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News You Can Use: List ranks most powerful people in health care

I love ranked lists -- the top 100 movies of all time, top 20 Beatles songs ever, 1000 places to see before you die -- but this one has actual professional value, which makes it even better.

Modern Healthcare magazine has released its annual list of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare. Now in its eighth year, the mag puts President Obama at the top of the 2009 list, followed by several of his close friends and foes on health care reform: Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (No. 2), Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont; No. 4) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa; No. 5).

For the president, it must be lonely at the top, as he's steadily lost public support for his health care plan over the last several weeks, following controversial statements from reform opponents and contentious town hall meetings held nationwide. Click here to read the full list (I tried to get you the link with no fuss, but free reg may be required).

Then comment and let me know who you think should/shouldn't be on the list. To me, Attorney Gen Eric Holder was somewhat of a head-scratcher at No. 40, and I was surprised that the leaders of much-heralded health care success stories Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic -- Denis Cortese and Delos Cosgrove, respectively -- were left off.

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