Regional U.S. health director resigns

Regional U.S. health director resigns

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) director Hannah Rosenthal this week confirmed she has resigned from the largest region in the U.S., effective Jan. 31, 2000.

In an interview with Poverty Issues...Dateline Illinois' editor Doug Dobmeyer and later with the Chicago Defender, Rosenthal, who over saw the six-state Region V for HHS, said she's leaving the agency to become vice president for Wisconsin Physicians Service (WPS).

She will be the first woman to hold that position.

A resident of Wisconsin, Rosenthal will be working for the largest non-profit health care provider in the U.S.

The company is based in Madison and administers Medicare contracts in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan.

Asked if health care will be a litmus test during the presidential election, she said: "The candidates of either party haven't been specific. Health care is a lot of money and it scares people."

When asked are the states up to meeting the health care needs of people, she stated: "The political reality is there are competing pressures on state budgets."

Rosenthal said her greatest achievements have been her work on the tobacco and gun wars.

"I've been commuting. My family lives in Wisconsin.

I decided after four years of proudly serving President Clinton, it was time for me to go home and be with my husband and our empty nest," Rosenthal said.

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