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The Senate voted
55-43 to approve Seema Verma to run the $1 trillion Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services. Verma is the owner of SVC Inc, a
healthcare consulting firm, and has helped redesign Medicaid
programs in several states, including Indiana when Vice
President Mike Pence was governor.
Verma will report to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
Tom Price.
Price and Verma are expected to make changes to many of the
Medicaid and Medicare programs that were implemented under the
signature legislation of former Democratic President Barack
Obama, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare.
Republicans unveiled their plan to repeal and replace much of
Obamacare last week. The proposal would roll back an expansion
of the Medicaid program for the poor and replace Obamacare's
income-based tax credits with flat, age-based credits. The bill
passed two House committees last week and goes to the House
Budget Committee this week.
A study of the Republican healthcare measure released on Monday
by the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office found that
14 million Americans would lose medical insurance by next year
if the program is approved.
It said 24 million more people would be uninsured by 2026 under
the program. Price told reporters at the White House that the
administration strongly disagreed with the findings, saying the
CBO had not looked at the full plan to reform Obamacare.
If the Republican healthcare bill passes the House and Senate
and is signed into law by Trump, Verma will play a major role in
implementing the law, called the American Health Care Act.
Verma worked in Indiana to expand Medicaid to include thousands
of additional low-income residents. Those residents are required
to make small monthly payments toward their care through health
savings accounts.
Verma's confirmation was not without controversy early on. In an
initial committee hearing, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of
Oregon said that while helping manage the state of Indiana's
health program, her firm was being paid by companies that were
providing services and products to the program.
Verma has denied wrongdoing and said she would divest her
financial interest in SVC within 90 days of confirmation.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by David Alexander and
Jonathan Oatis)
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