{"id":31435,"date":"2011-08-31T21:04:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T03:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=31435"},"modified":"2011-09-01T06:37:58","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T12:37:58","slug":"daschle-unsustainable-health-care-system-must-be-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/08\/daschle-unsustainable-health-care-system-must-be-fixed\/","title":{"rendered":"Daschle: Unsustainable health care system must be fixed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle at the Domenici Public Policy Conference. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

In spite of ideological disputes, there\u2019s a significant level of agreement when it comes to the debate about health-care reform, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle<\/a> asserted Wednesday.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s consensus that the United States spends too much on health care, the Democrat from South Dakota said at the Domenici Public Policy Conference<\/a> in Las Cruces. And there is consensus that access to health care and quality are growing problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese facts have produced a consensus that the current state of health care is unsustainable,\u201d Daschle told hundreds of people present.<\/p>\n

The problem? There\u2019s a massive political and ideological dispute over what to do about those issues. But Daschle said those with varying views on how to reform the health care system can agree on a goal \u2013 to create a high-performance, high-value marketplace for health care with greater access, higher quality and lower costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a bipartisan effort, this too can be done,\u201d he said, even as he acknowledged that the issue is complicated and emotional, and finding solutions will be difficult.<\/p>\n

Daschle said other problems with America\u2019s hybrid public-private system include a lack of transparency in the health-care industry, too much unnecessary care and administration that drives up costs, too much emphasis on illness instead of wellness, a lack of coordination, and a \u201csubstantial amount\u201d of fraud and abuse.<\/p>\n

He said the single-payer health care system some liberals want won\u2019t happen in America because so many involved in the debate are concerned about the growth of government. Daschle co-wrote a 2008 book<\/a> arguing the benefits of a single-payer system but conceding that such a system isn\u2019t likely in the United States.<\/p>\n

Daschle\u2019s speech at the conference named for former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a> comes as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act<\/a> \u2013 which some opponents call \u201cObamacare\u201d \u2013 remains a hot topic of debate. Daschle said passage of the act was \u201creally the beginning, not the end, of health-care reform,\u201d saying it takes the United States perhaps 30 percent of the way toward what should be the goal.<\/p>\n

He said he believes the act will help push a redesign of health care in America that will include more transparency, more efficiency with less administration, better coordination, and more prevention of health problems.<\/p>\n

Daschle said it will take innovation, collaboration, intelligent engagement in policy, and leadership to fix the U.S. health-care system. He said it can and must be done.<\/p>\n

Because the system is currently unsustainable, he said, \u201cwe simply can\u2019t afford to fail to fix the problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In spite of ideological disputes, there\u2019s a significant level of agreement when it comes to the debate about health-care reform, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle asserted Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[117,136,116],"class_list":["post-31435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-health-care","tag-pete-domenici","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}