Indo-American, close aide to Trump on health issues, resigns

Washington:

Seema Verma, one of the top ranked Indian American women in the outgoing Trump administration, has resigned from her senior health care post, days before Joe Biden is sworn in as the next president the United States.

Ms. Verma, 50, tendered her resignation to President Donald Trump on Thursday as administrator of Medicare centers and Medicaid services, a post she has held in the Trump administration for the past four years. She was one of Trump’s close confidants on health issues.

She was also named by Trump in May last year as one of the key members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force formed by US President Donald Trump to fight the deadly disease.

“As the Trump administration draws to a close, I have handed in my formal resignation and am preparing to hand over the keys to the next administrator next week,” she said in a tweet on Friday.

In her three-page resignation letter which she posted on Twitter, she said: “Taken in their entirety, the actions taken by CMS over the past four years will revolutionize healthcare for generations to come and transform Health care for every American patient is a real turning point and will leave a lasting mark on our country. “” Serving the American people with the talented and dedicated staff of CMS for nearly four years has been an honor I will always be grateful for. ” , she said, listing CMS’s accomplishments over the past four years.

His resignation will take effect on January 20, the day Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.

She is the oldest director in the history of CMS.

Ms. Verma was born in the United States. But his parents emigrated to the United States from the Punjab. Her husband, also a doctor, is from Patna, Bihar.

She said CMS has never shied away from its eagerness to question a failed status quo, and from the start, a culture of problem-solving permeated this administration.

“This culture allowed me to think creatively and act boldly in shaping the agency’s program, confident that no good idea would be put aside because it upsets the basket of apples or makes the bad disgruntled interest group.

“In the lasting interest of our country, you have never wavered in your determination to reorient the health system towards those who should have been the center of attention from the start: the patients,” she said. declared.

Ms. Verma had visited India a few years ago.

“It was really important for me to share India with my children as well. I wanted them to see where they are from and meet a lot of their loved ones,” she said, adding that the Modern communication tools have reduced distances. .

“In the past we would try to go there during the summer, over the years it gets more and more difficult, but we really appreciate that technology makes things a lot easier,” she said. to PTI in an interview in June 2019.

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