How did Trump's health chief lose nearly $50k in luggage in three days?

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-anti-medicaid

Seema Verma who, as a senior figure in the Trump administration, has made it more difficult for poor Americans to access health coverage, has filed a claim of $47,000 for the loss of her luggage while on a three-day work trip.

According to Politico, Verma filed the claim on 28 August 2018 after having her luggage stolen while giving a speech in San Francisco. Her expenses included 20 pieces of jewellery, which sounds reasonable for a three day-work trip – if you are Snoop Dogg.

She had originally estimated the cost of those pieces at $20,000, but came back with the higher $43,065 price tag after visiting a jeweler three weeks after the theft. Because sometimes you’re just that rich that you forget about that extra 20 grand you dropped at the jewelers.

Verma is the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is responsible for Medicare, the US health insurance program for seniors and Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans.

The jewellery claim included 11 pairs of earrings, five necklaces and three pendants. In evidence that shows money does not equal class, one of those pendants was this Ivanka Trump gold, prasiolite and diamond pendant, which looks like it was picked by the claw machine in an arcade.

The government spends approximately $5,700 per Medicaid patient. That means that the bill she tried to get the taxpayer to foot (the CMS only granted a $2,852.40 reimbursement) is roughly equivalent to what the government spends on eight Medicaid patients yearly.

You may be wondering what she was doing with all that jewellery. Swapping out weights in the gym for travel-friendly lifting? Not quite – according to a CMS spokesperson, Verma takes a large collection of jewelry when she travels, because she “travels to Washington DC from Indiana each week to work at CMS.”

Shouldn’t someone who values their expensive items have at least been insured? Verma, a strong advocate for fiscal responsibility when it comes to health insurance (she has suggested low-income families do unpaid community service to pay towards it) had not insured her items. Verma has condemned Medicare for All, calling it a “scary” and “bad” idea that would “bankrupt future generations”. So maybe it’s just a little bit rich that she thought the taxpayer should pick up her uninsured jewellery bill.

Verma, who to be fair is glowing, also filed a claim for a $345 moisturizer and about $2,000 towards stolen clothes.

If there’s one ray of light it’s that the CMS were unaware of a federal health employee who has filed such a large claim in the past.

“Medicaid is too vital a program to let fraud and inappropriate spending threaten it,” Verma said during the speech she made on the trip in question, in San Francisco in 2018. Which is why she should back Kennedy’s call for her to resign.

In the past, she has come under fire for the steering of more than $2m on public relations contractors, some of whom were bolstering her personal brand. She should probably give them a call.

[specsaregood]

I hope she learned not to visit that $#@!hole again.

[shakey1]

What is the need to take it with you?

[susano]

According to Politico, Verma filed the claim on 28 August 2018 after having her luggage stolen while giving a speech in San Francisco. Her expenses included 20 pieces of jewellery, which sounds reasonable for a three day-work trip – if you are Snoop Dogg.

lol

[oyarde]

Who is paying the claim?

[RonZeplin]

Who is paying the claim?

As US taxpayers, You & I are.

Verma is the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

That means that the bill she tried to get the taxpayer to foot (the CMS only granted a $2,852.40 reimbursement) is roughly equivalent to what the government spends on eight Medicaid patients yearly.

[Zippyjuan]

As US taxpayers, You & I are.

$43,000 in jewelry and no insurance?

Verma, a strong advocate for fiscal responsibility when it comes to health insurance (she has suggested low-income families do unpaid community service to pay towards it) had not insured her items. Verma has condemned Medicare for All, calling it a “scary” and “bad” idea that would “bankrupt future generations”. So maybe it’s just a little bit rich that she thought the taxpayer should pick up her uninsured jewellery bill.

[susano]

As US taxpayers, You & I are.

I don't think that's clear. If the luggage was stolen in the hotel, I would think the claim would be against the hotel.

[Zippyjuan]

I don't think that's clear. If the luggage was stolen in the hotel, I would think the claim would be against the hotel.

It does not say where the theft occurred other than the bags were reportedly stolen. She filed a claim with the US government- her department, Health and Human Services, to cover her claimed losses.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...jewelry-077761

Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filed a $47,000 claim for lost property on Aug. 20, 2018, after her bags were stolen while she was giving a speech in San Francisco the prior month. The property was not insured, Verma wrote in her filing to the Health and Human Services department.

The federal health department ultimately reimbursed Verma $2,852.40 for her claim, a CMS spokesperson said.

Verma’s claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she'd received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft. Among Verma's stolen jewelry was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, made of gold, prasiolite and diamonds, that Verma’s jeweler valued at $5,900.

Verma’s claim also included about $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes and another $2,000 to cover the cost of other stolen goods, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes CMS, said the department has a longstanding policy of paying for certain goods when they are lost during a work trip, so long as they “are not inherently for other uses,” which is why Verma was partially reimbursed.

"When paying for such goods, the department pays a discounted rate based on age for the items that were lost," the spokesperson said. "It’s perfectly appropriate that the administrator filed a personal property loss claim for goods stolen while on work travel and this is not an unusual practice for federal employees."

But the department is expressly prohibited from reimbursing staff for lost items like jewelry, the spokesperson said.

[susano]

It does not say where the theft occurred other than the bags were reportedly stolen. She filed a claim with the US government- her department, Health and Human Services, to cover her claimed losses.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...jewelry-077761

Ah, thank you. I just quickly scanned your OP. Just another scammer. It's a problem in our society. I hope her claim is DENIED. And, what's that sh*t about her flying to India all of the time? WHY (other than she's Indian)??? More waster, fraud and abuse. Nice gig if you can get it, I'm sure every swamp creature says.