President-elect Donald Trump plans to select House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, two people familiar with the decision said late Monday. In picking Price, Trump tapped an arch-conservative lawmaker and leading critic of the Affordable Care Act to lead his push to roll back President Obama’s signature health law. Price, like Trump, has long argued that reducing federal regulation would make health insurance and medical care more affordable. And his proposed replacement relies heavily on long-held conservative healthcare ideas, such as allowing insurance companies to sell health plans across state lines and placing limits on medical malpractice lawsuits. And his efforts to restrict abortion rights, privatize Medicare coverage and push through unprecedented federal spending cuts have been fiercely criticized on the left.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 29, 2016 03:44 UTC