1. She can’t give a straight answer

Source: Screenshot/Fox News

In an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum, Verma struggled to answer a simple question about the coronavirus. This is troubling because she is supposed to be on the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

MacCallum asked, “We heard there’s a shortage of ventilators, even swabs. What’s being done about that and how concerned are that when these numbers start to rise, that there’ll be enough ICU units, enough ventilators, to help the people who do get sick in this country?”

Verma responded, “We’re used to dealing with disasters.” Even after MacCallum asked two more times, Verma couldn’t say whether or not the administration was prepared.

2. CMS can’t pay for everything for the coronavirus

Source: Screenshot/ABC

Rest assured, if you depend on Medicaid during the coronavirus crisis, it will let you down.

Verma said that CMS might not be able to pay for all “products and services” that patients with the coronavirus might need. “We are looking at what we cover,” she said.

3. Taxpayers should pay for her stolen jewelry

Source: Screenshot/YouTube

Someone was certainly enjoying the fruits of her labor. After her bags were stolen from an SUV in San Francisco, Verma filed a claim for $47,000 with the department—-including an Ivanka Trump-branded pendant worth $5,900!

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said that the department typically pays for some lost or stolen property but the department does not cover lost jewelry, only items that “are not inherently for other uses.”

She was only partially reimbursed, though. Department staff said they had never heard of someone filing such a large claim before.

4. Helping Indiana to lose coverage

Source: Flickr/Gage Skidmore

In 2014, when Verma worked with then Indiana governor Mike Pence, she helped create a program that increased Medicaid costs. These changes caused 25,000 people to lose access to Medicaid.

The program required Medicaid enrollees to make monthly payments into “POWER Accounts” to use to pay out of pocket fees. But participants would be locked out if they didn’t pay every month or if they didn’t fulfill other requirements. The point of the change was to make people “value their health care.” But instead, the people who needed Medicaid the most were scared away from the program because they couldn’t make the payments.

5. Overhauling Medicaid

Source: Screenshot/YouTube

CMS, under Verma, wanted to change the Medicaid program for states, letting them opt out of the traditional system. The new system would be a “block grant,” which would cut health care services and push people off their insurance.

The point of the change would be a cap for federal expenditure per state. States would receive in exchange the flexibility to block people from the program. If states prove to keep the spending on Medicaid down to a minimum, they can funnel federal money to other programs of their choosing.

6. Making people work to receive aid

Source: Unsplash/Alev Takil

Another new change to Medicaid, approved by Verma, requires people who need Medicaid to fulfill certain “work requirements.” These rules make people log in their work activities in a form that might be difficult for some to navigate, especially if they don’t have access to the internet.

Twenty states have proposed or instituted these requirements; Verma has approved seven so far.

In states like Michigan, these changes could cause 183,000 people to lose coverage.

7. Federal funding, just not for Planned Parenthood

Source: Wikimedia

When Texas ended a federal family planning program and started its own, it blocked Planned Parenthood from its program. The program cut family planning access for 45,000 people. But since the state ended its federal program, there was no federal funding.

When Verma became the head of CMS, Texas asked for federal funding for the family planning program, but without Planned Parenthood. CMS agreed to fund the state program.

8. Why should insurance cover maternity?

Source: Screenshot/Twitter

Verma stated that she believed that maternity coverage should be optional for health insurance companies. She instead said that companies should have the option to force members to pay extra for maternity.

A study from Health Affairs found that the average American with insurance will pay $4,500 just to give birth to a baby. These high costs might have something to do with the high levels of maternal mortality in the U.S.

9. She’ll spend millions to make herself look good

Source: Canva

In the true Trumpian fashion of self-promotion, Verma has spent millions in federal taxpayer funds to hire PR consultants—for her reputation, not for CMS.

10. She thinks Medicaid is a waste of money

Source: Wikimedia

The person in charge of Medicaid probably shouldn’t be Medicaid’s worst critic. Yet Verma thinks the program is “mediocre.” She complained, “For all that spending, health outcomes today on Medicaid are mediocre and many patients have difficulty accessing care.”

Medicaid expansion lowered mortality rates and helped people stay healthy, according to a Kaiser study. And the only reason people have difficulty accessing care is because of the cuts to the program.

11. No lifetime coverage for the poor

Source: Screenshot/YouTube

States are now requesting waivers from CMS to dispose of “lifetime coverage.” The guarantee to continue covering people with low incomes is too much for them. And while before these waivers might have been harder to access, now because of the waiver for able-bodied enrollees, the cut is possible.

12. She’s scared of Medicare for all

Source: Flickr / Molly Adams

In a tactless tweet on Halloween, Verma posted that the “scariest Halloween costume” would be a shirt with the label “Medicare for all.”

13. The administration is closing hospitals

Source: Pixabay

In a move to redefine public funding, CMS is requiring hospitals and states to share more data about what they receive through Medicaid. This will lead to a decrease in federal matching dollars.

Hospitals could lose $31 billion in Medicaid payments, which endangers rural hospitals like those out in Kansas. 30 percent of the state’s rural hospitals are in danger of closing. A cut like this could force them to close their doors forever.

14. Higher taxes for retirement communities

Source: Vox

Verma published a blog that defended the Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation. This regulation calls for steep taxes for continuing care retirement communities.

“States may impose healthcare-related taxes to broadly raise revenue from health care providers that can then be used to finance additional Medicaid payments,” she wrote.