TNR Digs Deep On DeParle

By Kleinheider Posted on March 2, 2009 at 8:24 pm

Jonathan Cohn takes a hard look at the Tennessee woman named health care czar today:

As you may have guessed from this sketch, DeParle is smart–rocket scientist, brain surgeon, 1600 SAT smart. And she knows as much about health policy as anybody you’ll encounter in Washington. (I can attest to this personally, having interviewed her a few times.)

But DeParle also gets high marks for her political sense. She knows her way around Washington and, by all accounts, should be able to integrate herself within the White House policy operation easily. “She will complement Gov. Sebelius well, though her experience at the White House, with [HCFA], and on the Hill,” says Chris Jennings, who served as chief White House health policy advisor during the latter years of the Clinton Administration. “And she will do so as a team player.”

Despite her career-long identification with Democrats, DeParle has strong credibility with Republicans. (Representative Bill Thomas, of all people, was known to be a fan.) And, no less important for Obama, she’s popular with centrist Democrats who could–if they wanted–make health care reform difficult. “Nancy-Ann DeParle has years of experience overseeing complex health care systems at both the state and federal level, and she knows firsthand the problems Americans face trying to get coverage,” says Representative Jim Cooper, the Tennesse Democrat. “Nancy-Ann will be a great asset to the President as he leads the effort to reform health care.”

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Tags: health care czar, Nancy Ann DeParle, Nancy Ann Min DeParle  

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