Calling America’s health care system a “sick care system,” U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin challenged DMU’s 2014 graduates to confront aspects of the nation’s “medical-industrial complex” that make it difficult for people to be healthy.
Harkin praised DMU’s “holistic approach” in teaching medicine and described his efforts to develop and pass the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
“At long last, millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions like cancer or diabetes cannot be denied health care coverage,” he said. “But most folks overlook a major provision of the law, which I had the privilege of authoring: a focus on prevention and wellness and public health, all with the understanding these don’t just happen in a doctor’s office but also in our schools, our communities and our workplaces.”
Harkin added that health care reform “is just the beginning of the change we need” and called on the 2014 graduates to lead further changes. “It’s easy in our society to be unhealthy and hard to be healthy. We have to turn that around,” he said. “To state the obvious: An America focused on wellness and prevention is an America that will be turning more and more to you, to osteopathic medicine.”
