Senator McCaskill suggests a government-run health insurance co-op might be a answer to questions about the most effective way to reform healthcare. And she says the concept is not new for Missourians.

Skyrocketing workers comp rates in the 1990s led the legislature to create Missouri Employers Mutual to compete with private workers comp companies. It has not driven private companies out of business. But it is credited with keeping rates down.

Part of the debate in Washington involves suggestions of setting up a government-sponsored health insurance cooperative that would compete with private health insurance companies.

Senator McCaskill says Missouri’s experience proves the validity of the idea. "It’s a great example of a co-op," she says. She says MEM has had a positive impact on workers compensation rates in Missouri.

McCaskill calls the health insurance cooperative an alternative that might be the most viable way for Congress to put more competition into the healthcare marketplace.

upload BP talking to CM (4:30 mp3)

Senator McCaskill hopes President Obama gets specific in his healthcare address to Congress tonight. She says the Senate is working on a bill that can move forward with bipartisan support.

McCaskill says health insurance cost increases have "gobbled up" raises that many Missourians have received each year for several years. She says that situation will continue if Congress does nothing.

McCaskill expects President Obama’s speech tonight to set the tone for debate to come on healthcare. She’s looking for some specifics from him. She says he feels strongly that Congress needs to escape "the partisan games that always develop when we 0do things that are difficult."

McCaskill says Congress has a tendency to focus on "political advantage" instead of focusing on solving problems. She says it is obvious a lot of misinformation is being circulated. She hopes the speech tonight clears up the "errors" that are common in the discussion.

She says people are not sure what the reform means to them, which opens the door to fear and misinformation. McCaskill says the President needs to get the public acquainted with how changes will affect it. "People need those answers because if they don’t have them, then they’re just going to assume all the silly stuff they’re hearing out there must be true," she says. She thinks it is incumbent upon Obama to provide more specifics to his plan.

Upload part of conference call with McCaskill (4:30 mp3