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REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: The American Legislative Exchange Council, New York, New York DATE: August 1, 2001
Thank you, Representative McDaniel, and good morning to everyone. Steve McDaniel is doing terrific work as the Republican leader of the Tennessee General Assembly. I know what it's like to work on the minority side of the aisle in a state assembly, Steve. Keep fighting . in the long run, your ideas will prevail.
I'm also glad that you had a chance to hear from Bob Essner. I'm so pleased he discussed preventive medicine as part of his talk. I'll be mentioning that a bit later. It's wonderful to see so many of my friends from the great state of Wisconsin. There are 29 members of the Wisconsin State Legislature who were so eager to come to New York for this conference that they rushed to get the state budget passed last week. My good friend Scott Jensen is among them. Scott holds the only job I ever wanted and never reached - Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly. I try not to hold that against him. Congratulations, Scott, on your fine leadership in the Assembly. It's a pleasure being with each of you today. It was way back in the early seventies when I was one of a band of conservative reformers like John Engler, Jack Kemp and Henry Hyde who helped ALEC get off the ground. Through the years, ALEC provided ideas, support and encouragement during my time in the Legislature and later during my 14 years as governor. I feel a genuine kinship with ALEC and with all of you who are committed to improving the lives of our fellow citizens. That's what I want to talk with you about today - how we . as compassionate conservatives in a new century . can improve the lives of all Americans. Our conservatism is rooted in the idea that state and local governments are where the most effective change can take place. And we believe that whether we're talking about the local, state or federal levels, government should have a limited role. But we must not define government solely by what it doesn't do. Government can be an agent that empowers people to fulfill their dreams and hopes - as we've done with welfare reform, education and health care. That's what compassionate conservatism is all about. ALEC's commitment to that basic idea, to helping improve the quality of life for families in every part of our society, is ALEC's greatest contribution to our country. We understand the power of the individual and the power of ideas, and it is something we feel passionate about. But to ensure that every individual has the opportunity to realize his or her dreams, we have to work together, to join in a common effort to implement policies that create an environment where every person can thrive. Our greatest accomplishments . our boldest dreams . are realized only when we work together and learn from one another, just as you are at this week's conference. As governor and before that as a state representative from Elroy, I looked forward to these conferences . whether through ALEC, the N-G-A or the N-C-S-L . if only because I could sit and talk with colleagues from around the country, hear their ideas - and then steal them and make them my own. Some of my best ideas came from these very meetings. And I encourage you to do the same. Talk to each other. Find out what works in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Spokane, Washington. Find out what works in Mobile, Alabama and Fairbanks, Alaska. Then, go home. Dress those ideas up to fit your communities, put them to work - and claim victory. There are so many ideas floating around this room today, just as the idea of one unified nation gave birth to America and the idea of renewed freedoms gave birth to the modern conservative movement. I'm happy to help move the dialogue along today by sharing with you some of my favorite programs from Wisconsin and now those we run at the Department of Health and Human Services. One of my favorite examples is our effort to expand health care to the working poor in Wisconsin. We worked to provide access to quality health care to citizens who make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid but aren't provided health coverage by their employers. So we came up with the idea of helping them afford quality insurance even if their employers didn't provide it. We sought some federal support . added state funding . and asked those participating to contribute as well. We call the program "BadgerCare" and it's been a roaring success. Nearly 80,000 Wisconsinites are participating in the program. BadgerCare has inspired other states to try the same approach. Here in New York, for example, I signed waivers that released Medicaid funds so that my friend Governor George Pataki could implement his "Family Health Plus" plan, which will provide up to 619,000 currently uninsured New Yorkers with comprehensive health care coverage. The waivers that paved the way for Family Health Plus are among the more than 850 Medicaid and S-CHIP waivers and state plan amendments we have approved at the Department of Health and Human Services since President Bush took office - expanding health care to those Americans who need it most. But we don't just want to get rid of a huge backlog of waiver requests. We want to prevent another one. So, we've just launched an exciting new program to help states get their waiver requests through more quickly. We're putting the best waiver applications online so you can model your waiver applications on them. State officials like you will be able to go online and obtain information on how other states have designed their waivers. And you'll be able to interact directly with other states that have experience in designing