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CNN Saturday Morning News
Women Pay More in Premiums: Will Reform Fix That?; Office Romances Back in the Spotlight; More White House Meetings Scheduled on Afghanistan
Aired October 10, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's October 10th and good morning, everybody. Hope you're having a great Saturday so far. I'm Betty Nguyen.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin. T.J. Holmes is off this morning, 8:00 a.m. right here in Atlanta, 7:00 a.m. in Memphis, 5:00 a.m. if you're out in San Diego. Thanks for waking up with us.
NGUYEN: Ladies out there, you may not like this but this is the situation. There's a battle of the sexes going on and it includes health care cost and you know what? Women, we are losing. We pay more in premiums so here's the question. Is there a chance to change reform on these plans, change with those reforms? We'll see if those costs go down.
GRIFFIN: David Letterman's exploits brought office romances back in the spotlight. We're going to look at why so many date where they work and the risky business of dating the boss.
NGUYEN: But first, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, but one of his top priorities right now is war. President Obama held two meetings this week on the strategy for Afghanistan and he scheduled another one this coming week. Our Kate Bolduan joins me now live from the White House. Kate, any idea when he is expected to decide whether to add more troops when we're talking about Afghanistan?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there Betty, good morning. When asked about timing, we're told the White House says weeks. We're told weeks. But White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs yesterday said possibly several weeks. But as you mentioned, the president along with his war council held their fourth meeting last night, their fourth meeting in a series of scheduled meetings on Afghanistan war policy.
A White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs saying yesterday that the focus of this particular meeting was going to be squarely on General Stanley McChrystal (ph), the top commander in Afghanistan, on his original assessment of the situation in the region and his best recommendations moving forward.
General McChrystal has reportedly requested and called for 40,000 additional troops to help carry out a counter-insurgency strategy and about these meetings,, these meetings in particular, Robert Gibbs said that the president is very deliberate in each one of these meetings to keep the focus on strategy first and talk resources after.
Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that there's obviously in each of these an agenda where we're going through again as we've talked about understanding and enunciating clearly the goal, the strategy to accomplish the goal and ultimately we'll get toward, get to discussion, decisions about resources needed in order to implement a strategy to meet that goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Now coming out of last night's meeting that lasted a few hours, a senior administration official told CNN that it was a robust conversation about the security and political challenges in Afghanistan and the options for building a strategic approach going forward. So clearly, much more discussion to be had, but Robert Gibbs says they are making progress in each one of these meetings. They say it's very candid conversation in there. The next meeting, Betty, is this coming Wednesday.
NGUYEN: OK, we'll see if anything else comes out of that one. Kate Bolduan join us live, thank you Kate.
GRIFFIN: And on to policy, an advisor to the U.S. commander in Afghanistan says more troops are needed now. He says anything less, anything less than 25,000 additional international troops will ensure defeat. David Kilcullen (ph) spoke with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID KILCULLEN: I think the fundamental thing we need to be doing is creating a permanent presence to protect the population in the areas that are currently at risk. And if we take your figures of sort of 70 to 80 percent, let's say we need enough troops to provide a permanent security presence for 80 percent of the Afghan population.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Is that realistic?
KILCULLEN: That's not just U.S. troops right. It's coalition troops, U.S. troops, Afghan troops, local militia, Afghan police. It's the full spectrum of security assets. I think it's not realistic without a substantial input of additional resources.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: You can hear more of that this afternoon at 5:00 Eastern time. The challenges facing the United States including the war in Afghanistan and nuclear tension with Iran. Christiane Amanpour and George Washington University's Frank Sesno hosting a round table with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Amanpour is today at 5:00 Eastern, only right here on CNN.
Afghanistan is on the president's agenda for the week ahead but first on Tuesday, he's going to welcome Spain's prime minister to the White House. Wednesday he's talking with his security team about both Afghanistan and Pakistan and tonight, he speaks at the human rights campaign national dinner. We're going to carry that live tonight at 8:00.
NGUYEN: Well the House Ethics Committee expanding its investigation into one of the most powerful members of Congress, that being Charlie Rangel. So far though, fellow Democrats are rallying behind him.
GRIFFIN: With elections coming up next year, how long are those Democrats going to stand behind Rangel?
Here's CNN's congressional correspondent Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Catch Charlie Rangel in the hallway these days shuttling between health care meetings and he casually deflects ethics questions.
REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D) NEW YORK: The allegations have been made by newspapers' reporters and I asked the ethics committee to review it.
BASH: Ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi why she blocked Republicans from removing Rangel as chairman of the tax writing committee while he's being investigated for tax violations and hear this.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D) HOUSE SPEAKER: He's one of the most experienced, knowledgeable people in the Congress about health care, but even if he weren't, the process here is that the Ethics Committee reviews the situation.
BASH: Rangel's fellow Democrats are backing him now, but congressional election experts like Amy Walter say it may not last long.
AMY WALTER, POLITICAL ANALYST, THE HOTLINE: The longer this drags out, I just think the bigger a problem it becomes for Democrats.
BASH: The reason -- next year's elections. A Gallup poll this week raised a giant red flag for Democrats. Americans are now almost evenly split whether they would vote for a Democrat or Republican for Congress. Rangel's ethics issues caused particular problems for Democrats because when they won the majority in 2006, voters called fighting corruption a top priority and Pelosi made this pledge.
PELOSI: You cannot advance the people's agenda unless you drain the swamp that is Washington, DC.
BASH: Now not only are Republicans calling that a broken promise.
She's not done it yet.
BASH: The "Daily Kos," a widely read liberal blog is too, saying Democrats will suffer if they don't remove Rangel as chairman, writing memo to House Democrats: The culture of corruption crosses partisan lines. Walter warns Rangel is a threat to vulnerable Democrats.
WALTER: The ones who were elected to 2006 and 2008 on the change and the anti-corruption theme, they are going to start looking for signs that this is becoming problematic for them. If they see those signs, I bet you will get a lot of defections.
BASH (on camera): We talked to some of those vulnerable House Democratic congressmen here this week who say the Rangel controversy is not resonating back home yet and when it comes to the House Democratic leadership, sources there tell us the real test for them will be when the Ethics Committee they're waiting for issues its report on Congressman Rangel and what if it's harsh? What will they do then?
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Authorities questioned two more men about the alleged terror plot involving an Afghan national. Twenty-four year-old Najibullah Zazi (ph) is accused of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Remember him in New York? CNN has learned that police searched the apartment of a Bosnian immigrant in Queens, New York. Investigators also questioned a taxi driver living in that same apartment about this alleged plot.
Many Americans say they're not sure about that H1N1, swine vaccine.
NGUYEN: Swine flu vaccine, yes.
GRIFFIN: Despite the fact that health officials say it's safe, check out this recent Harvard study.
