STAT+: Former Trump FDA, CMS heads lay out how his return could reshape health policy

With President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration a week away, top officials from his first stint in the White House pointed to a range of ways the new administration could reshape key areas of health policy.  

Scott Gottlieb and Seema Verma, the former heads of the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, respectively, said that the incoming president and his team could influence which vaccines get recommended and take steps that discourage states from requiring certain vaccines for school children. The former Trump appointees added that he’ll likely target pharmacy benefit managers, much-maligned middlemen in drug pricing negotiations, and may look for ways to cut costs within Medicaid and Medicare Advantage. 

They noted that these efforts will likely be more forceful than during Trump’s first term, both because of his popular vote victory and now that he is free of the pressure of reelection. The remarks came during a wide-ranging conversation Monday night at a STAT event during the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

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