What are we going to do about a shortage of doctors? Weil has some answers after this.

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KING: Dr. Andrew Weil, what about the shortage of doctors?

WEIL: You know, doctors are as frustrated and unhappy about the system as patients are. They have lost their autonomy. They are tired of practicing defensive medicine out of fear of lawsuits. They resent being dictated to by insurance companies. They can't use their own medical judgment.

As we change all this, I think the medical profession will attract more, more, and more people who genuinely want to help people and are able to do that. It's all one big knotted mess. As we begin to change the philosophy of the system, to shift our energies in the direction of prevention and health promotion, to break our dependence on these expensive, high-tech solutions to everything, I think that shortage will naturally disappear.

KING: What is your biggest complaint about the health insurance industry?

WEIL: It's motives are profit. Its motives are profit.

KING: Do we live in a capitalist society?

WEIL: Sure. You're allowed to make a reasonable amount of money. But when you look at the salaries of the CEOs of these big insurers, it's the same situation you have with Wall Street. This is not justifiable. Something has to be done about this. There can't be that amount of profit made when American health care and the lives of Americans are suffering so much.

KING: Don't you think President Obama is aware of that?

WEIL: He said it at the opening of his speech. I think that, you know, he's -- he very clearly stated the problem and all of the hardship that it is causing. I think that was terrific. The fixes he proposes are just so short of what's need. They don't really touch the deeper problems.

Again, let me just repeat, the root of our troubles is that health care in America is so expensive. We have to get those costs down. The only way we can do that is by shifting this enterprise toward preventing disease and making our citizens healthy, and by changing the nature of medicine to break it dependence on high-tech, expensive solutions to everything.

The bottom line is, if we don't change the content of health care, any attempt at reform will be taken down by unmanageable costs.

KING: What country has the best health system in the world?

WEIL: Well, you know, I think -- I don't know that anyone has the best. I think Germany, which has a mixture of private and public, does pretty good. Australia, which also has a mixture of private and public, I think does well. Citizens in Norway are certainly happy with their health care. So I think we can look around and see countries where things are better than here.

But everywhere the same problems are going to develop. What has happened here is developing everywhere for the same reasons, that the costs of health care going up because of the nature of medicine. That has to change.

KING: Always a pleasure having with you us, Andrew. Thanks so much.

WEIL: I enjoyed it. Good night.

KING: Dr. Andrew Weil, "Why Our Health Matters." Before we go, want to recommend a terrific new book written by Robin Meade, the anchor at HLN's "Morning Express." It is called "Morning Sunshine." It will inspire you. Check it out.

Another guy who will inspire you is Anderson Cooper, who goes wherever the action is. He's still in Afghanistan. Time now for "AC 360." Anderson?