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In just a few years in Washington, Mike Leavitt has already proved ready to meet whatever challenge President Bush has laid before him. When Bush needed to fill a vacancy at the Environmental Protection Agency, he tapped the former Utah governor for the post. Soon, Bush would take him out of the pot and put him into the fire, selecting Leavitt as the new Health and Human Services secretary at a time when that agency is facing one of its greatest challenges: implementing a new — and much criticized — prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

In an interview with Roll Call Executive Editor Morton M. Kondracke, Leavitt addressed many of the trials the nation will face as government and health care providers struggle with putting the drug benefit in place, battling counterfeit drugs, covering the millions of uninsured in the nation, overhauling Medicaid, giving Americans “ownership” of their own medical records and benefits, and seeking to shift the focus of both consumers and providers to prevention. A transcript of the conversation follows.