Imagine someone who never practiced medicine, yet was handed the keys to the programs that provide health insurance to over 140 million Americans. That was Seema Verma. When President Donald Trump appointed her to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2017, she wasn’t a household name in Washington. But in policy circles, she was known as the quiet architect of a conservative vision for healthcare, one built not in the halls of Congress, but state by state. Her story isn’t about a dramatic legislative victory like the Affordable Care Act. Instead, it’s a masterclass in using executive authority to quietly reshape the relationship between the federal government and the states, with profound consequences for the nation’s most vulnerable populations.
I remember watching her confirmation hearings, struck by her calm, almost analytical demeanor. She wasn’t a fiery political speaker. She spoke like the consultant she was, using terms like “state flexibility” and “personal responsibility.” To some, it sounded like sensible reform. To others, it was a dog whistle for cuts to the social safety net. To truly understand her impact, you have to look beyond the D.C. headlines and start in the heartland, in Indiana.
The Indiana Laboratory: Forging a Philosophy
Long before Washington, Seema Verma cut her teeth in Indiana. It was here, working as a health policy consultant, that she found a willing partner in then-Governor Mike Pence. Together, they crafted the “Healthy Indiana Plan,” or HIP. This wasn’t just another Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. It was Pence and Verma’s conservative alternative.
HIP had a core idea that would become Verma’s signature: requiring beneficiaries to have “skin in the game.” The plan introduced health savings accounts, called POWER accounts, that enrollees had to contribute to monthly. If you paid, you got more generous coverage. If you didn’t, your coverage was reduced. There were also incentives for healthy behaviors. Proponents argued this taught responsibility and mirrored private insurance. Critics saw it as a bureaucratic hurdle that would inevitably lead to low-income people losing coverage for missing a small payment.
I’ve spoken to policy analysts in Indiana who saw the data firsthand. They noted a tricky reality: while some engaged with the model, a significant number of people, often those with the most chaotic lives dealing with multiple jobs or unstable housing, would churn on and off the program because of the complexity. This experiment, with its mixed results, became the blueprint Verma would try to scale to the entire nation.
A Mandate for Deregulation at CMS
When Trump won the presidency, his mission for healthcare was clear: dismantle the Affordable Care Act. But with a failed vote in the Senate, legislative repeal was off the table. The strategy pivoted to administrative action, and that’s where Seema Verma became indispensable. Her mandate was to use the vast power of CMS to deregulate, to grant “flexibility,” and to unwind what they saw as Obamacare’s federal overreach.
CMS is a behemoth. It administers Medicare for seniors, Medicaid (jointly with states) for low-income individuals, and the ACA marketplaces. Its administrator doesn’t just manage programs; they issue guidance, approve waivers, and set regulatory tones that ripple through the entire healthcare system. Verma approached this role with a clear ideology. She often spoke of transforming Medicaid from an “entitlement” to an “opportunity.” In practice, this meant enthusiastically approving state requests for waivers that had been stalled under the Obama administration.
The Medicaid Transformation: Work Requirements and Block Grants
This is where the most consequential and controversial chapter of her tenure unfolded. Verma’s CMS aggressively encouraged states to apply for Section 1115 waivers to impose work or community engagement requirements on certain Medicaid enrollees. States like Arkansas, Kentucky, and Michigan were granted permission to require beneficiaries to log a certain number of hours of work, job training, or volunteering each month to keep their coverage.
The argument, as Verma put it, was that this would lead to better health outcomes by moving people into the workforce and fostering independence. She framed it as compassionate, believing employment was a social determinant of health. However, public health experts, doctors’ groups like the AMA, and patient advocates were horrified. They presented evidence that the vast majority of Medicaid enrollees who could work already did, and that those who didn’t were often facing disabilities, caring for family members, or struggling with mental health or addiction issues. They argued the policy was a “solution in search of a problem” that would function as a bureaucratic purge of the rolls.
The data from Arkansas, the first state to implement it, was stark. Over 18,000 people lost coverage in just a few months, not necessarily because they weren’t working, but because of confusing reporting requirements and a clunky online portal. I recall reading heart-wrenching testimonials from people who lost their diabetes medication or mental health counseling because they couldn’t navigate the paperwork. The courts eventually struck down these waivers, ruling that CMS’s primary objective must be the provision of healthcare coverage, not using the program to promote employment. It was a major legal rebuke of her central policy.
