Monday, December 05, 2016

Ben Carson would have been great at HHS.

The nomination of Dr. Ben Carson to HUD is a racist appointment. If he was going to head up the Department of Health and Human Services it would be a far better request.

The nomination of Dr. Carson to HHS would be the logical choice because President Obama began a priority to brain medicine. There was considerable funding for that effort. Vice President Biden has begun a "moon shot" against cancer that took the life of a dearly loved son. If a world class neurosurgeon was nominated for HHS it would have been a very good choice.

I challenge Congressional Democrats to assess the nominations to the President's cabinet and realize why they were PUT IN PLACE. The nominations stick out like a sore thumb.

The Congressional Democrats will not be standing alone.

December 2, 2016
By Beth Mole

President-elect Donald Trump’s (click here) nomination of six-term Congress member Tom Price (R-Ga.) for secretary of health and human services has inflamed the medical community bigly this week, causing widespread and bitter infighting....
Price is an orthopedist. There is huge corporate profit in the orthopedic companies. Price is angry about the medical equipment taxes brought by the ACA. Price is there to address crony complaints and not the well being of the American people.

When Price deregulates medical equipment taxes, where is he going to get the monies for the Medicaid extensions? When Price seeks to remove taxes related to the ACA it should be headlines around the country, especially, in states that have found the Medicaid extension important.

Medicaid is primarily funded by the federal government AND the biggest complaint by Congressional Republicans is that Medicaid is broken. Really? Has the defunding of Medicaid by Republicans over the years broke it? Of course, it did. And now that the impoverished in the USA finally have medical coverage that helps them to receive the MEDICAL COVERAGE OTHER AMERICANS take for granted, the Republicans are going to defund it all the more.

I remind, the Medicaid Extension is saving lives. Medicaid is not about pandering to some sort of constituency of Democrats, it saves lives. People have died when they could still be alive with the benefits of the Medicaid extension. There are deaths on the books in the states where the Medicaid Extension was not accepted and used ONLY as a political tool. It can be measured. What is everyone waiting for?
Price is not a particularly shocking pick by Trump—the Congressman is one of the fiercest Obamacare critics, and Trump vowed during his campaign to quickly repeal and replace the mammoth healthcare law. Beyond that, Price, a former orthopedic surgeon, has maintained strong conservative positions on healthcare policy. He opposes abortion rights and regulations on tobacco, for instance. But he also belongs to a small, fringe, ultra-conservative and conspiracy-laden group called the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). Among other things, this group decries evidence-based medicine, Medicare, and Medicaid, plus it has peddled discredited, dangerous notions including that vaccines cause autism.

In light of some or all of those facts, many in the medical community were left aghast and fuming by support of Price’s nomination from top medical associations, namely the powerful American Medical Association (AMA) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). In the past few days, thousands of doctors have signed letters and petitions, condemned the groups’ support, and publicly quit the AMA. The hashtag #NotMyAMA has gathered steam on Twitter....