Kathleen Sebelius, the US health and human services secretary, is resigning on the back of the problematic launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.
Her departure will be officially announced later today but it has been widely reported across the Atlantic that Ms Sebelius, who has been health secretary since 2009, will be replaced by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The president had resisted calls to get rid of Ms Sibelius over the problems that have affected the take-up of Obamacare, notably the technical problems that hit the website HealthCare.gov preventing from people enrolling for health insurance.
The technical problems seem to be over and the White House last week noted that over seven million people have enrolled for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. However Obamacare, which extends health insurance to the nearly-50 million Americans who do not receive it through employers, the government, or a private plan, is still very much under attack by Republicans.
