Daschle Chosen by Obama to Lead Health Care Reform

On Thursday, December 11th, President-elect Barack Obama announced that  he would be nominating former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle for Secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as the director of the White House office of health reform. Weeks after Obama officially asked Daschle, the senator who long fought for improvements of health care in America, joined in the announcement and looks to take on that role in the new administration.

Daschle has 26 years of experience in Congress on behalf of South Dakota, working as both a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and serving as the leader of the Senate Democrats for 10 of those years. His efforts on behalf of the health care system span most of those years, and his time on the governing board of the Mayo Clinic attest to his dedication to the issue as well.

He has worked to extend health insurance to more Americans, especially with the growing numbers of uninsured having grown over the years to the current estimate of 47 million, and to improve the quality of care for patients, especially in rural areas. He played an integral role in pushing the Clintons’ health care reform ideas during that administration and worked closely with Senator Ted Kennedy to advocate reforms.

Daschle’s 2008 book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, proposed numerous reforms, many of which coincided with ideas advocated by Obama during his presidential campaign. The main thrust of the book concentrated on the fact that the many players in the health care system, from doctors to insurance companies and researchers to patient advocates, must work together to create a solution, and that a health board similar to the Federal Reserve Board would create the accountability and influence necessary but maintain a single standard of care that is desperately needed.

Less than a week before Obama made the official announcement of Daschle’s assignment in his new administration, Daschle spoke in Denver to the Colorado Health Summit about his role on Obama’s Transition Health Policy Team. He spoke of the hope of health care reform that is a “strong and focused” commitment of Obama, and the importance of reform in the midst of the current economic crisis in which Americans cannot keep up with ever-increasing health care costs, noting that half of all bankruptcies and half of home foreclosures are related to medical costs.

“The goal,” Daschle stated, “must be to build a high performance health care system providing every American with higher quality, greater access, and lower costs… But before we define the solution, I think it’s important that we define the problem.”

Those problems, according to Daschle, are broken down into three categories, the first of which is cost, including taxes, premiums, and out-of-pocket expenses. With the total of those three exceeding $7,500 for every person in America, a number that is expected to double by the year 2015, it gives the U.S. the distinction of being the most expensive country in the world by a margin of more than 40 percent.

The second category is access, which is accentuated by the fact that 47 million people in America have no health insurance whatsoever, and more than 40 percent are underinsured. That problem becomes that of every American, even the fully insured, as costs rise when the uninsured or underinsured must be treated.

And the third category of the health care problem, as noted by Daschle, is quality. Citing a number from the Congressional budget office that estimated more one-third (700 billion dollars) of the 2 trillion dollars spent annually on health care could be unnecessary due to medical facilities that remain outdated, outrageous costs attributed to administration of health care due to excessive paperwork, and the lack of transparency in many facets of the system.

Daschle then went on to outline the solutions that Obama proposed for dealing with those problems, starting with building a framework combining the public and private sectors to make the system an affordable one for everyone, and included in that system must be a technologically updated administrative system. In addition, chronic care management must take priority, as it currently and inefficiently absorbs 75 percent of health care funds. Payment reform must start with moving away from its basis on volume in order to be based rightly on value. And lastly, financial assistance must be provided for those 47 million Americans who are unable to afford participation in the health care system.

When Obama announced Daschle as his point person for health care in the new administration, he noted that Daschle will be the “lead architect” of that plan, indicating that the two politicians have discussed health care reform at length and share many of the same goals for implementing such reform. The additional appointment of Dr. Jeanne Lambrew as the deputy directory to Daschle attached a broader range of expertise to the reform crew, as Lambrew served on a senior level of the Office of Management and Budget as well as the National Economic Council. She also led the effort to create the Children’s Health Insurance program and has been nationally recognized for her work and research on Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care, and uninsured Americans.

“It’s hard to overstate the urgency of this work,” Obama noted in his press conference… The time has come this year in this new administration to modernize our health care system for the 21st century, to reduce costs for families and businesses, and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every single American… Now, some may ask how at this moment of economic challenge we can afford to invest in reforming our health care system. And I ask a different question. I ask: how can we afford not to?”

His appointments of Daschle and Lambrew to the key positions on his health care team are a sign of the importance that Obama places on the subject and the need to have experienced and respected individuals leading that team.

Subsequent to the press conference, a statement was released by Mike Leavitt, current Secretary of Health and Human Services, in which he stated, “I have high regard for Senator Daschle. His leadership experience, familiarity with Washington, and interest in health care will serve him well as Secretary.”

And with a promise to work toward a smooth transition from the current to the new administration from Leavitt as well as Daschle, the burden is on the new leadership of HHS, with Daschle at the helm, to work toward the actuality of the many plans of the Obama campaign. The tasks outlined by Obama and Daschle are not free of challenges by any means, so it will require dedication and very hard work to truly reform the health care system of the United States.