A vehement Obamacare critic has been confirmed as the US Health Secretary.

The US Senate voted on Friday to confirm Representative Tom Price as the top healthcare official in the Trump administration.

Price has campaigned relentlessly to repeal Obamacare and in his new role he will have the authority to rewrite rules implementing the Affordable Care Act, as it is officially known.

The Senate voted 52-47 to approve the conservative Republican from Georgia, a former orthopedic surgeon, as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a massive department with an annual budget of more than $1trillion.

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The US Senate voted on Friday to confirm Representative Tom Price as the top US healthcare office

Announcing 62-year-old Price as his pick last month, Trump praised him as 'exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible health care to every American'.

Price could move quickly to rework Obamacare regulations while waiting for Republicans in Congress to keep their pledge to scrap the law entirely.

Republicans, who have the majority in Congress, are trying to craft a replacement for Obamacare but have not agreed on one.

Twenty million Americans gained health insurance under the law.

Price's nomination was dogged by questions about his trading in hundreds of thousands of dollars in health company stocks while working on healthcare legislation.

Democrats boycotted the committee vote on his nomination, saying he had made misleading statements about shares he had purchased.

Price claimed his actions were legal and ethical.

Price's nomination was dogged by questions about his trading in hundreds of thousands of dollars in health company stocks while working on healthcare legislation

A member of the House of Representatives since 2005 and currently chairman of the budget committee, Price is the author of legislation to repeal Obamacare and replace it with age-adjusted tax credits for the purchase of health insurance.

Democrats criticized Price for his stock trading as well as his opposition to Obamacare, his ideas about restructuring the Medicare program for the elderly, and his support for cutting federal funds to Planned Parenthood, a women's healthcare organization that provides abortions.

The Department of Health and Human Services oversees Medicare and Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.