Obama and Daschle at Odds on Individual Mandate

ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports:

Barack Obama’s choice for spear-heading health-care reform supports a government mandate requiring all adults to carry health insurance, putting him at odds with the position advocated by the president-elect during his fight with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"The only way we can achieve universal coverage is to require everybody to either purchase private insurance or enroll in a public program," writes former Sen.Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in a book about health-care reform that he authored earlier this year. "In the plan I envision, the federal government might levy an income-based assessment on those who fail to purchase coverage, ensuring that they contribute to the cost of care they will inevitably use." Daschle’s book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," was co-authored by Jeanne Lambrew, a fellow at the Center for American Progress and professor at the University of Texas.

Obama announced on Thursday that Daschle is his nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. The president-elect said that Daschle will also oversee a new White House entity, the Office of Health Reform, that will coordinate overhaul efforts. Obama said Lambrew will be Daschle’s deputy in the White House office.

During the Democratic primary season, Obama clashed with Clinton over her support for an individual mandate. Obama’s plan would only have mandated that children be covered. He would not have extended such a mandate to adults as proposed by Clinton.

Clinton charged that Obama’s lack of an individual mandate would result in 15 million Americans going without health insurance.

Obama regularly shot back by saying the solution to health care is making it affordable, not making it "illegal" to be uninsured.

Appearing on "Meet the Press" on March 9 as an Obama surrogate, Daschle was asked about his book’s support for an individual mandate. The former Senate Majority Leader did his best to finesse the differences between himself and Obama on this particular issue.

"I think both Barack and Hillary are right," Daschle told the late Tim Russert of NBC News. "You’ve got to make sure that we have adequate support for those who can’t afford the health insurance that they’re going to need, but you also have to find ways to ensure that those who can afford it take the responsibility themselves to buy it."

ABC News’ Arnab Datta contributed to this report.