Frist Walks Back Support Of Dem Health Care Reform

Former GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist seems to be gradually walking back comments he made to Time that he'd support the Baucus health care reform bill if he were still in the Senate.

On MSNBC this morning, Frist -- who's a doctor with a new book out -- said the "Obama bill" is "not quite there" and doesn't do enough to "reorient our system around value, around outcomes, around performance."

"There's a little bit in there, but not nearly enough," Frist said.

Frist suggested that the debate over health care reform needs to move back into the hands of the American people, and urged them to "go to those town meetings, to write those letters to the editor, to go see their United States Senators and express what they feel about preserving that choice."

As is, Frist said, "you see big pharma coming in, you see the unions coming in, you see the trial lawyers coming in, you see the insurance companies coming in."

Frist implied that he doesn't blame Republicans for not trying harder to work with Democrats on health insurance reform, saying the situation is the fault of Democratic threats to pass reform using reconciliation.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you think. I'm gonna do this with 50 votes, not 60, which is what every other substantive legislation has used. And I'm gonna do it in 20 hours. And therefore whatever you say doesn't matter.

"Why would they come to the table?" Frist said of Republicans.

Frist also declared that the United States has "the very best health care in the world" and that reform needs to move toward a system that is "consumer-driven, patient-centered, provider-friendly."

While Frist didn't come out and explicitly say he no longer supports the Baucus bill -- which he'd originally said he'd vote for were he still in the Senate -- MSNBC seemed to read that message in Frist's comments. At one point during this morning's interview, the chyron read, "Fmr. GOP Majority Leader Frist Now Says He Won't Support Bill."

Late Update: Here's the video.