Update to The coming assault on Medicare.
The egomaniacal Twitter troll Donald Trump has named Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) as his choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees not just “ObamaCare” but the entitlement programs of Medicaid and Medicare. Price supports the privatization of Medicare into “voucher care” that House Speaker Paul Ryan is salivating to pass. Trump names Rep. Tom Price as next HHS secretary:
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), a fierce critic of the Affordable Care Act and a proponent of overhauling the nation’s entitlement programs, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump also named Seema Verma, a health-care consultant who was the architect of [restrictive] Medicaid changes in Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana, to run a crucial section of HHS: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
As HHS secretary, Price would be the nation’s top health official and the incoming administration’s point person for dismantling the sprawling 2010 health-care law, which Trump promised during his campaign to start dismantling on his first day in the Oval Office. The 62-year-old lawmaker, who represents a wealthy suburban Atlanta district, has played a leading role in Republican opposition to the law and has helped draft several comprehensive bills to replace it.