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HHS nominee is queried on coverage; confirmation seen

WASHINGTON - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius stepped around potential land mines on abortion and her own tax errors yesterday as she testified at a hearing en route to her expected confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary.

WASHINGTON - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius stepped around potential land mines on abortion and her own tax errors yesterday as she testified at a hearing en route to her expected confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary.

Sebelius was not asked any questions about abortion, an issue that has drawn loud complaints from conservative groups angered about her vetoes of some abortion restrictions and the presence of a prominent abortion doctor at a reception at the governor's residence.

Nor was Sebelius asked about what she has called "unintentional errors" related to charitable deductions, mortgage interest, and business expenses on her most recent tax returns. She has paid more than $7,000 in back taxes and penalties.

Instead of focusing on those topics, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) tried to pin down Sebelius on the key question of whether every American should be required to buy health insurance.

In dodging his question, Sebelius said she and President Obama believe that all Americans should have insurance - even though Obama's campaign proposal required only that children be covered. She avoided endorsing Baucus' call for making all people legally responsible for becoming insured.

"There may be variations about how best to reach the goal most effectively, most cost-effectively, most efficiently, with the best health outcomes of insuring every American," Sebelius said.

"And I think he's open to all of those proposals," she said of Obama.

About 48 million Americans are uninsured. How, or whether, universal coverage should be mandated is one of the toughest issues Congress and the administration must tackle as they seek to reshape the nation's health-care system.

Senators want to move health overhaul legislation forward by summer. But they decided yesterday to wait to vote on Sebelius' nomination until they return from a pending two-week recess, so that lawmakers have more time to review her responses.

Sebelius appears set to win confirmation smoothly.

Republican senators pressed her yesterday to oppose a parliamentary maneuver that would allow health-reform legislation to pass the Senate with 51 votes instead of a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Sebelius reiterated that she hoped for a bipartisan solution but did not want to take anything off the table.

There was also discussion of whether any health-care overhaul should include a government-run insurance option. Sebelius expanded on her support for the concept, saying that Kansas' state employees' health system includes a public plan that competes with private insurers without putting them out of business.