Health Leave

Schweiker quits the Cabinet

When he was appointed two years ago by President-elect Reagan to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Richard Schweiker, 56, wanted to be remembered as the Cabinet member who put preventive medicine at the top of the nation's health agenda. He will probably be better known, however, as the man who attempted to trim federal welfare rolls and overhaul Medicare and formally presented the Administration's plan to reduce Social Security benefits, a proposal that went down in a flurry of controversy.

Last week Schweiker announced that he was resigning his $80,100-a-year post to become president of the American Council of Life Insurance, a lobbying group that represents 572 of the nation's life insurance companies. He will be succeeded at the agency (1983 budget: $276 billion) by Margaret Heckler, 51, a moderate Republican who served eight terms as Representative from Massachusetts until her defeat last November. Schweiker, whose new salary is reported to be in the low six figures, startled the White House with his sudden departure. Said a presidential aide: "It came as a surprise even to Dick. The council offer came out of the blue."

Schweiker served for 20 years as a Congressman and Senator from Pennsylvania and was Reagan's vice-presidential running mate in 1976. A staunch advocate of basic medical research, he successfully defended the National Institutes of Health and the Public Health Service against cuts proposed by the Office of Management and Budget.

Heckler, a scrappy, hard-nosed politician, will be the second woman to join the Cabinet, after Elizabeth Dole, who begins her job as Transportation Secretary next month. Heckler's past criticisms of the President's economic program and her support of the Equal Rights Amendment have led some hard-core conservatives to doubt her ideological purity. Heckler is expected to play an important role in selling Congress on solutions to such volatile issues as abortion and Social Security. But she has questioned the effectiveness of an HHS proposal requiring that parents be notified when minors receive contraceptives from federal family-planning clinics. Meanwhile, she is making no secret about where her loyalties lie. Said Heckler: "I will be the President's Secretary of Health and Human Services, and implementing his goals will be my priority." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.