Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Medicare Confusion; Radioactive Mission To Pluto

Aired January 17, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Some things straightened out on that.
And then today, if the weather holds, a little after 1:00 Eastern Time, NASA's going to take aim at Pluto. We don't know much about Pluto.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: How does the weather look for that, good?

MILES O'BRIEN: It's a little gusty winds. We're watching that, but it looks pretty good. You never know. you never know. There's always something, put it that way. This is rocket science, after all.

And here's the thing. When you go that far in space, you can't use solar power to power your spacecraft. So what do they use? Plutonium. Twenty-four pounds of plutonium on board that rocket.

You worried?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ah, yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, you know, if there's an explosion on the launch pad, that could be a problem. So we'll talk to them about that in just a little bit.

In the meantime, Carol is here with some headlines.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am indeed.

Good morning.

Good morning to all of you.

Police in Alabama and Georgia are searching for two murder suspects. Johnny Earl Jones and Lamar Benton, both teens, overpowered a guard early Saturday by stabbing him 15 times in the back. The inmates escaped from an Alabama jail close to the Georgia border. Police say, given their background, it's presumed the men are armed and dangerous. Another inmate who escaped with them is already back behind bars. We'll find out in the next half hour whether he is cooperating with police.

To Iraq now where there's been a decision in the Saddam Hussein trial but it does not involve the former dictator. The Iraqi high tribunal has named a new temporary chief judge. The decision could become permanent. The head judge who has been overseeing the trial since October submitted his resignation. Still not exactly clear why he wants to step down but security has been a big concern for people involved in the trial.

It was set for today but a confirmation vote on U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito will be delayed until next week. Republicans have a majority on the panel, so the delay is unlikely to change anything. Once approved, Alito's confirmation will go before the full Senate for debate.

And an amazing rescue. Firefighters in Los Angeles free a woman who somehow got stuck in a chimney. You can see they had to tie a rope around her and then pull her out by the arms. The rescue took about a half hour. The woman is said to be in good condition. No word on exactly why she climbed into the chimney, though. We're still exploring that.

Back to you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thank you very much.

Just two weeks since the government's new Medicare program, some major problems to tell you about. Tens of thousands of people apparently unable to get their medicines. Some states are declaring public health emergencies as well. What exactly is going wrong? Michael Leavitt is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He joins us from our Washington bureau this morning.

Secretary Leavitt, nice to see you, as always. Thank you for talking with us.

MICHAEL LEAVITT, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Thank you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: When we spoke back in November, you said, yes there were concerns that a few people might fall between the cracks. It looks, by some estimates, that it might be tens of thousands of people have actually fallen between these cracks. Do you have a number on how many people are being plagued with really serious problems here?

LEAVITT: First, let me give perspective. We have already had nearly 24 million people sign up for this benefit. It is clearly the most significant change that's ever happened in Medicare and it's happening all at the same time. For the vast majority of them, it's working very well. Pharmacists are filling over a million prescriptions every day.

There are, however, a couple of small groups that it's not working well for and that's a big problem for them. And so we're working as feverishly as possible right now to fix that. We're working with pharmacists, we're working with the health plans. We've demanded that the health plans add more people to solve these problems. And one state, one pharmacy, one beneficiary at a time we're working this out and we're very hopeful that it will get better every day. And so far, it has been. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You've said a couple of small sort of groups (ph), but there are 20 states, Ohio, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Jersey and every single state in New England who now are helping to try to pay the Medicare costs for some of the people who are having problems. So it doesn't sound like a really -- it sounds like, actually, a significant number of groups (ph).

LEAVITT: Well, nearly every state will be having this kind of problem. We're working with those states. In fact, later this week, I'll be visiting many of those states to just make certain that we're working through this. It is getting smoother every day. We are filling over a million prescriptions.

We have one very important message for those people who are having trouble and that is, don't leave your pharmacy without having your prescription filled. We've given the pharmacy's the tools that they need, computers systems. We've given them the ability to call Medicare. We've also even given them a plan that they can enroll people on, on the spot. The most important thing is that people get their drugs. We don't want them to leave the pharmacy without them.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Will you be reimbursing all those states who now are ponying up the money for people who have sort of fallen between the cracks here?

LEAVITT: We've made it very clear to the pharmacies that we'll assure that they get the money that they deserve from their plans. We'll also make certain that the states are -- we're able to help the states as well. Now, the states are a payer of last resort and that's what we're working with them to make certain of.

But the important thing is, no one should leave a pharmacy without having their prescription filled. We want people to have these drugs. This is a very important moment in healthcare. When you make a change with millions of people all at the same time, you're bound to have a few snags. What I think is occurring is that when people go in for the first time, a few of them were having to work out some problems. So you might want to take a little more time the first time you go, but after that, we feel quite confident it's going to get smoother every day.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: There have been written reports about computer glitches, about phone lines -- people trying to call in to get the help that you're talking about, tied up, pharmacists who really don't know how to navigate their way through this system. Some people -- because they'll say, yes, you don't need to leave without your medicine. It's going to cost you $198 though to get it. You've got to pay for it. When do you think you're going to have all these problems clear. Again, we're talking about a population, in many cases, who really can't afford any kind of, you know, increased fees or that kind of confusion.

LEAVITT: Well, you're right about the fact that there are some people having some trouble and we're working with them. But for the vast majority of people, it's working well and it's getting better every day. I wish we could have even planned that this would happen perfectly. We anticipated that we would have some trouble and that's occurring. But I feel very good about the fact that it's getting smoother every day.

Today, later, I'm going to be announcing that more than two million people have signed up in January for the benefit. So there's a lot of value people are seeing and feeling and we just need to get it right for everyone. And again the important thing is, if you go to a pharmacy, don't leave without having your prescription filled. The pharmacists can actually even sign you up for a plan on the spot, if need be. Now the pharmacists are working hard and we're working with them to make this work. But it's going to take a while until we get it perfect.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

Secretary Leavitt, thanks, as always, for talking with us.

LEAVITT: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: NASA is launching a first ever mission to Pluto a little later today, if all goes well. We don't know much about that ninth planet of the solar system as it has been described to us in classrooms. So the scientific payoff could be big, but some wonder if it is worth the risk to light the candle, as they say, under a radioactive spacecraft.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, (voice over): It is rocket science. But when it fails . . .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burnout on all six solids (ph).

MILES O'BRIEN: It is a spectacle. And now the launch of the New Horizon spacecraft to Pluto offers another wrinkle. Inside the spacecraft, 24 pounds of plutonium. The most toxic substance known to man.

KARL GROSSMAN, AUTHOR, "THE WRONG STUFF": I wouldn't want to be in Disney World the day of this launch.

MILES O'BRIEN: Karl Grossman is a journalism professor and a crusader against launching radioactive payloads into space. He worries about the consequences of a mishap during the launch of New Horizons.

GROSSMAN: If there's an accident on this launch and that plutonium gets out, I mean 24 pounds doesn't seem like much, but if it's disbursed as fine particles and people breathe particles, all we need is a millionth of a gram for a fatal dose.

MILES O'BRIEN: He may sound like a nuclear aged chicken little, but consider this. NASA say there is a one in 620 chance of a launch pad accident that could spread radioactive material. A one in 300 chance overall during the mission.

GROSSMAN: if I knew I had a 1 in 300th chance of winning the lottery, I might go to some lottery store after my class today.

HAL WEAVER, PROJECT SCIENTIST, NEW HORIZONS: We would love to be able to use a different technology if we could.

MILES O'BRIEN: Astronomer Hal Weaver is with the New Horizons' mission team. Heat from the decaying plutonium is the only practical way to power the spacecraft. Solar rays are not an option. The sun is too faint that far away.

WEAVER: I've invited over 200 people to our launch. I plan to be there. My friends and family will be there. I feel perfectly comfortable with the risks associated with the launch of this mission.

MILES O'BRIEN: Radioactive remnants of spacecraft have plummeted back to earth before. In 1978, a Russian satellite with a nuclear reactor broke up across the northwest territories of Canada. And 10 years ago, another Russian spacecraft with nuclear material headed toward Mars failed after launch. The wreckage fill in Chili's Atacama Desert.

