Tom Daschle formally began the incoming administration's quest to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, telling former Senate colleagues that the task had become more urgent because many people were losing health insurance, along with their jobs, in the recession. Members of both parties offered a friendly welcome to Daschle, the man chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be secretary of health and human services. The hearing was the first of many to be held for members of the team being assembled by Obama, and the questions and answers touched only briefly on the economic and fiscal crisis that will test the new administration.