Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Price Hearing Expected To Be Turbulent As Nominee Faces Scrutiny Over Health Stocks
NPR: Trump's HHS Nominee Faces His First Senate Grilling
On Wednesday, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., goes before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in his first grilling since he was nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. ... Here are five things to look out for. (Kodjak, 1/18)
The Associated Press: Pointed Questions Await Trump's Pick For Health Secretary
With coverage for millions of people at stake, Rep. Tom Price is facing pointed questions about President-elect Donald Trump's health policies — and his own investments in health care companies — from senators considering his selection as health secretary. While Price, an orthopedic surgeon-turned-lawmaker, is largely a known quantity on Capitol Hill, Trump's bottom line on health care remains a mystery for Democrats and Republicans alike. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/18)
The Washington Post: Facing The Senate, HHS Nominee Price Will Defend GOP’s Health Care Overhaul
The courtesy hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will mark the first time Price has appeared before lawmakers since being nominated; his formal confirmation hearing, before the Senate Finance Committee, is set for Jan. 24. This first encounter will both give the six-term congressman his first opportunity to make a public case for his selection, while allowing Democrats to argue why the incoming administration should preserve — not jettison — the Affordable Care Act. (Eilperin and Goldstein, 1/18)
USA Today: Tom Price, Trump's HHS Nominee, To Face Tough Grilling About Policies, Stock Trades
Three Democratic senators on the panel holding Wednesday's hearing sent a letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., on Tuesday urging him to delay the hearing until the ethics allegations can be "thoroughly investigated and addressed." (O'Donnell, 1/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Health Secretary Pick Tom Price To Face Questions On Stock Trades, Obamacare Plans At Confirmation Hearing
A spokesman for Mr. Price has said he followed all relevant laws and rules, and the Trump transition team rejected the idea that any serious concerns surround Mr. Price.“The only pattern we see emerging is that Senate Democrats and their liberal media allies cannot abide the notion that Dr. Tom Price is uniquely qualified to lead HHS and will stop at nothing to smear his reputation,” Phillip Blando, a spokesman for the Trump transition team, said in a statement. (Armour, 1/18)
Los Angeles Times: Senate Panel To Hear From Trump's Health Secretary Pick Amid Rising Ethics Questions
Senate GOP leaders have signaled their intent to quickly confirm Price. But the six-term Georgia congressman has become one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks, as much for his ethics disclosures as his unusually partisan record. (Levey, 1/18)
Stat: 6 Questions For Rep. Tom Price, Trump's Nominee To Lead HHS
Price is also appearing before lawmakers at a time of growing scrutiny over his investments in health care and tobacco companies. Last week, he pledged to divest his financial interests from 43 companies. But questions remain about whether Price, whose shares in Innate Immunotherapeutics boomed shortly after his purchase last fall, secured a deal that was not available to the general public. Here are some questions we would like to see answered. (Kaplan, 1/17)
CQ Roll Call: Democrats Unsuccessfully Seek Delay In HHS Hearing
Three Democratic senators on Tuesday asked to delay a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, until the lawmaker's trading of health stocks is investigated. However, the committee chairman said the hearing is still on. Price, a Georgia Republican, traded in dozens of medical stocks while serving on the House Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee. He has also led GOP efforts to undo the 2010 health law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) and to block or delay the Obama administration's efforts to test alternative Medicare payments for orthopedics and medicines. (Williams and Young, 1/17)
Politico Pro: Democrats Step Up Attacks On Price
The author of the law that shed sunlight on Rep. Tom Price’s health care stock trades has been calling on the SEC to investigate — and more Democrats are following suit as Price faces his first confirmation hearing Wednesday. "It’s shameful," Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) on POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast said of the more than $300,000 in health care trades made by Donald Trump’s pick to run HHS. Slaughter authored the 2012 STOCK Act that requires lawmakers to disclose certain transactions — and which sparked a series of stories on Price’s investments. (Diamond, 1/18)
Los Angeles Times: Trump's Health Secretary Pick Fought To Limit Coverage In One Of America's Neediest States
From the packed hallways of Atlanta’s massive county hospital to the thousands of patients who line up around the state every year to get Obamacare, yawning gaps in Georgia’s overburdened healthcare system aren’t hard to find. “The need for care is just tremendous,” said Dr. Charles Moore, a Harvard-trained ear, nose and throat specialist who runs an Atlanta clinic for poor patients. Georgia has some of the worst health outcomes in the country, with high rates of untreated illness and death from preventable diseases. (Levey, 1/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Tom Price, Nominee For HHS Secretary And A Doctor, Is A Harbinger Of Health Care Under Donald Trump
Tom Price walked into an emergency room years ago when he was a practicing orthopedic surgeon to see a patient with a broken hip, a case one fellow doctor described as among the worst he’d ever seen. “What you have is really bad,” Mr. Price reportedly said, “but I can fix this.” Mr. Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, did fix the patient’s hip, according to the story, which was relayed by a longtime friend. But the U.S. representative from Georgia is now taking on a far bigger repair job, hoping to remedy a health-care system he believes is badly broken. Critics fear he will only make it worse. (Armour, 1/17)
The Associated Press: In Price's Ga. District, What Happens After Health Repeal
Carla Dent is a restaurant owner who steers her employees to federal health insurance exchanges. Eden Purdy helps poor and working-class Georgians navigate the health care marketplace. Bryson Boech is a grocery cashier recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, what the insurance industry calls a pre-existing condition. None of the three claims to be intensely political, but all say they are concerned their congressman, Tom Price, will rip up President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law if the Senate confirms the Georgia Republican to be Donald Trump's health secretary. (Barrow, 1/17)
