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Left without the power to filibuster, Democrats are settling on another strategy to derail President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees: Demand more information. It’s the same tactic that helped Democrats sink some nominees the last time they were in the minority, during the George W. Bush administration. But they may have dented their own cause by powering through President Obama’s picks and drawing a road map that Republicans will now employ to confirm Mr. Trump’s nominations. The first target for the strategy is Rep. Tom Price, the anti-Obamacare crusader whom Mr. Trump tapped to run the Department of Health and Human Services....

On New Year’s Eve, Texas Federal Judge Reed O’Connor issued “…a nationwide, preliminary injunction to block a new Obamacare mandate requiring taxpayers to fund transgender reassignment surgeries and abortions.” When the Affordable Care Act was written, the word “Sex” was used to describe an individual’s actual sex—that is, whether they were biologically a male or a female. The left, however, found this rather too restrictive given today’s grey area lottery of self-designated genetic wonders and sexual deviates. Representing Texas as one of the plaintiffs in the case against Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton...

Court strikes down harmful transgender mandate Ruling protects children and doctors, hospitals from federal regulationFor Immediate Release: December 31, 2016Media Contact: Melinda Skea | media@becketfund.org | 202-349-7224WASHINGTON, D.C. – Moments ago a Texas court protected the rights of families and their doctors to make medical decisions for their child free from government bureaucrats’ interference.The court ruling comes after eight states, an association of almost 18,000 doctors, and a Catholic hospital system challenged a federal regulation that requires doctors to perform gender transition procedures on children, even if the doctor believes the treatment could harm the child. Doctors who followed their...

The government spent a breathtaking $26 million to provide dead people—who were poor when they were alive—with health insurance in one state alone, according to a new federal audit. The benefit was administered through Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the needy and the astonishing multi-million-dollar figure applies to just Florida but similar atrocities are likely occurring in other states. American taxpayers may wonder how this could possibly happen, though fraud and corruption are rampant in government, especially in welfare programs. First let’s explain how Medicaid, jointly funded by federal and state governments, functions. The Centers for Medicare &...

Obama’s ‘Eleventh Hour Power Grab’ Bars States From Pulling Planned Parenthood Funds By Bradford Richardson - December 14, 2016 President Obama is delivering a generous parting gift to Planned Parenthood in the form of a rule prohibiting states from divesting millions of dollars from the nation’s largest abortion provider. The final version of the rule, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, requires states to distribute dollars from Title X of the Public Health Service Act without taking into account whether recipient clinics perform abortions. The edict is set to go into effect Jan. 18, two...

Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) issued a final rule Wednesday designed to thwart state efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. The rule bans withholding federal funds from the abortion giant’s affiliates and other entities that perform abortion for any reason other than the ability to provide Title X “family planning” services, and is scheduled to take effect two days prior to President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration. The regulation is in direct response to the effort of more than a dozen states to defund Planned Parenthood, and was set up by HHS to entail a laborious process to...

As Cortney relayed last night as the news was breaking, President-Elect Donald Trump has selected Rep. Tom Price, MD -- a Georgia Republican -- to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is exceptionally good news, representing perhaps Trump's strongest pick to date. On the heels of hapless, Obamacare-tainted HHS chiefs Kathleen Sebelius and Sylvia Burwell, Price will be a breath of fresh air, if confirmed.  Conservatives should celebrate and support his nomination for three principal reasons: (1) Price hasn't merely been a vocal Obamacare critic, as many news accounts are describing him. He has, of course, forcefully objected to...

By tapping House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price to serve as his Secretary of Health and Human Services, President-elect Trump has added to his team one of the most serious and knowledgeable Republicans on healthcare policy, and in the process pressed his finger on the scales of the internal GOP debate over how specifically to replace Obamacare. In contrast to many Republicans, who have talked in terms of repealing Obamacare without offering their own vision for the healthcare system, Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has for years been refining his own detailed plan. In fact, he was one of...

As a congressman, Georgia Republican Tom Price has been thwarted in his hopes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and transform Medicare into a voucher-like program for future participants. Now, as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Price will wield great power as Trump’s top health policy adviser and preside, Republicans hope, over the dismantlement of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Price, 62, carries himself with a surgeon’s confidence and possesses deep knowledge of health policy. He is one of very few Republicans to actually propose a replacement for Obamacare, and...

11/28/16   It looks like President-Elect Trump has found the man to replace Obamacare What has Congressman Price proposed to replace Obamacare? Image Price is the likely HHS secretary pick According to the New York Times, citing a transition team official, President-Elect Trump has tapped Congressman Price to head the Health and Human Services Department. He will control a $1 trillion budget and administer health programs that cover over 100 millions citizens. Congressman Tom Price is a medical doctor who worked in price practice as an orthopedic surgeon and spent some time teaching at the Emory University School of...

