Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, “a longtime Democratic health policy expert, has emerged as the leading candidate to run President Joe Biden’s Medicare and Medicaid agency, according to three sources familiar with the Biden team’s discussions.”
“The eventual head of the trillion-dollar agency will be charged with overseeing Biden’s pledge to expand Obamacare and reverse Trump-era restrictions on the health care safety net.”
“Biden’s search for the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has long revolved around two leading candidates: Brooks-LaSure and North Carolina health secretary Mandy Cohen, who both served in the agency during the Obama administration. But in recent weeks, Brooks-LaSure has been seen as the clear frontrunner, sources said…”
“However, people familiar with the Biden team’s discussions said they don’t appear to be in a rush to declare a nominee for CMS administrator, because they are focused on the pandemic and getting Senate confirmation of Biden’s nominee for health secretary, Xavier Becerra…”
“Brooks-LaSure, who did not respond to a request for comment, is now a managing director of the consulting firm Manatt Health. When she served at CMS during the Obama administration, she helped launch the Affordable Care Act and was deputy director of the agency’s health insurance office. She previously worked on the ACA’s drafting as a staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee, where she forged strong working ties with Becerra — who at the time was a member of the panel…” Read the full article here.
Source: Frontrunner emerges for Biden’s Medicare and Medicaid chief – By Rachel Roubein, Susannah Luthi and Adam Cancryn, February 4, 2021. POLITICO.
