A sick country’s cure
Last week, Tom Daschle, former South Dakota senator, spoke before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Daschle is President-elect Obama’s choice to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the newly created White House Office of Health Reform. It was the first of two confirmation hearings, the second coming this week before the Senate Finance Committee. Many noted the warm welcome he received from both sides of the aisle, with difficult questions – his plans regarding Medicaid, Medicare and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, for example – conspicuously absent. Some lawmakers, notably Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have said that the current financial crisis precludes any drastic health care reform and expansion of federal spending for the moment. Though the friendly tone of the hearing indicated common ground between Republicans and Democrats and a collective understanding that real reform needs to happen, there were no words on exactly how quickly or how far the president-elect and Daschle would push for drastic changes in our health care system.
