By Denise Ross

Sure, the financial bailout, the energy crisis, the wars, climate change - all that stuff is important.

But former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota continues his campaign to promote a framework to remake America’s health care system. It is another must-solve issue that hasn’t made the front page in months.

I wrote about this in last week’s newspaper column. (Read the full column on the jump - Click Here to get there.)

“The next president of the United States will have no choice but to address the growing health care crisis in America,” Daschle said recently in his hometown of Aberdeen. “Americans are driven to bankruptcy more than for any other reason because of health care.” 

It’s not just individuals who are overwhelmed by medical bills. Daschle said the leader of a major American business - a business he declined to name but assured his audience, “You know this company,” - contends that his company will cease to exist if America does not revamp health care in the next decade.

…

“Conditions have gotten so much worse that we can no longer accept the status quo,” Daschle said.

Daschle’s work to promote the need for health care reform is tied to his most recent book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.

Talking about health care is but one of Daschle’s pursuits these days. Besides working to get Barack Obama elected president, he also pops up frequently at forums on climate change, according to my Google news alerts.

Daschle continually is mentioned as a likely chief of staff for Obama, or a cabinet member. Given the Dow dropping below 10,000 and near panic settling in and a pending recession / depression - how likely is it that Daschle’s call for health care reform would be heeded?

Could the crisis mindset perhaps help him in that quest? Or would a weakened economy be a tsunami that would wipe out its chances?

Read more about Daschle’s proposal on the jump.

Daschle touts new health care framework

Issue still a giant for U.S. despite other woes, senator says.

By Denise Ross

When former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., took the stage in his hometown of Aberdeen recently, it was a lot more than the homecoming of a favorite son. Daschle and his audience at Northern State University waded into the thicket of one of America’s longstanding problems.

“The next president of the United States will have no choice but to address the growing health care crisis in America,” Daschle said. “Americans are driven to bankruptcy more than for any other reason because of health care.”

It’s not just individuals who are overwhelmed by medical bills. Daschle said the leader of a major American business - a business he declined to name but assured his audience, “You know this company,” - contends that his company will cease to exist if America does not revamp health care in the next decade.

Despite a long list of other must-solve issues, from the financial crisis to energy to climate change to wars, health care can’t be relegated to the back burner, he said.

“Conditions have gotten so much worse that we can no longer accept the status quo,” Daschle said.

Since the February release of his book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis, Daschle has traveled the country participating in forums and talking to people about the plan in his book.

For any remaining skeptics, Daschle offers up a few facts.

**The United States spends 20 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, more than the GDP of Italy.

**General Motors spends more on health care than it spends on steel for its autos.

**Starbucks spends more on health care than on coffee.

**When America last tried to tackle this, in 1993-1994, the nation spent $3,000 per person. We now spend $8,000 per person and will soon spend $15,000 if nothing is done.

In addition, Daschle sites problems with access to health care and with quality. It’s a myth, he says, that the United States has the best health care system in the world.

“We don’t even come close to the top five,” he said.

And millions of Americans, some with health insurance, can’t or won’t access the system we do have because of cost, he said.

“A myth is that we don’t ration. We ration in the worst possible way, on the inability to pay,” he said.

The former senator has set out a 10-point plan that he is pushing as a prescription for what ails the health care system.

** 1)  America’s health care system should be a combination of a private system and the public system now in place through programs like Medicare, the Indian Health Service and the Veterans Administration.

** 2)  Universal access should be a universal goal.

** 3)  Any new system should be based on a model “that we know works,” the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.

** 4)  Policy-makers should recognize the need for “complete care,” which would include insurance coverage for mental health services and dental insurance.

** 5)  Incentives should shift to wellness and prevention away from expensive disease treatment after a patient is sick.

** 6)  Transparency is needed. Deaths and injuries should be subject to federal review and public reporting such as takes place under the Federal Aviation Administration after a plane crash. Daschle said physicians and others should get safe harbor from lawsuits if they follow best practices.

** 7)  Records should be computerized to avoid the sea of redundant paperwork now in place.

** 8)  Eliminate unnecessary care. Of the $2.4 trillion spent on health care each year, some estimate $700 billion is unnecessary.

** 9)  Shift from a fee for service, which promotes lots of procedures (see Nos. 5 and 8), to payment based on the quality of health of patients.

** 10)  A governing authority, a Federal Health Board, should oversee the system as the Federal Reserve oversees the banking system. 

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