No sooner has Tom Daschle taken the job of HHS secretary than we hear that Barack Obama plans to pump major bucks into the federal healthcare economy.

In a stimulus bill that could exceed $500 billion, Obama has already pledged to increase federal Medicaid spending — perhaps by more than $40 billion over two years — and to make a large investment in health information technology.

Talks are underway about also adding money to retrain medical workers, extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and expanding the law that allows unemployed people to purchase health insurance through a previous employer’s plan, known as COBRA.

At a Chicago news conference yesterday to introduce Thomas A. Daschle as his choice for health and human services secretary, Obama said major reform of the health-care system “has to be intimately woven into our overall economic recovery plan.”

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