President-elect Donald Trump has chosen six-term, Republican congressman Tom Price of Georgia as his pick to serve as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Price, an orthopedic surgeon and current chairman of the House budget committee, has been an outspoken critic of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since it’s inception. Unlike many Obamacare opponents, Price has proposed a concrete alternative to the ACA (dubbed the Empowering Patients First Act) that would:
- offer age-adjusted tax credits to purchase individual and family health insurance policies
- incentivize health savings accounts
- offer state grants to subsidize insurance for “high-risk populations”
- allow insurers to sell policies across state lines
- authorize “association health plans” for business and professional groups to provide coverage to members
Price has been an advocate for physician autonomy, and has spoken against same-sex marriage, Planned Parenthood, and government-mandated health demonstration projects.