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Trump appointee Seema Verma, who overseas Medicare and other health programs, sought to have taxpayers reimburse her for jewelry, clothing and personal items — which she claimed were worth a combined $47,000 — stolen with her luggage during a work-related trip, according to a report.
The list of items included a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, Politico reported, citing documents, including the police report, that pertained to the claim. The items were nabbed from the rented SUV used by Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and also oversees Obamacare, when she gave a speech in San Francisco over the summer.
The property was not insured, Verma wrote in her filing to the Health and Human Services department.
Verma initially estimated the cost of her lost property as $20,000, according to the police report, before later revising the cost upward when filing her claim to the health department. Verma’s claim, which noted a jewelry appraisal sought after the theft, also included about $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes and another $2,000 for various items, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones, Politico said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told the publication that the department has a policy of paying for certain goods when they are lost during a work trip, as long as they “are not inherently for other uses,” but that excludes jewelry. Verma was ultimately reimbursed just $2,852.40, according to the report.
Verma, who formerly served as a consultant to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s current vice president, has led CMS since March 2017. Her spending of taxpayer money has also been under scrutiny by the HHS inspector general, after reports earlier this year about her use of outside public relations consultants, some of whom worked to promote Verma’s personal brand.
She has recently been speaking out against publicly funded health care in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential race.
Donald Trump famously ran his 2016 campaign for the presidency by promising to “drain the swamp” and upend business-as-usual in Washington, where the line between public service and private advancement can be blurred.
Ivanka Trump said in July 2018 she was shutting down her namesake fashion brand as the White House adviser had grown frustrated by restrictions aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest.
