Sens. Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton Speak at Families USA Conference

Predicting that tax cuts will be the "biggest and most consequential debate [Congress] will [likely] have all year," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) yesterday said, "The tax cut debate is a health care debate, because the more [money] that goes into a tax cut ... the less will go into health care." Delivering the keynote speech at a conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by Families USA and titled, "Health Action 2001: Grass Roots Health Advocacy Conference," Daschle, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid, said he has "concerns" about President Bush's proposal for a $1.6 trillion across-the-board tax cut. Such a plan would necessitate a "direct tradeoff," Daschle said, using up "nearly all of the projected surplus for the next 10 years, leaving nothing for new investments in health care ... or anything else."

Biggest Debates
The senator also outlined what he predicted will be the three biggest health care debates over the next year: the uninsured, a patients' bill of rights and Medicare reform. Noting that 42 million Americans are still uninsured, Daschle called the recent joint proposal between Families USA, Health Insurance Association of America and AHA to reduce the number of uninsured "one of the most hopeful signs I've seen in a long time." He added, "When groups like that agree, you have to believe a ... compromise is actually possible." He said he hopes a patients' bill of rights will be enacted by the end of the year, adding, "If accountability is good enough for Texas, it's good enough for the rest of America." About Medicare, Daschle said, "We need to start talking in an honest, bipartisan way ... to make sure that Medicare is there, not just for this generation of retirees, but for future generations as well." To achieve this, he said he hopes Congress will put the Medicare surplus in an untouchable "lock box." Daschle also said he is pushing to establish a prescription drug benefit for seniors in Medicare by the end of this year. Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA called Daschle "the most important member of the new Congress ... he more than any member ... will determine whether we truly get ... prescription drug coverage in the Medicare program and ... a true and strong patients' bill of rights" (Meredith Weiner, Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/26).

Hillary Clinton
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) also addressed the future of health care at the Families USA conference, calling for a variety of changes to the country's health care system, including Medicare reform, a prescription drug benefit and greater coverage for the uninsured. She said that lawmakers and advocates will need to address such issues as boosting enrollment in the CHIP program, achieving parity for mental illness, enforcing laws that bar health plans from dropping beneficiaries with costly illnesses and enforcing welfare reform laws so that individuals leaving welfare are not "deprived" of Medicaid coverage to which they are entitled. "Although we have made progress, we ... have a lot to do to make good on the promise of the progress we achieved over the past eight years," Clinton said.

'Balanced' Budget Approach
Regarding access to coverage and other health issues, Clinton criticized President Bush's "very large" tax cut as a measure that would "eventually ... lead us back to a deficit position." Such a tax cut would make Medicare reform and the implementation of a Medicare prescription drug benefit "very difficult," she added. Clinton instead called for a "balanced approach" to the budget that includes "affordable" tax cuts, Medicare reform and extra reserve funds. Because all health care plans and projects depend on budget decisions, she added, "It's very important we make sure health care needs are on the table from the beginning of these discussions." Clinton said that the costs of caring for an aging population also must be addressed at budget negotiations. "The aging of America is a demographic reality that must be factored into these budget decisions," she said, adding, "To ignore these demographic realities is to load [financial problems] on our children and our grandchildren" (Meredith McGroarty, Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/26).

On the Web
To view a Web cast of yesterday's conference sessions, including Daschle's and Clinton's speeches, please visit http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/familiesusajan2001.