There were protests the last time the U.S. launched plutonium aboard the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn. But the launch was trouble- free. Scientists and engineers insist the payoff, stunning images and new insights are well worth the risk and maybe the public agrees. The protests this time around have been meager at best.

WEAVER: The exploration of space, the detailed study of the planets, including Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, are going to be some of the things that people look back on as the achievements of our civilization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: The launch is scheduled for 1:23 Eastern Time today. It's a two-hour launch window. Join CNN's "Live From." Kyra Phillips on that program. She's given me special permission, dispensation you might say, to join her. It took a little doing but she's going to let me on the program. We'll show you the launch live at 1:23 Eastern Time, assuming all goes well there.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, and all the weather holds.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good. Look forward to that.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's pretty cool.

Let's get right to the weather and Chad Myers has got that. Hello again.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead.

What you got for us?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, how would you like to find out who your co-worker or boss or spouse has been calling on their cell phone? It can be done. But is it legal? Stay tuned to AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: This is CNN. Pretty lame. I so don't have his pipes, man.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No, you do not.

MILES O'BRIEN: Can you do it? Can you do it?

SERWER: Even with a cold you don't have it.

MILES O'BRIEN: Can you do it?

SERWER: This is CNN.

MILES O'BRIEN: This is CNN.

SERWER: I just do the business here.

MILES O'BRIEN: Luke, I am your father.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's leave (INAUDIBLE) Mr. Jones, shall with?

MILES O'BRIEN: Andy, we better be careful who we be calling. I've been watching CNN. This is turning out to be a big tempest in a cell phone.

SERWER: Yes, it's some serious stuff. All you need is a credit card, a cell phone number and some bad intentions. Your cell phone records are for sale on the web. Here's how it works. There are Web sites where if you put in someone's credit card number and pay $100, you can get someone's cell phone calls for, say, a month. One Web site that was investigating these Web sites, if you follow that, got a hold of General Wesley Clark's phone number, paid a hundred bucks and found everything he was calling.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And who was he calling?

SERWER: He was calling his wife and, you know . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: His wife, the kids, the grandchildren.

SERWER: The use it wasn't really -- wasn't that exciting really. We have to find exciting people to call, I guess.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, I don't know that Wesley Clark would be who you'd picked.

MILES O'BRIEN: Wouldn't be on the top of my list.

SERWER: No, I think they just happened to get his number.

MILES O'BRIEN: I could get Scarlett Johansson.

SERWER: Or Isaac Hizraki (ph), yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: A tweaking -- tweaking thing.

SERWER: The question about the legality though here is the big issue because it's unclear whether it is legal. And what's going on is the phone companies are complaining about these Web sites getting this information illegally because these people are posing as employees of the cell phone companies or even customers to get this information. That, of course, is illegal. Cingular, the teleco company, is suing one of these outfits, locatecell.com. So it is a controversy that continues.

MILES O'BRIEN: So, to make it clear, the records are not in the public domain typically?

SERWER: No. Only -- right.

MILES O'BRIEN: You have to have -- either you're a police officer, you're a customer . . .

SERWER: Law enforcement or the customer. That's it.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK. So they are circumventing. Somebody's breaking the law here.

SERWER: They are. They're breaking the law.

MILES O'BRIEN: There you go.

SERWER: Another cell phone story that I want to tell you about.

MILES O'BRIEN: If you buy it, you're breaking the law.

SERWER: Yes. Well, yes, I would think so.

MILES O'BRIEN: Then stop doing it. Stop doing it, people.

SERWER: Although that's questionable, too. But I wouldn't do it.

I want to tell you about Stephen King, the author. And he's involved in the cell phone story this morning also. According to "The Wall Street Journal," he hates cell phones. In fact, he calls it the 21st century slave bracelet. I love that, a 21st century slave bracelet. And he has a new movie coming out this month called "Cell" where people will get phone calls on their cell phone and go on murderous rampages. OK.

Now get this. He said that he got the idea for this film because he was watching a beautifully dressed woman standing outside a New York hotel talking on her cell phone. What would happen, he wondered, if she suddenly received a message telling her to kill people. I think things like that all the time. I mean, you know, what a funny idea for a film, right?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Stephen King has a mind like no other.

SERWER: Just a little different. I guess he hates cell phones and he's going to do something about it.

