Former Senator Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of health and human services, pledged Thursday to work with lawmakers of both parties in a grass-roots, ideology-free campaign to revamp the United States' struggling health care system.

"We will be guided by evidence and effectiveness, not by ideology," Daschle told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after saying that he wanted "to work with each of you" on ways to improve health care for all Americans.

"When it comes to health care, we really are in it together," Daschle said, adding that to do nothing - or too little - about the spiraling costs of health care, the legions of the uninsured and substandard medical treatment in some areas is simply unacceptable.

Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat and former majority leader, said conversations with ordinary citizens and business leaders had driven home the depth of the problems related to health care. He said he had been struck by findings that General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel, and that Starbucks spends more on health care than it does on coffee.

Daschle, who appeared before the Senate panel as projections emerged that the federal government faces trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits, said the recent trend of health care spending running far ahead of inflation is "as unsustainable for our national budget as it is for a family budget."

Daschle pledged to avoid ideological factors in making policy decisions and later during a question-and-answer session promised to give department scientists "the autonomy they need" and insulate them from "factors having nothing to do with science."

Although he did not say so explicitly, Daschle was clearly drawing a contrast with the Bush administration, whose critics often accused it of mixing science and medicine with personal beliefs on issues like stem cell research, abortion and sexual behavior.

As a former senator with friends on both sides of the aisle, Daschle was greeted warmly by panel members ("Welcome home," said Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina), and his confirmation seems all but ensured.

The committee chairman, Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, called Daschle "just the person for the job."

Kennedy quoted Daschle's own words as he bade farewell to the Senate four years ago: "Will we honor the uniquely American ideal that we are responsible for passing this country on to a generation in the future that is better? Or will we forfeit the promise of the future for the reward of the moment?"

Daschle was introduced by former Senator Bob Dole, a Republican from Kansas, who said Obama had chosen well because Daschle "really understands, almost as well as staff experts, most of the issues when it comes to health care."

"I was around here for quite a while, and I have a sense that the time has come for real, constructive bipartisan action on health care," Dole said. "The American people and Congress are ready to address this particular issue about the uninsured and accessibility, affordability, the spiraling costs."

Notwithstanding the friendly atmosphere, Daschle and the committee members were sure to engage in spirited discussions about one of the most contentious aspects of Obama's domestic agenda: his call for a new public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

No other proposal so clearly defines the political and philosophical differences between Obama and Republicans.

Daschle, the point man for Obama's campaign to revamp the health care system, supports the concept of "a government-run insurance program modeled after Medicare." It would, he says, give consumers, especially the uninsured, an alternative to commercial insurance.

But the proposal is anathema to many insurers, employers and Republicans. They say the government plan would have unfair advantages, like the ability to impose lower fees, and could eventually attract so many customers that private insurers would be driven from the market. "The public plan option is a terrible idea - one of our top concerns in the health reform debate," said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce.

The public plan, as conceived by Obama, would vie with private insurers to provide better benefits and better customer service at a lower cost. Without such competition, Democrats say, private insurers cannot be expected to control costs much better than they do now.

Jacob Hacker, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, said the new option was essential to the success of Obama's effort to rein in costs and make coverage available to all Americans. "Public insurance has a better track record than private insurance when it comes to reining in costs while preserving access to care," Hacker said. "The public plan would set a standard against which private plans must compete."

The idea of a public plan has been endorsed by Senator Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Pete Stark of California, chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2009 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.