Tom Harkin

I am nothing short of outraged at the increasing number of outbreaks of foodborne illnesses in our country.

Surely we can do better than that.

We haven't changed and updated our public health system to cope with this new distribution system.

Well, we just had that in a hearing the other day about that, about how--first of all, a lot of physical ailments that we have in our society are traceable back to mental illnesses that people have.

I have said it to former Secretary Spellings a number of times, and I have said it to our new Secretary Duncan that we have No Child Left Behind in reading and in math, but how about no child left behind in terms of their health, just…

Well, let me just say, Bob, that one of the things we have to reauthorize this year is the Child Nutrition Act.

We have got to change this, and there is a lot of talk about change.

Again, a lot of times when we talk about people with disabilities, we think of someone that uses a wheelchair or has a physical disability.

I never thought about that.

But, it is going to, as you point out, save us a lot of money early on and also later on.

What do you guys think about school-based healthcare and dental care in general?

I think if we don't address the debt load on our students, we are not going to be able to draw them into primary care.

We have really got to focus on--sorry, Dr. Butler, I know aging and----

I thought this was a great discussion.

Maybe we have got to change the way we think about the classroom.

I think we have an opportunity--at least I hope we do--of really making some changes in the kind of foods our kids eat in school.

The one on medical school, on helping medical students who want to go into primary care, forgiving their debts, loans, and stuff so that they have that incentive I think is something that we have to look at.

About 63 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed, who want to work and could work, but they are unemployed--63 percent.

I do not have a primary care doctor.

Now more than ever, we have the opportunity for comprehensive, meaningful health reform, and we must take bold steps where we have been timid in our policies to protect and preserve health, to rebuild what we have let crumble in public…

Senator Harkin, I know you're familiar with the program, and that you visited the Oak Street Middle School in Iowa this fall to see the changes, big and small, that the school has made through that program.

Senator Harkin, I've often heard you say that we have a 'sickcare system' not a health care system, and I couldn't agree more that it's time to change that.

An important first step is being taken now by Congress and the administration under your leadership, Senator Harkin, to increase the investment in prevention in the Economic Recovery and Investment Act.

Now every school in America has developed a wellness policy. The problem is I wanted it to be a wellness policy based upon the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine. I lost that. I am coming back this year.

I can tell you in my experience in Iowa, I have a number of cases of primary care doctors...