HHS Secretary Alex Azar Resigns, Effective Jan. 20

Alex Azar has resigned as head of HHS to make room for President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for HHS Secretary following his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.

Azar was sworn in as the 24th HHS Secretary in 2018 after the department’s former leader Tom Price was accused of using taxpayer dollars to pay for charter flights for him and members of his family. Azar formerly served as a senior executive at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, as well as Deputy Secretary from 2005 to 2007.

President-elect Biden has already tapped Xavier Becerra, California’s Attorney General and one of the chief architects behind the Affordable Care Act’s defense in the current Supreme Court case, to lead HHS during his administration, pending Congressional approval.

In a Jan. 12 resignation letter shared on Twitter, Azar highlighted the department’s COVID-19 response efforts under his leadership, including the authorization of two successful vaccines via Operation Warp Speed.

Azar also pointed to other successes in his eyes, such as implementing price transparency requirements for hospitals, reducing prescription drug prices through President Trump’s American Patients First blueprint, and creating more options for healthcare coverage.

The latter effort included the introduction of short-term limited-duration health plans, which are also known as “skinny” plans. Azar also led the department through several Medicaid Section 1115 waivers that implemented a number of coverage reforms, including block grants and work requirements.

“The reforms we put in place are the most consequential changes to how healthcare is financed and delivered since Medicare and Medicaid were enacted,” Azar wrote in the letter to President Trump. “Thanks to your willingness to take on all of the entrenched special interests in healthcare, we have put the patient truly at the center of the system, with the potential for the first time in 55 years to have a competitive system of healthcare in which the quality goes up and prices go down.”

However, Azar expressed concerns that the January attacks on the Capitol “threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this Administration.”

“The attacks on the Capitol were an assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power that the United States of American first brought to the world,” Azar wrote. “I implore you to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the inaugural activities in Washington or elsewhere, and to continue to support unreservedly the peaceful and orderly transitions of power on January, 20, 2021.”

The FBI has alerted the Capitol and capital cities around the country about a heightened risk of violent protests tomorrow after the attacks in early January.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma has also submitted a resignation letter to President Trump to ensure a peaceful transition to power.

Verma and Azar’s resignations will be effective Jan. 20, 2021, at noon.