Alongside work requirements, Verma championed the concept of Medicaid block grants, rebranded as “Healthy Adult Opportunity” initiatives. This would have capped federal funding to states, a radical shift from the open-ended matching system. Proponents argued it would control federal spending and spur innovation. Opponents saw it as a backdoor way to make deep, inevitable cuts during economic downturns, exactly when people need help most.
Controversy, the Pandemic, and a Complicated Legacy
Verma’s tenure wasn’t without personal controversy. There were inquiries into her use of private consultants to shape her public image, with significant taxpayer funds spent on Republican-connected communications firms. While no formal illegality was found, it painted a picture of a leader focused on political branding during a time of profound policy change.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Suddenly, the agency tasked with overseeing the nation’s public health insurance programs was at the center of a historic crisis. Verma’s CMS had to issue sweeping waivers of its own—but this time, to loosen rules, not tighten them. They relaxed regulations to allow hospitals to expand capacity, enabled telehealth to flourish, and temporarily paused some requirements to ensure access. It was an ironic twist for an administrator known for restrictive waivers. Some praised the agency’s rapid response. Others felt the prior years of emphasizing restriction over inclusion had left the system less prepared for a surge in need.
So, what is Seema Verma’s lasting imprint? She did not repeal the Affordable Care Act. Many of her signature policies were blocked in court. But to judge her legacy solely on that is to miss the point.
She fundamentally shifted the playing field. She normalized the idea of attaching conditions to Medicaid in a way that was unthinkable a decade prior. She empowered a wave of conservative state governments to experiment with the social safety net. The legal battles over the limits of CMS’s waiver authority are now a central feature of health policy jurisprudence. Even in defeat, these ideas have been planted. The debate is no longer just about whether to cover people, but under what conditions. That is a profound change.
She also accelerated the use of waivers as a primary tool of health policy, making CMS a continuous site of innovation and political conflict, state by state. This has made Medicaid a more dynamic, but also more unstable, program depending on which party is in power.
Conclusion
Seema Verma’s story is a powerful lesson in how administrative power can reshape American life. She was not a legislator but an implementer, a strategist who used the levers of federal bureaucracy to pursue a vision of a more conservative, state-driven, and personally responsible healthcare system. Her tenure was a rollercoaster of ambitious policy launches, fierce legal and ethical challenges, and an ultimate confrontation with an unforgiving pandemic. While many of her specific policies, like work requirements, were halted, the philosophical framework she championed—that government assistance should be conditional—has indelibly entered the national healthcare conversation. Her legacy is not a single law, but a changed landscape where the contract between the state and the citizen in healthcare is continually being rewritten, one waiver at a time.
FAQ
Q: What is Seema Verma’s background?
A: Seema Verma is a health policy consultant by training. She rose to prominence by designing Indiana’s Medicaid expansion waiver, the “Healthy Indiana Plan,” for then-Governor Mike Pence. She holds a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
Q: What were Seema Verma’s main goals as CMS Administrator?
A: Her primary goals were to increase state flexibility, introduce elements of “personal responsibility” (like work requirements) into Medicaid, reduce federal regulations, and create pathways for states to restructure Medicaid financing through models like block grants.
Q: Were Seema Verma’s Medicaid work requirements successful?
A: In their stated goal of moving people to work, evidence was limited. However, they were very effective at reducing Medicaid enrollment due to administrative complexity. Federal courts ultimately struck down the key work requirement waivers, ruling they were not consistent with Medicaid’s core objective of providing healthcare.
Q: What is she doing now?
A: After leaving the Biden administration in 2021, Seema Verma returned to the private sector. She is the founder and CEO of a healthcare consulting firm, continues to speak and write on health policy, and serves on corporate boards, advocating for the policy ideas she championed in government.
Q: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect her agenda at CMS?
A: The pandemic forced a major, temporary pivot. The agency shifted from promoting restrictive waivers to issuing emergency waivers that loosened rules to help the healthcare system respond. This included expanding telehealth and relaxing hospital regulations, which was in stark contrast to her pre-pandemic focus.