Sebelius clears HHS confirmation hurdle

The Senate Finance Committee voted to send the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary to the full Senate.

The nomination process for Sebelius, the Kansas governor whom President Barack Obama chose in February, has hit some snags over her stance on abortion rights and tax troubles.

According to an Associated Press report:

The committee vote came after several Republicans voiced concerns in recent days about Sebelius' ties to Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion doctor who is under investigation by the Kansas medical board.

The GOP also questioned her commitment to ensuring that the government doesn't try to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.

"I believe in the right of every American to choose the doctor, the hospital, the health plan of his or her choice," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said before the vote. But he contended that Sebelius had displayed "insufficient commitment to these principles."

Sebelius had offered assurances that she believed it was the job of doctors, not the government, to prescribe care. That wasn't enough for some GOP lawmakers worried that the Obama administration's plans to overhaul the nation's costly health care system could move the country toward a government-operated health care system.

Sebelius is the White House's second pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrew his name in February after tax issues arose.

Sebelius says health reform would be her mission if confirmed

Senate hearings for Kathleen Sebelius to be confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services began today in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, a mostly friendly panel for the Kansas governor to face.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, a long-time advocate for health care reform and chair of the committee, kicked off the proceedings by praising Sebelius.

"I’ve benefitted from the best of medicine, but we have too many uninsured Americans. We have sickness care and not health care. We have too much paperwork and bureaucracy. Costs are out of control. But today we have an opportunity like never before to reform health care," Kennedy, who is battling cancer, said. "And we need a secretary of health who has the vision, the skill, and the knowledge to help us get there. Governor Kathleen Sebelius has those traits and more."

Sebelius said in her opening statement that she would fight to achieve one of President Barack Obama's campaign promises and early initiatives.

"Should I be confirmed, health reform would be my mission--as it is the president’s--along with the tremendous responsibility of running this critical department," she said.

But Sebelius also said she would work to improve the Centers For Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration, which has been much criticized after several disease outbreaks caused by tainted food. (Read about the latest recall of pistachios.)

"As Americans focus more on prevention and leading healthier lifestyles, HHS must live up to its responsibility to protect the public from health risks," Sebelius said. "It is a core responsibility of HHS, through the FDA, to ensure the food we eat and the medications we take are safe."

Injured workers find a "world of hurt"

The New York Times starts a new series today examining the challenges faced by injured workers in New York State, as they deal with the vast bureaucracy that is the state's Workers' Compensation Board. According to the paper, which spent 18 months investigating the issue, the $5.5 billion agency is a "subbasement of the legal world," that "struggles to treat workers with due speed, protect employers from fraud or mute tensions in the workplace."

The difficulties facing workers, who can "wait months or years for money or care" don't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the issue. In 2000, Consumer Reports published its own investigation, "Workers Comp: Falling down on the job," which found many of the same issues affecting workers across the country.

According to our report, in many cases, medical care wasn't available "without a struggle." The system, designed to help workers who suffer work-related injuries get the care they need, instead forced "ill and injured workers now [to] fight a series of battles: first, to get medical care; next, to withstand exams by insurance-company doctors who have an incentive to find excuses not to pay; then, to get a fair assessment of any permanent disability; and finally, to win a hearing if there’s a dispute."

Judging from the article in the Times, the past decade has brought little improvement. Injured wokers face a system that is "dysfunction and ... adversarial." Across the state, "in about one in six cases, insurers dispute that injuries are real or were suffered on the job. Until recently, these cases had averaged nearly nine months to resolve. And many of them remain unresolved years later."

At White House summit, Obama calls for health reform in 2009

The White House convened a health care reform summit on Thursday, and President Barack Obama set ambitious goals for the attendees.

For moral and fiscal reasons, Obama said an overhaul of the American health system must begin in 2009.

"Our goal will be to enact comprehensive health care reform by the end of this year," the president said. "That is our commitment. That is our goal."

Acknowledging that health care reform is a perennial loser in Washington, Obama said that it is necessary now because of the toll skyrocketing health care costs are putting on an already struggling economy.

"The same soaring costs that are straining families' budgets are sinking our businesses and eating up our government's budget, too," Obama said.

Polls show that Americans agree with the need for the government to overhaul the health care system. A CNN/Opinion Research poll found that 72 percent favor increasing the federal government's influence over the country's health care system in an attempt to lower costs and provide health care coverage to more Americans. Twenty-seven percent said they opposed.