Rove, Dean spar over health care at PSU

Karl Rove and Howard Dean brought the national health care debate to Penn State on Tuesday night.

There was little agreement, but a good bit of name calling, during the event which ranged in tone from heated to humorous.

“That’s a made up statistic, Karl Rove. ...For the first time tonight, I’m calling you on it,” said Dean, a medical physician and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “You made that up.”

Rove had said that Medicare rejects claims twice as often as the overall health insurance industry, and he promised to put the proof in his Wall Street Journal column next week. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t question my integrity. ..Mr. Dean, you just called me a liar and I don’t appreciate it,” replied Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor. Later, Rove called Dean “adolescent” after the former Democratic National Committee chairman interrupted one of his answers.

The exchange was part of a debate in front of more than 2,000 people at the Eisenhower Auditorium. The two participated in a similar event at DePauw University in September.

Tuesday night’s event was part of the Student Programming Association’s distinguished speaker series. All but one question dealt directly with health care, currently being debated in Congress.

Dean defended the public option, a government-sponsored insurance plan, saying it would provide more insurance opportunity for citizens.

“We have a choice (now) that is between one predatory insurance company, another predatory insurance company and a third predatory insurance company,” Dean said. “Give us the same choice that people over 65 have, give us the same choice that our brave soldiers that came back from Iraq and Afghanistan have, give us the same choice that the Congress of the United States has. Give us that choice.”

Rove replied, “Every one of those programs is subsidized by everybody else. ...So let’s duplicate them for everybody, except we’re gonna run out of money. ...Somebody has to pay the bills.”

Rove said the health care industry does not need large scale overhaul. Instead, he proposed medical tort reform and allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, allowing people to take their health care with them when they switch jobs, allowing small business to pool together.

Earlier in the debate, Rove said 17 million of the 47 million uninsured Americans earn more than $50,000 a year.

“With all due respect, I don’t want to pick up Bill Gates’ health insurance costs,” Rove said. “These are people who ought to be able to find a way to pick up their own.”

Dean said that $50,000 worker would end up spending $13,000 on health insurance in the current system. “Only a Republican could like this kind of thing,” he said.

Throughout the debate, audience members mixed their applause and cheers for both speakers.

But Rove received boos and catcalls from the audience on three occasions. When he claimed the United States health care system was the best in the world, heralded the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 of as an example of bipartisanship, and criticized people for saying George W. Bush “wasn’t a legitimately elected president.”

At one point, in quick succession one spectator yelled out “war criminal” and another cursed at Rove.

“These people must be from Michigan,” Rove said.

The reference to Penn State’s football rival earned Rove some laughs. “Or maybe ... Ohio State.” he added.

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