Obama selects Daschle to head HHS

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

Obama selects Daschle to head HHS.

 

Source: The American Medical Association ( http://www.ama-assn.org )

Date: November 20, 2008

 

 

NBC Nightly News (11/19, story 3, 2:30, Williams) reported
that President-elect Barack Obama "is so far turning to some old hands to
be on his new team and he named another veteran today by turning to...former
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle for his nominee for the massive Health and
Human Services Department." The CBS Evening News (11/19, story 2, 0:25, Couric)
added that Daschle, "an early Obama supporter and advisor...served in
Congress for 26 years, including ten as Democratic leader of the Senate until
he was defeated for reelection." 

 

Currently, Daschle is "a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress, a liberal think-tank run by top Obama transition adviser
and former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta," the AP (11/19,
Freking) noted. According to Democratic officials, even though "the
appointment has not been announced...the job is Daschle's, barring an
unforeseen problem as Obama's team reviews the background of the South Dakota
Democrat." 

 

Daschle's nomination seen sign of Obama's health legislation
priority. The New York Times (11/20, A1, Cooper, Baker) reports in a front-page
article that President-elect Barack Obama "has decided to nominate Tom
Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, as secretary of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Mr. Obama's advisers said Wednesday." Daschle "has
accepted the offer," making "him a point man in Mr. Obama's ambitious
plan to expand healthcare coverage." Obama's transition team indicated
that, in selecting Daschle, Obama seeks "to install a close ally and early
supporter of his run for the presidency." Daschle would "oversee a
health policy working group to develop a healthcare plan," which is said
to have been "a condition for considering the cabinet job." 

 

"The early selection of Daschle" is "a signal
that the incoming president wants an experienced Washington insider to shepherd comprehensive
health legislation through Congress," the Washington Post (11/20, A5, Connolly)
comments. As head of HHS, Daschle will face "pressure to revitalize the
Food and Drug Administration, bring financial stability to the Medicare and
Medicaid programs, and move away from what many researchers have complained is
the ideologically driven scientific agenda of the Bush administration." 

 

The Los Angeles Times (11/20, Hook, Levey) reports, "Obama's
selection of a high-profile figure with tested legislative skills...was viewed
as a sign that the new president expects to move aggressively rather than
incrementally on a healthcare agenda that could require delicate political
maneuvering." Daschle's selection "drew praise from several key
interest groups expected to be involved in the healthcare debate, among them
insurers, physicians, and lawmakers. 

 

According to the Wall Street Journal (11/20, A4, Meckler), Daschle
has the support of "both the insurance industry and small businesses who
led the fight against the Clinton
effort. On Wednesday, the insurance industry's Washington trade group issued a
statement saying it could accept new rules requiring companies to cover sick
people, as well as healthy ones, as long as all Americans were required to have
insurance, with subsidies for those who need them." The Journal called the
statement, made by America's
Health Insurance Plans, "a switch from the industry's long-time opposition
to rules that bar the common practice of weeding out customers who are likely
to rack up too many bills." The Financial Times (11/20, Ward), the Wall
Street Journal (11/20, Goldstein) Health Blog, Time (11/20, Tumulty), BusinessWeek
(11/20, Epstein), McClatchy (11/20, Talev), The Hill (11/20, Young, Marre), Bloomberg
News (11/20, Chen, Runningen) and the Washington Times (11/20, Bellantoni) also
cover the story.



Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/

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