Do coffee makers get rid of the bad effects of tap water?!

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A coffee maker will drive off dissolved gasses, and kill bacteria.
That's about it. It actually slightly concentrates dissolved salts.
Don't "go through a ton of water bottles", in any case.
A 'Brita' or similar filter will remove salts, metals, and most organisms.
In some cases the water produced is purer than those expensive bottles
anyway and a whole lot cheaper, and 'greener'.

No, a coffee maker does not filter water enough or bring it up to a high enough temperature to sterilize water.

I don't know if it's economically feasible for you, but maybe instead of going through "a ton of water bottles," you could instead buy a ceramic water dispenser and start buying 5 gallon water bottles. The great thing about these is that the companies who sell water in them have you return the bottles for reuse so you don't leave a plastic wasteland in your wake. This is, in general, what most people who live in areas with bad public drinking water quality do.

Irv S is right.
Heating water hot *enough* does get rid of bacteria/etc and makes it "safe" to drink, but heating doesn't make the minerals go away or anything like that (mineral salts, flouride**, etc) and those are the things that usually give some tap waters a bad taste. You'll also probably notice white or green deposits where your tap water sits or has dripped if it has a lot of minerals in it.
And that's all that a coffee maker really does---just heat (and most don't heat quite all the way to boiling, though they vary); it's filter isn't effective against much, just there to keep the grounds from getting into the coffee, etc.

**the reason your water probably wasn't "safe" for babies is not because it's actually dangerous, but because too much flouride (per pound of a child's weight) will cause permanent white spots in the developing teeth which will show once the teeth emerge from the gums

If you live in an area that uses a well or where the ground water or spring has a lot of minerals (is "hard" water), then the only thing you can do about the taste is to filter it yourself at home (Brita pitcher:
http://www.projectmidori.com/2010/01/01/…
or to use a sink-installed Brita filter system--or other brands, or to buy filtered water.
Most bottles of water you buy have been filtered to remove minerals and particulates (some brands have been filtered in several ways, and all have been boiled to kill organisms), then repopulated with a small amount of "good tasting" minerals if necessary.

And/or it's cheaper to just buy the larger plastic containers** of filtered water at grocery stores or water stores, or you can take your own large bottles to those places and pay a fairly small cost just to fill them up.

Many people buy and use something like the water dispensers shown here (often a ceramic pot with spigot, and maybe a small stand), then put their large plastic bottles of water on top of the ceramic pot--this is what I have and I use the water from it for coffee/tea/single servings of oj from concentrate/etc or foods that don't require a lot of water like soup or beans, etc:
http://www.google.com/images?q=ceramic%2…
http://www.google.com/images?q=ceramic+w…
They also come in a smaller version, and are sold at water stores--look in yellow pages--and smaller selections at some other places:):

Some ground water/tap water is excellent though (and doesn't have too many minerals or not the bad tasting/smelling ones), and many ground waters are in-between.