Senator Tom Daschle on Women and Health Reform

How will families be affected by health care costs if we don't pass reform this year?

The issue of affordability for American families for their health care needs is really one of the pressing questions for health care reform today. Today a typical family of four spends about $17,000. That figure is going to go to $39,000 by the year 2019. We're going to go up to 31 percent of family income spent on health if nothing changes. And in the year 2029 that figure could go to 48 percent. Families simply can't afford that. Families will be devastated financially, if no other way, if we don't get this fixed.

How will health reform help women?

One of the biggest issues we're facing with regard to good coverage for all is to understand that, for women in particular, this issue has become huge--huge personally and huge financially. About 14 and a half million American women today buy their coverage in the individual market, and yet women today spend 48 percent more than other Americans as they contemplate the high costs of health care. Not only that, but in many cases as a result of the way insurance plans are written today, only 12 percent of women are covered with pregnancy coverage. Some insurance executive have said, well, that's an option. That's just a matter of choice. Well, it goes way beyond a matter of choice when it comes to the health and life--not only of the mother, but of her child.

Why would incremental approached to health care fail to solve our health care problems?

There are many who have advocated incremental change. But I have to say, I've become a very serious skeptic of whether incremental change can ever be made to work. First and foremost, there's a very close interrelationship between cost, and access, and quality, and you can't address all three incrementally. They all affect one another, and every time you address one, you affect the other. Secondly, we've attempted incremental change for the last 15 years. We passed the Children's Health Insurance Program and other programs on an incremental basis. But unfortunately, the verdict is in--over the last 15 years, in spite of our best efforts at incremental change, teh situation has gotten progressively worse. We can't accept that for another 15 years.