The two people who are to lead the new White House Office of Health Reform - Tom Daschle and Jeanne Lambrew - coauthored a book earlier this year titled "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crises."  As government officials, their expressions ought to be part of the public domain, and known to everyone.  And so we share a few tastes of their thoughts on health care, since they will have much to do with its reform in the coming months and years:

•     "There are many factors driving up health care costs.  One problem is that 'supply side' forces exist in our health-care system.  Physicians both diagnose and treat illness - in economic terms, they create and satisfy demand. . . . Conditions such as 'restless leg syndrome' weren't conditions until drugs were developed to treat them."

•     "We seem to assume that high-tech medicine can only be better than low-tech medicine, that more medical care is better, that newer is better, and that more aggressive is better.  Yet sometimes it isn't so." [Quoting from Deyo & Patrick, Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises, New York AMACOM, 2005]

•     "[S]pecial interests are especially numerous and influential in the health-care system.  Health care comprises one-sixth of our economy, and the savings we seek will come out of executive's salaries and companies' profits.  In terms of political clout, the health-care industry is second to none."

• "Between 1998 and 2006, pharmaceutical companies and other manufacturers of health-care products spent over a billion dollars on lobbying, more than anybody else and twice as much as the oil and gas industries.  Insurance companies, including health insurers, ranked second."

• "Since cutting costs is tantamount to cutting profits for many of these special interests, it is reasonable to expect them to engage in all-out war to defeat reform."

    Strong words that suggest our "reformers of health care" understand some of the challenges. But do they have the vision to craft the best solution?  This book makes no real mention of natural health care, or its important role in prevention and cure.      HELP THEM CONNECT THE DOTS!  Write them.  Email them, Use our letter. Write your own and send it to The White House Office of Health Reform, Attn: Sen. Tom Daschle & Deputy Director Jeanne Lambrew, c/o Center for American Progress, 1333 H St. N.W. 10th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005. Tell them that natural health must have a fundamental role in the reform of health care now.

     Thanks for your support

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