After seven years, will Medicare finally have a leader?

After seven years, will Medicare finally have a leader? .

"The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the federal government’s largest agency. It runs on a budget of nearly 1 trillion taxpayer dollars and oversees the two programs largely considered to pose the greatest long-term threat to the federal budget.

But for nearly a decade now, this hulking agency has been without a confirmed director.

Some nominees failed to survive confirmation; others didn’t even get a hearing as senators assumed the process would prove futile. The nomination process has become so politically fraught that Tom Scully, who ran Medicare under President George W. Bush, argues that ‘Mother Theresa or Gandhi couldn’t even get confirmed’ as of late.

Last week, Scully decided it was time to break a seven-year streak with no confirmed Medicare head. He joined up with six other former Medicare heads – three Republicans, three Democrats – to plead with top senators to confirm the White House’s newest nominee, Marilyn Tavenner."