Second Indian American Picked For Important Role In Trump Administration

President-elect Donald Trump selected on Monday (28 November) a second Indian American, Seema Verma, for a high-level position in his administration, assigning her "to the dream team that will transform our healthcare system," a major campaign promise. Verma, who has worked closely on healthcare with Vice President-elect Mark Pence in Indiana state, is to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services overseeing government health insurance programmes.

"I am pleased to nominate (Dr) Seema Verma to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services," Trump said in a statement. The announcement came along with Trump's nomination of Congressman Tom Price as his Health and Human Services Secretary.

Verma currently is the President, CEO and founder of SVC, Inc, a national health policy consulting company. The Medicare programme that she will oversee provides insurance for over 46 million retirees and senior citizens, who are a politically powerful block, and Medicaid, which covers the poor, has about 60 million people enrolled in it. Together they are about a third of the US population. "I look forward to helping him tackle our nation's daunting healthcare problems in a responsible and sustainable way," Verma said after Trump's announcement.

With inputs from IANS