Before Tom Daschle decided to withdraw his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services, some of my friends felt that forgetting to pay taxes and filing a late return wasn’t a big deal. But my concerns were with his close ties to the very industries he would be overseeing.
Whether Daschle paid his taxes or not, and whether he was confused or not, really isn’t a deal breaker for me as a traveler. We all know that the U.S. personal income tax code is so ridiculously complex that even world-renown tax experts differ on interpretations of the rules.
I take Daschle at his word. The tax problems were a “completely inadvertent” mistake.
The mere fact that he neglected to pay some taxes on the free car-and-driver services aren’t a big deal, except that they highlight the fact that he has become what he abhorred while in the Senate. He even campaigned against limousine politicians.
My concerns were more with Daschle’s “non-lobbying” relationships with the health care industry. He served as an adviser for United Healthcare and he received more than $220,000 in speaking fees from the health care industry over the past year.
According to Time magazine, “Under the law, there is a distinction between ‘lobbying contacts,’ which only lobbyists can do, and ‘lobbying activities,’ which can be done by both lobbyists and non-lobbyists.
United Healthcare, one of the nation’s biggest health carriers, and the groups that generously doled out almost a quarter-of-a-million dollars to the former Senator, have a big stake in reform. This reform spreads to far more than drug co-pay requirements and choice of doctors.
One of the most important health care industry problems affecting travelers is the portability of health insurance when traveling internationally. For some reason, many American citizens lose their coverage when they are outside of the U.S. borders.
Why? I can’t imagine. We are insuring our bodies. If the premiums we are paying are based on our personal health profiles, why should my insurance end when I cross a border?
The lack of cross-border portability is even more mysterious when non-U.S. medical costs are normally far less expensive than those charged here at home. It just doesn’t make any sense.
This is one question that the new Secretary of Health and Human Services surely will have to deal with during the coming administration. After taking so much money from the very companies that have been fighting having to provide insurance to those traveling abroad, will Daschle find himself on the side of insurers or the insured?
The Columbia Journalism Review raises some of these same questions about journalists. The same questions can be raised about a new Secretary of Health and Human Services.
How could a journalist who has taken money from, say, United Healthcare report critically on the subsidiaries in its empire that cherry-pick the healthiest people and leave the rest stranded without coverage; or the unsavory sales practices that might accompany its growing Medicare prescription drug business; or the high deductible health plans it markets that leave some policyholders underinsured when serious illness strikes; or its health IT business that could profit from mining patients’ medical records?
Even more disconcerting was the “kid-glove” treatment Daschle received from other Senators. Without strong protests from the media, the Senators would have probably overlooked Daschle’s sins as they hope their own would be overlooked.
It is sad when these members of Congress, who will decide whether or not Americans will have health care in the coming years and what kind of provisions will be mandated, have received so much money from the health care industry. We need a critical look at our national health care from a legislature that is looking out for the good of the people rather than the profits of the providers.
The exposé on Daschle’s connections and his lavish speaking fees is only the tip of the iceberg. There are far more members of the Washington establishment and our Congress that should recuse themselves from the coming deliberations.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
