Skip to content

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
      • Pregnant people are at 'greater risk' in states hit hard by wildfire smoke, air pollution, new report shows

        Jessica Kutz · April 20
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Biden’s new environmental justice office aims to tackle the health impacts disproportionately faced by people of color

        Jessica Kutz · June 2
      • Jessica Cisneros takes on the last anti-abortion U.S. House Democrat

        Amanda Becker · February 25
      • Meet J. Michelle Childs, South Carolina judge and possible Supreme Court contender

        Candice Norwood · February 18
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: How pregnant people can prepare for a summer of heat waves

        Jessica Kutz · June 17
      • The 19th Explains: How new Title IX guidelines on sexual misconduct may give more help to survivors

        Nadra Nittle · June 14
      • The 19th Explains: How would overturning Roe v. Wade affect IVF?

        Jennifer Gerson · May 27
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
      • Woman alleges that an assisted living facility denied her admission because she is transgender

        Sara Luterman · November 8
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Florida’s redistricting fight continues. The head of the state League of Women Voters talks about what’s at stake.

        Barbara Rodriguez · April 19
      • Women have been sounding the alarm ahead of Texas’ first-in-the-nation primary

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 28
      • LGBTQ+ people of color are at risk from rising voter restrictions as federal protections falter in the Senate, advocates say

        Orion Rummler · January 19

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Elections 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

Support The 19th

As a nonprofit newsroom, members are critical to our sustainability. Your financial support helps make our journalism possible.

Become a member

Donate to support our mission

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

An image of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
Health policy veteran Chiquita Brooks-LaSure has been nominated by the BIden administration to head federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Photo courtesy of Manatt)

Health

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Biden’s pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, would be first Black woman in the role

Brooks-LaSure could play a major role in shaping Biden's health care agenda, which could have significant impacts on women and LGBTQ+ people.

Shefali Luthra

Health Reporter

Shefali Luthra portrait

Published

2021-02-19 11:44
11:44
February 19, 2021
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

President Joe Biden has nominated health policy veteran Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to head the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), arguably the second-most powerful health care role in Washington after the Health and Human Services Secretary. 

Health care — in particular expanding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — was a critical issue in Biden’s presidential campaign. If she is confirmed by the Senate, Brooks-LaSure could play a major role in shaping his agenda, which could have significant impacts on women and LGBTQ+ people.

Brooks-LaSure would be the first Black woman to hold the role, overseeing a $1 trillion agency responsible for large health insurance programs including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the individual insurance marketplaces run through the Affordable Care Act. She would also wield tremendous influence over how states experiment with their Medicaid programs, potentially opening the door to coverage expansions that don’t require approval from Congress.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Under former President Barack Obama, Brooks-LaSure worked within CMS to implement the ACA, which overhauled much of the American health insurance system, expanded access to health care to more than 20 million people and instituted health insurance protections for women and LGBTQ+ people. Prior to joining CMS, she helped develop the law as a staffer for the House Ways and Means Committee.

Brooks-LaSure, an ardent defender of the ACA, has argued in favor of efforts to build on the law, which has still failed to provide coverage for 29 million people. She has also focused on racial inequities in health care, and in particular has advocated for developing policies to tackle the nation’s crisis of pregnancy-related deaths. Government data shows that Black and American Indian/Alaska Native women are two to three times more likely than White, Latina and Asian American women to die within a year of childbirth.

“She really cares about people having coverage and does have a particular interest in maternal and infant health and maternal mortality,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and an expert in Medicaid policy. “On maternal mortality and infant mortality, the U.S. is not where we need to be, and we have huge racial disparities. The Medicaid program has a critical role to play there.”

It’s unclear when the Senate — which has yet to vote on Biden’s other top health pick, Health and Human Services nominee Xavier Becerra — will begin the confirmation process. But experts say speed is critical, especially as lawmakers are moving quickly to act on the president’s health care agenda. 

“They’re going to need to get her in as quickly as possible,” said Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research and policy organization.  

As part of its new COVID-19 relief package, Congress is moving to bolster access to health care, specifically through a proposal in the House of Representatives to give states more money if they choose to expand eligibility for Medicaid. That optional component of the ACA could particularly benefit transgender people, one in five of whom are  uninsured, and research suggests it could benefit pregnant and postpartum people.  A dozen states have declined the expansion, including Texas and Florida. 

The House version of the relief package would also encourage states to extend Medicaid coverage for people who give birth so that it covers them for up to a year postpartum. That change could be a critical lever in addressing pregnancy-related deaths.

Currently, pregnant people who qualify for Medicaid — which has a more generous income threshold for pregnant people and covers almost half of the nation’s births — keep their coverage for only two months after giving birth. Meanwhile, researchers note deaths are increasingly occurring later in the first year postpartum, and argue that improving access to insurance could be a critical lever in preventing some of those deaths. 

If those changes pass, it would add to the urgency of having CMS leadership confirmed and ready, Cox said.

“CMS is going to need to move more quickly to implement all of this and they’re going to need the leadership in place to do that,” she said.

Under the proposed legislation, states could still opt out of policies such as Medicaid expansion and extending postpartum eligibility. Having a CMS administrator who actively supports those policies could make a difference, policy experts say. 

“The CMS administrator could make public statements to encourage specific states to act on Medicaid expansion, and on expanding maternal health benefits,” Cox said. “That could include going to a state and talking to the press in that state, to try to put pressure on state leadership.”

Brooks-LaSure has also written about other ways to expand health care access — in particular, efforts to implement so-called “public options” that would allow people to buy into a government-run health insurance plan if they chose. 

In 2018, she advised the state of New Mexico about different strategies to let people buy into its Medicaid program, which is another strategy states have considered to expand coverage. And at a 2019 congressional hearing, she spoke about allowing people slightly younger than Medicare eligibility — currently set for 65 — to buy into the program, which is run entirely by the federal government and targeted toward older people.

Biden campaigned on a public option, which could particularly benefit women, since they are more likely to cite cost as a reason they cannot get health insurance. 

Even with Democrats controlling Congress, though, it’s not clear they have the votes to pass such a program, at least on a federal level, Cox said. But as administrator, Brooks-LaSure could encourage states to seek federal approval — though the so-called Medicaid waiver program — to implement their own pilot public insurance options. That would be a reversal from the past four years 

“Instead of promoting state waivers that are seen as antithetical to the ACA she would be promoting state waivers that likely take the ACA a step further,” Cox said.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Support The 19th

As a nonprofit newsroom, members are critical to our sustainability. Your financial support helps make our journalism possible.

Become a member

Donate to support our mission

Up Next

A demonstrators holding a sign out of a car window demanding restrictions that have closed churches be lifted.

Health

At least 36 anti-LGBTQ+ religious freedom measures have been filed this year, many tucked in COVID church bills

Advocates decried once popular religious freedom laws for allowing discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. Now they are quietly resurfacing.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Attend an Event
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram