Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Tom Price Tagged for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

By Douglas V. Gibbs
AuthorSpeakerInstructorRadio Host

Congressman Tom Price, a Republican out of Georgia, is conservative, and will be President-elect Donald Trump's nomination for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.  If confirmed by the Senate, Price's job would be to formulate the "replace" part of Trump's pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Obamacare should not be replaced, per se.  The federal government should get out of the healthcare game.  That said, a third party, like insurance companies, has been a part of the problem.  Creating competition by allowing these companies to sell across State lines is only a part of the solution.  Nudging the industry back towards a patient/provider relationship with things like health savings accounts and encouraging the States to pursue tort reform is our best bet to get healthcare affordable again.

Tom Price, 62-years-old, has served in Congress for six terms and is an orthopedic surgeon when he's not a congressman.

Price has said he would like to pursue a bill that looks like the one in 2015 that was vetoed by Obama.  That bill would keep Obamacare as a shell, but gut it of its more egregious elements.  

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, in this writer's opinion, while a fine choice for HHS Secretary, doesn't understand that Obamacare needs to be slashed and burned, and that the federal government has no constitutional authority over healthcare, so any power regarding making laws regarding the health industry needs to be returned to the States.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commenary

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