Coronavirus cases in the united states. Hello and welcome to axios virtual event, health care 21. I am sam baker coming from my home in washington, d. C. I would like to thank United Health group for making these conversations possible. I would like to welcome our audiences. You can follow along on twitter using the axios events. Over the next 30 minutes we will unpack the best way to unpack Health Insurance access and Health Insurance coverage in the united states, and what that path forward looks like both following the president ial election and in the midst of a pandemic that is getting worse every day. Our first guest today is senator thune smith of minnesota. Smithr, senator tina of minnesota. Thank you for joining us. Sen. Smith thank you, sam. It is terrific to be with everyone today. Sam i would like to start off to frame this conversation obviously, Health Care Access and Health Insurance coverage has been a very hot topic for a long time, but i think the pandemic has set of
Today, this is terrific. I certainly enjoy spending time with you and the students of the iop. You are right, i came by it naturally. My father was a world war ii Fighter Pilot. Flew spitfires, actually, which was a british airplane, because at the time when we entered the war, americans did not have planes to take on the german messerschmit, so the british loaned us spitfires. But my grandfather also served in world war i and in world war ii. He was an army surgeon. My dad, later in life as i was getting ready to join the service, he said, i remember what got me in the service. It was when i was a young boy, i saw the soldiers heading off to france in world war i board the trains in his small town. He said, there was such a sense of pride, there was such a sense of duty and patriotism that it was infectious. That is in addition to obviously watching his father, that really spurred him to join the military and then i grew up as an air force brat and loved my time in the military famili