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Trump Taps Rep. Tom Price for HHS Secretary

Trump Taps Rep. Tom Price for HHS Secretary

Conservative Obamacare opponent with a plan to replace President Obama’s hallmark legislation

A member of Trump’s transition team confirmed Monday night that the president-elect has selected Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) to serve as the Secretary of Heath and Human Services. Rep. Price has been the Chair of the House Budget Committee these last two years, working closely with Speaker Ryan o deficit reduction.

An orthopedic surgeon, Rep. Price has been a vocal opponent of Obamacare for it’s high costs and obstruction of quality patient care. Unlike many members of the Outrage Brigade, Rep. Price has solutions to the Obamacare problem.

From the New York Times:

Some Republicans have attacked the Affordable Care Act without proposing an alternative. Mr. Price, by contrast, has introduced bills offering a detailed, comprehensive replacement plan in every Congress since 2009, when Democrats started work on the legislation.

From his days as a Georgia state senator, Mr. Price, now 62, has been a voice for doctors, often aligned with the positions of the American Medical Association and the Medical Association of Georgia.

As secretary, Mr. Price would be responsible for a department with an annual budget of more than $1 trillion, health programs that insure more than 100 million Americans and agencies that regulate food and drugs and sponsor much of the nation’s biomedical research.

Rep. Price is confident in a plan that would protect health insurance consumers with pre-existing conditions, but forgo the individual mandate. Rather, tort reform and burdensome regulations are in his crosshairs.

Last week, Price said whatever Republicans do to replace Obama’s health care law will bear a “significant resemblance” to a 2015 measure that was vetoed by the president. That bill would have gutted some of the health care law’s main features: Medicaid expansion, subsidies to help middle-class Americans buy private policies, the tax penalties for individuals who refused to get coverage and several taxes to support coverage expansion. The bill would have delayed implementation for two years.

Price insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool. Price said Republicans want to address “the real cost drivers” of health care price spikes, which he said were not necessarily sicker patients, but a heavy regulatory burden, taxes and lawsuits against medical professionals.

Price is also a big fan of Taylor Swift.

As an added bonus, pro-infanticide outfit, NARAL, is no fan of Rep. Price.

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Comments

I hope Price is well to the RIGHT of T-rump on health care.

“Rep. Price has been a vocal opponent of Obamacare for it’s high costs…”

It’s?
IT’S??
Editors, please!

“lawsuits against medical professionals.” great. Republicans want to try to reduce costs by denying victims their day in court.

    Get real. Plaintiffs don’t realize a lot of gain with a medical malpractice lawsuit. The Lawyers are the ones who walk away with 60% or more of the settlement.

Medical care, not insurance, that is affordable, available, and universal. Good luck.

What no Republican is addressing in their proposals are the 20 million increase in people who have made some plan for paying for health care, because of Obama care. When the subsidies end, will enrollment follow?
I have leukemia and get a transfusion once a month, the billing to insurance companies is $10,650, Medicare claims this service’s “reasonable fees” is $1,120 of which I pay $220. This is preventative care, so I don’t get infections, hospitals are not required to give it under law. And yet I get adverts from several hospital infusion centers asking for my business.
Is it any wonder premiums are going through the roof? If hospitals will provide service for $1200, but if an insurance company pays they get $10,650 who in their right mind would think they would not ask for it?
Republican solutions also ignore the problem of people getting sick and becoming insolvent, remaining sick and qualifying for Medicaid, where the government ends up footing the bill anyway. Medical bills remain the #1 cause of bankruptcy.
Do we want to toss old ladies out onto the street for their last pennies or should we create a plan that generates the greatest voluntary funds?

OSCAR, an Obamacare Exchange is waiting in the wings.
Check it out.

Smart pick. Price has a much more serious and substantive plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare than Trump.