President Joe Biden, aka “the People’s Champ” aka “Where the Money Resides” aka “We See You Big Shawty” aka “What about that 50K off those Student Loans?” aka “Big Stimmy,” picked Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a former Obama administration official, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“The agency oversees government health insurance programs covering more than 1 out of 3 Americans and is a linchpin of the health care system,” the Associated Press reports. If confirmed, (I mean what could stop her from being confirmed? Just a bunch of racist white nationalist sympathizers who are hiding inside Congress, that’s who!) Brooks-LaSure would become the first Black woman to run CMS and she would like to be referred to as Queen Mother.
Queen Mother would run all the programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health insurance and the Affordable Care Act and “cover more than 130 million people, from newborns to nursing home residents,” AP reports.
From the Associated Press:
Brooks-LaSure has a long track record in government, having held health policy jobs at the White House, in Congress, and at CMS during the Obama administration. Most recently she led the Biden transition’s “landing team” for the Department of Health and Human Services, laying the groundwork for the new administration. Before her return to government service, Brooks-LaSure was a managing director at the Manatt Health consultancy.
Her nomination was confirmed by a person familiar with the White House decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.
CMS also plays a central role in the nation’s $4 trillion health care economy, setting Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors, labs and other service providers. Government payment levels become the foundation for private insurers. The agency also sets standards that govern how health care providers operate.
Brooks-LaSure will be expected to promote HealthCare.gov and encourage old white rustbucket-ass states to adopt Medicaid expansion. And, she’s “also expected to roll back Trump administration policies allowing states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, as well as insurance rules seen as undermining Obamacare.”
If only she can get past the insurrectionists at the gate, she should be just fine.