Fox News host Shepard Smith has broken with the ideology of his conservative network yet again.
Speaking with Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on Tuesday, Smith took exception to the allegation that offering a public insurance policy through the federal government is somehow a "takeover" of health care.
"Over the last ten years health care costs in America have skyrocketed," he said. "Regular folks cannot afford it. So, they tax the system by not getting preventative medicine. They go to the emergency room in the last case and we all wind up paying for it."
He continued: "As the costs have gone up, the insurance industry's profits, on average, have gone up more than 350 percent. And it is the insurance companies which have paid, and who have contributed to Senators and Congressmen on both sides of the aisle to the point where now we cannot get what all concerned on Capitol Hill seem to believe and more 60 percent of Americans say they would support, which is a public option."
Smith went on to call Obama's health reforms a "huge win" for insurers, but wondered what would happen if a public option is not offered if the legislation requires everyone to carry health insurance.
"Therefore millions more people will have to buy insurance from the very corporations that are overcharging us, and whose profits have gone up 350 percent in the last ten years," he said. "It seems like we the people are the ones getting the shaft here."
This video is from Fox News' Studio B, broadcast Oct. 6, 2009.
