80 Million Strong: Daschle Demands Action on Health Care

Below are two videos of a speech Former Minority Leader Tom Daschle made at the 80 Million Strong Summit. I wanted to wait to post this because his speech was so critical to our progress both as a country and as a generation. Amazingly, Daschle's first comments were about work on the Student VOTER Act complimenting the hard battles fought and saying he believes it MUST pass.

"I congratulate SAVE in particular on the Student VOTER Act. I think its really one of the most critical new opportunities to extend voter rights and voter opportunities to students that we have in the country today, and it ought to pass...

"One important, if not the most important things, is participation. Without participation you don't have democracy. You can't have an effective republic. And so, your presence here, is in essence, in recognition of the critical nature of participation in this republic, and a fundamental part of our democracy."

Part 1:

"We must reach the kind of health care other countries have. While this presents opportunities for the 10,000 members of SAVE and certainly for each of you in this room. Opportunities regarding the challenge, and opportunities for your own roles and responsibilities moving forward.

It is no secret that there are 3 fundamental problems with health care. Number one, is access. 50 million people don't have health insurance today, and that is an outrage. 48% of those who have insurance don't have adequate insurance, and because they don't 18,000 Americans die every year for the simple reason that they have either inadequate or no insurance. . . .

We also have a quality problem. Did you know that last year the World Health Organization ranked the United State 37th in world quality? Just below Costa Rica and above Slavonia. We are 31st in life expectancy, 29th in infant mortality, and 24th in overall women's health. 100,000 people die every year because of medical mistakes. 100,000 is almost as much as the largest city in my state. . .

And what's driving this debate more than anything else is the cost problem. We have a cost problem that is effecting everybody in this room and its going to effect you a lot more. When I was born... health care comprised 4% of our GDP. When my children were born, about 25 and 30 years ago, the percentage went from 4% to 8%. And when my grandchildren were born, and I have 4 of them now, it went from 8% to 16%. And when you're my age, its going to be 32% according to the Council of Economic Advisers. . ."

Part 2: