The Harvard Department of Health Care Policy welcomed former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as the speaker for the12th Annual Marshall J. Seidman Lecture on Health Policy. The lecture, titled “The Affordable Care Act: A New Paradigm for Health Care in America,” took place on Tuesday, October 30 at 4:30 p.m. in the Walter Amphitheater located at the Tosteson Medical Education Center. For those in the Harvard community, you can view the talk by logging into Ecommons and using this link. Alternatively, you can read a summary of the talk written by The Harvard Crimson.
Senator Daschle discussed his topic with HCP faculty and students as well as with outside guests because “this is a transformational time as our country moves forward in the direction of improving health care access, quality, delivery. A number of important challenges to the ACA remain that go beyond the Supreme Court decision and will be addressed over the next couple of months: budget debates, administrative and regulatory issues at the federal and state level, continuing legal challenges. A series of unprecedented circumstances makes the next couple of years a critical time for everyone to have a better understanding of the issues and to weigh in with their perspectives.”
Since leaving the Senate in 2005, the Democrat from South Dakota has distinguished himself as an expert in health care policy. Daschle wrote the 2008 book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, examining the need for reform and advocating for universal health care. His 2010 book, Getting It Done: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform, recounted the behind-the-scenes political process to pass the Affordable Care Act.
Daschle is a member of the Aspen Global Policy Advisory Council for the Health Worker Migration Initiative, the GE Healthymagination Advisory Board and the Children’s Heartlink International Advisory Board.
The former Air Force intelligence officer was elected in 1978 to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served four terms before getting elected to the Senate in 1986. He rose to the top Democratic leadership position in the Senate in 1994 and served in that role for more than a decade
In 2007, Daschle joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole, and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on pressing public policy issues. Daschle currently works as a senior policy advisor with DLA Piper, a Washington, DC law firm where he advises clients on health care, climate change, energy, trade, financial services and telecommunications. He serves on the board of the Center for American Progress, is vice chair of the National Democratic Institute and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
Senator Daschle joins a distinguished group of leaders and experts that have delivered the Seidman Lectures since 2000. Former speakers include Alan Weil, Executive Director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, Peter R. Orszag, MSc, PhD, Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and Lawrence Summers, PhD, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and President of Harvard University. See this link for a complete listing of former speakers.
