Daschle key player on health care -- title or no

0 Comments | USA TODAY, May, 2009 | by John Fritze

WASHINGTON -- Nearly four months after tax troubles forced him to forgo his plan to lead the nation's health department, former senator Tom Daschle has reemerged as a key player on health care, lawmakers and policy experts say.

Though he withdrew his nomination to serve as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary in February, Daschle is again poised to play a critical role as Congress debates how to provide medical care to 46 million people who are uninsured in the United States.

Daschle, a Democrat who represented South Dakota in Congress for 26 years before his defeat in 2004, is calling for action in a campaignlike circuit of speeches. He penned a piece in Newsweek last week supporting a public health plan to compete with private insurers. When General...