Obama Names Sebelius as Health Chief, Says Reform a Priority

President Barack Obama nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of Health and Human Services, saying overhauling the nation’s health-care system is a “fiscal imperative.”

The president also announced that Nancy-Ann DeParle, 52, the former chief of Medicare and Medicaid during the Clinton administration, will lead a new Office of Health Reform in the White House. DeParle will work with the health secretary to shepherd the administration’s health-care initiatives through Congress.

“Health-care reform that reduces costs while expanding coverage is no longer just a dream we hope to achieve -- it’s a necessity we have to achieve,” Obama said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

The nomination of Sebelius, 60, comes as Obama puts health care on a parallel track with the economy as a top priority for his administration. The move also signals Obama’s attempt to build a bipartisan consensus in Congress. Sebelius, a Democrat, is in her second term as chief executive working with a Republican-dominated legislature.

Obama last week proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and reducing government payments to drug companies and insurers to fund a $634 billion “down payment” toward overhauling the U.S. health-care system and expanding coverage.

Even with the nation facing a deepening recession, Obama said in his address to Congress last week that revamping health care “cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”

The administration also announced it is releasing $155 million from the economic stimulus package to fund 126 new health centers intended help many of the 46 million Americans without health insurance.