Sources say President-elect Donald Trump's transition team for HHS will be led by Andrew Bremberg, who worked at the agency under President George W. Bush and was an adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and during Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's presidential bid.
Bremberg was on Walker's team when the candidate unveiled a healthcare proposal that included repealing the Affordable Care Act and splitting Medicaid into smaller programs with separate funding.
Trump has also reportedly selected Paula Stannard to concentrate on healthcare reform initiatives. She is a former deputy general counsel and acting general counsel in the HHS, overseeing the food and drug, civil rights and legislation divisions of the 450-attorney HHS Office of the General Counsel. She also provided legal advice and counsel to senior HHS officials, including secretaries Tommy Thompson and Michael Leavitt.
“They bring a basic philosophy that we can advance our healthcare system by making sure that the patient is at the center of every single reform and that reforms are actionable—and result in less government intrusion,” said Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a former associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, supporting Bremberg and Stannard.
Bremberg worked for the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012 with direct responsibility for laying the groundwork for repeal of the ACA.
“He understands the importance of an Obamacare replacement plan based on free-market principles that will bring affordable, accessible, quality care for all Americans,” said Sally Pipes, former CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and one of Mayor Rudy Giuliani's four healthcare advisers in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
Steven R. Eastaugh, a former adviser to President Barack Obama who helped write the ACA, said the picks give him confidence.
Trump “is choosing people that aren't crazy, just conservative in their thinking,” Eastaugh said. “If there is going to be a retrenchment of the ACA, there would hopefully be minimal losses to access to care, and (Bremberg and Stannard) do care about things like access.”
Stannard is the ideal choice to provide legal counsel to Trump if he fulfills his vow to tear down Obama's signature healthcare reform law, said Thomas Scully, who served as CMS administrator under Bush. Scully said Stannard advised him during his confirmation.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Friday, Trump said he would consider keeping two ACA provisions, guaranteed issue and allowing people to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26, out of respect for Obama.
Others rumored to be first picks on the healthcare team include Ado Machida, a former corporate lobbyist and domestic policy aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Carlos Diaz-Rosillo, a lecturer at Harvard University.
