I know many of you are terribly excited about the prospect of Howard Dean for the director of Health and Human Services, after what he accomplished as the Chairman of the Democratic party.
However, allow me to introduce you to a stronger candidate, one you might not know much about. One who has dedicated his post-Gubernatorial career to finding solutions to the national health care mess. One who, while he was a public servant in Oregon, helped write and enact the Oregon Health Plan. Former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber would be a great choice for director of HHS, and a person who just might have a good chance of instituting a single-payer health plan for the USA.
I don't have tons of time to write about all of his qualifications, so I'll let his own words speak for themselves. More over the jump.
Taken from his website:
While Senate President he authored and implemented the groundbreaking Oregon Health Plan. In 1994 he was elected Governor of the State of Oregon and was reelected to a second term in 1998.
...
On January 13, 2006 Gov. Kitzhaber launched The Archimedes Movement – committed to building a meaningful opportunity for engagement through which the growing concern over our health care system can be channeled into effective action The goal is to create not only the vision for a more equitable and sustainable system but also the tension necessary for its realization.
The Archimedes Movement has their website here.
Just yesterday, Gov Kitzhaber posted a letter on his blog to President Obama (mmmm, typing that still gives me the chills!). Reading it, it seems that John is warming to the idea of taking the sort of leadership role that Director of HHS would entail.
Excerpts:
Dear President Obama,
It is increasingly clear that simply trying to get all Americans access to health insurance will not result in better health for Americans or reasonable health care costs. Without simultaneously having a public debate about what we are buying with our health care dollars and how the delivery system is structured, we will not solve the nation’s health care crisis.
Given the turmoil in our financial markets, we can no longer afford a system that gives us only a small return on investment in terms of population health for an annual expenditure of over $2.3 trillion in health care.
There is not a simple solution to this problem, but there is a solution – as long as we have made the right diagnosis. Universal coverage is important, but unless that coverage results in better health and comes at a cost that does not bankrupt the nation, we will not have fulfilled our obligation to the future. We can do better.
People in Oregon, and all across this nation, are willing to do the hard work, and to discuss the necessary tradeoffs, because we believe in America’s ability to find innovative solutions to its most difficult problems.
We look forward to meeting with you in Oregon and to working together to shape this nation's future.
John Kitzhaber
John A. Kitzhaber, M.D.
Oregon Governor, 1995-2003
John is still a very well respected public figure here in Oregon, and has a solid (but small) reputation on the national scene as well.
I think he'd be a great pick. He has stated that he wants to stay in Oregon to raise his young son here, but based on the recent work he's done in this area of health care coverage, I think he'd jump at the chance to make a substantial difference in the lives of millions of Americans.