Daschle, Sebelius Called Contenders for Obama's Health Chief

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Former Senator Tom Daschle and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius are contenders for U.S. health secretary under Barack Obama.

Their names were cited by people in contact with the president-elect's health-care advisers. Obama has promised to cut medical costs and make affordable insurance available to everyone. The chief of the Health and Human Services Department may play a key role in overhauling the health-care system.

Obama will ``want someone with stature and management experience,'' said Donna Shalala, the health secretary in President Bill Clinton's administration, in an interview yesterday. ``It's a complex, wide-ranging agency. If you don't know anything about health going in, it's a big problem.''

Listing Daschle, a former senator from South Dakota who served as Senate majority leader, and Sebelius as candidates is ``informed speculation,'' not a sure thing, said a source close to Obama's health-care team.

Daschle, 60, is a ``natural conciliator,'' said Len Nichols, who worked in Clinton's administration and is head of the health policy center at the New America Foundation in Washington. Daschle's book, ``Critical: What We Can Do about the Health Care Crisis,'' calls for an independent agency similar to the Federal Reserve Board to oversee the U.S. health system.

``Daschle knows Washington from a policy standpoint, he's very thoughtful, and he's played a major leadership role in the Senate,'' said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University health-policy scholar who helped Obama shape his health plan two years ago.

The former senator also has been under consideration for White House chief of staff, a job that may go to Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. Daschle has told people that health secretary isn't his preference.

Kansas Health Measure

Sebelius, 60, who was mentioned as a potential Obama running mate, tried and failed to win passage of health-care overhaul legislation in Kansas.

In 2003, Sebelius was the first state insurance commissioner to reject a proposed conversion of a nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield into a for-profit company, slowing the pace of such conversions nationally.

``I am honored and humbled to be mentioned in this way,'' Sebelius said in an e-mailed statement. ``I'll be honored to contribute in whatever way I can.

Daschle didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aliza Marcus in Washington at amarcus8@bloomberg.net