Barack Obama said earlier this year that Tom Daschle's idea of
creating a Federal Health Board (modeled after the Federal
Reserve) to manage the nation's medical system showed "great
promise."
"The American health care system is in crisis, and workable
solutions have been blocked for years by deeply entrenched
ideological divisions," Obama wrote in a blurb on the back of
Daschle's book, Critical: What We Can Do About the
Health-Care Crisis. "Sen. Daschle brings fresh thinking to
this problem, and his Federal Reserve for Health concept holds
great promise for bridging this intellectual chasm and, at long
last, giving this nation the health care it deserves."
Now that Daschle is expected to shepard Obama's health care plan
through Congress as Secretary of Health and Human Services this
takes on an added importance.
Here's how Daschle described the idea in his book:
"Like the Federal Reserve, the Federal Health Board would be
composed of highly independent experts insulated from politics.
Congress and the White House would relinquish some of their
health-policy decisions to it. For example, a shift to a more
effective drug service would be accomplished without an act of
Congress or the White House."
However benign Daschle tries to make the idea sound, just as,
over time, the power of the Federal Reserve grew dramatically
beyond its original intentions (ironically, the more it messed
up, the more power it got) its easy to see the Federal Health
Board morph into an all-powerful entity dictating every aspect of
health policy over time, with limited oversight, as America
marches toward a socialized system. This is a scary thought, and
it's at the heart of Daschle's health-care policy vision, which
President-elect Obama is sympathetic to.
