Indian-origin Verma confirmed by senate

The United States senate confirmed Indian American Seema Verma on Monday as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

Verma, a first-generation American, takes over at CMS as a House Republican health care bill backed by Trump would make sweeping changes to the agency. Her appointment sets her up to play a leading role in the repeal and replacement of former US President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare.

Verma is a health care policy expert from Indiana, where she worked with then governor and the current vice-president Mike Pence to shape a medicaid plan that was seen as the conservative alternative to Obamacare.

The department she heads now spends an estimated $1 trillion annually on health care programmes — Medicaid gives coverage to low-income Americans and Medicare to those above 65 or with disabilities — that cover close to a third of all Americans.

Though not appointed to a cabinet position, Verma will be in public view a lot, and frequently, as the head of a department that led the implementation of former President Obama’s healthcare act that the Republican party wants to repeal and replace.

The highest-ranking Indian American in Trump’s administration is Nikki Haley who holds a cabinet-rank position as US ambassador to the UN.