Vehement Obamacare critic Tom Price confirmed as US health secretary

[Northerner]

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 congressmanhe 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.

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/10/tom-price-confirmed-health-secretary-trump

 

[mikeyB]

He also opposes abortion, and voted against gay marrage. He's a Presbyterian, the Christian equivalent of fundamental Muslims. Health care will be denied to a swathe of poor people, mainly of colour.

That said, the US spends a greater proportion of its government budget on health than the UK. God knows where that goes.

 

[Northerner]

He also opposes abortion, and voted against gay marrage. He's a Presbyterian, the Christian equivalent of fundamental Muslims. Health care will be denied to a swathe of poor people, mainly of colour.

That said, the US spends a greater proportion of its government budget on health than the UK. God knows where that goes.

I was reading the other day that there is a massive administrative overhead, dealing with all the insurance companies and claims - basically wasted money

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

Interestingly some Trump supporters were going on about how brilliant it was that he was going to end Obama care, but that they would be alright as they got health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, without realising they were the same thing!

 

[mikeyB]

Now that I can well believe Lucy. Nobody has ever underestimated the stupidity of the American people.

 

[robert@fm]

He also opposes abortion, and voted against gay marrage. He's a Presbyterian, the Christian equivalent of fundamental Muslims. Health care will be denied to a swathe of poor people, mainly of colour.

I'm not sure that the analogy of this guy with Moslem mentalfundalists is quite true; opposing care to poor people is a violation of the Third Pillar of Islam, and thus about as serious as it can get...

Interestingly some Trump supporters were going on about how brilliant it was that he was going to end Obama care, but that they would be alright as they got health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, without realising they were the same thing!

Now that I can well believe Lucy. Nobody has ever underestimated the stupidity of the American people.

I think @mikeyB meant "overestimated"; to call most Americans (especially Republicans) "thick as a brick" is an insult to bricks...

 

[mikeyB]

The American healthcare system is shocking. The US is 29th in the list of countries statistics of maternal and child deaths in childbirth. More than twice as bad as the UK, and we aren’t the best. Nobody in the US seems to have noticed.