Senator Hillary Clinton, according to a report in the Washington Post, has sought to create a new health care subcommittee which she would chair that would become the focal point of Democratic policy creation. Her proposal would create the subcommittee within the Senate Health Committee chaired by Senator Kennedy. Senator Kennedy, who has returned to Washington, has rebuffed this proposal, insisting that policy remain with the full committee. From the Washington Post:

But sources say Kennedy is cool to the idea. So is his top health care aide, Michael Myers, Kennedy’s staff director on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Myers tells the trade publication InsideHealthPolicy that Kennedy will continue handling health care policy at the full committee level. Asked if that meant Clinton would not be tapped to head a new health subcommittee as rumored, Myers said that was correct.

Clinton’s approach would have circumvented other more senior members of the committee, and has created a bit of inside sniping at her.

“In the end,” Myers told InsideHealthPolicy, “it’s President Obama who’s going to lead the effort for us.”

Democratic sources close to the health committee saw Clinton’s entreaty to chair her own subcommittee as an attempt to hijack health care policy, an issue dear to Kennedy’s heart and one he has championed for decades.

She won’t get a subcommittee chairmanship as a consolation prize for losing the Democratic presidential race, they say.

Ouch! Hillary’s first attempt to elbow her way to the health care table is rebuffed. You can believe that there will be more to come on this.