Michael Hash

Hash is poised to be one of the most important players in the health-care debate. As the liaison between the Health and Human Services Office dedicated to health reform and the White House health-policy shop, he’s been charged with making sure the administration’s pen is evident in the legislation that will remake the American health-care system. Hash has the right resume for the job. He’s spent time in the federal agency the runs Medicare and Medicaid and as an aide for the House committee that will be crucial in enacting reform. A Hill staffer during the 1993-1994 Clinton health-care reform debates, Hash has seen reform fail once, and he’s not likely to watch it happen again. From 1990 until 1995, Hash worked on Capitol Hill as senior staff associate of the subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The subcommittee was chaired by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), and Hash worked with his chief of staff, Phil Schiliro. Waxman is now chair of the whole committee was Schiliro is chief of President Obama’s legislative liaison office. Hash specialized in Medicare legislation. He helped draft legislation on quality assurance, health-services research and the health-care workforce.