Updated

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 8, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Now the president's been making waves with his apology tour overseas, and when he returns home, he's going to be ramping up his effort to launch his universal health care plan. And here to discuss these issues is actress, women's health advocate, and public diplomacy envoy for our State Department, Fran Drescher.

How are you?

FRAN DRESCHER, ACTRESS: Hi.

HANNITY: Are you running for office?

DRESCHER: Hello again.

HANNITY: Nice to see you again.

Video: Watch Sean's interview

DRESCHER: Well, we'll see. I have a little time to think about it. I might run in 2010 or 2012.

HANNITY: But you're going to be a lib? You're going to run as a Democrat?

DRESCHER: I — I will run — I will most likely run as a Democrat, but most importantly, I would run as Fran Drescher with all of my own ideas and thoughts.

HANNITY: Fair enough. Now, you want some type of universal health care or some variation thereof.

DRESCHER: I just want to make sure that, in this country, nobody that gets to live here and calls themselves an American citizen ever gets sick and is turned away by a doctor or hospital.

HANNITY: They can't be legally. Right now in America, you cannot be denied care because of your inability to pay. Right now today that is the current status.

DRESCHER: But you know, when you live in a real world and you're sick, it's not so black and white. And people don't know where to turn. They have catastrophic illness. And you were talking about your mom and how horrible it was.

HANNITY: She had cancer, yes.

DRESCHER: And I'm sure that, you know, your family was well covered with insurance. And imagine what it's like when it's compounded with stacks of medical bills that are barely making you bankrupt.

HANNITY: Here's — you see, everybody — I hear your arguments, and I know people — they actually — they think their fear is going to be taken away from the government. And I think the government...

DRESCHER: What do you mean fear?

HANNITY: In other words, their fear that they're going to get sick and they're not going to have health care. That fear.

And I hear this all the time. But yet, for example, just two weeks ago in Great Britain in "The Daily Telegraph," they had an article. Now, they have the national health-care system. Nationalized health care. They have what's called a government rationing body.

The government rationing body decided that women with advanced breast cancer can't get the drugs they need. And a rare form of stomach cancer, you're not going to get the drugs you need, which is basically a death sentence.

DRESCHER: That's not what President Obama is putting forward.

HANNITY: He's putting forward a down payment towards that system. To use his words. Semiprivate system.

DRESCHER: Well, you don't have a — but that's not — you don't have a crystal ball. And I don't really think that that's — because we already have a, you know, health insurance big business in this country already in place. And no president is looking to put them out of business. So that's why I think that it's never going to go that far in that direction.

HANNITY: I disagree. Well, you say that, but $634 billion, which is what his down payment is for health care, is an awful — and he calls it a down payment. That's a move towards nationalized health care.

I'll tell you what I would support. Maybe you'll agree with me. There's a great book, and I hope you'll read it, outside of the Cato Institute. It's called "Patient Power." It's about medical savings accounts.

Every patient has to get a yearly check-up. They all have their own personal account. We have catastrophic insurance if you get a really serious condition, and you're covered.

But if you don't use the money, it's your account. You control it. It's your money. You get to save it and give it to your kids and grandkids when you eventually die. Does that — does that appeal to you at all, a free market solution?

DRESCHER: Well, I mean, you know, if you're saying if these people didn't use the money, they can save it for their kids. But then if they get sick, it becomes the taxpayer's problem?

HANNITY: No, no, no. I'm saying that, you know, throughout your life as you pay into it, starting in your younger years, you build your own medical savings account.

You get — you should — you have — every year you go and we — you want early detection, I want early detection. And so, as that fund builds up, if somebody happens, you take it out of the fund, which is built up over the years. But it's your personal account. You control it. You pick your doctors.

DRESCHER: Here's the thing. I think that there — everybody has their own spin on what they think would be the perfect way...

HANNITY: It's more free market.

DRESCHER: ... to insure Americans against having any kind of illness and not having someone to turn to. We happen to have elected a president that has a plan...

HANNITY: A leftist and a radical.

DRESCHER: And I — not true, actually.

HANNITY: Not true; he's a moderate. OK. He's a conservative. I just...

DRESCHER: He's just — he's a man, and he's an intellectual giant.

HANNITY: An intellectual giant?

DRESCHER: I think so.

HANNITY: Would you hang out in Reverend Wright's church for 20 years? That's a real smart guy that made that decision. Would you hang out with Bill Ayers? A genius.

DRESCHER: Let me just say this. I think that he is one of the first presidents in a long time that seems very committed to helping the American people...

HANNITY: Oh, jeez, you're killing me.

DRESCHER: ... in terms of their health.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this question. Do you agree with him? Do you...

DRESCHER: You know, I know from where you're sitting it seems like it's maybe a negative thing because you have health insurance.

HANNITY: That's not...

DRESCHER: But I think that he's thinking of the millions of Americans...

HANNITY: I was one that didn't have health insurance. I had to drop out of school three times. I didn't have the money to pay for it. I didn't have health insurance in my 20s when I was on my own. I was broke. I had $200 in the bank.

(CROSSTALK)

DRESCHER: OK, dropping out of school three times is not the same as having to choose between getting prescriptive drugs or putting food on your table.

HANNITY: You're acting as though I, you know, grew up with a silver spoon in my mouth. My father was a World War II vet. I lived on a 50 x 100 lot. I wasn't a wealthy person most of my life.

DRESCHER: OK. But did you have these extreme opinions then?

HANNITY: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

Do you agree with him apologizing for America, thinking America's arrogant? Think America's...

DRESCHER: I think that to err is human, and I think that...

HANNITY: I didn't ask you that.

DRESCHER: ... considering we're the most powerful nation on the planet, I think that it's important for us to ingratiate ourselves...

HANNITY: That's not what you told me in the green room.

DRESCHER: ... wait — and be humble.

HANNITY: We are humble.

(CROSSTALK)

But we saved Europe from Nazism and fascism. And...

DRESCHER: And also, keep it within its context, because he also said to the Europeans that "you also have to, in turn, realize all the great things that Americans do."

HANNITY: That's not what — we saved Europe from totalitarianism. Do you think America is arrogant?

DRESCHER: I think that America has behaved very arrogantly in many different situations. And you know what? If you look up, you know, what arrogance means, I think that you'll see that we have behaved in a way that it's like, you know, it's my way or the highway.

And you really — no matter how small a country is compared to the most powerful country on earth, you really can't make someone feel less than.

HANNITY: I want to say this...

DRESCHER: You already know you're more powerful.

HANNITY: We showed wisdom where they showed appeasement. We showed strength and insight where they didn't have the understanding.

But you know what? I do love having you.

DRESCHER: I love coming on this show. Now listen, I'm doing the Revlon Run-Walk...

HANNITY: OK.

DRESCHER: ... both in New York on May 2 and in Los Angeles on May 9.

HANNITY: I've got to run or I'm in trouble.

DRESCHER: RevlonRunWalk.com.

HANNITY: Got it. Got it.

DRESCHER: Join the Cancer Schmancer team.

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