MILES O'BRIEN: How does he feel about Blackberries?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Killer cell phones.

MILES O'BRIEN: Boy, those (INAUDIBLE).

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, if he hates the cell phone, then he must really hate a Blackberry.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, over the top. Over the top.

SERWER: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy, thank you.

SERWER: You're welcome.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a little more on the story we've been talking about all day. Mayor Ray Nagin, you've heard this, he says he wants to rebuild a chocolate New Orleans. He says God wants it that way. What's he talking about? We're going to take a look up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Some curious remarks from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Have you heard about these? He was talking about rebuilding the city and he was giving a speech on Monday, a speech that was honoring Martin Luther King. Listen to what he said to the crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: And I just wanted to know, what would he think today if he looked down and was part of this celebration? What would he think about Katrina? What would he think about all the people that were stuck in the Superdome and the convention center and we couldn't get the state and the federal government to come do something about it? He said, I wouldn't like that.

And as we think about rebuilding New Orleans, surely God is mad at America. He's sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane and it's destroying and putting stress on this country. Surely he's not approval of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also.

We're not taking care of ourselves. We're not taking care of our women. And we're not taking care of our children. When you have a community with 70 percent of its children are being born to one parent.

We, as black people, it's time. It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Huh.

SERWER: Wow.

MILES O'BRIEN: Wow.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So there were some people who said, what the heck is he talking about? In fact, one reporter from WDSU, Ed Reams, actually asked him to clarify that whole God wants it to be a chocolate city thing. Let's listen to what Nagin said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED REAMS, WDSU REPORTER: Let's talk about the comments that you made about being a chocolate city and how God wants it that way. Do you think that's a bit divisive, though, on MLK Day?

NAGIN: Do you know anything about chocolate?

REAMS: I'm asking you.

NAGIN: I'm asking you. Do you know anything about chocolate? How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk and it becomes a delicious drink. That's the chocolate I'm talking about.

New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It's going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It's white and black working together, coming together and making something special.

It's a reality. It's something that everybody needs to come to grips with, you know? And I'm responding to a lot of different discussions that I've heard since Katrina about, you know, who should come back. This one shouldn't come back. And if these people come back, then we won't come back. And I'm just tired of it and I'm just laying it out for everybody to understand. This is the city we're going to build. It's going to be a racially diverse city. It's going to be a city that works better than prior to Katrina. And, you know, for the most part, you know, we just need to move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: OK. Dark chocolate and white milk make chocolate milk, I'll give him that. That does not mean anything to do with a multiracial major American city. I mean -- and -- and when did he start quoting Pat Robertson on the God is punishing?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SERWER: Well when you start using God's will, you have to really be careful and it's probably time to keep your mouth shut very quickly when you start going there, don't you think?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well I think people in New Orleans would say, you know what, how about we talk about getting the power back on, how about we clean up the streets of debris. What do you say about all those poor people who are still displaced who want to come back home and people's who's homes might be under parks, et cetera, et cetera before we go into the God said blah, blah, blah.

MILES O'BRIEN: I wonder if there's something else in that chocolate milk, you know, that he's drinking.

SERWER: Yes, I was thinking that. Yes, what did he have for breakfast?

MILES O'BRIEN: You know the interesting thing is, every now and then there would be a little cogent point there when she went, oh that's good, and then it just goes -- who knows where.

SERWER: A tangent. Let's just be nice and say that he went off on some tangent (INAUDIBLE).

MILES O'BRIEN: A tangent would be a good -- there you go. Thank you. Thank you very much for the word, Dr. Serwer. A man of many words.

Coming up, two different guns. One is real, the other is fake. Can't spot the difference, can you? Neither could some Florida cops and it ended up costing a teenager his life. How are these fake guns getting into the hands of so many kids? Questions we're going to ask in just a moment. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good morning. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Two teenage murder suspects escape from an Alabama prison. Police believe they are armed and dangerous. We're going to take you there live for the very latest on that story.

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien.

From crescent city to chocolate city. Surprising comments from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin about the future of his city. More on that ahead. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And award season isn't all about those gold statues. We're going to take a look at who made their mark with what they wore to the Golden Globes. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com