Trump taps Obamacare critic to revamp health system

By Steve Holland

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump named a vociferous critic of Obamacare and a health policy expert on Tuesday to help him repeal and replace President Barack Obama's signature healthcare program.

Republican Representative Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia, will be Trump's Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, and consultant Seema Verma will lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a powerful agency that oversees government health programs and insurance standards.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, arriving at Trump Tower in New York, promised a "busy day" as the team continues filling key positions.

The president-elect plans to announce his choice of former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to serve as secretary of transportation, according to two sources familiar with the decision.

Trump, a Republican, cast Price and Verma as a "dream team" to help him once he takes office on Jan. 20 with his campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare, the health law formally known as the Affordable Care Act. Since its enactment in 2010, it has been a target of Republican attacks.

Defenders of Obamacare, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, said Price was too extreme. Democrats also criticized the pick because Price has supported barring federal funds for Planned Parenthood, which provides some abortions in addition to birth control, health exams and other services.

"Nominating Congressman Price to be the HHS secretary is akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house," Schumer said.

The 2010 healthcare overhaul, aimed at expanding insurance coverage to millions more Americans, triggered a long, bitter fight between the White House and congressional Republicans, who said it created unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and private industry.

Trump has said he will replace Obamacare with a plan to give states more control over the Medicaid health plan for the poor and allow insurers to sell plans nationally.

Both Price and Verma will need Senate confirmation in their positions, and the Trump administration will need congressional approval to repeal and change the health law.

TACKLING OBAMACARE

White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Tuesday said Obamacare expanded coverage to millions of Americans, boosted consumer protections and shored up the finances of the Medicare program for the elderly. "We'll see if Trump care measures up," Earnest said.

Trump had appeared to soften somewhat on Obamacare after meeting with the president following his Nov. 8 election victor, saying he would consider keeping some provisions that let parents keep adult children up to age 26 on insurance policies and bar insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Get The News You Want

Read market moving news with a personalized feed of stocks you care about.

Get The App

But Price, an early Trump supporter in the U.S. House of Representatives who leads the budget committee, is a staunch critic, and congressional Republicans have drawn on his ideas for eliminating Obamacare.

His plan would create age-based tax credits for people who buy insurance coverage on their own. It would also boost health savings accounts and give states money to create high-risk pools for people who cannot obtain insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Price would also roll back the 2010 law's expansion of Medicaid for low-income people, a change that helped Obamacare cut the number of uninsured Americans from 49 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2015.

Verma helped Pence, the Indiana governor, add conservative pieces to Medicaid coverage for the state's poor by requiring beneficiaries to make contributions to health savings accounts.

Any major changes to Obamacare would have to come from Congress, but the new administration could in the meantime choose how to enforce existing provisions, such as by expanding exemptions for employers who do not want to cover birth control, said Gretchen Borchelt of the National Women's Law Center.

MORE CABINET PICKS

Trump's work to fill his administration was accompanied by a series of controversial tweets targeting efforts to recount the presidential vote and, on Tuesday, calling for burning the U.S. flag to be a crime. The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning is protected speech under the Constitution's First Amendment.

Trump has met with about 70 people as he looks to shape his White House and Cabinet team. Chao, his pick for transportation secretary, was the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position as labor secretary. She is married to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump is still considering options for three major positions: the secretaries of state, defense and Treasury.

Trump saw retired General David Petraeus, a potential candidate for the State Department or the Pentagon, on Monday. On Tuesday, he plans to meet with U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a transition official said. He will have dinner with Mitt Romney.

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Corker and Giuliani are all in the running for secretary of state.