WASHINGTON — Far from pulling back on his commitment to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday said the economic downturn makes major changes more imperative, not less.
“The time is now to solve this problem,” Obama said at a Chicago news conference, where he formally announced that former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle would head his health-care team. “It’s not something that we can sort of put off because we’re in an emergency. This is part of the emergency.”
If successful, Obama will have achieved a goal that has eluded presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Obama, who last month offered Daschle a post in his administration, said he planned to nominate the South Dakota Democrat to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and head up a new White House Office of Health Reform.
The president-elect has provided few details about what his health-care proposal would include. And he has declined to outline how his administration would pay for an overhaul that some estimate could cost more than $100 billion a year.
As the nation’s economic environment continues to deteriorate, a new effort to tackle health care will have to compete with other priorities — including a multibillion-dollar stimulus package that Obama has said he wants to enact early next year.
A health-care overhaul also will face daunting political challenges, particularly if some of the ideas Daschle has championed become part of the Obama administration’s plan.
In his book “Critical: What We Can Do about the Health-care Crisis,” Daschle endorsed a mandate that would require all Americans to get insurance, a requirement opposed by some consumer groups.
He also has called for the creation of a public insurance program to compete with private insurers, a proposal that many insurers and Republicans on Capitol Hill resist.
And Daschle envisions a new government agency to set standards of care, which could face opposition from some doctors and hospitals.
No major reform campaign has been undertaken in Washington since President Bill Clinton’s health-care push collapsed in 1994 amid fierce opposition from interest groups and some members of Congress.
But in recent months, an array of business leaders, health-care officials and consumer groups have been working to build momentum for overhauling a system that fails to insure 46 million people and whose costs are weakening many businesses.
And on Capitol Hill, senior Democrats have outlined plans for a major legislative campaign next year focused on health care.
Obama’s comments about the need for action, coupled with his selection of Daschle, were seen by some interest groups as an indication that Obama would not back away from his campaign promises to expand insurance coverage, hold down skyrocketing costs and improve the quality of care.
“It signals that the incoming administration intends to prioritize comprehensive health-care reform,” said Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s Washington lobbying arm. Fifteen years ago, insurers played a critical role in defeating health-care reform.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
