Sebelius plans.

Sebelius, DeParle ready to tackle health care overhaul.

Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle first met at the White House mess in 1997, during the battle for a patients' bill of rights to combat the constraints of managed care. The friendship they forged then could pay big dividends for President Obama now.Sebelius and DeParle are the tag team for Obama's most ambitious domestic policy goal: an overhaul of the nation's health care system, which eluded President Clinton in 1994. The two "working moms," in Sebelius' words, are charged with chaperoning a measure through Congress that's likely to cost more than $1 trillion. There's a natural alliance," Sebelius says of their relationship, built over a dozen years on topics ranging from the children's health insurance program to raising their own children. She came to Washington in late April after serving as Kansas' governor and insurance commissioner.DeParle has run Medicare and Medicaid, the mammoth government health programs for seniors, low- and middle-income families and people with disabilities.With Sebelius as secretary of Health and Human Services and DeParle as director of the White House Office of Health Reform, Obama has two field generals where he originally envisioned one: former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, whose nomination was withdrawn because of unpaid taxes.

Source; usatoday.com