Health Care Reform Vote; Taliban's Growing Influence in Pakistan
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up to the top of the hour - just a couple of minutes now to the top of the hour. It's Tuesday. It's the 13th of October. Thanks for being with us this morning on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We have a lot of big stories we're breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes. First, the Senate Finance Committee in just two hours is going to be voting on its $829 billion version of health care reform. The measure is designed to provide coverage to 94 percent of Americans without adding to the deficit and without a public option. The insurance industry, though, is launching an 11th hour attack and there may not be a single Republican supporting the measure.</s>ROBERTS: New concerns this morning about the stability of Pakistan. The Taliban now launching attacks on government forces there, reportedly looking to partner with al Qaeda to gain more power and influence, and that has some people worried about militants taking control of a nation that has nuclear capabilities.</s>CHETRY: Also, cheating death. A woman slips, falls through the ice, her heart stopped beating for three hours. Sanjay Gupta has her incredible survival story. Dr. Gupta himself does an amazing demonstration of what happens to your body when you're forced to float in freezing water. Here's a look.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: First thing you notice when you get in the water is that it's extremely hard to talk because the cold just sort of takes your breath away. The next thing is wherever this water touches my skin, it hurts.</s>CHETRY: The fine line between life and death, it's part of Dr. Gupta's "Cheating Death" series. But first we begin with a potential turning point in the health care debate. In the next few hours, the Senate Finance Committee will be voting on a health care reform bill that would cost $829 billion to put into place over the next ten years. One of the votes that will be cast, Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa. We spoke to him earlier on AMERICAN MORNING about why he's against the measure. He says it will drive costs up for many families and says there's one important measure that's missing.</s>SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: Tort reform is a very major thing and why? I started to say because 10 percent of the cost of medicine is a practice of defensive medicine because doctors give you a bunch of tests that may be you don't need because they think you're going to sue them, so they give you every test under the sun so they've got a defense if you do sue them. The Democrats don't want to do that because they get all of their campaign funds from the tort attorneys.</s>CHETRY: All right. So there we heard from Charles Grassley. Brianna Keilar is live on Capitol Hill this morning. Quite a turnaround, you know, and one of the other things that he did mention, that he did talk about is that he misunderstood or -- you know, he misread how strongly his constituents would feel about these individual mandates as well. But all of that aside, this bill looks like it's headed for passage, right, because it does have the support of the Democrats.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Democratic chairman of this committee, Max Baucus, says he's confident that he has the votes here today. Thirteen Democrats, 10 Republicans. So Democrats obviously have an edge. But keep in mind, there's still a couple of Democrats who have not said they are definitely going to vote for this bill on this committee, but the sense is that those Democrats -- pardon me -- would not really try to stand in the way of this vote. This is, certainly, a key vote. This is the fifth and final committee that would be passing a health care bill out of committee. And it's really the most conservative bill of all of the ones that Congress has considered, because it has a smaller price tag and it lacks that government-run insurance plan, that public option. So this is what this bill looks like today, that would be voted on today. It's a price tag of $829 billion. This is far below President Obama's cutoff of $900 billion and it also includes health cooperatives -- non-profit health co-ops, instead of that so-called public option, and it includes an individual mandate, a requirement that all Americans must have health insurance, but there is not a strong employer mandate that says they have to contribute to health care costs for their employees. Democrats, Kiran, are trying to pick up one Republican vote. That's really the only chance they have. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, she's made some positive sounds about the bill, but she hasn't said definitively she's going to vote for it -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: But the bottom line is, they don't need her necessarily. They can still get it passed on a party line, right?</s>KEILAR: Yes, they don't need her, but they sure would like to have her, because that would allow them to say, we have some bipartisan support.</s>CHETRY: Right. Absolutely. And then also, the other interesting thing that's sort of got thrown in here at the 11th hour is the insurance industry-funded study that came out on Monday, saying this bill could end up drive up premiums, ending up driving up premiums, rather, $4,000 a year for families. Democrats are firing that, calling it a hatchet job. But what effect is that having on the Hill right now?