President Bill Clinton addresses the crowd at Friday’s Landon Lecture at Kansas State University. (K-State Photo Services)
By Sarah Green
KHI News Service
MANHATTAN, March 2 Fixing the country”s health care system is one of the
best ways
to help solve global issues, former President Bill Clinton said Friday.
In
his address
aimed primarily
at students attending
Kansas State University”s Landon Lecture Series, Clinton recommended the U.S.
focus on three main goals at home that
he said would
strengthen its relations with countries abroad: health care, the economy, and energy independence.
Reducing administrative costs and getting a handle on health care spending is job one, Clinton said, especially since Americans spend disproportionately more than those in other countries
for health care.
“if you’re going to spend $800 billion more on something, more than anyone else on earth, surely you”re going to get something out of it, right?” he said.
Recent talks between Wal-Mart and the Service Employees International Union about
trying to solve the health insurance problem
signal a change is needed, Clinton said, because the United States can”t compete against other countries when it comes to employee health care costs.
“We all have to do something,” he said.
Administrative fees
tacked to health care procedures could instead be re-directed to help those in need, he said.
“Transaction costs are more than enough to insure everyone in the country that doesn”t have insurance,” he said.
Clinton delivered his speech to a sold-out crowd at Bramlage Coliseum. State legislators and two members of the state”s Congressional delegation Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and Rep. Dennis Moore, R-Overland Park also attended.
Democratic legislators weighed in on Clinton”s speech before heading back to Topeka for the party”s annual convention and Washington Days celebration.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka,
said the three challenges Clinton
presented health care, economy, energy were not mutually exclusive.
“It all goes together as a package,” Hensley said. “Establishing universal health care is a very important goal. I think we need to reduce administrative costs, as he talked about, and really provide affordable prescription drugs. If we do all those things, I think it will lead to universal coverage.”
“He”s been out front on health care for years,” said Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita. “We still have people in the Kansas House saying, “let”s wait for the next plan.” He”s saying it”s costing us billions and we”re not delivering the health care. I think that”s a strong message.”
House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg, said the new health care movement started by “corporate giants” such as Wal-Mart and the service employees union is promising, but there”s more that can be done at the state level.
“There are small things you can do and big things you can do,” he said. “If you do nothing, we”re just further behind. We need to start doing something and doing it now, figure out how to take a bite out of the apple now so more people have health insurance.”
In addition to his work addressing health disparities and diseases in developing countries, Clinton has been a supporter of efforts to fight childhood obesity. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, an effort headlined by the American Heart Association and Clinton”s charitable foundation, was formed in 2005 to address the issue. The Alliance received an $8 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support its Healthy Schools Program. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who championed an effort in Arkansas to collect body mass index (BMI) information from children, is co-chair of the alliance.
In 2006, the Alliance brokered two major deals with the food industry to improve nutrition in schools by promoting sales of healthy food and drinks.
-Sarah Green is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. She can be reached at
sgreen@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 118.