NGUYEN: We've seen long lines for the vaccines at health clinics this week. Here are the numbers for you, 40 percent of adults say that they are not absolutely sure that they will get it. About half of the parents surveyed say don't know if they're going to give the vaccine to their children so we're asking you this morning.
Here is the question of the day. Are you concerned about the H1N1 vaccine, the swine flu vaccine? Are you going to get it? Are you going to make sure your kids get it or are you just confused about it all? Give us your feedback. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, also go to my blog at cnn.com/betty. Many ways to reach out to us and we will be reading your replies on the air so send them in.
GRIFFIN: And coming up in our 9:00 hour, your health care questions answered. We're going to devote the entire half hour to health care reform with a look at everything from Medicare cuts to making health care more affordable. That's ahead in our 9:00 a.m. hour.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're going swimming at the Georgia aquarium here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. See you in a few.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Yeah, you can drive your car, but hopefully it's not a convertible if you're living in parts of the southeast. There's possible storms out there, freezing cold in the Midwest, but hey, I'm no meteorologist. Let's get to one, that being Reynolds Wolf. Hey, Reynolds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: A little good news for your pocketbook this winter. How about that and some tips on how to keep that heating bill down. Here's personal finance editor Gerri Willis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hi, Betty.
Heating your home this winter will cost you 8 percent less than last year at about $960, but you could cut your costs even more. Seal the cracks and openings in your home. The worst culprits are windows and doors. To find the air leaks in your house, look at areas where different materials come together. I'm talking about those areas where the brick and wood siding meet or the place between the foundation and the walls.
Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. If smoke is sucked out of or blown into the room, well, there's a drift. You can also shut a door or a window on a piece of paper. If you can pull that paper out without tearing it you're losing energy. Then you can caulk and weather strip to your heart's desire.
And make sure you get that annual check up on your heating system. Regular maintenance will help you boost your heating's efficiency in the long run . Check the furnace filter. Make sure it's clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating systems and in if your filter is full of dust, your system will have to work harder and that's going to drive your costs up.
Coming up on "YOUR BOTTOM LINE," a credit nightmare for millions of Americans whose credit card companies rush to change their policies. (INAUDIBLE) How to make sure your home is safe for parents as they get older and save money while do you it. And married to your financial opposite, what to do if you're a spendthrift and your spouse is a tightwad. That's "YOUR BOTTOM LINE," 9:30 a.m. Eastern -- Betty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: We'll have a check of top stories in just a moment.
GRIFFIN: And our Josh Levs joins us now with a little office romance.
NGUYEN: You're not involved because you're a married man. JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Have you guys watched the show "The Office"?
NGUYEN: Yeah.
LEVS: Have you guys watched that? As you know, it's a big deal. I missed it, but apparently there's a big wedding on the show the other day.
NGUYEN: There is.
LEVS: So that plus the news, David Letterman, some other cases got people talking about relationships in the workplace. How many Americans have these relationships and how many have actually dated their bosses? We are going to tell you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Time check our top stories now. President Obama has another meeting this coming week and a developing strategy for Afghanistan. He met for three hours yesterday at the White House with top advisers. The president says he wants to identify objectives in Afghanistan before he decides whether to commit more troops. The commanding general in Afghanistan wants as many as 40,000 troops soon.
NGUYEN: Gunmen attacked a Pakistani army headquarters checkpoint in Rawalpindi (ph) today. Four gunmen, six army guards, all killed. Two gunmen escaped. A military official says the Taliban are claiming responsibility for that attack. It was the third major attack this week. A suicide car bomber killed at least 49 people yesterday in Peshawar. On Monday five workers were killed in an attack on a UN food program office in Islamabad.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a six-day trip to Europe including a stop in Russia. Today she'll attend a signing ceremony normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia. The centerpiece of this trip will be her visit to Moscow where she will discuss nuclear disarmament.
The story involving David Letterman has got a lot of people talking about a lot of things, including relationships at work, how often do they have them? You hear about them.
GRIFFIN: Are they true?
NGUYEN: Yeah, exactly.
GRIFFIN: Josh got some surveys.
NGUYEN: Can you have a successful romance at work?
LEVS: There's rumors like that all the time. You know you can't trust them, right?
NGUYEN: No. LEVS: Once in a while they turn out to be true and this is what we were wondering, is how often do they really happen? So what's cool is this survey that was done in which people were able to speak totally anonymously. It was by careerbuilder, which is known for doing legit surveys.
And here's the answer, let's take look at some of these stats we got for you on the screens, go right to them. How often do these office romances happen? Forty percent of workers in America say they have dated one of their co-workers and 18 percent say they have actually dated more than one co-worker.
The survey also looked at how these people met. We can take a look here how they met on the social world basically. Twelve percent ran into each other outside of work, 11 percent were working late together and it came up that way, 10 percent met at a happy hour, 10 percent over lunch, during work, just interesting how these relationships get sparked.
Now these are the figures that I was most interested in seeing and that is this, how many involved someone who was a boss or in a superior position? And here's how the survey did it. One-third of the relationships involved someone in a higher position and of those, 42 percent of those relationships dated their boss.
So we can see it's not all that unusual for people to say that they dated their boss. Here's something else though, check it out. We're going to zoom in over here. I want you to see this. This is the survey itself from careerbuilder, 31 percent of the relationships ended up in marriage, so close to a third of the time these people said they went on to marry the person that they met at work.
We know this gets a lot of you all talking and we are curious what you think about this. Here's how you can weigh in and we're doing something special with your comments. You get the blog there, cnn.com/josh, Facebook and Twitter, it's /joshlevscnn.
We have a whole hour on this today. At 4:00 we're going to be delving into this issue. What are the rules? What's OK and not OK? What are the rules for men versus rules for women. (INAUDIBLE) are that way. We have a whole hour focused on this issue, your comments, your thoughts, you questions can be answered by our experts so tune in at 4:00 Eastern today. Drew, you seem amused over there, Drew and Betty.
GRIFFIN: You're just saying now there's different rules for men and women.
LEVS: Absolutely. Yeah, that's something we're hearing about from our experts as well. They're going to talk to us about it. It's not necessarily written that way but the idea is what is expected of men, what is expected of women? A lot of people weighing in, saying they feel on a regular basis that the expectations for men and women particularly when it's a boss are different. That's something we got to look at. NGUYEN: We talked about this a little bit last week in light of the David Letterman story and got a ton of responses on our Facebook and Twitter pages. People really do want to weigh in. Some people say forget about it. There's no way but others have reported, hey, I met my wife at work and we are still going strong.
LEVS: Been together for 30 years. We got some of that on the blog right now, people saying that's how we met. We're as happy as can be. We kept it secret at the time, but why should we have to? Others say office relationships never led to anything good for them. (INAUDIBLE)
NGUYEN: Josh, looking forward to that, thank you.
GRIFFIN: Will tens of millions in stimulus dollars be able to curb violence in Chicago?
NGUYEN: We're going to hear about a controversial plan and talk about whether it would really work. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Teen violence in Chicago, a problem attracting the attention of the Obama administration.
NGUYEN: One plan to stop the violence uses Federal stimulus dollars to mentor at-risk kids. We get the story now from national correspondent Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the head of the Chicago public schools. Ron Huberman, has come up with a controversial plan to try to stop the violence.
RON HUBERMAN, CEO, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We have the dollars and we've started.
TUCHMAN: It's controversial because tens of millions of Federal stimulus dollars will be spent targeting school kids who are at the highest risk of getting in trouble.
HUBERMAN: These 10,000 kids are our toughest kids in terms of the ones that we need to reach.
TUCHMAN: 10,000 is a small percentage of all the kids who go to Chicago public schools but the school chief analyzed specific acts of violence over several years to collect data about what happened, when and where it happened and who did it, to identify the students most likely to hurt others or be victims themselves. Each of them will be assigned a 24-hour mentor and offered a part-time job.
HUBERMAN: We don't label students. We don't share the information with the schools of who these students are. The only people who know who these kids are, are the individual involved directly in their intervention.
TUCHMAN: On Chicago's south side, in the back of the Yards neighborhood there is desperation for anything that might work.
Being caught in the middle of violence, coming home from school, right now, that's my main concern.
TUCHMAN: The Chicago public school system's own literature on the violence in the city, specific mention is made of this area in the back of the Yards neighborhood. Not only is there gang activity here, but three gangs that hate each other compete on these very same streets for influence and members. It's a recipe for unrelenting violence.
What this program won't do is work with perpetrators who are no longer in school, which is what this aunt of a four-year-old is very concerned about. Do you think a lot of kids in this neighborhood have parents who were gang members?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yeah.
TUCHMAN: A lot?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yeah, a see the majority of them.
TUCHMAN: You say the majority of the kids' parents in this neighborhood are in gangs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
TUCHMAN: But there are many adults in this neighborhood and elsewhere who are signing on as mentors, ready to offer support to become positive role models for 10,000 kids before it's too late.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: So joining me to talk more about this issue is Dr. Steve Perry. He's the author, educator, principal and education contributor to this network and some of you may be familiar with his book. It's called "Man Up, Nobody's Coming to Save Us." Dr. Perry joins me now this morning.
Dr. Perry, we just heard the plan laid out. They're targeting some 10,000 kids most at risk and because of that, they will get 24- hour mentors, part-time jobs, intervention counseling. Is this a plan that's going to work?
STEVE PERRY, EDUCATOR AND AUTHOR: No, absolutely not.
NGUYEN: Why?
PERRY: Because first of all, the reason why we're having this conversation is not because of the quote/unquote at risk children. It's because of a child who wasn't at risk. This was a child who was an honors student. What this has shown us is that if you are a child in Chicago, you are, in fact, at risk. Well let's take the discussion about at risk one step further. What does it mean to be at risk when you have over 50 percent of the children not graduating from high school?
Clearly therefore these children are not at risk they have already been harmed. What needs to happen is a fundamental redesign of Chicago's public schools, one school system of 410,000 children is bound to fail and it has. If a mayor who has been mayor for over 20 years, all the children who have been born who are in the schools were born while his administration was in place, and our answer at this time is mentors? That's the answer?
NGUYEN: Do you find it odd too, that they're just targeting 10,000 kids? Through the years, more and more kids are going to come up through the ranks and are they, by this plan, this possible plan in a way we're awarding kids for bad behavior, they're getting 24-hour mentors, getting a job. They're getting all of these things that other kids would like to have but maybe can't.
PERRY: This is not a plan, it's a political reaction. What this is, some child has died, and we need to do something to make people feel that we are doing something, but the something is insufficient. Stimulus dollars are not enough to solve the problem.
NGUYEN: What is the answer? If you can break it down for us, what is the answer here?
PERRY: I can. The answer is that the school system as it begins is too large. The problems are too vast. This is a solvable problem when we break the school system down into smaller units. You've heard me say before vouchers. Children need to be able to choose the school that speaks to their academic interests and needs, if a child is interested in science and engineering, she should not be forced to go to a local school that does not offer science and engineering as the primary emphasis of that school's curriculum.
In addition to that, what needs to happen is the schools within themselves need to be changed. Teachers need to take on roles as advisers, as teachers as well, and as coaches. This is the model that's called the triple threat among private schools. In addition to that, what we also need to do is extend the school year. The school year is too short for the children.
NGUYEN: Yes, the kids are going to love that one.
PERRY: Well, I think that they will.
NGUYEN: You think?
PERRY: We have a year-round school. We have 2,000 children on our waiting list. I haven't printed a brochure in three years.
NGUYEN: Let me ask you this one thing just very quickly because we're running out of time. You're talking about the schools and how they need to be changed and how that will address the problem. Does it become more basic than that? Is it within the home, is it within not only the schools but the community as well? Aren't there other factors here that should really step in and help with this? PERRY: The short answer to that is yes but the truth of the matter is that many of the parents who are limited in their ability to parent came from this very school system. So we're asking people who were never educated in the way in which they should have been to do what it is that they never learned to do.
NGUYEN: Dr. Perry, giving us some words this morning. Thank you so much for your information. We always appreciate your insight and you are definitely a friend of the show.
PERRY: Thank you so much.
NGUYEN: See you soon.
GRIFFIN: President Obama is expected to speak tonight before prominent gay rights activists, what's he going to say? You may not know this but many gay voters are unhappy with him. We're going to talk about that ahead.
NGUYEN: And later, Tim Tebow, you know him right? Well he has been sidelined after a concussion. So will he take the field?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Look now at the top stories we're following. Police in Pennsylvania, they say this Pennsylvania man killed himself after shooting his wife to death as she was chatting with a friend on a web camera. Weird story. You might remember this lady too.
Melanie Hain made headlines last year as she brought a gun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game. Police say she was talking to a friend via web cam Wednesday when her husband, Scott Hain, shot her several times. Authorities say he then shot himself with a shotgun.
Crews hoping to remove the bodies of 11 U.N. peacekeepers today from a remote area in Haiti, their plane crashed Friday. Nobody on board survived that crash. The victims are from Uruguay and Jordan. They are on a peacekeeping force that's been in Haiti since the 2004 rebellion.
NGUYEN: No decision yet on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. President Obama's top commander wants up to 40,000 more troops. The president met with his advisers for three hours on Friday, now another meeting is planned for Wednesday. The adviser to the U.S. commander in Afghanistan says time is running out, and he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour at least 25,000 more troops are needed to turn the war around.
