Meet the Next HHS Secretary By Marisa Vigilante After Tom Daschle’s less‐than‐honorable resignation from the nomination for the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D‐KS) is poised to become the next head of the U.S. health system. She has been governor of Kansas since 2003 and was elected to a second term in 2006, becoming the first Kansas Democrat to win re‐election in 24 years in an overwhelmingly Republican state. She’s a rising star within the Democratic party, first garnering attention for giving the Democratic response to former President Bush’s 2008 State of the Union address and later landing on the short‐list as a possible vice‐presidential candidate for President Obama. Sebelius embodies Obama’s commitment to bipartisanship, as she is the daughter of a former Democratic governor and congressman and married to the son of a six‐term Republican congressman. Her running mate for the 2006 election, and the current lieutenant governor of Kansas, is former Kansas Republican chairman Mark Parkinson. Some of her biggest accomplishments as governor have been a result of working with the moderate Republicans in Kansas’s Legislature to resolve a school financing crisis and reverse a budget shortfall by implementing broad efficiency measures. However, Sebelius hasn’t had as much success on health care issues, failing to get enough support for her proposal to raise cigarette taxes to supplement health care for the poor, although she did expand SCHIP eligibility during her term. Sebelius grew up in Cincinnati, often helping her father campaign (they are the first father‐daughter pair of governors) and went to Trinity College in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, Gary Sebelius, who was a law student at Georgetown. The couple moved to Topeka, in Gary’s home state, where Sebelius earned a master’s in public administration from the University of Kansas. She and her husband have two adult sons, Ned and John. Sebelius served as executive director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association before winning election to the state’s House of Representatives in 1986. In 1994, she left the legislature to become Kansas’s insurance commissioner, where she remained for eight years until she was elected governor. As insurance commissioner, Sebelius denied the sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas to an Indiana company and prevented higher premiums, a selling point of her gubernatorial campaign. Abortion is shaping up to be one of the hot‐button issues of Sebelius’s upcoming Senate confirmation and possibly during her term as secretary. She is Roman Catholic and opposes abortion, but has vetoed anti‐abortion legislation, including a bill that would have required clinics to report information on why late‐term abortions were performed, and has broadly supported pro‐choice stances. She also has ties to a prominent late‐term abortion provider in Wichita, Kansas, Dr. George Tiller. Several pro‐life groups have already voiced their disapproval of Sebelius’s nomination, and the Archbishop of Kansas told Sebelius that she should not receive communion until she renounces her views, so many expect her strongest dissenters to play up this aspect of her biography during her confirmation hearing. Progressive groups have expressed their support of Sebelius, including Ron Pollack, the executive director of
Families USA, and Karen Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans. Labor unions, the American Medical Association, and the National Council of La Raza also commended her nomination. Of course, the biggest fight of Sebelius’s potential term as secretary is health‐care reform, which was a major part of Obama’s campaign platform and a significant part of his recently released budget. Sebelius’s background as insurance commissioner and overseeing Kansas’s Medicaid program as governor will aid her greatly, but pushing the expected intricate, complicated health care changes through Congress is likely to be a huge political challenge. During her terms as governor, Sebelius twice tried to initiate dramatic health care expansions but embodies Obama’s was thwarted by her Republican legislature. Unlike “Sebelius Daschle, she will not also be leading the White commitment to bipartisanship, as she is House Office for Health Reform, a position filled by the daughter of a former Democratic Nancy‐Ann DeParle, a former Medicare and Medicaid administrator during the Clinton governor and congressman and married administration. to the son of a six‐term Republican So what does all of this mean for Medicaid? At this congressman. Her running mate for the point, it’s not entirely clear, although Sebelius 2006 election, and the current lieutenant certainly has a strong grasp on Medicaid issues after governor of Kansas, is former Kansas running the program as governor of Kansas. Republican chairman Mark Parkinson.” However, part of financing the new health care system involves spending cuts in current government programs, including Medicaid. Nonetheless, Sebelius has shown herself to be a staunch supporter of expanding health care and promoting health care for low‐income populations and is able to stand up to stakeholders like the insurance companies, who may prove to be the most resistant to the move towards universal health care. Overall, she appears to be a strong choice for the next HHS secretary and will most likely be confirmed in the near future. 1 1 Altman, Alex. “Kansas
Governor Kathleen Sebelius.” Time, 9 March 2009: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1882471,00.html; Baker, Peter. “Kansas Governor Accepts Offer as Health Secretary.” New York Times, 28 February 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/us/politics/01cabinet.html?_r=1&hp; Fletcher, Michael A. and Ceci Connolly. “Governor of Kansas Tapped to Lead HHS.” Washington Post, 1 March 2009: A1; “Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.” Office of the Governor of Kansas website: http://www.governor.ks.gov/, accessed 14 March 2009; “Kansas Gov. Sebelius Emerging as Top Choice for HHS Secretary, Advisors Say.” Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report: http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/health2008dr.cfm?DR_ID=57056, accessed on 14 March 2009; Superville, Darlene. “Obama Announces Governor Kathleen Sebelius as New Health and Human Services Secretary Nominee.” Associated Press, 2 March 2009, accessed through The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/live‐video‐obama‐ announce_n_171087.html; Zernike, Kate.”One Hand on Her Job, the Other Across the Aisle.” New York Times, 19 August 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/us/politics/20sebelius.html.