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IowaPolitics.com: Harkin pushes single-payer as health care solution
6/7/2009

By Matthew Clark
For IowaPolitics.com

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin acknowledged the often frustrating gap between popular sentiment and government action at an AARP event on Saturday, saying he has long supported a national single-payer health care system but has never “had the votes” to pass it in Washington.

“There are a lot of things the majority of Americans support that Congress won’t do,” Harkin said. “If I had my way, we’d have a single-payer system, but I’m not a dictator.”

Harkin said he has supported a single-payer system since 1991 and hopes the call for one from voters has now reached “critical mass” and will compel other legislators to support such a plan.

Harkin joined other experts gathered in North Liberty on Saturday for an AARP-sponsored forum on health reform. They concluded that a major overhaul of the federal health care system is needed and this may finally be the year it happens.

“This is no longer a theoretical thing,” AARP national president Jennie Chin Hansen said. “It’s the urgency of this eminent crisis that will drive us to really looking at an important solution.”

Other panelists included Susan Curry, dean of the Iowa College of Public Health; Cathy Glasson, Iowa president of the SEIU; Troy Vincent, executive director of Living Healthy America; and Harkin.

Curry expressed concern that only five cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to prevention and public health, which Glasson said is a problem that can’t be remedied without offering a public option for health care. Vincent encouraged individual Iowans to do what they can on their own by eating right and exercising more while the politics of public health care continue to be played.

While each voice at the table represented a different interest in the health care debate, there was consensus that the current system is doomed to fail and more emphasis on preventative measures and healthier living should be the focus of new health care initiatives.

“The aspect of prevention and wellness is something that we really all can commit to,” Hansen said.

In an interview with IowaPolitics.com, Hansen said her organization will continue to focus efforts of its national health reform campaign in Iowa since the state is committed to better health politically and practically.

“Both of Iowa’s senators are key in health care policy and both care about health care as a major area of their focus,” Hansen said. “We’ve always really been supported by both of them.”

She said both Harkin and Sen. Chuck Grassley are “very keen” on working with AARP in a common goal of healthier Iowans through preventative health care measures. In addition to the commitment of policymakers, Hansen credited everyday Iowans with showing real interest in living healthier.

“We received a lot of support during the caucus season for our Divided We Fail effort,” she said. “Even though people have different points of view, Iowans are interested in having a civil discussion on the important issues of aging and health care.”


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