Well, a week ago today, "Saturday Night Live" aired a skit that took shots at President Obama's list of campaign promises. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don't see why the right is so riled up. How do you think the left feels? They're the ones that should be mad. I'm sure they thought I would have addressed at least one of the following things by now, global warming, nope. Immigration reform, nope. Gays in the military, nuh-uh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Tonight the president speaks before prominent gay rights activists, a group that might agree with "Saturday Night Live's" point. And for details let's bring in CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser, a little bit of a jab there. Are we going to see the president really speak to the issue tonight?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: He sure will, Betty and a lot of eyes will be watching and listening to what the president says. He's speaking in front of the human rights campaign, this is the nation's largest lobbying organization for gay rights. And also his speech tonight comes before tomorrow's big march by gay rights activists on the mall in Washington -- Betty?
NGUYEN: OK. Why are many gay voters disappointed with the Obama administration? Give us a little bit of background on where the rub is here.
STEINHAUSER: I guess the reason is promises, promises, promises. When Barack Obama was running for the White House he promised to ban or get rid of don't ask, don't tell which bans homosexuals from coming out openly in the military. That hasn't happened yet. They're working towards that but it hasn't happened yet. The defense of marriage act same thing, it defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
The president promised to repeal that and he's working towards it, hasn't happened yet. And then of course as you mentioned, the hate crimes bill, that is getting through one of the houses of congress, but again, hasn't happened yet, so gay rights activists are maybe I could say a little impatient with the pace of this administration. Betty?
NGUYEN: From a practical perspective, do the Democrats really run a risk of losing the gay voting bloc on these issues?
STEINHAUSER: I don't know if they'll lose the gay voting bloc. Remember, exit polls from last November's election showed that seven out of 10 gay lesbian or bisexual voters cast ballots for Barack Obama, that's a lot of them. But they may not be as enthusiastic next time around, they may not vote for Republicans but they may not be as enthusiastic to vote for Barack Obama or for Democrats -- Betty?
NGUYEN: Going back to that "SNL" skit kind of funny there but at the same time, can the president really be blamed for all the goals that he actually hasn't been able to get to just yet?
STEINHAUSER: Listen, people in this day and age people are impatient. We expect things instantly. We in the media we cover things immediately. It takes time to get things done. But of course the president is the boss. You get blamed, so he's already, he came in this office hoping for some bipartisan cooperation. We have not seen that all year. Republicans of course blame him for many things, now even some of his own supporters are getting impatient -- Betty?
NGUYEN: Gotcha. All right, we'll see what the president has to say tonight. Paul Steinhauser in Boston for us up early, we appreciate it. Talk to you later.
STEINHAUSER: Thanks Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, here's a question for you. Will he or won't he?
GRIFFIN: Who are we talking about? Do you have any idea?
NGUYEN: You're going to tell me, right?
GRIFFIN: Tim Tebow, big game tonight at LSU, is this guy going to play? A lot of questions after he got hit on the field, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: They're playing the shark music.
NGUYEN: From "Jaws." That's so ominous. What is this all about?
GRIFFIN: I don't know, something's lurking.
NGUYEN: I think we're getting to that story, it's a different one that's dealing with actually Reynolds swimming with the sharks.
GRIFFIN: You know Tiger Woods has won everything, right?
NGUYEN: Yes.
GRIFFIN: Except Olympic Gold but that could change. Yes, sir. The international Olympic committee has added golf to the games. Woods, even lobbied for this. He's going to get his chance to bring home the gold at the Rio games in 2016. That's also when rugby will be added. Rugby officials say this sport is made for TV.
Well if you want to make it a baseball's post season pennant race you better have a big swing and an even bigger bankroll. All but one of the eight teams in the playoffs have payrolls over $100 million and of course it's the die-hard fans who are carrying the burden. Rick Horrow, sports business analyst, visiting expert on sports law at Harvard.
Good morning, Rick. Let's see the highlights from last night.
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: I'm going to play about 36 rounds of golf in the next few weeks. Because it's seven years away from those Rio Olympics, they don't have a whole lot of golf courses, I figure I have as good a chance as anybody else. What do you think?
GRIFFIN: Yes, go for it. Let's talk about the big ball game that you and I both went to sleep on last night.
HORROW: Yes, you know what. The payrolls, we were going to talk, we'll do it, about the little boys being upstaged for the big boys. The only team in the playoffs that doesn't have $100 million payroll is the twins, go twins, 3 to 1 lead, top of the ninth inning. We were commiserating off air. We go to bed, watch what happens in the 11th, right?
GRIFFIN: Exactly. Are we going to show that?
HORROW: I don't know, that was a tease. Can we show it?
GRIFFIN: That was a good tease. Any way, Mark Teixeira knocks in a homerun Yankee style, walk-off win and the Yankees and their payroll tell the twins, hey, you know what? You guys better step up on the payroll, right? Here it is. Nice hit, here we go.
So I mean, Rick, really, what is the big deal? The twins are there, they are getting beat but they're there.
HORROW: Yes, tell that to people in Minnesota, OK? The click you hear is all of your Minnesota fans turning off their TVs saying we're there, we won 17 out of 21 to get to the playoff, a dramatic playoff. We had the Yankees by their throats, and we let them up.
Now it's 2-0, we're going back to Minnesota. It will be rocking at the Metro Dome but they've got to win three straight which is very difficult against not only a team as formidable as the Yankees but their payroll is over $200 million so it's the haves versus have nots more this year basically than a long time Drew.
GRIFFIN: And the baseball solution where the Yankees or other teams with high payrolls pay a penalty for that and it's divvied among the other ones, that has not solved the situation?
HORROW: It's minimized the problems with the situation, it's about $350 million or more redistributed says the commissioner from the haves to the have nots. Yet, except for the cubs and the Astros this year, money doesn't buy happiness but it sure helps because all of the other seven teams in the eight-team playoffs have payrolls of over $100 million. So they're in the top 10, so it works out where the surprise teams few and far between this year.
GRIFFIN: Maybe we can get some czar in Washington to decide payrolls.
HORROW: Don't hold your breath.
GRIFFIN: Hey, let's talk about the big football game tonight and whether the big guy is going to play, Tim Tebow.
HORROW: Well, let's remember it's a game time decision. The coach says why do I want to telegraph it in advance? I think because he has a very difficult decision to make. The doctors apparently have said he's able to play, don't know that for sure. Tim Tebow is a warrior so he clearly wants to play if he has the chance. It's up to the coach and others and it's not just Tim Tebow the athlete. There are insurance policies that may compensate him and protect the program but it's the brand.
This guy won the Heisman trophy a couple of years ago, he's arguably the best player in college football history, Florida is number one, LSU is number four, they're going into a hostile environment. A lot of people say they could still win the national championship even if they lose this game, it's early enough in the season. A lot more people are saying don't take a chance on Tim Tebow, it's an incredibly, incredibly difficult decision.
