Brittany Westerberg

The annual Griffith Honors Forum Lecture for 2008 will be held on March 13 at the Performing Arts Center at SDSU at 7:30 p.m. The speaker is none other than former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle.

Daschle will be speaking about his new book-Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis-in his lecture, entitled “Confronting America’s Health Care Crisis.”

“As I see it, there are three fundamental problems facing the country’s health-care system,” Daschle said. “They are access to health care for the uninsured, disparity in quality of care and skyrocketing, unsustainable costs.”

Daschle, a 1969 graduate from SDSU, is a Special Policy Advisor to the law firm Alston and Bird and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. In 2007, he helped create the Bipartisan Policy Center along with former majority leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Howard Baker; the organization is dedicated to finding common ground in response to several pressing public policy challenges of our time. Daschle is also Co-Chair of the ONE Vote ’08 Campaign-along with former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist-to address health and poverty in the developing world in a more aggressive and successful way.

In his lecture, Daschle will review the country’s complicated health-care system history, as well as challenge myths surrounding current reform efforts. He will also offer a fresh solution for solving the crisis, which he discusses in his book.

“I may not agree with some of the political statements, but Sen. Daschle is right on target on the need to start a serious dialogue on health care for Americans,” Bob Dole, former Senate majority leader, said in praise about Daschle’s book.

“The American health-care system is in crisis and workable solutions have been blocked for years by deeply entrenched ideological divisions,” Sen. Barack Obama said. “Sen. Daschle brings fresh thinking to this problem, and his Federal Reserve for Health concept holds great promise for bridging this intellectual chasm, and, at long last, giving this nation the health care it deserves.”

Daschle will appear at a news conference at 4:15 p.m. in the Rehearsal Room in the PAC prior to the lecture. He will also sign copies of his book after the lecture.

The Griffith Honors Forum Lecture was established in 1999 to support the highest quality enrichment experiences for SDSU Honors College students and the community. For more information about the lecture March 13 or the Griffith Honors Forum Lecture, contact Dean Robert Burns at 688-4909.