Daschle given double authority

CHICAGO, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, the designated health and human services secretary, has a background in healthcare and the legislative process.

When he announced the choice Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama said he wants Daschle to be his administration's point man on efforts to expand health insurance. Obama said Daschle would have a double responsibility, also serving as head of the White House Office of Health Reform, The New York Times reported.

Daschle, 61, has spent much of his adult life representing South Dakota in Congress, serving in the House from 1979 to 1987 followed by three terms in the Senate. He rose to be majority leader but lost his bid for a fourth term in a close race in 2004.

Since leaving the Senate, Daschle has co-authored "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." He advocates a Federal Health Board that would review new devices, procedures and drugs.

Obama said he hopes, by giving Daschle double authority, to avoid the political train wreck of the healthcare reform plan developed by Hillary Clinton when she was first lady. But R. Alexander Vachon III, a healthcare consultant, told the Times he puts the chance of healthcare reform passing in the next year at 40 percent.

"There's lots of enthusiasm, but Democrats have been trying to do this for 74 years and have not succeeded," he said.