HHS: The buzz on John Kitzhaber

Kari Chisholm

It looks like Oregon continues to be right in the midst of national health care reform. Both Senator Ron Wyden and former Governor John Kitzhaber are being mentioned as possible appointees for Secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as the director of the White House Office of Health Reform.

In addition to the initial mentions I noted yesterday, here's a bunch of the latest buzz on John Kitzhaber. (See the Wyden buzz here.)

• Sam Stein, Huffington Post:

  Doug White, the editor of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, writes in to push a name for HHS that seems to be getting more and more air time: Oregon's former governor, John Kitzhaber.

• Politico:

  Former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is also a doctor who started a grassroots group to push for an overhaul of the health care system. A downside, again, might be his unfamiliarity with Washington.

• Movin' Meat (an ER doc in the Pacific Northwest):

  Once again, my vote for the HHS secretary (and de facto point man for universal health care) is former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber. Kitzhaber has experience in health care, being the architech of the Oregon Health Plan, and has remained active in health policy circles since leaving office. The major down side is that he is not well connected in DC, and will not be able to shepherd a bill through Congress like Daschle would have.

• Providence (RI) Journal:

  Dr. Kitzhaber is a brilliant doctor who knows the health-care system inside and out. And he is a superb and honest administrator who helped create and implement the Oregon health-care system, perhaps the best in the nation. He is both practical and visionary.

  Unlike the likes of Tom Daschle, Dr. Kitzhaber has shown little interest in being a Washington fat cat, or indeed in moving far away from his favorite fishing places in the west. But maybe Mr. Obama can appeal to his patriotism in taking a job to fix the Western World's worst health-care system -- a system whose decline into chaos, red tape and greed is literally killing many thousands of Americans a year and making many companies uncompetitive in the world marketplace.

• And Randy Stapilus at the Ridenbaugh Press has, perhaps, the best discussion of Kitzhaber's strengths:

  Kitzhaber would not go in as a lobbyist extraordinaire, but he would have plenty of help from the White House and others. He would, however, bring a batch of other assets.

  For one thing, Obama is starting to field complaints that his operation is slipping into the same old loose-ethics, Washington-insider environment he ran against only months ago. Daschle has suddenly become the poster boy for those complaints. An announcement of Kitzhaber would be sharp reversal: A non-Washington guy (and not another close Friend of Barack) who just recently declined to run for a Senate seat he could easily have won, so that he could work on his life’s work, his topic of consuming interest . . . health care reform. This is a guy working on the issue, not in pursuit of job titles. He could say his job will be to get health reform enacted, and then he’s outta there, and people would actually believe it.

  He would shake things up from the current downer environment simply by virtue of who he is. His qualifications - popular two-term state governor, experienced executive, emergency room physician deeply steeped in health care policy, for which he’s been an advocate not just in the Northwest but nationwide - would be beyond realistic question: He has the resume for the job, and then some. But no less significant in this media age is the image, the blunt but charismatic (television would love him) boots-jeans-and-belt buckle git-er-done guy from the far end of the country, who not only knows the subject matter but has learned (somewhat like Al Gore) to explain it in clear and compelling ways. Because of the image he would cut - a far from bureaucratic or insiderish image - he would be hard to dismiss politically. He could be a powerful leadership figure on health care. And he is a very strong personality.

  He also has his own very definite ideas on how health care ought to be done, and Kitzhaber can be (as any number of legislators will attest) a stubborn guy. But he has shown signs of willingness to negotiate, as he did on the Oregon health finance policy proposal. From his standpoint, this could be the best opportunity he could ever hope for to personally push through the ideas he believes in. On top of which, he has substantial experience working with Wyden, whose ideas would in many ways complement Kitzhaber’s. The two could prospectively be a powerful team.

• Michael McGreary, The Pink Polo:

  Kitzhaber understands, as well, that change like this does not come swiftly, but rather with the steady drumbeat of leadership and forward thinking coupled with legislative initiatives to back it up. And, more importantly, the [Archimedes] Project understands that being a thought leader on such an important topic is great, but without the support of the grassroots, the people who will benefit directly from these ideas, the Project won't go anywhere.

  John Kitzhaber is a perfect intermediary to work between the President and the Congress and the People on this issue. He and the Archimedes Project leaders understand the need to work collectively on an issue that will mean greater prosperity for us all.

Also, brief mentions in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal health blog.

So, there's the buzz on Kitzhaber. Go here for the latest buzz on Ron Wyden getting the HHS gig.

By Kari Chisholm Feb. 04, 2009