CABINET

Sebelius' Medical History

New HHS secretary failed to advance health agenda in Kansas.

President Obama better hope that his new pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, has better luck in the White House with health care reform than she did as governor of Kansas. The New York Times reports that despite the governor's interest in health policy, gridlock in the state legislature derailed her health agenda there while the number of uninsured rose rapidly, growing seven times as fast in Kansas than in the nation during her tenure. Sebelius says her biggest disappointment as governor has been her inability to enact a longtime plan to tax tobacco to pay for expanded Medicaid coverage, which would have covered close to one quarter of the state's uninsured. She will be in more friendly territory in Washington, D.C., however, with solid Democrat majorities in both the House and Senate to mine for votes.