Word is out that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will be serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services and “health czar” with the Obama Administration. This is very big news not because of Daschle’s own proposed policies on health-care reform but because he is essentially being brought in as an enforcer. In order for any kind of health-care package to succeed, it has to get votes and make it successfully through the Senate. Daschle is fluent in the intricacies of the Senate (and House) and can help steer it through the shark infested waters that tore the health-care plan of 1994 into bite sized chunks. As Ezra says: “You tap him to get your health plan through Congress”. 

Daschle literally wrote the book (Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis) on how to fix our healthcare problem. I haven’t read it yet but Think Progress and Dday (quoted) have: 

But the what is crucial as well. Daschle’s most recent book, Critical, is about how to fix the health care crisis, and there’s a lot of talk about process and getting a bill through Congress, but the “what” he comes up with is a kind of Federal Reserve board for health care, one that can administer, without being subject to political pressure, a public option health care consumers can purchase. That’s a very different vision than what is currently in the Obama plan or the consensus plan in the Senate, and it’s kind of murky and based on what may be an unrealistic set of assumptions about political power.

There are some very big things happening on the health-care front right now. Steve Benen notes that Rahm Emanuel is saying that an incremental approach will not be sufficient on health-care (and that means a lot coming from Emanuel, who normally snuggles up with increments). Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus are so busy that it will take another post to discuss their activities. 

For a closer look at Daschle’s thoughts on health-care, read Ezra Klein’s interview conducted a few months ago in regards to Daschle’s book.