The Senate Finance Committee today approved Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ nomination as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The committee took a short break from a health care roundtable to vote on the nomination. The 15-8 vote advances Sebelius to the Senate floor for final confirmation.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., was the only committee member to comment before the vote. He said he was opposed to Sebelius because of her willingness to rely on comparative effectiveness research to address health care costs.
The Congressional Budget Office in a 2007 report defined such research as “a rigorous evaluation of the impact of different options that are available for treating a given medical condition for a particular set of patients.”
Such research, he said, puts the government in charge of making health decisions instead of leaving it to physicians and patients.
“I believe in the right for every America to choose the doctor, the hospital, and the health care plan of his or her choice and that no Washington bureaucrat should interfere with that choice,” he said.
In written responses to questions posed earlier by members of the committee, Sebelius said comparative effectiveness research simply about gathering and sharing information about treatments and therapies that are most effective.
“It has nothing to do with government dictating choices or rationing care,” she wrote.
Sebelius was re-elected in 2006 to a second four-year term as governor. She has said she intends to resign her state post once she is confirmed as HHS secretary by the U.S. Senate, at which time Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, a former state Republican chairman who switched parties to run with Sebelius, will assume the office.
Prior to being elected governor, Sebelius served two terms as Kansas Insurance Commissioner. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the finance committee, said last week in an interview with KHI News that Sebelius’ combination of executive and regulatory experience make her a good choice to head one of the federal government’s largest agencies and to help lead the effort to pass comprehensive health reform legislation.
“She and I have spent a fair amount of time discussing this and I’m pretty comfortable that she has the savvy to help build the kind of bipartisan coalition we need to get this done this year,” Wyden said.