29) Kathleen Sebelius

Title: Obama names Sebelius to Lead Health Reform Push

Summary: President Barack Obama has nominated Kansas Governor, Kathleen Sebelius, to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Topic: Should the Obama administration attempt to  convert the United States to a single-payer health care system?
Category: Journalistic. Alternative

What is it? Image and article about Kathleen Sebelius
Publication Information: Mar. 2, 2009
Author: David Alexander
Location: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/12955/
Accessed: Mar. 3, 2009

Support:
Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas Governor and nominated Health Secretary
Nancy-Ann DeParle, Nominated to work with Sebelius
John Boehner, House Republican Leader
In February of 2009, President Barack Obama’s original nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, withdrew because of political pressure due to… tax complications. Kathleen Sebelius is Obama’s latest nomination for the position. If approved, Sebelius would likely work alongside Nancy-Ann DeParle who is a former health official for the Clinton administration. Republican House Leader John Boehner believes that Sebelius will be a good fit for the job. Sebelius has been the Governor of Kansas since 2002, and she served in the House of represenatives for eight years.

Audience and Agenda:
The location of the picture and the article can be found on the website of Epoch Times, which is a privately-owned newspaper. The photograph and article were originally published on Reuters, which is a news service that is based in the United Kingdom. Reuters is the much larger paper out of two, serving nearly 23 million people worldwide. If you travel to both sites you will see that in the Reuters article the photograph is just a small thumbnail, but at the Epoch Times website the photograph clearly dominates over the story.

Usefulness:
The nomination of Tom Daschle for Secretary of Health and Human Services turned out to be a flop, and it was the first real mistake of Obama’s presidency. Daschle was considered a logical choice for the job because he was an insider in Washington due to the fact that he is the former Senate Majority Leader. This time around Obama has chosen an outsider; not many people have heard of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. The reform plans of Governor Sebelius are somewhat unknown at present. The Republican House Leader John Boehner believes that Sebelius is a good pick, and that should worry single-payer advocates because Boehner may support health care reform, but not a single-payer system. Obama believes that Sebelius is the right person to head his health care reform initiative, but it may not be great news for those who want to see a single-payer system. However, Sebelius has refused political contributions from insurers in the past, and she was responsible for preventing Blue Cross Blue Shield from expanding their dominance in Kansas through a merger. So, she is ready to regulate insurance companies, but the question becomes: will she advocate for a single-payer system?

Works cited:
http://www.governor.ks.gov/about/bio.htm
quantcast.com
wikipedia.org
google.com
Reuters
The Epoch Times
http://www.politicalbase.com/people/nancy-ann-deparle/31229

For other Journalistic sources check out…
26) Discussion on “Democracy Now”
15) Frontline Explores the Health Care Systems in Five other Countries
9) Obama signs first piece of health care legislation as President
7) Michael Moore on CNN
5) Warning: Set Reasonable Goals
3) A New Direction
2) In Obama’s own Words
1) Luke Mitchell on Democracy Now

Advertisement