Obama to appoint Jeanne Lambrew as Deputy Director of WH Office Of Health Reform

Thinkprogress:

President-elect Barack Obama will announce that another one of our friends and former colleagues, Jeanne Lambrew, will be named deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform. In that position, she will work with HHS Secretary Tom Daschle to achieve “significant changes” in health care reform. Jeanne co-authored a book with Daschle entitled, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.”

Jeanne recently wrote, “Reforming the health system requires leadership and commitment that can come only from the White House.” In the Clinton administration, she helped lead the creation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Over on the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky takes a look at Jeanne’s philosophy on health care reform. Building on the two major existing sources of health coverage — the employer based system and Medicaid – Lambrew has advocated plans that allow Americans to keep their existing coverage, while offering affordable options to those who need them:

- Americans lacking job-based insurance, for instance, could purchase affordable coverage through a new national insurance pool that would offer “the same private health plans offered to federal employees and members of Congress.”