|
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.)
Specialty: Orthopedic surgery
Active license: Yes
Age: 58
Elected: 2004
Medical degree: M.D., University of Michigan, 1979
Sponsored legislation: HR 969 (prohibits HHS from requiring any healthcare provider to participate in any health plan); HR 1700 (allows Medicare beneficiaries to submit claims for providers that don’t participate in the program); HR 2363 (calls for HHS to establish best practice guidelines and bars any court from awarding damages for care consistent with the guidelines); HR 3000 (repeals the ACA, establishes tax credits for coverage in high-risk pools, allows purchase of health insurance across state lines, prohibits HHS from denying coverage based on comparative-effectiveness research, exempts health professionals from antitrust laws in negotiations with health plans); HR 5942 (requires that quality improvement organizations remain state-based)
Key healthcare votes
Yea: Repeal of ACA, HR2 (2011), HR 6079 (2012); repeal funding for health insurance exchanges, HR 1213 (2011); repeal prevention and public health fund, HR 1217 (2011)
Nay: ACA, HR 3590 (2010); CHIP expansion, HR 2 (2009)
(Answers provided via e-mail)
How does being a physician affect your approach to Congress?
“One of the reasons I got involved in public service was because, as a physician, I saw firsthand how folks in Washington—perhaps well-intentioned but often uninformed—were making decisions that had a direct impact on how physicians could take care of patients.”
What happens now with the ACA?
“The Obama administration will continue to implement the president’s healthcare law by imposing spending we cannot afford, tax increases and bureaucratic boards that will effectively deny care. The law will collapse from its own weight—though many people will be harmed before that happens.”
What’s a healthcare priority the ACA didn’t address?
“Notably absent from the healthcare law is any sensible plan to address the practice of defensive medicine, which costs billions of dollars annually. Lawsuit-abuse reform, with a safe harbor for practicing physicians, must be instituted to address the rising costs of care so we can expand access to quality, affordable healthcare for more Americans.” |
