Trump’s health secretary choice sparks concern

Trump’s choice for U.S. health secretary—U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a fierce critic of the Affordable Care Act—suggests the President-elect may follow through on his campaign promise to repeal the health reform law.

John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who has worked on health reform for decades, expressed concern regarding Trump’s choice of Price in a November 29, 2016 interview with WBUR’s CommonHealth.

“Massachusetts has prided itself for over a decade now in being the state that has reduced the number of people without health insurance to the lowest ever seen the history of the country,” McDonough said, “and the legacy of that is now at risk.”

Repealing the ACA won’t be easy, though, McDonough told Vanity Fair. For instance, Republicans attempting a repeal in the Senate won’t be able to get the 60 votes they need to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

“The notion of repealing the whole 950 pages of the law is a nonstarter,” he said. “There is not a single Democrat of the 48 in there who would vote for that.”

Listen to or read WBUR’s CommonHealth story: Trump’s Pick For Health Secretary Generates Some Anxiety In Mass.

Read the Vanity Fair article: Why Trump’s Obamacare-Hating Health Pick Has an Uphill Battle