One of the great things about blogs is I can always point back to previous posts where my predictions came true – thereby confirming my prescience.
One of the lousy things is you can point back to where I was wrong, thereby confirming my inability to be accurate all the time, or, as some prefer to label it, my cluelessness.
Today may be one of those days. The NYTimes’ Peter Baker reporteded that yesterday that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will be appointed HHS Secretary, perhaps as early as next week.
That prediction was refuted today by the anonymous White House source
I don’t think Sebelius will be the HHS pick, as she is the front runner for a Kansas Senate seat and, if elected, would help cement Democratiic control over the upper body. Here’s what I said; “Although Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) has been mentioned as a top candidate, the NYO thinks not. The reason? She is so popular in her home state that she could well run for the Senate, thereby a) possibly giving the Dems a cloture-proof majority, and b) help expand the Dems further into the ‘Heartland’, thereby forcing the GOP to play defense on formerly-unassailable terrain. Sebelius leads both potential Republican candidates by double-digit margins.”
Here’s what well-informed MCM commenter Rick had to say about my prediction – and hats off to him, he knows of what he spoke.
“While it’s true that making the GOP fight for a seat in a very red state would be immensely useful, and Sebelius’ politics are in the right place, we have to look at her skill set as it applies to either HHS or a Senate seat.
Senators are negotiators. Sebelius’ relevant experience has been as an executive. In spite of her enormous talents, she would face a learning curve in the clubby Senate as a junior Senator from a red state.
But before she was governor, she was a state insurance commissioner. And not just any insurance commissioner. She was the one who stood down Anthem when it tried to convert BC/BS of Kansas to a for-profit so it could be absorbed into Anthem (and later WellPoint). Fought it all the way to state supreme court, sent Anthem home empty handed, and extracted millions in seed money for a state healthcare foundation from BCBS of KS. It was an act of enormous courage and foresight, for which she was awarded the governorship by an appreciative electorate.
Maybe I’m seeing what I want to see, but I see Sebelius as someone who understands the role of nonprofits in healthcare, and who sees too much power in the hands of for-profit, publicly traded firms as a net negative. That’s the person I want in charge of HHS, shepherding healthcare reform for the next few years. To make her a just another low-seniority Senator in a Democratic caucus that already has some fine healthcare luminaries (Wyden, Baucus, Kennedy, etc.) would be a waste.”
I believe Sebelius would a great choice. She’s knowledgeable, respected, experienced, and about as bi-partisan as it gets. As the Democratic Governor of a deeply red state, Sebelius knows how to work with Republicans, and is respected by most from that party.
The conservative think tanks are already sharpening their long knives; expect their strategy to begin with hysterical claims about her ‘radical abortion record’ and continue with attempts to discredit her work in Kansas.
Too bad these folks weren’t equally critical of the past administration’s Part D/Medicare Advantage giveaway to big pharma/big health plans.
Feb
20
Personally, I am still hoping they will pick Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee as the HHS Secretary. He has much more relevant experience in my opinion.
on Feb 27th at 2:00 PM EST
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Sebelius would be terrific for HHS Secretary. She gets it!
Health insurance companies play a major role in our current healthcare crisis. These companies make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us face skyrocketing healthcare costs, impossible bureaucracy, and life-diminishing insurance denials.
HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS IN 2007:
1. UnitedHealth Group — $ 4.654 BILLION. UnitedHealth Group owns Oxford, PacifiCare, IBA, AmeriChoice, Evercare, Ovations, MAMSI and Ingenix, a healthcare data company
2. WellPoint — $ 3.345 BILLION. Wellpoint owns BLUES across the US, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Empire HealthChoice Assurance, Healthy Alliance, and many others
3. Aetna Inc. — $ 1.831 BILLION
4. CIGNA Corp — $ 1.115 BILLION
5. Humana Inc. — $ 834 million
6. Coventry Health Care — $626 million. Coventry owns Altius, Carelink, Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, others
7. Health Net — $ 194 million
The huge insurance company profits—BILLIONS EACH YEAR—could be used to provide quality healthcare for millions of people, and to pay physicians adequately for their work.
We need to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare . The only solution is a NON-PROFIT SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM – and the single payer should not be an insurance company or a group of insurance companies.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.insurancecompanyrules.org/learn_more/the_roster/ and http://www.pnhp.org/
Learn about The National Health Insurance Bill (HR 676) at: http://www.pnhp.org/publications/the_national_health_insurance_bill_hr_676.php
I vote for Sebelius!
Martin Luther King said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Congressman John Conyers has introduced HR 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act, to ensure that every American, regardless of income, employment status, or race, has access to quality, affordable health care services.
To end the inhumanity of our failed healthcare insurance system, where profits are more important than patients’ health, ask your Representatives to support John Conyer’s HR 676 Bill.
HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE A RIGHT, NOT A BUSINESS.
For more information on HR 676, see:
http://www.pnhp.org/publications/the_national_health_insurance_bill_hr_676.php