Senator Tom Daschle - What's He Said About Long Term Care

Steve Gold's Information Bulletin # 273 (12/08) President-elect Barack Obama has nominated former Senator Tom Daschle to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His book "CRITICAL - What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2008) is quite important for advocates of the disability and elderly communities. Below are some relevant portions of the book. The book starts out with the following quote: "Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection." Whom did he quote? Clinton? No. President Harry Truman, 1945. Daschle writes that both Truman in 1945 and Clinton in 1993 "underestimated the strength of the forces arrayed against them. Special-interests lobbyists...." He asks "Why have we failed to solve a problem that is such a high priority for so many citizens?... the limitations of our political system, and the power of the interest groups...." Here's what he writes about "long-term care," which he recognizes as a"troubling area - and the only one in which we spend less compared to peer nations." Medicaid "is fundamentally geared toward institutional care,even though most elderly people prefer to receive care at home or in more personalized community settings." Daschle quotes Professor David Mechanic who calls "long-term care' the stepchild of our health-care system'," which "vividly exhibits our system's inability to deal with chronic conditions in an integrated way." "I believe that our health-care system must cover these vital services[i.e., long-term care].... We should promote home-based care, which most people prefer, instead of the institutional care that we emphasize now." OK. Now let's see if he will walk-the-walk, and not just talk-the-talk. Will Daschle and Obama have both the will and fortitude to stand up to the"power of the interest groups" that have forced people with disabilities and elderly Americans to go into nursing facilities instead of receiving care at home? Will he take the initiative and make sure Medicaid provides every elderly and disabled American the choice of where they wish to receive long-term care? We know that the "interest groups" will not roll over. Our challenge is to hold Daschle and Obama to their statements. "Yes we can." We have the power!!!! Write letters to your local newspapers and opinion pieces,quoting Daschle. Tell stories of real people.