The Doctor Who Made Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices!

She led Medicare when it negotiated drug prices for the first time since the program began in 1965. Now she runs Maryland's $20 billion health department.

Dr. Meena Seshamani is Maryland's Secretary of Health, appointed by Governor Wes Moore in April 2025 and the first Indian American to hold the post. She is a head and neck surgeon with a doctorate in health economics, helped pass and implement the Affordable Care Act in the Obama administration, and ran Medicare in the Biden administration.

She explains:

◼️ How one econ class turned a future pediatrician into a surgeon and health economist

◼️ Why she paused her surgical residency for two years to work on the Affordable Care Act

◼️ What it took to stand up Medicare drug price negotiation, through multiple lawsuits

◼️ The advice from Secretary Sebelius she still lives by: "There are people who do half as much as you do and talk about it twice as much"

◼️ The one question that makes her a better boss: "What homework do you have for me?"

◼️ How Maryland's vaccine law works, and why people trust neighbors, faith leaders and pharmacists over websites

◼️ Why being a single parent never held her back, and what it will take to get more women into leadership

◼️ The question she stopped asking, and the one she asks instead: "What if I can?"

00:00 Trailer

00:41 Intro

01:40 From pediatrician to economist to head and neck surgeon

04:12 Leaving residency to write the Affordable Care Act

07:20 The patient who would call the president

08:08 How she decides between two doors

09:39 "Half as much, twice as much"

11:29 Be a good person to work for

13:30 "What homework do you have for me?"

15:08 Vaccines and Maryland's new law

18:24 Earning back trust

20:23 Hard calls and who she turns to

21:24 Medicare's first drug price negotiation

24:32 Blind spots in big decisions

25:05 "I would follow you into battle"

26:10 Getting more women into leadership

28:55 "What if I can?"

Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw: conversations with women leaders in health, technology and business.

#InspiringWomen #Leadership #Medicare #HealthPolicy #WomenInLeadership