Daschle tapped to oversee healthcare reform

President-elect Obama formally named Tom Daschle his
Health and Human Services secretary on Thursday and noted Daschle would be the
architect of his healthcare reform plan.

“Year after year, our leaders offer up detailed
healthcare plans with great fanfare and promise, only to see them fail,
derailed by Washington politics and influence peddling,” said Obama at a
Chicago press conference. “This simply cannot continue. The runaway cost of
healthcare is punishing families and businesses across our country. We are on
an unsustainable course, and it has to change.”

{mosads}Healthcare reform had been a centerpiece of Obama’s
presidential campaign and he vowed to quickly tackle the issue. The
president-elect announced that he would set up a White House Office of Health
Reform, and named Daschle as director and Jeanne Lambrew as his deputy.

“It is hard to overstate the urgency of their work,”
Obama said, praising Daschle and Lambrew as a pair of consensus-builders who
can get the job done.

“It is a great honor to be nominated to work on an issue
that is so close to my heart, leading an organization that touches so many
lives at a time that there is so much at stake,” said Daschle. 

The former South Dakota senator said he would look
forward to working “with the people from across the country to find a path
forward that makes healthcare in this country as affordable and available as it
is innovative.”

This would include asking the American people directly to
weigh in on how to fix the system.

“Over the next few weeks, we will be coordinating
thousands of healthcare discussions in homes all across the country through our
Web site, change.gov, where ordinary Americans can share their ideas about what’s
broken and how to fix it,” he said.

The appointment of Daschle drew positive responses.

“Sen. Daschle is well known in Washington and throughout
the nation for his outstanding leadership skills, extensive knowledge of health
policy, and his commitment to improving the nation’s health,” said Chip Kahn,
president of the Federation of American Hospitals.

Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance
Plans, said Daschle’s appointment “signals that the incoming administration
intends to prioritize comprehensive healthcare reform.”

“Sen. Daschle is exceptionally well qualified
to bring people together in support of universal coverage,
cost-containment, and improved quality,” she added.

Daschle’s former Senate colleague Edward Kennedy
(D-Mass.), a longtime healthcare advocate, also praised the pick.

“Exceptional challenges call for exceptional leaders, and
Tom is an ideal choice to meet the urgent challenge of health reform,” Kennedy
stated. “His integrity, intelligence, experience and commitment to the American
people have won him friends and admirers on both sides of the aisle. All
of us in Congress who share the goal of this long-overdue reform welcome
today’s announcement.”