Georgia’s Tom Price Confirmed For HHS Secretary
Andrew Harnik / Associated Press
An audio version of this story.
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., has been confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary.
The 52 to 47 vote along party lines came early Friday morning. Democratic officials had stalled the vote until nearly 2 a.m., making claims that Price would cut health care for millions of Americans.
Price has been a critic of the Affordable Care and while in Congress proposed a plan that he said would be a better replacement.
Supporters like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell say Price will stabilize health care markets.
Price previously ran an Atlanta-based orthopedic clinic and was a director at Grady Memorial Hospital.
He will now oversee the largest budget of any of President Trump’s cabinent picks, according to NPR.
Price will oversee a $1 trillion agency, the largest budget of any Cabinet secretary. In addition to Obamacare, HHS administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs and oversees the National Institutes of Health, among other programs and agencies.
With Price’s confirmation, HHS now has as its leader a budget hawk who has proposed replacing the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are tied to income, with tax credits to purchase insurance. Tax credits are not determined by an individual’s income level.
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