# Kathleen Sebelius

Kathleen Sebelius (/sɪˈbiːliəs/; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 21st United States Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was instrumental in overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Before becoming secretary, she served as the 44th governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the second woman to hold that office. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Sebelius was the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address and is chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors Association (she was its first female chair). She is CEO of Sebelius Resources LLC.

## Quotes

* “Women candidates were certainly running for statewide office in various places, but it was a tricky balance,” she said. “You couldn’t be too tough or people hated you. You couldn’t be too weak or people thought you couldn’t do the job. You were a witch or a bitch. It was a very complicated role to play.”
* “I remember the advertising guy said, ‘You need a killer ad, but you can’t be seen as a killer,’
* “Probably the most interesting, challenging and unlikely race I ran was for insurance commissioner,” Sebelius said. “The most terrifying thing was that I won and had to figure out what to do.”
* “My father went into politics when I was 5 years old,” Sebelius said. “I did think that’s what families did in the fall — go door to door and put up yard signs. I didn’t know it was a volunteer activity. In our family, it was mandatory service.”
* That sent a very powerful message,”
* “Being governor, I believe, is the best job in America, because you can do things,”
* Success in politics had much to do with timing, and she wasn’t convinced it would be possible for her to win in the current electoral climate.
* Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services“I find it so toxic and so difficult,” she said. “When I was running in Kansas, Kansas really had two Republican parties. A much more conservative antigovernment party and a more moderate branch of the party. The two branches fought with one another more than they fought with Democrats.”
** Documentary places risky, complex political career of Kathleen Sebelius in focus Kansas Reflector (August 17, 2021)
* “We’re still a way from universal coverage, we’re still a way from affordable care for everyone,”
* A fruitful area of inquiry for researchers would be to measure whether public opinion favors incremental health care fixes or sweeping reform. Radical change would be counterproductive were it to a spark a backlash with the potential to undo hard-won gains,
* “This was not a one-shot deal,” Sebelius said. “This was really a systematic march.”
* That relentless battle is still underway,” Sebelius said. “The march toward universal coverage, as slow, difficult, and painful as it is, will continue in the United States of America, and I’m just delighted I had a small part in that wonderful march toward equity.”
** Sebelius sees steady march toward universal health coverage Harvard Gazette (December 6, 2018)
* Could we have used more time and testing? You bet. I’ve said that from the start,” “But the site actually works. And the great thing is, there’s a market behind the site that works even better. People have competitive choices and real information for the first time ever in this insurance market.”
* I think what we said from the outset was, you know, this was fixing a very broken market– where individuals really were on their own,” she said. “If you were healthy and wealthy, you could get coverage. If you weren’t, you were pretty much on your own”
** Sebelius: Obamacare Rollout Was ‘Terribly Flawed’ Times (April 11, 2014)

## External Links

US health secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigns