On Tuesday, Congressman Tom Price, the HHS-Designate went before the Senate HELP Committee for the first of two scheduled confirmation hearings and dealt with a number of questions on how the ACA repeal would be handled. Sandwiched in between those questions were questions raised about his past stock investments.
Price is scheduled for a second hearing this Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee. Although he goes before two committees only the Finance Committee will vote on him. He will likely face similar questions and be challenged on how the Administration plans to implement its repeal of the ACA and how a replacement plan will be enacted. In most instances, Price was non-committal on specifics including on the question of universal coverage using the term universal “access’ as the preferred goal. While this is sure to come up again tomorrow a potential bigger issue could be past stock purchases by the Congressman. Critics are raising concerns over his purchases of stocks that were impacted by legislation he has introduced. Questions have been raised about how removed he was from decisions made by his broker as Price was introducing and supporting legislation that effected the medical industry.