GRIFFIN: Sticking to the money here, I mean this guy's got a huge future potentially in the NFL. If he takes a couple more whacks on the head and a doctor declares him ineligible to play any more, his whole future could be down the tubes
HORROW: Quite clearly and even more important than that, a head injury is a very significant issue especially when you're playing football. This isn't golf. This is a tremendously violent contact sport. On the other hand you're sure that there is a significant number of medical opinions that run the range of the impact and risk that he has.
So again, he has an opportunity to sit out and get healthy. He also has an opportunity to play if he is healthy but the facts are issues that we have to take a look at, we don't have and it will be a decision that's a very, very important decision about Tim Tebow, the brand, not just Tim Tebow, the athlete.
GRIFFIN: All right Rick, get out there on the golf course and get that Olympic training going and we'll see you later.
HORROW: Seven years to Rio, that's the mantra.
NGUYEN: I don't know if he'll qualify but hey, you can always try.
And our Reynolds Wolf he's trying something different, he's actually taking a plunge. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF: We're going swimming at the Georgia Aquarium here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. See you in a few.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF: Gives you the heebie jeebies doesn't it, admit it. We're going to make a little bit of a transition, going from people to these things that you see behind me, sharks. Did you know that about one- third of the shark population may be headed towards extinction? In fact, some conservationists say within a few years a certain species could be wiped out. The question is why should you care? I mean after all some people fear sharks, some view them as man-eating predators. Well there is a new exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium that has a very different take, one that brought me face-to-face with more than 70 of these animals.
I have to admit from a very up close view I have to admit that I got a very different perspective.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF (voice-over): The majestic whale shark, the endangered saw tooth shark, great hammerheads. The Georgia Aquarium is home to more than 14 species of shark, more than 70 of the animals in all. They're untouched by time, the same now as millions of years ago. Marine biologist Craig Thorburn has studied them for a lifetime. He's eager to share what he's learned.
(On camera): It's essentially like seeing a dinosaur swimming in the ocean.
CRAIG THORBURN, MARINE BIOLOGIST: The sharks have been around for over 400 million years and there is nothing swimming in the ocean today that is not there or has not survived predation from the shark. So they really are responsible for what we see in the ocean today.
WOLF (voice-over): But the ocean has changed and so has the shark population. Many species are now said to be near extinction. Millions killed each year. Some hunted for their fins but others scooped up as a prize. Just this week in Florida, anglers drew sharp criticism for killing this 750-pound mako shark.
(On camera): What is the biggest threat for these sharks?
THORBURN: The biggest threat for sharks today is over fishing. They are slow to reproduce. They have relatively few young, and we are taking more than 60 or 70 million animals a year out of the environment, and it's not sustainable and it will see the demise of the shark at that rate.
WOLF (voice-over): Thorburn wanted me to experience the other side, the grace and majesty of the shark without glass or boundary and most of the sharks are not dangerous. We went snorkeling in the world's largest fish tank, home of the Georgia Aquarium.
(On camera): That was cool. Wow.
(Voice-over): Thorburn just opened a new exhibit there called planet shark. His goal is for the world to see sharks as something other than the man eater portrayed in the movie "Jaws."
THORBURN: There are stories that we cannot tell in an aquarium but as a compliment to a lot of exhibits, planet shark brings you stories of the sea that cannot be told in any other way.
WOLF: The exhibit includes Rodney Fox's story. Fox survived a great white attack in 1963 and that is the jacket he was wearing. It took 465 stitches to sew up his left side yet Fox is now one of the shark's biggest advocates
RODNEY FOX, SHARK ATTACK SURVIVOR: After I learned about the sharks a little bit I found out that people had far more fear and gave them credibility of far more aggressiveness than they should.
WOLF: Fox invented the first underwater shark observation cage. He hopes that the planet shark exhibit will teach people what he's come to learn, that sharks can be amazing.
JUSTIN HALL, STUDENT: I learned that most sharks mostly attack on their senses, and not on sight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF: One of the big issues that we have with sharks is that they reproduce at a very, very slow rate. So that when you have these and they're yanked out of the sea it takes a very long time to replenish them.
And they really are the apex predator and I'll tell you the thing that they often eat are usually the weaker things in the sea. They have a really -- they're the apex predator and there's a reason for them being there, they're truly beneficial and to lose that part the lion of the ocean so to speak is a huge loss.
NGUYEN: Were you a little worried about getting so close to those Apex figures in the water?
WOLF: Anything that's the size of a school bus that has fins and swimming nearby, yeah, it's a little creepy. Because when you swim through the Georgia Aquarium and Drew I know you're a certified diver you'll see these beautiful multicolored fish and it's just phenomenal and then there's something that just takes your breath away and it is the whale shark and ...
NGUYEN: You're not at risk of being eaten by those. You get close to some of the other sharks that may have taken a bite out of you if they wanted to?
WOLF: They kind of kept their distance and they're very well-fed there at the Aquarium and thankfully they do not have the taste for a cool weatherman.
NGUYEN: That's a whale shark right?
WOLF: That's the whale shark and that's the one that is just enormous, very docile animals. It is amazing how graceful and how effortlessly they can move through that water. Just one gentle sweep of that tale and then off they go. But it is amazing, you say so many of those sharks killed just for their fins in parts of the world.
NGUYEN: Sharks (INAUDIBLE) is huge in places in the world.
WOLF: It's a tremendous thing. A huge staple for a lot of people, some consider it to be an aphrodisiac. It's just a huge draw for a lot of people and what people do is they take the fins off and sometimes they actually put the sharks back in the water while they're still alive.
NGUYEN: Yes, just let them drown.
WOLF: How cruel is that?
NGUYEN: It's awful.
WOLF: These are animals that are so important to our ecosystem.
NGUYEN: Reynolds we do appreciate you risking life and limb for that story.
WOLF: We do it all here at CNN, of course.
NGUYEN: Such a dare devil. Glad you're back safe.
WOLF: There you go.
NGUYEN: A recent Harvard study shows about half of the adult population in the U.S. isn't sure whether it will get the H1N1 flu vaccine, you know the swine flu vaccine or even give it to their kids. You're willing to get the vaccine, right?
GRIFFIN: I wanted to get it live on the air today to show everybody if it killed me.
NGUYEN: And why weren't we able to do that?
GRIFFIN: Well you know there's all this political correctness about giving it to healthy anchors not in the keyed at risk group before anybody else.
NGUYEN: The people at risk are the young people, the really young and the really old, right, and pregnant women.
GRIFFIN: I don't know the exact but it wasn't us.