President-elect Donald Trump is tapping Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) to be Secretary of Health and Human Services and Seema Verma as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to a release from the transition team. “Together, Chairman Price and Seema Verma are the dream team that will transform our healthcare system for the benefit of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement. Price, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is a physician and a fierce opponent of Obamacare. “It is an honor to be nominated to serve our nation as Secretary of Health and Human Services....

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Representative Tom Price, a six-term Republican congressman from Georgia who has led opposition to the Affordable Care Act, to be secretary of health and human services, according to a transition team official. Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has been a severe critic of the health law, saying it interferes with the ability of patients and doctors to make medical decisions. And he says that events have borne out his warnings. “Premiums have gone up, not down,” Mr. Price said recently. “Many Americans lost the health coverage they were told time and time...

President-elect Donald Trump has selected Georgia Rep. Tom Price, a leading critic of President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care law, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a person familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Price will play a central role in Republican efforts to repeal and replace the current health care law. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling the landmark measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill. …

Senate Majority Leader advisor Andrew Bremberg will lead president-elect Donald Trump’s healthcare transition team, according to Inside Health Policy. Bremberg currently advises Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and was an advisor for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his presidential bid. Bremberg was part of the transition team for former GOP president candidate Mitt Romney, according to the Washington, D.C.-based publication. For eight years, Bremberg served in the Department of Health and Human Services. From 2005 to 2007, he was special assistant to the Immediate Office of the Secretary and from 2001 to 2005, he was special assistant to the executive...

We're awaiting a slew of cabinet announcements today from President-elect Donald Trump but one high profile campaign surrogate won't be named. Dr. Ben Carson, who ran against Trump in the primary, has reportedly declined any kind of position inside the administration. Before declining, Carson was on the short list for Secretary of Education and Health and Human Services. Raffi Williams over at Circa has the scoop: According to Dr. Ben Carson's business manager Armstrong Williams, Dr. Ben Carson will not serve in President-elect Donald Trump's administration, a separate source confirmed that Carson was being offered a position as Secretary of Health and Human...

The GOP’s long-discussed dreams of repealing Obamacare became closer to reality early Wednesday morning when Donald Trump was elected president. Six years after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law and after more than 60 attempts to repeal it, Republicans now have a good chance to advance their own agenda. While on the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised voters that he would repeal Obamacare if he was elected president and even called on congressional Republicans to call a “special session” to move forward with rolling back the law. “Obamacare has to be replaced,” Trump said earlier this...

Citing an unnamed insider, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that former Gov. Bobby Jindal is being eyed by President-elect Donald Trump for a potential appointment as Health and Human Services Secretary. If so, it could be one of the quickest turnarounds from enemy to frenemy to partner in recent political history. A spokesman for Jindal didn't immediately respond to The Advocate's request for comment. A Politico.com story on Trump's possible cabinet appointees doesn't mention Jindal on the HHS Secretary list. Buzzfeed's exhaustive list of potential appointees similarly makes no mention of Jindal.

Jurupa Unified School District officials received an unconfirmed report that two Indian Hills Elementary School students were diagnosed with leprosy, which prompted them to send a letter home to parents Friday, Sept. 2. Though the information has not been confirmed, said Superintendent Elliott Duchon, school district officials decided to send the letter home as a precaution. “We wanted parents of the students to know, we wanted to get ahead of any rumors and make sure they had access to ample information,” Duchon said in a phone interview Sunday evening. Duchon would not say where the report came from, but did...

The nation’s health care tab this year is expected to surpass $10,000 per person for the first time, the government said Wednesday. The new peak means the Obama administration will pass the problem of high health care costs on to its successor. The report from number crunchers at the Department of Health and Human Services projects that health care spending will grow at a faster rate than the national economy over the coming decade. That squeezes the ability of federal and state governments, not to mention employers and average citizens, to pay. Growth is projected to average 5.8 percent from...

In 2004 Congress passed the Weldon amendment, which said that no state can discriminate against a healthcare entity because it refuses to participate in abortions. The language includes states discriminating against a health plan that decides not to cover abortion. If the state does, according to the amendment, it will lose its federal funding. In August 2014, California informed its health insurers that they would no longer be allowed to offer health plans that exclude elective abortions. Insurers complied, as one might expect, and suddenly, no one in California could purchase health insurance that didn't pay for the death of...