Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle

A senator since 1986, Daschle will need all his experience to drive through healthcare reform ­ - a task both Obama and McCain thought would be the focus of their campaigns until the economy began to fail. The US is the only developed nation without universal healthcare - about 15 per cent of the
population don't have health insurance - and Obama has vowed to reduce the cost of an average family's healthcare by $2,500 a year. The 61-year-old has been a healthcare advisor in a private firm and recently wrote a book titled, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis. Liberal commentator Ezra Klein says: "Daschle understands the parliamentary tricks and has a deep knowledge of the ideologies and incentives of the relevant players."

FIRST POSTED JANUARY 6, 2009