Still More Good News For Health Care Reform!
You already know that President Obama has tapped Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary, but the White House also made another announcement today that’s cheering health care reform hopefuls: Nancy DeParle as head of the White House Office for Health Reform.
The key to understanding why DeParle is a good choice: She combines private equity firm experience with a stint heading the HHS department that handles Medicaid and Medicare under Bill Clinton, from 1997-2000.
Our reporter, Beth Marlowe, explains that her experience with Medicare and Medicate is critical because it shows that Obama may be getting serious about using them as a model for a publicly-funded health insurance plan that would be offered as an alternative to private insurance plans, a key goal of many reform advocates.
DeParle also combines this in-depth understanding of Medicaid and Medicare with a thorough knowledge of the motives of private stakeholders gleaned from her private sector experience. This could be absolutely key: It means she’ll be able to help Obama navigate the thicket of special interests and coax some kind of consensus out of all the big private sector players leaning towards reform, a must if this thing is gonna happen.
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Greg I think you just answered a question that a lot of people are asking. Smells like a scoop to me!
thx, sg. I thought it was kinda significant.
What’s Howard Dean doing? He stepped down from running the DNC presumably at Obama’s request. His name had been bandied about for HHS and he made it clear he would have delighted to take it. But that’s not happening obviously.