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REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship Lecture, Press Club, Washington, D.C. DATE: October 17, 2001
Secretary Schweiker, thank you so much for your kind words. It's an honor to follow in your stead at the Department of Health and Human Services. I've so appreciated your wise counsel and trust I can continue to count on it in the days ahead.
Dorcas (Hardy), it's wonderful seeing you. Thank you for your long-time leadership at HHS and at the Social Security Administration and for all you've done to improve America's health care system.
Let me also recognize Rochelle Archuleta, Jason Ormsby, Sybil Richard, Anna Fallieras and Deborah Veres, Winston Fellows who by their own achievements have added great credit to your organization.
We're here tonight to honor a respected memory. David Winston touched countless lives during his career as one of America's premier health care policymakers. Fifteen years after his passing, leading officials of our government are here to celebrate his legacy and his contributions as a public servant.
That's a remarkable and impressive testimony to his enduring impact on American health care. It's also a testimony to friendship . to loyalty . and to the enduring sense of loss we all feel when a life ends prematurely.
But it's precisely for that reason - our commitment to prevent premature illness and disease and to improve the quality of life of every American - that this evening can be as much a time of rededication as of commemoration.
That rededication has much to do with the era in which we live. As I speak, the men and women of our nation's military are carrying our battle against terrorism to the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks and their collaborators in Afghanistan.
Our determination is unshakeable. As the President said last week at the Pentagon Memorial Service, "On September 11th, great sorrow came to our country. And from that sorrow has come great resolve. Today, we are a nation awakened to the evil of terrorism, and determined to destroy it. That work began the moment we were attacked, and it will continue until justice is delivered."
America's sense of resolution reminds of something General Eisenhower wrote on September 1, 1939 - the day that the Nazis invaded Poland. Ike wrote, "Hitler should beware the fury of an aroused democracy."
I think we all would say the same thing to the enemies of our country tonight. And I'll talk more about an aspect of our war against the forces of terror - namely, our efforts against bioterrorism - in a few moments.
All of us here are in some way involved in developing or implementing health care policy. Like me, I know you are passionate about advancing a higher quality of care, about increasing access and lowering costs . and also about strengthening our Medicare system, improving it and making it more suited to the needs of America's current and future retirees.
As we consider our national resolve to defeat terrorism, we must also remember the millions of Americans who are ill . who suffer from disease or disability . who wonder whether they will be able to get the treatment they require. They rely on us, on you and me. Even as we wage war against terrorism, we must at the same time continue our efforts for the highest quality health care we can provide.
Since I've been secretary of health and human services, I've spent time in Alaska talking with health professionals about the needs of people in a state with vast territory and a very diffuse population . I've spent a week traveling to Indian reservations to learn firsthand about tribal health concerns.
And I just got back from Texas, where I spent time along our border with my counterparts in the Mexican health care system discussing how we can improve health for the men and women living in that region. And I'm working with Senator Kennedy to expand our S-CHIP program, which covers the children of low- income, working parents.
So when I speak about rededication, I'm not simply using an idle phrase or employing a rhetorical device.
Now is a good time for each of us . for every person involved in the delivery of health care, in medical research, in providing for the health needs of hurting people, in the public health care system . to renew our commitment to ensuring that all Americans are able to get the care they need, when they need it.
To fulfill that commitment, we cannot help but reflect on the simple but profound truth that partnerships are essential. Let me give you an example of what I mean, one from within HHS.
The National Institutes of Health is a wonderful organization. It is composed of 27 distinct institutes with emphases on things as diverse as facial pain and infectious disease.
The NIH relies on thousands of private sector researchers to help conduct clinical trials, laboratory research and field tests. And the private sector looks to government for assistance in performing research and finding the cures and answers we all want.
Simply put, it's a partnership, and it works. Tonight, I'm here to assure you that President Bush and I share your belief that partnerships between federal agencies, state health commissions, local physicians and corporate researchers are essential to America's health care system.
One of those partnerships is especially critical today. It is a partnership born of urgency and defined by patriotism, duty and compassion.
The world changed on September 11, 2001. One of the most dramatic of those changes was the grim realization that the threat of bioterrorism was real.
