Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle speaks to students about health care reform and how new federal legislation will impact current students and soon-to-be graduates in Stamp Student Union’s Grand Ballroom last night.
After the signing of the long-debated health care reform legislation last month, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle educated students last night about the effect the new law will have on their lives.
“Unlike the creation of the Federal Reserve Board, Social Security and Medicaid, this bill will affect each citizen,” said Daschle, a former Democratic senator for South Dakota. “But the generation that will feel most of the blunt of the responsibility and the blunt of the opportunity that this legislation entails is your generation.”
Daschle addressed about 60 people in Stamp Student Union’s Grand Ballroom as the first of a series of speakers hosted by the student union to discuss nationwide issues.
Daschle, who has advocated for health care reform since leaving public office in 2005, was President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department before he was pressured to step down amid evidence that he failed to accurately report and pay his income taxes, a controversy that was not addressed during the university event.
The former senator covered the gambit of the law, including the new mandates for citizens to have health care and for all employers to provide their employees with health care or a voucher to purchase their own coverage. He described the details of statewide insurance exchanges that aim to lower the cost of coverage and new efforts to decrease waste, fraud and abuse within the health care system.
“The entire bill is going to be implemented in two-year increments over the next eight years, but several improvements will be made right off the bat,” Daschle said. “One thing is that you’re eligible for your parents’ health care plan if you’re under the age of 26.”
Daschle expressed a hope that the reforms would give more citizens access to preventative care, improving the nation’s overall health and decreasing the need for costly drugs and medical procedures to treat preventable illnesses such as obesity.
During the question-and-answer session that followed, Daschle said although Congress passed a large health care package, the issue will definitely be revisited, as will the controversial public option — government-run health insurance that would compete with private insurers — which Daschle predicted would pass some time within the next decade.
“I’m a big advocate for the public option because it increases leverage, and that leverage is the best way to control cost,” he said. “In recent polls, over 60 percent of Americans also support it, and I think that you will see a public option within the next 10 years as the bill gets implemented from state to state and people gain trust in the government’s role in the health care system.”
The majority of students in attendance had followed the health care debate closely and held Daschle in high regard.
“I’m a political science major, so I thought the health care debate was really interesting,” junior Cameron Torrean said. “I’m definitely excited to hear him speak, and I’m interested in what effect the bill will have on students after they graduate from college.”
Stamp Special Events and Programs Project Coordinator Katie Winstead, who organized the event and introduced Daschle, said she thought the event was a success.
“We want to fill the gap between other lectures on campus,” Winstead said. “Some lectures are very specific to a certain topic, others are more entertainment-based, but we wanted to highlight a national issue, one that affects a lot of people.”
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