NGUYEN: We don't count. All right, all right. Some people are worried about a mercury preservative that's found in some of the vaccines, and others say, I'm not going to get it. Well we are asking you what you think about it and got a lot of responses this morning.
Let's see, gosh, where do I start here? Let me go to my Facebook page. Eugene Jiminez says, "Have gotten the common flu shot but not H1N1 shot. Will not." A lot of people are a little worried about it.
Let me go to twitter real quick, "I've never done a flu shot nor had any major flu symptoms. The only shots I want this season are from bartenders." Nice. Let me give you one more, "The government is saying "trust us" on the H1N1 jab which is scarier, this version of the flu or the promises that the vaccine is safe?"
You got a lot of people out there kind of worried about whether this vaccine is something they want to do right now, first thing out of the gate since it has not been used before on us. Let us know what you think though, are you getting the H1N1 vaccine? What about your kids? Or are you just not going to go near it at all? You can reach us on our Facebook, Twitter sites, also my blog at cnn.com/betty. We'll read some of your responses a little bit later this morning.
Hello everybody. Welcome back. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, October 10th. Hopefully you're having a great day so far. I'm Betty Nguyen.
GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin in for T.J. Holmes this morning, where it is 9:00 A.M. in Atlanta, 8:00 A.M. in Memphis, 6:00 A.M. in Vegas. Thanks for starting your day with us nonetheless.
NGUYEN: All right, well let's start with this. For all you ladies out there, have a little bit of bad news when it comes to health care, women, well, you know what? We are not -- we are actually paying more for health care, we're working on that and going to be telling you that story.
But also this, women doing the right thing, getting those mammograms, those prenatal care regular checkups so why are we paying more in premiums though? That's the thing for these regular checkups that people like me, like you women out there, should be getting. We're going to delve into that.
GRIFFIN: Also the Republicans have been complaining about President Obama's reform plan. What is their solution on health care? We're going to break down their version of reform.
NGUYEN: All right. It's all about healthcare right now. And after a long and vocal, sometimes violent debate, are we finally close to a decision on health care reform? That's a big question.
GRIFFIN: The president seems to think so, in his weekly address but acknowledges the obstacles are still in the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Still, there are some in Washington today who seem determined to play the same old partisan politics, working to score political points, even if it means burdening this country with an unsustainable status quo. The status quo of rising health care costs that are crushing our families, our businesses and our government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Well, Congress has several health care reform proposals but one getting the most attention right now, coming up for a vote in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. Now, it doesn't have the government-run public option in it but Republicans don't sound satisfied in their weekly address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. GEORGE LEMIEUX (R), FLORIDA: The plan being pushed by Democrats in Congress also adds a new tax burden to our families. President Obama said families earning less than $250,000 a year would not be subject to any tax increases, but this proposal contains a mandate for families to buy insurance.
Failing to comply would mean every adult would have to pay a $750 penalty. The president says this isn't a tax. I don't buy it. The penalty is paid directly to the IRS when you pay your taxes, and it's certainly not optional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: The Democrats may have a long way to go to win over the Republicans but the proposal in the Senate Finance Committee probably has the best shot at bipartisan support and this week the Congressional Budget Office said it would eventually cut the national deficit, is momentum finally on the Democrats' side?
Paul Steinhauser, CNN's deputy political director joining us live from Boston. And I say it over and over again, Paul, why do the Democrats need bipartisan support for this?
STEINHAUSER: They could try to pass this by their own but Drew, this is such a huge piece of legislation, health care reform, you know, involves a large percentage of the economy that they would like to do this with some bipartisan support. They have about the 60 votes they need, but you know, they would like to get a few Republicans on board, Drew.
As Betty was mentioning this showdown Tuesday in the Senate Finance Committee all eyes are going to be on this. These five congressional committees, Drew, five of them have been dealing with health care reform, four committees have already passed their bills but just with Democratic votes.
This was the bill everybody was looking at, Drew, because this is the one that may, may have some Republican support, we'll find out Tuesday when they have the vote.
GRIFFIN: So you know, there's going to be a lot of political, I shouldn't say shenanigans, I'm not going to be skeptical. But what is exactly going to happen Tuesday, right? Sot his one senate committee votes, then what?
STEINHAUSER: Yes, this committee votes and we're going to look at a couple of things, will any Republican senators vote yes for this bill? Maybe Olympia Snowe of Maine -- there has been a lot thought she may do that. The other thing we'll look out, are there any liberal Democrats on the committee that may vote no. Because as Betty mentioned, and as you talked about this bill does not have that public option which is a government plan, that would be an option alongside current private insurance.
But after this vote is over, then the real horse trading begins because then the bill with the Senate leaders needed to do is take this bill and a previous bill that was passed by a different committee, got to merge them together so there's going to be a lot of horse trading and arm twisting maybe behind closed doors. On the house side, similar things, you would hope that later this month or early November you would have votes on the floors of the House and the Senate, we'll take it from there, Drew.
GRIFFIN: And in the end, I mean, politically speaking do the Democrats have to pass just anything? Just anything to say we've done something, because a lot of this is starting to get more and more watered down from what the Democrats told us they wanted in the first place.
STEINHAUSER: You're exactly right, but there is a lot of pressure on the Democrats to get something done because remember, there's some big elections about 13 months from now and they want to show they've actually done something, and health care reform, even if it's only a little bit of what they originally proposed, as long as they can get something done, they're going to feel a lot better and a timetable, too.
The president, the White House, they would like to get this done by the end of this year, next year you have an election year makes things much tougher to accomplish in Washington, D.C., Drew.
GRIFFIN: Public opinion, the president seemed to be saying, you know, it's only people inside the beltway who are against this or are fighting this, but, you know, I mean, if you get outside the beltway, Peter, people are pretty hot about it as well. Is there a momentum swing in the public opinion polls?
STEINHAUSER: The public opinion polls show a couple of different things, first of all most Americans agree something needs to be done to reform health care, that's where everybody agrees. What they don't agree on is the specifics, should you have the public option, should you not have the public option, should you tax, should you not tax?
There's a lot of divisions when you get down to the specifics. But overall most Americans agree the current system we have right now is good but it could use some fixing.
GRIFFIN: OK. Hey, Paul, thanks a lot. Good conversation. More opposition for health care reform, here is what we know, senior Catholic bishops are threatening to oppose the legislation if it does not address abortion. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wants specific language to exclude federally-funded abortions.
Meanwhile the Senate Finance Committee is said to vote on that bill Tuesday. The Congressional Budget Office estimating that it will cost $829 billion over 10 years.
NGUYEN: What's next for health care reform? Well, some Democrats say a compromise is close. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats aren't about to pull the plug on health care reform. In fact, some are all but gift wrapping it for delivery to the White House just in time for the holidays.
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: We're going to have on the president's desk before Christmas.