Now, before getting into detail about our anti-bioterrorism efforts, let me urge a note of caution and calm. The media are full of reports about anthrax threats around the country. But let me point out a few key facts. First, while a number of people have become exposed, only one has died and we currently have only three menacing cases, one in Florida and two in New York.
Second, our medical system is on high alert. From nurses to family practitioners to researchers of infectious diseases, the medical community is watching carefully every suspicious illness and every report of unusual symptoms.
Third, anthrax is not a contagious disease. It cannot be spread from one person to another.
And finally, our track record on September 11 and the days following has been impressive. Within minutes of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers, I had activated our Department's Emergency Operations Center.
We worked with our National Disaster Medical System partners in the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist New York City in its response.
By the end of that painful morning, I had ordered activation of the entire National disaster management system, including notification of all of its 7,000 volunteer health workers and 2,000 hospitals.
FEMA issued verbal mission assignments even as teams were beginning to prepare to move during that day to staging areas around New York City and within Washington, D.C. It was a day of outrageous violence and profound grief, but also a day when rapid responses and professional dedication were clearly on display.
We got 50 tons of medical supplies to New York in about seven hours, even with the airlines shut down. Within a couple of says of the terrorist attacks, we had 700 doctors and specialists on the ground in New York and Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.
We also received strong support from the private sector. For example, the company that supplies gas masks got them to New York City quickly and effectively.
We've learned some things and are making the refinements necessary about how to do even better. But we did well - and the American people can feel confident that when they go to the store, have a meal out or watch a movie at the local theater they are not risking their lives.
President Bush has, from his first days in office, taken the whole issue of bioterrorism seriously. The President's fiscal year 2002 budget provides the HHS anti-bioterrorism initiative with $345 million, an almost twenty percent increase over the previous year.
But with events of September 11, the President has now called for $1.5 billion in emergency anti- bioterrorism funding for HHS. This total request of more than $1.8 billion represents a more than six-fold increase above last year's h-h-s appropriation.
These funds include more than $640 million to expand the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile . more than $500 million to speed the development and purchase of smallpox vaccine . and significant funding to accelerate the development of new bioterrorism-related vaccines and drug therapies, help increase state and local readiness, improve food safety and enhance my department's ability to respond even more quickly.
Let me emphasize again that much of this new money will be used to build on our partnership with local and state governments. For example, the President is calling for $50 million to strengthen the Metropolitan Medical Response System, which consists of federally supported efforts in 122 cities . and another $10 million to support local planning efforts.
The president is also calling for $40 million to support early detection surveillance to identify potential bioterrorism agents . and $15 million to support increased capacity in no less than 78 laboratories in 45 states.
Within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Emergency Preparedness is coordinating the National Disaster Medical System, which I mentioned earlier. The NDMS is a collaborative effort between HHS and FEMA, the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments and the private sector.
And this past summer, I appointed a distinguished Public Health Service physician from the Centers of Disease Control, Dr. Scott Lillibridge, to work personally in my office to coordinate our anti-bioterrorism efforts.
But let me be as clear as I can - on September 11, 2001, the federal government, in coordination with local and state governments, responded quickly, efficiently and well.
Partnerships are needed now more than ever. Cooperation, a willingness to share knowledge and a common commitment to face the enemy with a united effort are critical in wartime. But they are just as important in the day-to-day events of life.
David Winston worked with Ronald Reagan to help craft policies that make health care more affordable and available to millions of Americans. So let me close this evening with a quote from President Reagan that aptly sums up what I've been discussing.
"There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil. It must be the core of Western policy that there be no sanctuary for terror. And to sustain such a policy, free men and free nations must unite and work together."
"Unite and work together." That was President Reagan's charge, and it's still wise counsel today. We are fighting our adversaries together and in tandem with our friends and allies abroad.
We must make the same kind of common cause here at home, as the private sector and the public sector work together to meet the health care challenges of our time.
As President Reagan said, and as President Bush is today reaffirming, we must never appease evil. And as we fight evil, we would do well to remember the words of another great hero of mine, Winston Churchill: "Let us go forward - together."
Thank you again very much. May God bless you, and may He continue to bless our country.