Last time around, health care reform died on the kitchen table of Harry and Louise. Now, former Senate Majority Leader and the President-Elect's future Secretary of HHS, Tom Daschle, wants the reform process to begin in the kitchens and living rooms of Americans across the country.

Speaking at the 2008 Colorado Health Care Summit hosted by Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), Daschle invited people across the Nation to host healthcare community discussions in their homes this holiday season. In a process similar to the drafting of the Democratic Party Platform, these meetings will help inform the recommendations of the Transition's health policy team, headed by Daschle, to the next administration. A summary of the findings will be made available on the web with the ultimate goal of making this health reform process as transparent as possible—one of many important lessons the Associated Press notes, that Daschle and the Obama Administration hope to have learned from the 93-94 efforts.

The full text of Daschle's speech is available here, and video of the event is available here on C-SPAN. In addition to his call for public participation, Daschle reaffirmed the Administration's firm commitment to reforming health care:

President-Elect Obama has made health reform one of his top priorities. He did it in the campaign and I am here to tell you that his commitment to changing the health care system remains strong and focused. ...

Healthcare costs are skyrocketing, outpacing economic growth and that of wages. One half of all bankruptcies, one half of all home foreclosures are related to medical costs. Business are caught between a rock and a hard place as they balance the need to provide healthcare with the need to stay competitive. And rising healthcare costs are now recognized as the nation's number one long term economic and budget challenge. ...

There's no question that the economy is going to be directly related to our capacity and our ability to reform the healthcare system in the months ahead. So our goal I think can be clearly stated. The goal must be to build to a high performance health care system providing every American with higher quality, greater access, and lower costs.

 

 

 

 

You can register to host a health care community discussion from December 15-31st here.