Senate Proceeding on Oct 14th, 2009 :: 0:55:00 to 1:00:25
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0:54:55 to 0:55:15( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and obesity. five of them. five diseases account for 75% of our health care costs. what do they all kind of have in common? they all have in common this: they are largely preventible and even reversible by changes in

0:55:00 to 1:00:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Harkin

0:55:16 to 0:55:38( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: nutrition, physical activity, and lifestyle. and, again, for every dollar spent, 75 cents toward treating patients the center for disease control and prevention said this -- quote -- "the united states cannot effectively address escalating health care costs without addressing the problem

0:55:39 to 0:55:59( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: of one more time. "the united states cannot effectively address escalating health care costs without addressing the proem of chronic diseases." 96 cents of every medicare dollar -- we always hear talk about how medicare is goingo go out of, we're n going to

0:56:00 to 0:56:21( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: have enough money for medicare in the next 10 years or 12 years or however long it is, well, 96 cents goes for chronic disease. 96 cents. you want to cut down on how much money we spend on medicare? focus on prevention and wellness, especially for that

0:56:22 to 0:56:43( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: group of individuals that are between 55 and 65, about ready to go on medicare. medicaid, 83 cents of every dollar spent on medicaid spent on chronic diseases. why can't we get it rite. why don't we understand this? and yet, just like blind dodos,

0:56:44 to 0:57:05( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: we say we just keep spending the money on these, and we won't address wellness and prevention, and we wonder why we can't get health care costs under control. that's why. we're not addressing the un and prevention. so again, it makes no sense to me that we spend all this time

0:57:06 to 0:57:28( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: and all out a better way to pay the bills for a system that is dysfunctional, ineffective and broken. we have to change the health care we have to change from a sick care system to a health care system, beginning with a sharp

0:57:29 to 0:57:50( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: new emphasis on prevention and public health and wellness. and that is in this bill, and that is not being talked about by the media. but it's one of the fundamental parts of the health care that we are going to be putting through here on the senate floor and hopefully in conference to the president by the end of this year.

0:57:51 to 0:58:11( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: it's got to be comprehensive also. not everything that deals with wellness and prevention could be done in this bill. for example, very soon we have to reauthorize the child nutrition bill which deals with school lunches and school breakfast programs. we have to get better food, more nutritious food for our kids in schools, and get the junk food out.

0:58:12 to 0:58:33( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: why do we have vending machines in schools? do we have vending machines in schools to provide for more healthy food for kids in school? you know the answer to that. of course not. so then why do you have the vending so the school can make some money so can buy band

0:58:34 to 0:58:54( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: uniforms and maybe football uniforms and things like that? so we can get our kids on junk food and high-sugared sodas which leads to obesity, which leads to diabetes and all other kinds of chronic illnesses? do we really want that for our kids in school?

0:58:55 to 0:59:18( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: so we have to have more nutritious foods. next year, under our committee, i say to the occupant of the chair, who is now a distinguished member of our health committee, we are going to be reauthorizing the elementary and secondary education act, otherwise known as no child left behind. well, what about the making sure -- what about making sure that we leave no child behind

0:59:19 to 0:59:39( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: also in terms of their health? right now we are cutting down on physical activity of kids in school. we're cutting down time for them to exercise. well, that's just nonsense. we've got to do more to provide for exercise and healthy food for our kids in schools, because that's where it all begins. well, to close,

0:59:40 to 1:00:00( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: winston churchill once said something i always thought was pretty much right on point. he said "americans always do the right thing after they've tried everything else." well, we've tried everything else in he failed. it's led us to bad health and the brink of bankruptcy.

1:00:01 to 1:00:22( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: let's try something new: wellness and prevention. time to change the paradigm of health care. re-create america as a genuine wellness society. let's change the let's make it easier to be healthy and harder to be unhealthy. right now, it's easier to be unhealthy and hard to be healthy. let's change that around, and in

1:00:23 to 1:00:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: doing so, we will build a health care system and we will bend