Tom Price has campaigned relentlessly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and his nomination process has also been plagued by allegations of insider trading

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The US Senate has confirmed conservative Georgia representative Tom Price as Donald Trump’s health secretary, an appointment that suggests a radical shift in American healthcare over the next four years.



In a late-night vote sharply divided along party lines, the 62-year-old former orthopedic surgeon was confirmed by 52 votes to 47. He will lead an agency with a $1.1tn budget, made up of some of America’s largest public health insurance programs, which he has spent much of his career attacking.

As a congressman he supported privatizing Medicare, America’s public health insurance for the elderly. He proposed turning Medicaid, a program for the poor, into a block grant – a change certain to precipitate cuts.

What an Obamacare replacement could look like under Tom Price Read more

Price campaigned relentlessly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s signature health law, which brought consumer protections and government subsidies to an unwieldy private insurance market. The law helped insure 20 million Americans.

If such changes were enacted they would amount to critical shifts in American healthcare, arguably the most expensive and complex system in the world.

Price’s nomination process has also been plagued by allegations of insider trading.

Price bought and sold health stocks repeatedly even though he was a leading voice on healthcare policy in the US House of Representatives. In one case, he was offered a discounted price for an Australian company called Innate Immunotherapeutics for between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of stock. At the same time, another Trump transition team member and fellow House colleague, Chris Collins, was one of the company’s main investors.

In another instance, Price purchased up to $15,000 worth of stock in Zimmer Bionet, one of the world’s lead orthopedic device manufacturers, before filing a bill less than one week later that could have aided the medical device market.

In yet another instance, Price introduced a bill that could have potentially benefitted durable medical goods manufacturers, before purchasing $15,000 worth of shares in Blackstone, which owns medical durable goods manufacturer Apria, according to USA Today. The same investigation found Price misstated the timing and value of his purchases in several instances.

Trump's cabinet Confirmed

James Mattis (Defense), John Kelly (Homeland Security), Rex Tillerson (State), Elaine Chao (Transportation), Nikki Haley (United Nations), Betsy DeVos (Education), Jeff Sessions (Attorney General), Tom Price (Health and Human Services), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury), David Shulkin (Veterans Affairs), Scott Pruitt (Environmental Protection Agency), Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Ryan Zinke (Interior), Rick Perry (Energy), Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development), Sonny Perdue (Agriculture), Alexander Acosta (Labor) Awaiting Senate approval

Linda McMahon (Small Business Association), Mick Mulvaney (Office of Management and Budget director), Robert Lighthizer (US trade representative) Withdrawn

Andrew Puzder (Labor) Not yet announced

Council of Economic Advisers chair



Price has always denied any wrongdoing. Throughout hearings, he maintained that his broker was in charge of buying and selling stocks, and that in most cases he had no knowledge of the trades. His broker arrangement is far from a blind trust though, and in the Innate Immunotherapeutics case Price testified that he personally instructed his broker to purchase the stock.

Democratic opponents, keen to keep the Affordable Care Act in place, called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Price. When Democrats boycotted his hearing before the Senate finance committee, Republicans changed the rules to advance his candidacy without them.

It was not only Price’s opposition to the ACA that has raised the hackles of Democrats. Price is vehemently anti-abortion, and anti-gay rights. He called an escrow account established for victims of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill a “Chicago-style political shakedown”.

He voted against allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. He voted against federal funding for syringe exchange programs, which are proven to reduce HIV infection rates, even as injection drug use in his district was on the rise.

Price’s stances on medical issues are so controversial even doctors were divided by his nomination, despite his physician bona fides.

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While Price’s proposals represent the near polar-opposite of the current ACA, emphasizing that the free market and doctors could best determine how to treat patients, his testimony was almost conciliatory.

“Many individuals have coverage, they have a card, but they don’t have any care,” Price said during a recent hearing. “It’s imperative we have a system that is accessible for every American, affordable for every American.”

His broad assertions about affordability and access have left many attempting to read tea leaves to determine which, among several Republican proposals including Price’s, would make it into an actual plan. So far, Republicans have made seemingly contradictory proposals for “insurance for everybody” and to end the individual mandate, the element of Obamacare that requires people to have insurance.

“I have had conversations with the president about healthcare, yes,” Price said at another point in his hearing, though he offered no details of what those conversations entailed.

Recent protests against the repeal of the ACA ensure that, whatever Price’s role in replacement is, it is unlikely to go unnoticed.