ACOSTA (on camera): Before Christmas?
HARKIN: Before Christmas.
ACOSTA: You think you'll have a signing before Christmas?
HARKIN: I do. I believe he will sign it before Christmas.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Iowa Senator Tom Harkin who replaced Ted Kennedy as chairman of the health committee is confident. That's because there's talk of compromise. The Senate majority leader Harry Reid begins the process of merging two bills from the health committee and what's expected out of the Finance Committee.
One compromise is called an "opt out," a provision that Harkin says would allow states to choose for themselves whether to join a government insurance program or public option.
HARKIN: In fact I had suggested that maybe one time that there should be a reverse option, in other words, you have a public option and if the state wants to opt out of it, they can opt out of it.
ACOSTA: Democrats know the public may be coming around with one recent poll showing support for their proposals climbing to 40 percent, from 34 percent a month ago.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, HOUSE SPEAKER: We'll come around the curve, we're coming around the curve.
ACOSTA: Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole is predicting a bill will pass and he's warning his fellow Republicans to get on board stat.
BOB DOLE (R), FORMER SENATOR: They don't want Obama to get it so we got to kill it, not because of the merits of the bill but because they don't want the president to get any credit. Now you can do that, and then I'm probably guilty of it but you can't make a habit of it. And health care is one of those things.
I don't know what kind of process this is, but I think it's outrageous.
ACOSTA: But current GOP leaders on Capitol Hill want none of it, accusing Democrats of hiding the true costs of health care reform.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: That's because the real bill will soon be cobbled together in a secret conference room somewhere here in the capitol by a handful of Democratic senators, and White House officials. ACOSTA (on camera): In the end, Senator Harkin believes Democrats will support a robust public option in the final bill, but Senate Democratic leaders are keeping the "opt out" in their back pockets, just in case they have to win over any last-minute holdouts.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: All right. So while we're talking about health care, why are women paying more for the same health care services as men? We're going to talk about that straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Glad you're with us. Let's give you an idea of what's happening around the country weather-wise. We're seeing some scattered showers moving through parts of the southeast and along the eastern seaboard but then back in the central plains. We're talking about some snow that's going to fall from Omaha back over towards Denver, Colorado, where temperatures this is hour are still mighty cool in many parts of the central plains.
In fact, places like Omaha, currently temperatures right at the freezing point in a few locations and we're going to be seeing that through a good part of the day today. Now, a couple of reasons why we're seeing that precipitation in terms of the rainfall this frontal boundary making its way along the eastern seaboard. Further back towards the central plains, you got cold air coming in from Canada. That's going to continue to run south until it mixes in with cool air and at the same time, it's going to mix in with the moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico.
That's going to give you scattered snow showers. You could see up to about a half foot in some places. Then back out in the desert southwest pretty dry for you, same story in California for say parts of the Great Lakes, going to be kind of a mish mash. You're going to have a pretty nice morning in parts of Detroit, kind of cool for you but then as that frontal boundary comes through, more cloud cover into the afternoon, possibly scattered snow showers in the upper peninsula.
Now high temperatures for the day, depends on where you happen to be. Billings, Montana, 25 degrees. That's the high, not the low temperature. 53 in Chicago, 71 in Washington, D.E., 92 in Tampa. 76 in Houston. 89 in Phoenix. 83 in Las Vegas and 66 in San Francisco. That is a wrap. We've got so much more on your forecast and so many stories to tell you about, all coming up right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. See you in a few.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: We've been telling you about this recent Harvard study showing about half of the adult population in the U.S. not sure if they're going to get that H1N1 flu vaccine or give it to their kids. Well, some say they are worried about mercury preservative found in some of the vaccines. Others say they're just going to gamble. They don't think they're going to get sick.
NGUYEN: Yes, we've been wanting to hear from you this morning. Are you going to get it? What about your children, make sure that they are going to get the swine flu vaccine or are you just not going to deal with it at all, saying wait I'm going to see how this plays out and if it's really something I want to do.
Well, we're hearing a lot of different responses from you. Let me go to my twitter site first of all and let's see, Erin Thompson say "I'm waiting for all those high risk groups to get their swine flu shots before I do." He's one of those that's going to wait this out and then Mark (INAUDIBLE) says, "I would never take the swine flu vaccine. The government has not said anything about its side effects."
I'm getting a lot of responses, too, on Facebook. Let me see if I can get you one, ooh, that one has a little curse word in it. Some people say absolutely not in a few more words than that. But yes, a few this morning pretty fired up about it but the swine flu vaccine, something you're going to get, let us now. Reach out to us. We got a Facebook site or twitter site, also our blog at cnn.com/betty, we'll be reading more of these responses on the air but keep them clean, folks. This is a family show.
GRIFFIN: You know, people don't trust the government.
NGUYEN: They don't and worry about something that's brand new and you know, it's the first time it's out, do I get in on the first batch or do I wait to see how Drew does with it once he gets the shot?
GRIFFIN: You know, I would take it but don't worry about the government. Ask your health care professional. You trust your doctor, I would assume, or the nurse that deals with your kids.
NGUYEN: I think with anything new, people are going to worry about it. So, Drew wanted to get the shot live on the show today -
GRIFFIN: Josh, you would have gotten it? Josh, right?
NGUYEN: Right, Josh?
LEVS: I would let Drew get it and then find out how it goes.
NGUYEN: Exactly, let him be the guinea pig, right.
LEVS: Yes, give it a day, make sure he's OK and then I'm here.
NGUYEN: OK.
GRIFFIN: Are we moving on here?
NGUYEN: Yes, I think we are.
GRIFFIN: President Obama, you know him, well he's seeing unprecedented consensus in favor of health care reform, that's what he says. Even Republican governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger want the system overhauled.
NGUYEN: Yes, but Congress is a different story. Lisa Sylvester reports now saying that Republicans and the Democrats they are miles apart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For months, Republicans have been attacking Democratic health care proposals and Democrats have criticized the GOP for offering no reform plan of its own.
OBAMA: What's your answer? What's your solution?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Republicans have no plan to fix it. They have no plan to protect consumers.
SYLVESTER: But Republicans say they have offered legislation that would, among other things, let small businesses pool their resources to lower the cost of insurance, allow Americans to purchase insurance across state lines, permit individuals to take a tax deduction for health insurance premiums and set up special tribunals for malpractice cases in an effort to prevent frivolous lawsuits against doctors.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), TENNESSEE: Instead of 1,000-page bills and changing the whole system and adding to the debt, and cutting Medicare, and raising premiums for millions of Americans, we'd like to say our goal is to reduce costs.
SYLVESTER: A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fired back saying Republicans have decided they want to be the party of no, and have offered skimpy outlines rather than comprehensive reform with no assessment of what their proposals would cost.
