Insurance commissioner to lead state human services

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania insurance commissioner Teresa Miller has been named the state’s acting human services secretary effective Monday, according to a message sent to department staff.

The job is one of the biggest in state government — she will lead a department with roughly 17,000 employees and a budget that’s tens of billions of dollars in state and federal funds.

She also will take the helm at a time when a number of federally funded safety net programs administered by the state could potentially face enormous changes. President Donald Trump’s budget proposes to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and would make dramatic changes to both food stamps and Medicaid.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf announced in May that Ms. Miller was his choice to lead a merged state Department of Health and Human Services; that merger has yet to be completed.

A native of Oregon, she began her career there as a lobbyist and also worked as an administrator and deputy administrator in the Oregon Insurance Division.

Ms. Miller also worked in Washington for the Obama administration at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, rolling out regulations and guidelines for private insurance.