He's not the only candidate. But an array of sources say he's a serious candidate. And he'd be a very risky choice.Phil Bredesen is the governor of Tennessee. Before he was the governor of Tennessee, he made his money in the managed care revolution, founding HealthAmerica, which acquired and ran HMOs. In the late-80s, he sold HealthAmerica to MaxiCare Health Plans, pocketing $47 million in the deal. A few years later, he teamed up with HealthAmerica's former CFO to form Coventry Corporation, a similarly oriented company, which later merged with Principal Health Care to become Coventry Health Care, which was, until 2007, a Fortune 500 managed care provider (Bredesen was no longer involved). All of which is to say, if you're concerned about Daschle's apparent ties to the health care industry, recruiting someone from the health care industry is an odd direction to take. As governor of Tennessee, Bredesen is famous -- or infamous -- for gutting TennCare, the state's low income health care provider. To be sure, this was not entirely Bredesen's fault. Poor finances combined with a truculent legislature did not leave him a vast range of options. But there were many in his state who felt he didn't come near to exhausting the possible alternatives and, in any case, the fact remains that under Bredesen, more than 320,000 of Tennessee's needy were thrown off the health care rolls. (Among the most heartbreaking portions of Jon Cohn's excellent book Sick is his chapter following one of the affected families.) It's not exactly a record of success, and it's one that's left Tennessee's liberals -- and health care advocates more generally -- profoundly skeptical of Bredesen. And nor is Bredesen free from the nexus of money and influence that helped damn Daschle. The National Institute on Money in State Politics gives us this breakdown of his 2006 campaign contributors by industry. Insurers and the medical sector rank fairly high:
Bredesen's advantages are that he understands health care on a deep level and has administrative experience both in government and in health. So you can see the appeal of his appointment. But if the Obama campaign is looking for a clean nominee with an impressive health care record, it's hard to see how they settle on Bredesen. Sebelius, Rendell, and even Kitzhaber would be safer options.Update: Jon Cohn has much more.
Bredesen's advantages are that he understands health care on a deep level and has administrative experience both in government and in health. So you can see the appeal of his appointment. But if the Obama campaign is looking for a clean nominee with an impressive health care record, it's hard to see how they settle on Bredesen. Sebelius, Rendell, and even Kitzhaber would be safer options.Update: Jon Cohn has much more. 
