While Dr. Dean may be the homeblog favorite on Daily Kos, I'd like to bring another candidate to people's attention... Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa.
Sen. Harkin has been a tireless advocate for health care reform, including universal coverage and prevention since he was elected to the Senate back in 1984.
He is Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Chairman) AND he's on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He has been deeply and heavily involved in health and human services policy AND has as deep an understanding of the budget and processes of the agency as almost anyone else on earth.
He co-wrote and was chief sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act - which was lead to a major cultural and legal shift in this country, is a huge supporter of stem cell research, and is well known for putting the "P" in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and PREVENTION.
Senator Harkin has already been hard at work developing health care reform proposals with Sen. Kennedy and others in the Senate. Below are some of his remarks at a hearing just last week...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Senator Harkin's intro remarks at the Hearing on the States’ Role in Keeping Americans Healthy held by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
“Good morning. I would like to thank everyone for coming, this morning, to discuss some of the creative ways that states are taking the initiative in promoting disease prevention and a broader culture of wellness.
“I am very glad to learn that our committee chair, Senator Kennedy, is out of the hospital and doing well. We wish him a speedy return to the Senate.
“In December, looking ahead to the task of drafting historic health care reform legislation, Senator Kennedy asked me to chair the Prevention and Public Health working group.
“This is going to be an extraordinarily important component of any reform legislation, because we will never get health care costs under control unless we place a major new emphasis on public health and prevention, while strengthening America’s public health system.
“It’s not enough to talk about how to extend insurance coverage and how to pay for health care – as important as those things are. If all we are going to do is figure out a better way to pay the bills for the currently broken, unsustainable system, then we are sunk.
“Indeed, I have laid down a market here in the early days of America’s great debate about national health care reform: If we pass a bill that greatly extends health insurance coverage but does nothing to create a dramatically stronger prevention and public health infrastructure and agenda, then we will have failed.
“It simply makes no sense to legislate broader access to a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little, largely because it neglects prevention and public health.
“A robust emphasis on wellness is about saving lives, saving trips to the hospital, and saving money – and it’s the only way we are going to get a grip on skyrocketing health care costs.
“To that end I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the exciting, innovative things that states are doing in the field of public health and prevention.
“I have never been one to believe that all wisdom radiates from Washington. The fact is, the states often are more nimble and creative when it comes to reform and public policy innovation. We look to the states as incubators and testing grounds for new ideas. And this is certainly true with respect to wellness, disease prevention, and public health.
“As we draft health reform legislation at the federal level, it is important that we capture the excellent ideas and practices that are being pioneered by the states and coordinate our initiatives. And that is exactly the purpose of this hearing....
“As I have said many times, prevention and public health have been the missing pieces in the national conversation about health care reform. It’s time to make them the centerpiece of that conversation. Not an asterisk. Not a footnote. But the centerpiece of health care reform.
AND FYI, don't worry, there's a Democratic Governor in Iowa... (although I know the Gov's appointing new Senators is getting old)....