Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., compared the U.S. healthcare system to the 1991 movie “Thelma & Louise.”
Senate Republicans’ new version of the healthcare bill is better than the current system under Obamacare, even if it is not ideal, Roberts said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt.
“It’s a lot like being in the back seat of a convertible with Thelma and Louise,” Roberts said, referring to the current system. “You have got to get out of the car. Maybe the first car we get into is not exactly the car you want, but you have got to do that, and then maybe there’s another car.”
The reference Roberts make refers to a scene in the movie in which Thelma and Louise, played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, drive a convertible off a cliff.
He later elaborated: “I don’t want to drive the car off the cliff. I want to prevent the car that’s going off the cliff from going there, or if it has to go over the cliff with regards to what the Democrats want, then get out of the car.”
He called for patience with lawmakers in the fixing of the healthcare system. “You can’t just fix it in this period of time. So we just have to do the best we can, get something done and then, you know, continue to work on it,” Roberts said in the interview with Hunt.
When asked if one week was long enough for lawmakers to “digest” the bill, Roberts noted that plans to replace Obamacare have been in the works for years. “I don’t think anybody has any indigestion, in terms of digesting the bill. I mean, the bill, we have been talking about it now for what, eight years?”
Roberts noted during the interview the importance of getting a bill passed. “We can’t delay. A delay means higher co-pays and higher premiums and insurance companies leaving areas that they serve.”
“This isn’t the end-all time here. This is going to take some time to fix. It’s taken eight years for this not-so-slowly to crash,” Roberts said.
The senator then made another movie reference, this time to a 1969 Robert Redford and Paul Newman movie. “It’s like—here we go again-- ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ You’ve got to get off the cliff. The bad guys are coming.” Roberts said in the interview.
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