Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Washington Blade - December 17, 2004
Dyana Bagby
Bush nominated Leavitt, 53, this week to the top post of Health & Human Services, which oversees Medicaid, Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
Leavitt, who served as governor of Utah for 11 years, would leave his job as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, if Congress confirms his nomination. He has held the EPA post for less than a year.
Some HIV/AIDS activists said they fear the impact Leavitt, already dubbed a Bush "yes man" by political pundits, may have on future funding in prevention as well as treatment for people living with the disease. They specifically cited Leavitt's history of cutting funds for Medicaid, which is the largest payer of HIV/AIDS treatment.
"We're concerned he's essentially been brought in to be an enforcer," said Ernest Hopkins, director of federal affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Leavitt "has a reputation in Utah for being pretty harsh in finding ways to cut back benefits," Hopkins said.
When President Bush proposed a "Medicaid modernization" program in 2003 to give states "block grants" to run their own Medicaid programs, Leavitt, as Utah's governor, strongly supported the idea.
"There are certain guarantees the federal government requires [for coverage] including increase in costs - but under a block grant program, the states are not responsible for increases," said Ryan Clary, policy advocate at Project Inform, a national HIV/AIDS advocacy group.
Bush's proposal failed last year, but Clary said it is expected to come up again in the upcoming congressional session and may pass - especially with Leavitt as head of Health & Human Services.
"We're looking at this as one of our major battles in the next year. With Leavitt [as HHS Secretary], it will make it that much more challenging," Clary said.
Leavitt did not respond to interview requests but said at his Dec.13 nomination that he looks forward to implementing Medicare reform, according to the White House Web site.
"[I] look forward ... to the implementation of the Medicare prescription drug program in 2006, medical liability reform and finding ways to reduce the cost of health care," Leavitt said.
Bush said at the nomination press conference that Leavitt is a "man of great compassion."
"In this new term, ... [we] will expand federal cooperation with faith-based groups that provide essential services, such as counseling and treatment for addictions," Bush said.
Anti-gay stances?
As governor of Utah, Leavitt was instrumental in passing legislation that makes it illegal for gay couples to adopt and voiced opposition in 2000 to including sexual orientation in the state's non-discrimination law, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay political group.
Leavitt also played a role in crafting and signing into law a measure allowing school districts to ban gay-straight alliances, said Barbara Menard, deputy political director of HRC.
A devout Mormon, Leavitt is also a strong public supporter of heterosexual-only marriage and agrees with Bush's agenda to push abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs.
"HRC will work carefully to ensure that these positions and his positions on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are made clear during the confirmation process so that we can better assess his ability to lead the department fairly," Menard said.
State Rep. Jackie Biskupski (D-Salt Lake City), Utah's first openly gay elected official, said that as governor, Leavitt never made gay issues a major administration concern. But during the gay-straight alliance controversy of the late 1990s, Leavitt did meet with students and appeared to be genuinely interested in their concerns, she said.
"Mike is not a right-wing conservative by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm not trying to give him a break, but he's a moderate Republican," Biskupski said.
Michael Mitchell, executive director of Equality Utah, a gay rights organization, said Leavitt is a compassionate person.
"He is a Bush loyalist first and foremost, and my sense is he won't do anything radically horrible [to gay people], but he won't be progressive either," he said.
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