Republican Presidential Candidate Thompson Wants To Make Health Care ‘Dominant Issue’ in Election

Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson on Thursday said he wants to "make health care the dominant issue" of the 2008 presidential election, the Des Moines Register reports. Thompson -- a former HHS secretary and governor of Wisconsin -- during a speech at Des Moines University, said, "We've gone through two presidential debates, and not one question was asked about health care or education."

Thompson discussed a range of health care topics, from food portion control to the use of e-prescriptions. He also said that Medicare will become insolvent by 2014 without reform, but "nobody wants to talk about it." Thompson said that he would adjust the inflation rate on Medicare and form a bipartisan "blue-ribbon study group" to research possible program changes. However, he told the Register that he did not "want to dwell on specifics" of a possible Medicare overhaul because he does not "want to scare anyone."

In addition, Thompson said that he would form a national insurance pool to expand coverage to the uninsured. Thompson also said that he does not support a single-payer health care system, which is supported by some Democratic presidential candidates (Jordan, Des Moines Register, 5/18).

Chronic Disease
In other news, an alliance of health care and business groups, unions and academics on Tuesday announced the launch of a national bipartisan coalition that will work to make chronic disease a primary issue in the 2008 presidential elections, CQ HealthBeat reports. The coalition, called the Partnership To Fight Chronic Disease, will promote the need for U.S. residents to follow three steps to improve their health: stop smoking, eat healthy foods and get more exercise. During the campaign launch, speakers said that getting presidential candidates to focus on chronic disease is critical because chronic disease accounts for seven in 10 deaths and 75 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S.

Coalition Executive Director Ken Thorpe, a former deputy assistant secretary of HHS during the Clinton administration and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and former CMS Administrator Mark McClellan during the coalition launch presented six "unhealthy truths" about the increasing rate of chronic disease in the U.S., including:

• Chronic disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., with 133 million residents, or 45% of the population, having at least one chronic disease;
  
  
• Two-thirds of the increase in U.S. health care spending is because more residents have chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease; and
  
  
• Obesity rates since 1987 have doubled and account for nearly 30% of the rise in health care spending.