Trump taps ‘Obamacare’ foe, champion of privatizing Medicare

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Representative Tom Price of Georgia as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is an outstanding choice.

On Tuesday, Trump announced Elaine Chao as his choice for transportation secretary.

He also supports privatizing Medicare: This could be another flashpoint with Democrats, who say there’s no way they’ll let Republicans turn over Medicare and other government health benefits to private companies.

As HHS secretary, Price would be the country’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.

Older Americans would also likely see their premiums rise under Price’s plan.

She has worked with Vice-President-elect Mike Pence, the governor of IN, on a compromise to expand Medicaid coverage for the state’s poor with federal funding. He also met with Tennessee Sen.

The president-elect’s selection of Tom Price for health and human services secretary is a flawless example, as he opted for a congressional insider with detailed knowledge of the legislative steps necessary to realise Mr Trump’s stated goal of dismantling Democratic healthcare reforms.

Price, an orthopedic surgeon from the suburbs of Atlanta, introduced his own legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare in the current Congress and the three previous sessions.

Tevi Troy, the CEO of the American Health Policy Institute and the former deputy secretary of HHS under George W. Bush, said that view is too narrow. Before they can gut the law, Congress will need to take stock of all it does – and figure out, piece-by-piece, what to put in its place.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Tuesday that Obamacare expanded coverage to millions of Americans, boosted consumer protections and shored up the finances of the Medicare program for the elderly.

Trump has said he opposes GOP plans to provide vouchers for future Medicare beneficiaries and GOP support for the idea has never been tested beyond its inclusion in non-binding budget blueprints.

Price said that the task force’s replacement plan, called “A Better Way to Fix Health Care”, is a patient-centered plan that allows everyone to have access to health coverage.

Verma was the “architect” of Pence’s “signature health-care plan” who “quietly shaped much of Indiana’s public health-care policy” for more than a decade, according to a 2014 report by the Indianapolis-based IndyStar on concerns about potential conflicts of interest in her consulting work with a division of Hewlett-Packard Enterprises Co., one of Indiana’s largest Medicaid vendors.

Price, a Georgia Republican who now chairs the House Budget Committee, was among the first to suggest that not just the ACA but also Medicare are on the near-term agenda for newly empowered Republicans.

SVC and Verma have developed Medicaid reform programs including waivers for Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky and helped design Tennessee’s coverage expansion proposal and also provided technical assistance to MI as they implemented their Medicaid waiver. Georgia Congressman Tom price was an early Trump supporter and drafted the most comprehensive alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

Voters did not want Obamacare and the law has remained controversial with Americans. It is also yet another sign that his administration will be an unfolding horror show of the most extremist right-wing hucksters intent on dismantling America’s safety net and moral standing in the world. The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning is protected speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment. Chao, his pick for transportation secretary, was the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position, as labor secretary. He had served previously as a state lawmaker, rising to become Senate majority leader. On Monday, Trump spent an hour with retired Gen. David Petraeus, another new contender.

He also serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means. He will have dinner with Mitt Romney.

The president-elect summoned former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to NY for dinner Tuesday night to discuss the secretary of state job for a second time.

President-elect Donald Trump is kicking off a “thank-you” tour in Ohio.