Ritter Insurance Marketing

This week, President-elect Obama asked former Senate Leader Tom Daschle to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services in his administration. Daschle was one of Obama’s earliest supporters and had already been tapped to head the health policy segment of the transition team. Daschle is currently a partner in the DC firm of Alston and Bird, where he has provided clients with strategic advice on health care issues. Two of his partners at the firm are former Senate Leader Bob Dole and former Bush CMS Administrator Tom Scully. Daschle also is the co-author of the book Critical: What We Can Do about the Health-Care Crisis, in which he recommends creating an entity modeled after the Federal Reserve Board to oversee health care in the United States.

On November 20, the House Democratic Caucus voted to replace House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell of Michigan with Representative Henry Waxman of California. The Energy and Commerce Committee has the furthest-reaching jurisdiction of all congressional committees and includes significant authority over many aspects of health care policy, including primary jurisdiction over SCHIP. Representative Dingell will remain on the committee as chairman emeritus. It will be interesting to see if he will take over one of the committee’s subcommittee chairmanships, including either the Health Subcommittee or the Oversight Panel. It will also be interesting to see how this change impacts the committee’s professional staff members, as many of the top majority health policy staffers have strong ties to Dingell. 

In addition, it is being reported that Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag will be tapped as the new director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag has been CBO director since January 2007, and has focused particularly on health policy. He previously served as a member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors.