Senator Tom Daschle on Why We Need Health Reform

Why do we need to reform our health care system?

Well, we need to reform our health care system because it's one of the largest economic problems our country's facing. As we try to solve the economic problems of this country, health care reform is part of the solution, not part of the problem. And the more we can understand the intricate way with which it relates to the rest of the economy, the more we will understand the importance of passing reform. It represents almost 20 percent of our gross domestic product today, providers are hassled and are troubled by the fact that more and more of their work has to do with bureaucracy and paperwork and red tape than it does providing care. Businesses are worried about the bottom line and their ability to provide good quality of life for their employees. Governments are worried about taxes and the extraordinary impact that all of this is having on revenue today. And they're concerned about whether or not the bottom line, when we look at this from a community point of view, can be addressed. And families are concerned, because they feel that they're one illness away from bankruptcy, one problem away from the extraordinary challenges they face in providing the security for their families and children especially as they go forward. So this is a big problem that breaks down into huge problems for families, for doctors, for businesses, and for governments, and we have to understand we've got to solve it.

How does our current health care system hurt our economy?

Well, the health care system really has become a destructive force in our economy today--very destructive when one looks at the productivity and the tremendous amount of cost involved in lost productivity because people are not well, because in many cases we wait until people get sick to begin to address the problem. So, productivity also leads to competitiveness issues--competitiveness abroad. We spend about three or four times what other countries do as it relates to the percent of cost of building things in this country, whether they be cars or any other retailable item today, in large measure because of health costs. So, from a competitiveness point of view, from a productivity point of view, it has a huge impact. In addition, we're told, for government it's a serious problem. This could be a 5.3 trillion dollar hit on the economy in the long term as we look to the ramifications and the repercussions it could have economically. This is a big hit for government, for our country, for our businesses, as well as our productivity as American people.