The National Constitution Center's Sixth Annual John M. Templeton, Jr., Lecture on Economic Liberties and the Constitution will consider the issue of health care, which has commanded national attention and become a focal point of debate during the 2008 presidential election process.
Delivering this year's lecture, titled "Health Care, Choice or Mandate?" will be Secretary Tommy Thompson, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and the 42nd Governor of Wisconsin, with a response from Senator Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota- National Constitution Center
Bio
Tom Daschle
Thomas Andrew Daschle is a former U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He was defeated on November 2, 2004, by the Republican candidate, John Thune, in his bid for re-election.
He is currently working for the global law firm DLA and is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Douglas Kmiec
Professor Kmiec headed the Office of Legal Counsel for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He is the former dean and St. Thomas More Professor at The Catholic University of America Law School. For nearly two decades, he was a member of the law faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also director of the Center on Law and Government.
He has been a White House Fellow, a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar on the Constitution (in Asia), and the inaugural Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the National Constitution Center. His published work includes four books on the American Constitution. He has also authored several legal treatises and related books, and hundreds of articles and essays.
Tommy G. Thompson
Tommy Thompson is a Senior Partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a Washington, D.C., law firm, and is former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In his position as Secretary, he served as the nation's leading advocate for the health and welfare of all Americans.
He worked to modernize and add prescription drug coverage to Medicare for the first time in the program's history. A leading proponent of welfare reform, Secretary Thompson also focused on expanding services to seniors, the disabled and low-income Americans.
Additionally, he was Chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and as such helped elicit unprecedented investment to stop the spread of these diseases worldwide. Prior to these positions, Secretary Thompson served as the Governor of Wisconsin, working to expand health care access across all segments of society. He earned his law degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is a Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential election.
System for the advance financing of medical expenses through contributions or taxes paid into a common fund to pay for all or part of health services specified in an insurance policy or law. The key elements are advance payment of premiums or taxes, pooling of funds, and eligibility for benefits on the basis of contributions or employment without an income or assets test. Health insurance may apply to a limited or comprehensive range of medical services and may provide for full or partial payment of the costs of specific services. Benefits may consist of the right to certain medical services or reimbursement of the insured for specified medical costs. Private health insurance is organized and administered by an insurance company or other private agency; public health insurance is run by the government (seesocial insurance). Both forms of health insurance are to be distinguished from socialized medicine and government medical-care programs, in which doctors are employed directly or indirectly by the goverment, which also owns the health-care facilities (e.g., Britain's National Health Service). See alsoinsurance.
Tom Daschle is a foolish person and is speaking about something he knows little about, obviously.
I tell people who take his position to take a trip abroad to any other country and try to get in to see a doctor immediately in any other setting besides an emergency room. You won't find any place you can do that. I can drive down the street in my small hometown and have my choice of 4 walk-in clinics where every day of the week I can see a doctor after a modest wait of less than 2 hours. And the beauty of our system is no matter whether I pay cash or have insurance doesn't affect the level of care I will receive. I also have a family doctor and there are many days that I can get in that same day to see him if health conditions warrant.
Hassling with any other county's health care system will make you prematurely gray with all the bureaucracy involved. Daschle know little or nothing of what he speaks.
We (the government) can no more dictate the managerial aspects of health care than dictate the interest rates of our monetary system. Abdicating responsibility is SOOOO much easier than making a tough decision isn't it, just pass the buck to some nasty profiteers. That they're allowed to exist, by you and yours, is of course never discussed. This yahoo is the reason America is in the state it's in, spineless snake bit fools.
member. 
