McCain, McConnell: Start over on heath

U.S. Sen. John McCain and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell told a Charlotte audience this morning that Congress and the president should "start over" on health care reform.

"It's time we started back at the beginning," McCain of Arizona told medical professionals at Carolinas Medical Center, reports Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer.

The two Republicans joined GOP Sen. Richard Burr in the invitation-only town hall that drew about 250 people to a hospital auditorium.

The three acknowledged that health reform is needed. But they advocated a go-slow, incremental approach and criticized Democratic proposals.

"Our goal ought not to be to have the cheapest health care in the world," said McConnell, of Kentucky, adding that government-run health care would lead to "massive rationing."

He also said reaction from people who have swarmed public meetings across the country on health care could help slow the process.

"The reaction of the American people has been helpful to us in achieving our goal, which is a little more modest and (doing) it the right way," McConnell said.

In a later conference call with reporters, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina said Republicans' plan wouldn't help consumers.

"It really leaves the individual right where they are today," he said, "to negotiate with the insurance companies. And they don't have the muscle or the authority to deal with them in order to get the costs down."

In contrast to other meetings on the subject, the hospital gathering was civil. One Charlotte doctor, however, questioned the senators' statements that Americans have "the best heath care in the world." Dr. David Jacobs, a surgeon, also questioned McCain's suggestion that the real number of uninsured Americans is 12 million to 15 million, not the 47 million often quoted.

"On both sides of the fence, I don't think the American people are hearing the whole story," Jacobs said.