SHUSTER: Joining us now to talk about how the health industry may have shot itself in the foot with this report is Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York.

And, Congressman Weiner, it's nice to see you again.

REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: My pleasure. Thanks.

SHUSTER: Congressman, first of all, the report assumes no behavioral changes whatsoever in response to the new propose policies. That seems like a dead giveaway that this report is flawed. But what's your view?

WEINER: Well, the one behavioral change we are clearly not going to see is the insurance companies aren't going to suddenly start saying, "You know what, we are going to stop making 30 percent profits and cut it down to 10 percent or 5 percent because of this bill." You know, they unwittingly did this but they made the single best argument I've seen in a while for why you need a vigorous competitor for the health insurance industry, namely, the public plan. They are freely saying that it doesn't matter what you guys in Congress do. We are going to keep raising our rates, raising our rates.

You know, there is a word for this. It's called chutzpah. They are, right now, on the eve of this vote, saying, "You know what, since you didn't public a public option in, we are going to raise the rates" in their own calculation, "by 111 percent." They really do seem to have no shame about the way they've perceived, but many of my colleagues saw this report and are responding in exactly the opposite way that I think the insurance industry thought we'd respond.

SHUSTER: And these are colleagues of yours who may have been on the fence as far as trying to rein in the for-profit insurance companies?

WEINER: Well, you know, a lot of us are wondering what-what's going on here. Here it is, we are giving the insurance companies millions of new customers, because we're going to require people to get coverage, and their way of saying thanks is, on the eve of the vote, to say, "You know what, you can do that but we're still going to raise rates."

But the fact that they are going to raise rates is actually a rare moment of honesty for this industry. They are saying, clearly, that unless they have some competition, they aren't going to contain costs themselves. You know, I started a website CountdowntoHealthcare.com where we're using it to put pressure on some of the more moderate members of my party. But we're going to circulate this health care report as an example for why you need the public option.

SHUSTER: Well, Congressman, tell us a little bit more about the Web site CountdowntoHealthcare.com. I mean, how is the effort going to try to reach out to conservative Democrats?

WEINER: Well, you know, it's going fairly well. I mean, it's remarkable the amount of energy there is. You know, we think that many of these moderate districts people don't favor health care. We're learning quite the opposite.

A lot of the reasons why Democrats got elected in these so-called swing districts is because we're committed to doing something about the high cost of health care. And the numbers of people that are signing up for it saying, "You know what, I'm from a blue dog district" or "I'm from a Republican district and I want health care" has been quite profound.

You know, in CountdowntoHealthcare.com, every day, we kind of do a wrap-up of the day's events and we put up reports like the one that you led this story with, about children being denied coverage because they are a little bit overweight. And this is why we need competition.

SHUSTER: The Rocky Mountain Health Plans reversed their decision today and decided to cover that baby when, quote, "a recent situation in which we denied to coverage to a heavy, yet healthy, infant brought to our attention a flaw in our underwriting system."

Is this what reform would like if the insurance industry had, say, a change in policy only when they're shamed into it?

WEINER: We've got to understand how the health insurance industry works and they're not venal people. But they want to take inasmuch money as they can and pay out as little as they can for health care. That's what their shareholders demand, and that's what they are rewarded for in the marketplace.

The problem is, that's exactly the opposite of what we, in Congress, should be advocating for. We should be advocating for as little as possible coming out of consumers' pockets and as much health care coming out of that.

So, that's the conflict we have, and the insurance industry today loud and clear announced, "You know what, we don't care what you do in Congress, we are going to keep raising rates." Which is why if we don't have a single-payer plan like Medicare for all Americans, which is something I would support, we have to very at least have to have some form of competition in order to keep them honest.

If just being a heavy baby is a crime, my niece, Reese (ph), who turns 18 months today, would have to be locked up because she's a little portly. But that's not should be-that should not be what health insurance industries does.

SHUSTER: The White House has been fairly critical of the health insurance industry, but publicly, the industry hasn't fought back. They've been trying to portray themselves as partners, not adversaries. Is something very different going on in the halls of Congress now?

WEINER: Well, you know what? The health insurance industry, so far, has gotten a lot of what they wanted in the finance committee bill that's going to be passed out tomorrow. They didn't get a strong public option. There's very little true cost containment in there and they got the requirement that more customers will be driven to their doorstep because of there's a mandate for coverage.

And when we try to do even the most modest form of a public option, they have fought back vigorously.

Look, there's no doubt about it. When you consider the hundreds of billions of dollars each year don't go into health care, they go into health insurance company profits. When we do nothing to compete-to make sure that they compete for-in pharmaceutical industry, for example, so we get the lowest prices, just like you might get at Wal-Mart, they don't want any of those changes to happen. And, frankly, that's where Congress has to get a spine and stand up to these industries.

SHUSTER: Congressman Anthony Weiner, Democrat from New York, a fierce advocate of the public option, even single-payer-and, Congressman, thanks for your time today. We appreciate it.

WEINER: It's my pleasure. Can I say the Web site one more time?

SHUSTER: Sure.

WEINER: It's CountdowntoHealthcare.com. Thanks.

SHUSTER: OK.