Healthcare

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the roster of her department's staff members working on health reform Monday.

Topping the list is Jeanne Lambrew, director of the HHS Office of Health Reform. Lambrew originally held the title of deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform, where she was to serve under former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). Daschle was slated to run the White House office and be secretary of HHS but withdrew his nomination after revealing that he'd paid more than $140,000 in back taxes while being considered for the posts.

When Sebelius was nominated for the Cabinet, Nancy-Ann DeParle was named to the White House position and Lambrew transitioned to HHS.

Working alongside Lambrew are Mike Hash, a former senior Medicare official during the Clinton administration, and Neera Tanden, who advised both the Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaigns on healthcare and previously worked for Clinton in the Senate and in the Clinton White House.

Obama campaign aide and former journalist Linda Douglass moves from the White House to HHS to run communications for the department's health reform efforts. Five additional staffers round out the team.

"The HHS Office of Health Reform and the White House Office of Health Reform will work in tandem to advance legislation and take immediate actions to cut costs, assure quality and affordable healthcare for all Americans, and guarantee Americans can choose their doctor and their health plan," Sebelius said in a statement.

- Jeffrey Young

Read the full HHS press release below:

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Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) dubbed Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee Tom Daschle's tax error an "innocent" one today, issuing a statement in support of Daschle's nomination.

"Months ago, Tom personally and proactively addressed the taxes issue and took all necessary steps to correct his innocent error. I Read more...

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), President Obama's nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services, paid $140,167 in back taxes and interest while being considered for the Cabinet post, according to a Senate Finance Committee report obtained by Fox News.

Most of the tax errors related to Daschle's million-dollar-a-year consulting gig with InterMedia Advisors. Daschle did not pay taxes on the value of a Cadillac and driver provided by the company's owner, Democratic fundraiser and Daschle friend Leo Hindrey Jr., and some unreported consulting income. Read more...

President Obama today rescinded the policy, begun by President Reagan and resurrected by the last President Bush, that bans U.S. foreign aid from going to organizations that counsel foreign citizens on abortion or lobby foreign governments to make abortion legal.

Reagan had instituted the rule in 1984 as an extension of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits organizations from using U.S. foreign aid to finance the performance of abortions, or the motivation or coercion of any woman to have one. President Clinton rescinded the "Mexico City Rule" in 1993; President George W. Bush reinstated it in 2001.

"It is clear that the provisions of the Mexico City Policy are unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under current law, and for the past eight years, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "For these reasons, it is right for us to rescind this policy and restore critical efforts to protect and empower women and promote global economic development."<!--more-->

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) who has been asked to serve as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy's (D-Mass.) chief deputy for health reform on the committee, met with prospective Health and Human Services secretary Tom Daschle today.

Daschle will be the top health policy official in President-elect Barack Obama's new administration, provided he is confirmed by the Senate, and is expected to take the lead in shepherding through Congress a significant expansion of health coverage as Obama seeks to fulfill one of his major campaign pledges: universal healthcare.

Dodd praised Daschle after the meeting in a statment issued by his office:

My meeting with Tom underscored what I already knew: that he is uniquely qualified to lead the next Administration

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-S.D.) old congressional colleagues piled on the praise today after President-elect Barack Obama tapped Daschle to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Obama made the announcement today at a news conference in Chicago, though news of the pick leaked last month.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who took over as the Senate's top Democrat after Daschle was unseated by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) in 2005, praised Daschle's commitment to healthcare reform in a statement issued by his office: Read more...

Former President Bill Clinton, returning to his role as global activist for the first time after his wife's presidential run, today announced an agreement with six drug companies to lower the price of a malaria-fighting drug by 30 percent.

Clinton made the announcement in New York City at the office of his charitable organization, the William J. Clinton Foundation, which has conducted global initiatives on poverty and HIV/AIDS.

"Nearly every life lost to malaria could have been saved with access to effective medicines," President Clinton said. "My Foundation has helped organize markets for HIV/AIDS drugs, and I am proud that we have been able to extend this model to malaria." Read more...