innovative waivers, and will also be able to work with C-M-S staff on designing approvable waivers. Among those who can most benefit from quality care are children. Last week, I was honored to help host the White House Summit on Early Cognitive Development. That's a fancy way of describing how children develop the ability to learn and retain information. The National Institutes of Health has done wonderful work in developing curricula that help young children - especially in underserved urban areas - learn more effectively. They've worked with children and their parents to figure out how little minds gather and sort through information . and they've employed high- tech methods like the M-R-I to help them study the brain as the child is actually reading or studying. The groundbreaking research performed at NIH will only improve the way our children learn. It will open the world of knowledge for them at an earlier age, and open it wider than many would otherwise ever know. And by opening the world of knowledge, the N-I-H program will also open the world of opportunity. The N-I-H has worked in partnership with the states of Texas and California to develop a new early childhood learning program. The program has been tested in the District of Columbia, and reading scores there have gone up by as high as 65 percent. So, if you haven't already, let me encourage you to start similar programs back home. Use N-I-H expertise - that's why it's there. But even as we reach out to help the disadvantaged, we are also reaching across every spectrum of our society to encourage better health. The Department of Health and Human Services is about to launch a major effort in preventive care to encourage the American people to take better care of themselves. Now, I want all Americans to keep eating those good Wisconsin meats and cheeses and drinking our wonderful Wisconsin milk . only not too much. Eat moderately. Don't smoke. Exercise regularly. And watch for our preventive medicine campaign and think of ways to launch you own preventive care campaigns in your states. Preventive care is critical to staying healthy. But when we're ill, we need to know we're going to get good, quality care - and care that's accountable if something goes wrong. The President is committed to enacting a Patients' Bill of Rights, but he wants to sign true patient protections into law without inviting unnecessary, excessive litigation. Many of you have worked hard to protect your constituents when it comes to the way health coverage is provided in your states. So, we're going to work with you, not against you, when it comes to protecting patients. The President won't accept a Patients' Bill of Rights that wipes your own carefully crafted patient protections off the books. The President and I are also committed to a comprehensive Medicare plan that will strengthen and improve the system while giving seniors and disabled Americans options as to what kind of health care works best for their individual needs. As part of that effort, President Bush is going to make sure we include prescription drug coverage for the Medicare recipients who don't currently have it. But the President isn't waiting for a complete modernization of Medicare to move ahead. Acting with the authority he already has, he's signed an executive order that will provide seniors with a prescription drug discount card. The card will save them up to 25 percent on their prescriptions. The President saw a need and he acted. That's called leadership. It's also called innovation - taking a good idea and applying it to a real-world problem. We're taking the same approach to an issue that I feel passionate about - organ donation. In Wisconsin, we enacted a bill that requires half an hour of organ donation education in drivers' ed classes. The bill was enacted, in part, because of the efforts of the parents of Kelly Nachreiner, a 16-year-old Wisconsin girl who lost her life in a tragic car crash . but who had decided to donate her organs when she died. I've brought my passion for organ and tissue donation to Washington. We've developed a model donor card and also will develop a model curriculum for states to use to teach about organ donation in driver education classes. We're working with business groups and corporations to get their support and to encourage employees to sign donor cards. And we're developing a national "Gift of Life" medal to recognize those families whose loved ones had made the decision to share life. I know you share my concern for organ donation. Let me thank ALEC for your new resolution supporting organ donation - it's going to make a tremendous difference. So, back home, hold hearings and town meetings to encourage others to sign donor cards. Develop advisory boards to foster higher public visibility for the issue. There's so much elected officials can do at the state level. Let me close by urging you to remember the words of one of my great heroes, Teddy Roosevelt. He was a governor before he was President. He understood the importance of being bold, of trying new things, of not letting the naysayers get him down. "It is true of the nation, as of the individual," he said, "that the greatest doer must also be the greatest dreamer." All of us have to keep dreaming - to keep being innovative and being committed to making the lives of our fellow citizens better. That's what it means to be a public servant - to be a dreamer and a doer. As conservatives, our principles must be firm. Our dreams must be big. Our actions must make a positive difference. That's a tall order. But that's what public service - and what ALEC - are all about. It's been a pleasure being with you. All the best as you continue doing your important work in your states and communities. Thank you very much.