COLUMBIA, Mo. - During the October 30th Health Policy Summit in Columbia, Missouri, former U.S. Senator, Tom Daschle, expressed his disappointment to mounting opposition to health care reform legislation on Capitol Hill.
According to Daschle, health insurance companies will launch a national advertising campaign in November to defeat reform.
“Unfortunately the health insurance companies have decided to oppose health reform now and they are opposed to it in-part because of this notion that we could have an opportunity to purchase government insurance like Medicare at some point in the future,” said Daschle.
“I believe a public option is the only way we’re going to get real competition... Is if we have a choice—whether you want to buy Medicare or whether you want to buy another insurance produce really ought to be up to be an American choice not a health insurance company’s choice,” Daschle added.
Missouri health care providers and policy makers were also told by Daschle that the National Chamber of Commerce will also launch an anti-health reform ad campaign.
“They’re opposing to because they believe it’s going to require more mandates for businesses and I’m not sure that is the case; but they’re concerned about that and so they don’t want to see businesses required to do anything,” Daschle explained.
“What the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t understand is that if we do nothing probably the single biggest victim other than American families, would be American businesses,” Daschle continued.
“Businesses can’t sustain the cost that they’re incurring and those costs are only going to get worse if we fail to recognize there are real problems we face in the system right now.”
The former U.S. Senator said that there are 50 million Americans who do not have health insurance.
He believes the number will increase to 64 million uninsured Americans in ten years.
Daschle outlined other numbers saying that 18,000 people a year die because they didn’t have health insurance and 500,000 people were turned away from emergency rooms across the country.
“We can’t afford to let that happen,” Daschle emphasized.
Daschle told the crowd that he believes there is a 60 percent chance that meaningful health care reform will pass.
“Whether or not health reform passes, depends on how activist the American people are going to be. If they insist that the Congress provide meaningful chance the Congress is going to do it. If they don’t, Congress is going to listen to special interest and that’s up to the people of Missouri, of South Dakota and the people across the country to decide,” Daschle concluded.
