�鶹Ů��

If President-elect Donald J. Trump wanted a cabinet secretary who could help him dismantle and replace President Obama’s health care law, he could not have found anyone more prepared than Representative Tom Price, who has been studying how to accomplish that goal for more than six years. Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon who represents many of the northern suburbs of Atlanta, speaks with the self-assurance of a doctor about to perform another joint-replacement procedure. He knows the task and will proceed with brisk efficiency. (Pear, 11/28)

President-elect Donald Trump has selected Georgia Rep. Tom Price, a leading critic of President Barack Obama's sweeping health care law, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a person familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Price would play a central role in Republican efforts to repeal and replace the current health care law. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling the landmark measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill. (Pace, 11/29)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump named a vociferous critic of Obamacare and a policy consultant on Tuesday to help him overhaul the healthcare system that Republicans have targeted since Democrats enacted sweeping reforms in 2010. Republican Representative Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia, will be Trump's Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, and consultant Seema Verma will lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a powerful agency that oversees government health programs and insurance standards. (Holland, 11/29)

A six-term member of Congress and an orthopedic surgeon, Price is a frequent critic of the health care law that Obama signed in 2010. “Premiums have gone up, not down," he has said. "Many Americans lost the health coverage they were told time and time again by the president that they could keep. Choices are fewer.” Price, 62, received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and started his career as an orthopedic surgeon in Roswell, Ga. Two decades later, he ran for office as a Republican. He was elected to the State Senate in 1996. (Jackson and Solis, 11/29)

“There is much work to be done to ensure we have a health care system that works for patients, families, and doctors; that leads the world in the cure and prevention of illness; and that is based on sensible rules to protect the well-being of the country while embracing its innovative spirit,” Price said in a statement. (Edney, House and Jacobs, 11/28)

Politically, Price is conservative. He opposes abortion rights, receiving a 2016 rating of 0 by Planned Parenthood and 100 percent by National Right to Life. He has voted against legislation aimed at prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation; for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman; and against the bill that would've ended the don't-ask-don't-tell policy regarding disclosure of sexual orientation in the military. (Neel, 11/28)

One of the 18 members of the House GOP Doctors Caucus, Price also supports major changes to both Medicaid and Medicare, health insurance pillars of the Great Society programs of the 1960s. Under his vision, both programs would cease to be entitlements that require them to provide coverage to every person who qualifies. Instead, like many House Republicans, he wants to convert Medicaid into block grants to states – which would give them more latitude from federal requirements about eligibility rules and the medical services that must be covered for low-income Americans. This plan would also require “able-bodied” applicants to meet work requirements in order to receive health care benefits — an idea that the Obama administration has consistently rebuffed. (Goldstein and Rucker, 11/29)

[Price] has championed his own legislation, the Empowering Patients First Act, since 2009, taking a position on a number of hot-button issues for conservative health policy thinkers. In its latest iteration, the proposal includes refundable, age-adjusted tax credits for people to buy insurance if they don’t have access to coverage through an employer or government program. People in a government program, such as Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare, would also be allowed to opt out of it and get tax credits toward the cost of private coverage instead. (Radnofsky and Nicholas, 11/28)

Experts have also guessed he would concentrate on state reform efforts and noted he has worked across the aisle. Price has been a strong supporter of looking to state governments for proposals of how to spend their healthcare dollars, even if the ideas are more left-leaning than he might personally advocate. (11/28)

As a leading member of the tea party caucus in the House, Price has led calls for dramatically cutting federal programs, particularly for low- and moderate-income Americans, and for repealing and replacing Obamacare, which he has called “monstrous legislation.” “Repealing this misbegotten monstrosity is the first step toward real healthcare reforms that empower patients and actually reduce costs,” he said a few months after Obama signed the health law in 2010. (Levey, 11/28)

An early Trump supporter, Price endorsed the president-elect in May. Price also campaigned with Trump at an Obamacare repeal rally a week before the election. "The things that we all believe about health care — we want a system that is affordable for everybody, that is accessible for everybody, that is of the highest quality and provides choices for patients — all of those things have been destroyed by Obamacare," Price said at the rally. That is "why we need Donald Trump and Mike Pence to work with us and make sure we put in place a real health solution.” (Haberkorn, 11/28)

But Price’s departure will also leave a major vacancy at the top of the budget committee at a time when GOP leaders will be pushing Congress’s budget rules to the limits. ... Price emerged as a top contender for HHS secretary earlier this month, beating out competitors such as former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R), who is advising Trump’s transition team. (Hensch and Ferris, 11/28)