Washington - US president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday tapped former senator Tom Daschle to help revamp the country's outdated health care system, one of the top domestic campaign issues during the general election.

Daschle will head both the US Department of Health and Human Services and a new White House Office of Health Reform, giving him tremendous leeway to lead the incoming Obama administration's push for legislative reforms to lower costs and extend access to more than 40 million uninsured.