New Mexico’s U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman will replace Hillary Clinton as head of a health-care reform working group on insurance coverage.
The move was announced Monday by Sen. Edward Kennedy, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which the working group is part. Clinton, who like Bingaman is a Democrat, is resigning from her New York Senate seat to be President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state.
“Sen. Bingaman is a longtime advocate of quality and affordable health care for the American people,” Kennedy said in a news release in which he also announced expanded roles on health care reform for other senators. “… We are all committed to working with the Obama Administration and our colleagues in Congress to finally give the American people the health care reforms they urgently need and deserve.”
Bingaman pointed out that New Mexico has one of the highest rates in the nation of people without health care.
“Furthermore, many New Mexicans that are fortunate enough to have health insurance struggle because the coverage may be very costly or may not provide comprehensive benefits,” Bingaman said in the release. “I look forward to working with Chairman Kennedy, my other colleagues in the Senate and the incoming administration to develop a plan that provides meaningful and affordable health care to all Americans.”
Bingaman was already a senior member of the committee, but his new role gives him significant influence in the debate over health care reform, one of the hottest issues in the nation. Bingaman is also one of the lead voices on another pressing issue — energy independence — as chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee.