Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes interviewed President Barack Obama the day after he addressed Congress and the nation about health care reform.
In the interview, the president says he thinks there are enough votes to pass a good health care bill, one “that helps the American people, reduces costs, actually over the long-term controls our deficit.”
He also discussed his willingness to work with Republicans on tort reform, saying that he hasn’t seen evidence that caps on malpractice judgments work but that there is a range of ideas, including those from the American Medical Association, that he would consider.
Among the ideas he mentions:
“having medical experts who look at the case ahead of time so that there’s some threshold that has to be met before the case goes to court. Getting essentially arbitration or mediation, where doctors and hospitals come forward early and talk to the patient in an honest way, not fearing a lawsuit and get it resolved. Which, by the way, can potentially help reduce medical errors.”
Read a transcript of much of the interview or watch it below.