WASHINGTON — A former intensive care nurse with a businesslike approach to a politically divisive public policy area won Senate approval Wednesday to run Medicare and other major health insurance programs.

By an overwhelming 91-7 vote, the Senate confirmed Marilyn Tavenner to oversee Medicare, Medicaid, children's health insurance and coverage for the uninsured under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Together, the programs under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cover more than 100 million Americans, ranging from newborns in low-income families, to people with severe physical and mental disabilities, to patients under hospice care in their last days of life. Part of the Health and Human Services Department, the agency has a budget of about $850 billion that easily eclipses spending on national defense.