HEALTHCARE DISCUSSION The Honorable Mike Leavitt Governor of Utah, 1993 – 2003 Governor Leavitt was sworn in as the 20th secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on January 26, 2005. As secretary, he leads national efforts to protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services to those in need. Prior to his current service, Leavitt served as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as governor of Utah. Before leaving the Utah statehouse to work in the Bush Administration, Leavitt was the nation’s longest-serving governor, having been elected three times. During his eleven years of service, Utah was recognized six times as one of America’s best managed states. Due to his ability to solve problems across partisan lines, he was chosen by his peers as chairman of the National Governors Association, Western Governors Association, and Republican Governors Association. Secretary Leavitt is widely recognized as a healthcare innovator and welfare reformer, and his record of achievement in Utah bears this out. In 1994 the Utah legislature passed Gov. Leavitt’s “Healthprint,” a comprehensive, incremental approach to healthcare improvement in the state. A decade later, Utah has more than 400,000 additional people with health insurance, marked increases in the number of children with healthcare coverage, and dramatically improved immunization rates, with per capita cost of healthcare 25% below the national average.