Sen. Warren Helpfully Identifies Medicare Trustee Nominee's Glaring Conflict Of Interest For Him

[gratuitous]

44. Kouzoukas is on the board of Clover Health

During his personal testimony about his experience and background, Kouzoukas neglected to mention that. When asked by Sen. Warren what he's paid by Clover Health to sit on their board, he dodged, dissembled and ducked before finally, grudgingly, admitting that he gets $100,000 a year from Clover.

Warren then asked Kouzoukas if he was going to resign from Clover. More dodging, dissembling and ducking ensued, and Warren finally just said that it didn't sound like Kouzoukas was going to resign his $100,000 a year post.

Warren then pointed out that being a trustee of Medicare Advantage that Kouzoukas would be making decisions about all kinds of things that would affect Clover Health and its bottom line. Kouzoukas tried more dodging, dissembling and ducking with a good bit of willful ignorance thrown in for good measure, but Warren wasn't having it:

Let’s be clear. If Mr. Kouzoukas ignores the fraud, he helps Clover. If he focuses on the fraud, he hurts Clover. The conflict of interest here is so big and so pervasive that there is no action that Mr. Kouzoukas can take that doesn’t either help or hurt Clover, the company that pays him $100,000 a year to sit on its board and watch out for the company. And there is no waiver that can change that fact. This kind of conflict is shocking and it is deeply unethical. Not a single other trustee has ever received compensation from an insurance company while acting as a Medicare trustee.

This nomination needs to be voted down.