Politico interviewed Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health, for an article about the challenges that the Obama administration's new nominee to lead the Department of Health Human Services is likely to face.
Politico reports that nominee Sylvia Mathews Burwell will face immediate pressure from Republicans who still want to repeal the health law that she will be implementing as the new secretary of HHS. She will also face Democrats who want her to make improvements and an industry that wants a better relationship with HHS.
Burwell will also have to build on the relationships that former Secretary Kathleen Sebelius forged with governors. The states were supposed to build their own online insurance marketplaces, but Healthcare.gov ultimately had to take on 36 states.
"Her [Sebelius'] job became much harder because the states didn't step up to the plate," said Ario. "It's ironic that she was done in by that, because I remember her as a champion of the states as laboratories of democracy."
Read the article here.