There's been chatter, based on casual remarks by the President-elect Trump, that the campaign promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare has been shelved.
That rumor took a hit with the nomination of ObamaCare foe Congressman Tom Price of Georgia as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Mr. Price, a 62-year-old former orthopedic surgeon, is one of several GOP physicians who sought to carve out a leading role in shaping the party’s health policy and, in particular, the party’s alternative vision to Democrats’ Affordable Care Act.
Much of his criticism of the law has centered on the authority it gives to the federal government, and to the agency that he may now head.
“We think it’s important that Washington not be in charge of health care,” the six-term congressman said in an interview this summer. “The problem that I have with Obamacare is that its premise is that Washington knows best."
The regulations that forced the Little Sisters of the Poor into a protracted legal battle to avoid violating their consciences and Catholic teaching emanated from HHS. What a difference a day makes . . .
Price has repeatedly put forward a piece of legislation known as the Empowering Patients First Act, which includes, according to the Wall Street Journal, refundable, "age-adjusted tax credits for people to buy insurance if they don’t have access to coverage through an employer or government program. People in a government program, such as Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare, would also be allowed to opt out of it and get tax credits toward the cost of private coverage instead."
It is a plan that includes tax deductions to boost health savings accounts and allowing insurers to sell across state lines, which is designed to lower costs through competition.