Trump Directs Feuding Health Leaders Azar, Verma To Smooth Things Over With Each Other
An escalating personal rift between HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Chief Seema Verma has caught President Donald Trump's attention. Politico reports that he has directed the two public officials to settle their feud.
Politico:
Trump Pulled Into Feud Between Top Health Officials
President Donald Trump has personally tried to settle the long-running feud between his two top health appointees, telling his health secretary to fix the relationship with his Medicare chief, said three individuals with knowledge of the situation. Trump and Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, privately met in mid-November amid escalating tensions between her and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. Around the same time, Trump instructed Azar to smooth things over. Those conversations came shortly before POLITICO first reported on the souring relationship between Azar and Verma, whose agency sits within HHS. (Diamond, Pradhan and Cancryn, 12/5)
In other news on the administration —
The New York Times:
Trump’s Rollback Of Transgender Rights Extends Through Entire Government
Nicolas Talbott, a graduate student at Kent State University in Ohio who is transgender, was told in May that because of President Trump’s transgender ban in the military, he would no longer be eligible for placement as an Army officer. He could continue participating in the Reserve Officers Training Corps program, but the benefits that he joined for — health insurance and student loan forgiveness — were no longer available to him. “Everyone else would walk away with a job in the United States Army, and I would walk away with just more student loan debt,” Mr. Talbott said. (Fadulu, 12/6)
