"Part of the reason it's so difficult to get there is because arguably the health sector of our economy is the most complicated and the most difficult to deal with for all the reasons related to size, complexity and history that you could imagine," Daschle said Monday at a Nashville health-care conference.
He spoke a day before the Senate Finance Committee was expected to start deliberating in earnest on one of the key bills under consideration in Washington. His appearance in Nashville also came after a weekend media blitz by President Barack Obama and others in support of health-care change.
Daschle, whose nomination to oversee the reform push as U.S. health secretary was derailed by his failure to pay about $146,000 in taxes on time, said how to pay for medical insurance reform, ideological differences among Republicans and Democrats, the actions of stakeholders such as doctors, insurers and drug makers, and legislative strategy would all help determine the outcome.
Daschle said he personally favors a public or government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, but he is willing to accept lesser measures including insurance cooperatives and exchanges envisioned by the latest Democratic proposal put forth by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., last week.
"The public option would be able to leverage better than a co-op," Daschle said in his midday presentation here. "Time will tell. I'd be willing to support the co-op, if the public option is not possible."
Law firm sponsors eventLaw firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP was a sponsor of the "Healthcare Deal Making Summit," produced by conference production company Infocast of Canoga Park, Calif. Local business leaders were among more than 140 people who registered for the event. It featured participants from both sides of the aisle in Congress.
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