Early today, President-elect Trump announced he has selected Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) as his nominee for Secretary of HHS and Seema Verma as Administrator of CMS.
Rep Tom Price (R-GA)
Price is the current House Budget Committee Chairman. An orthopedic surgeon by trade and a staunch conservative, Price has been a vocal and active opponent of the ACA since its inception. He began his rise through House leadership starting as Chairman for the influential, conservative House Republican Study Committee. He is a six term Congressman and was a state legislator for nine years. Also, he was a Trump healthcare surrogate during the campaign.
Since 2009, Price has championed his own legislation, H.R. 2300 the Empowering Patients First Act, to repeal the ACA. In its latest iteration, the proposal includes refundable, age-adjusted tax credits for individuals to buy insurance if they don’t have access to coverage through an employer or government program. Individuals in a government program, such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare, would also be allowed to opt out of that coverage and receive tax credits toward the cost of private coverage instead.
Price attended University of Michigan for undergrad and medical school, his residency was at Emory, and he was medical director of the orthopedic clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
Seema Verma
Verma is the founder and CEO of SVC, Inc., a health policy consulting firm. Verma has strong ties to Vice President-elect Pence as she lead the health overhaul for the state of Indiana. She also was the architect of the Healthy Indiana Plan, the state’s 2015 Medicaid expansion waiver. She was active in crafting the Republican Governors Association’s Public Policy Committee Report, A New Medicaid: A Flexible, Innovation and Accountable Future, which established seven principles for Medicaid.
She has a Master’s degree in Public Health with concentration in health policy and management from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences from the University of Maryland.