Elizabeth Warren Will Oppose Biden’s ‘Deeply Unethical’ Medicare Nominee

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will vote in opposition to confirming President Joe Biden’s nominee, Demetrios Kouzoukas, to a key board overseeing the funds of Social Safety and Medicare, citing his “deeply unethical” conflicts of curiosity, HuffPost has realized.

Kouzoukas, who’s prone to get his vote within the Senate Finance Committee within the subsequent few weeks, is Biden’s nominee for a public trustee spot on the Board of Trustees for Medicare and Social Safety Applications, which oversees the monetary operations of each of the large social security internet packages. The panel can also be charged with issuing annual reviews to Congress on the monetary standing of each belief funds.

Warren tore into Kouzoukas final month throughout his nomination listening to, when he repeatedly refused to say if he would resign from his present place as a board member for Clover Well being, a for-profit firm that makes cash from Medicare Benefit. She particularly pressed Kouzoukas on his wage, which he wouldn’t reveal.

“I feel you suppose you’re going to get away with this by simply not answering the query, and never having any clip that admits how a lot cash you’re taking from a personal insurance coverage firm that makes its cash via Medicare Benefit,” Warren instructed him. “And on the identical second that you simply’re attempting to take a public function that may affect whether or not we give attention to the fraud in Medicare Benefit, or whether or not we flip a blind eye to it.”

The Massachusetts Democrat additionally warned that he wanted to both resign from Clover or withdraw his nomination, or she would oppose him.

In a letter obtained by HuffPost, Kouzoukas final week instructed Warren that he gained’t resign from the insurance coverage firm job, and he gained’t withdraw his nomination to be a public trustee.

So, Warren confirmed Wednesday that she’s going to vote in opposition to his affirmation and will probably be encouraging her colleagues to do the identical.

“This letter makes clear that Mr. Kouzoukas can’t successfully serve on the Board of Trustees for Medicare and Social Safety,” she instructed HuffPost in a press release. “His function as a Board member for a Medicare Benefit insurer is in direct battle along with his obligations to the general public, and he can’t resolve this deeply unethical and egregious battle of curiosity.”

Right here’s a replica of Kouzoukas’s letter:

In his letter, Kouzoukas defended his choice to maintain his job on the medical health insurance firm board by claiming that trustees’ reviews don’t tackle “subjects like ‘overpayments’ to Medicare benefit plans.”

However these annual reviews have talked about danger score-related overpayments quite a few instances since 2011, based on Warren’s workplace. Past that, Medicare Benefit has been overcharging the federal authorities by as a lot as $140 billion per 12 months, based on a report launched this month by Physicians for a Nationwide Well being Program, an advocacy group that helps transitioning to a single-payer medical health insurance system.

Warren is the one Democratic senator up to now who has raised issues with Kouzoukas, however some progressive teams have been urging his defeat. Social Safety Works, a grassroots advocacy group targeted on defending Social Safety, Medicare and Medicaid, launched a petition earlier this month calling on senators to tank Kouzoukas’ nomination.

As of Wednesday afternoon, greater than 26,000 folks had signed it.

A White Home spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Kouzoukas is formally a Biden nominee, however he was put ahead to the White Home by Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That’s as a result of the Board of Trustees of the Social Safety and Medicare Belief Fund has slots for 2 public trustees, one chosen by Republicans and one by Democrats.

Provided that Kouzoukas is a GOP decide, Warren’s vote in opposition to him in committee gained’t tank his nomination there, until all different Democrats lined up in opposition, too.