</s>KEILAR: Well, Democrats are very much on the defensive from the Senate Finance Committee and over at the White House, because there's a specter that looms over this effort to overhaul health care. Back in '93, '94, the insurance industry was really instrumental in scuttling that reform plan. And so, this is thing that the folks here are very aware of. They are saying this is absolutely not true. Their plan will bring down the costs. As you said, they're saying this is a hatchet job; this is a self-serving analysis; paid for by an industry that they say has been gouging consumers. But that industry lobby stands by their numbers and they say they're just trying to make sure there are no unintended consequences, being very expensive premiums for consumers like you and me, Kiran.</s>CHETRY: All right. Brianna, thanks so much. We'll be watching, as we said, in just a couple of hours, the finance committee is going to be voting there in the Senate. And stay with us because in just a few minutes, we'll be talking with Wendell Potter. He used to work for two of the country's biggest insurance companies. But now, he's working against them, trying to get health care reform passed.</s>ROBERTS: Now, we know where the Taliban is getting a lot of its cash. They are extorting it from drug dealers. According to an official from the Treasury Department, he says the Taliban is financing attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan by extorting funds from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers. They're also squeezing protection money out of legitimate Afghan businesses. Al Qaeda, on the other hand, is said to be strapped for crash, and while it is still a threat, it has lost some of its influence, according to this Treasury Department official. Meantime, the United States is growing steadily more concerned about the Taliban's influence in Pakistan this morning. Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon. And, Barbara, why Pakistan and why now?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, one important reason, the U.S. believes the Taliban inside Pakistan are set on a firm path to try and destabilize this important U.S. nuclear ally.</s>STARR (voice-over): Four bloody attacks in eight days. In the latest, a suicide bomber targets a military convoy passing through a bazaar in northwest Pakistan. More than 40 killed. It was a weekend standoff at army headquarters in Rawalpindi that has shaken Pakistan deeply and has Washington worried. Pakistani Taliban disguised as soldiers stormed the compound, seizing hostages. Eleven Pakistani troops and nine militants were killed. The Pakistani army spokesman tried to defend the massive security breach.</s>MAJ. GEN. ATHAR ABBAS, PAKISTAN MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Can anybody guarantee today that 100 percent, any organization for that matter, any army or any outside party can prevent a single act of terrorism? It's not possible.</s>STARR: But for the U.S., a potentially more frightening concern about growing Taliban capabilities was expressed by a key Republican senator on CBS' "Face the Nation."</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: We also know that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. The Taliban taking over a country like Pakistan would be completely and totally unacceptable, destabilizing not only in that area of the world, but all around.</s>STARR: The Taliban's goal may not be to take over the country, just to wreak havoc. Experts believe the attacks are revenge for the recent killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a U.S. military strike, and an effort to blunt an upcoming military offensive in South Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold. The Taliban's boldness underscores the group's ability to maintain its influence, even after their leader was killed. Robert Grenier, the former CIA station chief in Pakistan, says al Qaeda has a growing partner in the Taliban.</s>ROBERT GRENIER, FORMER CIA STATION CHIEF IN PAKISTAN: If they're asked for support by al Qaeda, they cannot and they will not say no.</s>STARR: So, how much attention is all of this getting in Washington? Just yesterday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, called his counterpart in Pakistan, General Ashfaq Kiyani to express his condolences and concerns about the latest violence - John.</s>ROBERTS: Very troubling. Barbara Starr for us this morning from the Pentagon -- Barbara, thanks.</s>CHETRY: Also new this morning, more than 200 patients at a Los Angeles hospital received eight times the normal dose of radiation during CT scans. Officials at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center blame the mistake on the hospital resetting the scanner. That mistake went undetected for a year and a half. About 40 percent of the patients lost patches of hair. General Electric makes the scanner and says it's not the machine that's defective. The FDA puts out an alert urging hospitals across the country to review their safety procedures for their CT scans.</s>ROBERTS: The children of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. have reached a settlement over the family's estate. That keeps the case from going to public jury trial. Two of Dr. King's children had claimed that their brother, Dexter King, shut them out of decisions involving King Incorporated, the private venture that controls the family's cash.</s>CHETRY: And if you're a huge Elvis fan, the ultimate in memorabilia, a 154-acre ranch outside of Memphis. It's in Horn Lake, Mississippi. "The King" once owned the property, and now you can too. But you will need a lot of money. The asking price is $6.5 million.</s>ROBERTS: Well, he was a health care industry insider. Now he is giving us the inside scoop on the health care industry. Why are health insurers lining up against the Senate bill now? We'll ask him for his insight. It's eight and a half minutes after the hour.