Bush picks health program innovator Tommy Thompson as HHS secretary

Wisconsin physicians praise the nominee's past work on patients' appeals rights and medical records privacy.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Jan. 22, 2001.

Washington -- What happens when a governor who has greatly expanded low-income residents' access to health care is placed in charge of national health programs? Many hope for a similar outcome on a grander scale.

Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson was nominated late last month by then-President-elect George W. Bush to head the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, with its $420 billion annual budget and control over numerous federal health programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"I'm personally pleased with the nomination," said Timothy T. Flaherty, MD, a Wisconsin radiologist and chair-elect of the AMA Board of Trustees. "I know he has a deep interest in health care." The success of the state's health insurance program for low-income people, which Thompson strongly promoted, has resulted in one of the country's lowest uninsured rates, Dr. Flaherty noted.

During Thompson's 14 years as governor, Wisconsin has been a leader in innovative reforms that resulted not only in broader health coverage for residents but also a drastic paring down of welfare rolls, added attention to the need for organ donations and increased funding for biotechnology in the state's university and medical communities.

To carry out certain reforms, Thompson pursued waivers of federal requirements, sometimes clashing with HHS over what he believed to be onerous regulations.

For example, a two-plus-year pursuit of a Medicaid waiver resulted in BadgerCare, the first state program to provide health coverage to parents as well as children. The program, funded with Medicaid and SCHIP funds, was cited as a model initiative during a recent forum on state approaches to health care. [...]