But according to the Republican study committee, 40 health care bills have been introduced by House Republicans since January but the bills haven't been taken up in the Democratically-controlled Congress.
REP. TOM PRICE (R), GEORGIA: Virtually none of them have been considered in committee and that's because at least on the House side, there's not a bipartisan effort at all by the Speaker of the House.
SYLVESTER: It hasn't been much different on the Senate side. Most of the Republican amendments to Senator Max Baucus' bill in the finance committee were defeated in party line votes.
(on camera): Representative Price, who is also a medical doctor, says each week for the last 10 months he has tried to meet with administration officials to offer his ideas on health care reform, after being repeatedly but politely ignored, and finally had a meeting with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius which he calls "a constructive exercise in bipartisan discussion." The White House says the president has been working with Democrats and Republicans and will continue to do so.
Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Still ahead, why women pay more for health care than men.
GRIFFIN: And our non-getting the swine flu shot Josh Levs is going to compare our health care to other countries.
LEVS: I'll get it just the day after you do. You got to call and tell me it went OK. Check this out. How do U.S. health care compare with the rest of the world? I got a map that's going to show you literally every country, I mean, literally the entire rest of the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: This starts out as one of those fact of life kind of conversations over the kitchen table, but many women get pregnant. Many use birth control and many take advantage of preventative tests like mammograms and that leads to another fact. Women are charged more for individual health insurance policies than males of the same age for the same coverage. It's a costly reality that could be changed under the health care reform plans being considered by Congress.
Ceci Connolly is the national health policy reporter for "The Washington Post," joins us from Washington. CC, I've got to ask you first, do women just cost more or is this an inequity in the system?
CECI CONNOLLY, "WASHINGTON POST": I think, Drew that it's probably a little bit of both. You're absolutely right that women do tend to use medical services and their health insurance more especially up in the early front end, the preventative screenings that you were talking about. Women also we just know tend to be more of the consumers in a family.
They do more of the grocery shopping. They're often more responsible for taking the children to the doctor and I might say even probably nudging some of those husbands to go and get a checkup once in a while. So they're certainly more aware of and possibly using the health care system more, but you know, they're probably making some smarter health care decisions, doing the early screenings and tests up front.
So there's a real question about later on in life, they might be saving some money.
GRIFFIN: You know, Congress when they're dealing with these things always deals in the here and now and they never talk about future savings or you know, screenings that could prevent a future cost down the road but is there anything in the current bills, the multitude of bills which would either eliminate this inequity in insurance for women or reward some of this prescreening that's going on? CONNOLLY: There's a little bit of both, Drew, in most of the bills that are now being considered in Congress. We know, for instance, that all of the bills have certain new prohibitions on insurers. This legislation would stop insurance companies from denying coverage or jacking up rates based on a number of things, including gender, including those preexisting conditions that we hear so much about.
So that would certainly even out some of the, as you point out, inequities in the system, and probably do away with some of the discrimination, frankly that, we see now in the insurance world. Additionally, there are some incentives that are built into this, these bills, incentives around preventative care, wellness.
We also see some higher payments going to primary care physicians, in programs like the Medicare program, which are all baby steps, certainly, but baby steps to reorient really our nation to those kinds of early interventions and an emphasis on wellness.
GRIFFIN: I got to ask you one question about preexisting conditions because pregnancy has been called a pre-existing condition, and I mean you can look at this two ways. One a woman doesn't have health care until she gets pregnant and then realizes man, I'm in trouble. I got to go out and get insurance for this, and the insurance company would look on that and say well, look, where were you, you know, three months ago?
CONNOLLY: Sure, and we know that there have been a handful of these cases. I don't want to blow it out of proportion. But there have been some cases that have gotten a lot of attention about women being told they had a pre-existing condition, namely a pregnancy or a cesarean section delivery at some time prior. And that does seem a little bit unfair to me.
But on the other hand, we also have heard the stories of people who go and just try to purchase health insurance right when they know they need it, and this is a real problem for insurers. Because if you only have people buying, it's like buying your homeowners' insurance when you smell smoke, then everybody just cashes in, and it doesn't really spread around that risk. So insurance is a difficult business to balance risk.
GRIFFIN: You know, I've just got to ask you one last question and unfortunately, I have to ask you to be quick but politically speaking, are we going to get meaningful health care reform at the end of this process or are we just going to get a health care reform bill with a stamp on it?
CONNOLLY: oh, gosh, Drew, I forgot my crystal ball today. So it's harder me to say but I think that there are some very attractive, promising things in the legislation that would certainly be steps in the right direction.
GRIFFIN: I look forward to your reporting in the coming months for sure.
CONNOLLY: Thank you.
GRIFFIN: Thanks.
NGUYEN: All right. Well, one of the driving questions in health care reform and the debate surrounding it is how to make it more affordable. Here to talk about that is Dr. Michael Roizen, who is a specialist cardiovascular and internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Doctor, thanks so much for taking some time to talk to us today. Let's get right down to it because we don't have a lot of time. What is the best way to make health care affordable?
DR. MICHAEL ROIZEN, LEVELAND CLINIC: 75 percent of health care is chronic disease that we control the right of. That is -
NGUYEN: So prevention? Is that what you're saying?
ROIZEN: Well, it's prevention but it's individual and there can be some things in the healthcare bill. Let me go over it. It is twice as expensive as Europe, three times as expensive as Asia because we have twice the chronic disease, three times as Asia, and 75 percent of those chronic diseases are caused by our choices, physical inactivity, tobacco, food choices and portion size and stress.
So there are things we get to manage, but there are also things that you can teach diabetics, you can teach people with metabolic syndrome or vascular disease who have the chronic disease, before they get illness. If that's in the bill, if that is, and there are some bills with that in it, didn't quite make it in right now, may get in on the floor. When those get in, it will really change the cost, we can lower the cost from 16 percent, literally by 75 percent.
NGUYEN: Speaking of costs, you say something I find very interesting -- you say, to help control the costs that some companies should penalize people for not living a healthy lifestyle and yet reward people who do. Do you think that's really going to work?
ROIZEN: Well, there are now efforts and there are some incentives in the bill, pages 69 to 72 of the Baucus bill that the previous guest spoke of on, prevention, are these incentives for keeping a normal blood pressure, for not having, if you will, tobacco smoke in your urine, or the products of tobacco in your urine, for normalizing things, if you did that, whether it's called incentive or whether it's more cost for insurance, if you don't do healthy things, those could motivate us and really change the game.
NGUYEN: All right. Dr. Michael Roizen, thanks so much for your time this morning. I wish we had a little bit more of it but we do appreciate your insight.
ROIZEN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: And there's much more to come right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right, Drew and I will be back at the top of the hour.
GRIFFIN: Yes, and meantime, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" with Gerri Willis starts right now.
