Kathleen Sebelius Added to Cabinet
Kathleen Sebelius, former Governor of Kansas, was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Her duties are numerous as she is in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the FDA, and the CDC.
The issues some people had with Secretary Sebelius is that regarding the abortion issue she is pro choice, and she is friendly with a physician who does these procedures. Nevertheless, she had the nomination approved, according to the Wall Street Journal, by a 65 to 31 vote.
The nomination approval comes with an extra five votes as she gained a few Republican supporters. Since she made it to the Cabinet, it increases the number of strong insiders for President Obama who mean to revise the health care area this year.
There is a very high parallel in the philosophy surrounding health care between Sebelius, who is a Democrat, and President Obama. She will likely introduce same sounding plans about topics such as individual mandates, public sponsored individual health insurance products, and reducing the exclusions under pre existing clauses.
President Obama had some others in mind for his first choice in this post. But Sebelius will be a powerful person in dealing with the health reform issue.