Meet Tom Price, Your New Secretary of Health and Human Services

[McCamy Taylor]

Tom Price is an orthopedic surgeon. Tom Price wants to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Tom Price believes the government has no business telling people what treatments are helpful and which are snake oil.

Two years later, as the House debated a huge bill to jolt the economy out of a severe recession, Mr. Price jumped to his feet after spotting an item that provided $1.1 billion for research comparing the effectiveness of different drugs and medical treatments. He denounced it, saying he feared that the findings would be used to decide which items and services would be covered by insurance.
“This is indeed the foundation of rationing of American health care for each and every American,” he said — a step toward Democrats’ dream of “nationalized health care.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/us/politics/tom-price-is-eager-to-lead-hhs-and-reduce-its-clout.html?ref=politics

What’s so bad about research comparing the effectiveness of medical versus surgical treatments for diseases such as low back pain or osteoarthritis of the hip or knee? Like the kind of research the Veterans Administration conducts? Here is a document that summarizes the VA’s suggested treatment algorithm for those with knee and hip arthritis. Note that you go through a lot of steps—including obesity treatment—before you get to “Have a $40,000 orthopedic surgical procedure that could kill you or put you at risk for blood clots.”

http://www.healthquality.va.gov/guidelines/CD/OA/VADoDOACPGFINAL090214.pdf

If you are poor and uninsured and go to a county hospital, I can guarantee that you will have to pass through all these steps before the orthopedists will consider giving you an artificial knee. On the other hand, if you have gold plated private health insurance, you can walk---or limp into an orthopedist’s office tomorrow and say “I want a new knee” and they will have you scheduled next week. With no embarrassing talk about losing weight.

Artificial joints are big business, for the manufacturers of medical goods as well as orthopedic surgeons. Here is some industry literature.

https://www.orthoworld.com/index.php/fileproc/index/knowentADJADJorthoknowADJADJ2012ADJADJorthoknow1206LXLXLXpdf

Key points. As of 2010, the orthopedic goods industry was a $40 billion a year business with 60% of the world revenue coming from the US. Artificial joints make up one third of that sum with half of the joints sold in the United States. Under Tom Price that number could be higher.

Here is what Wall Street has to say about Stryker, number one on the list (though no longer the biggest since Zimmer started its acquisition frenzy). Note that 70% of its sales come from the U.S.---where our new HHS director is on record as believing that effectiveness of medical treatment should be no barrier to getting people that treatment.

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13901450/1/here-s-why-stryker-stock-will-continue-to-rise.html

Now, why would “the street” tell us that Stryker’s future is rosy? According to another source, Stryker has been plagued by lawsuits and recalls over faulty hips, knees, elbows.

https://www.drugwatch.com/manufacturer/stryker-orthopaedics/

Are the three Stryker heirs---each of them a billionaire—in bed with the Koch Brothers? Not likely. They all give to Democrats. What about the number two orthopedic device manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson? Until 2012, Johnson & Johnson belonged to ALEC. And ALEC is all over Trump’s evolving administration.

In addition to a number of bills intended to reduce opioid abuse, the Health and Human Service Committee will discuss the “Site Neutral Payment Policy Act” essentially undermines hospitals financially by reimbursing out-patient facilities with much less over head at the same right for same services, a type of facility especially favored by for-profit operators.
The American Hospital Association has stated that this policy will “freeze the progress of hospital-based health care in its tracks.”

http://www.exposedbycmd.org/2016/11/30/hypocrisy-trumpism-agenda-alec-meets-washington-dc-week

Great idea of you are an orthopedic surgeon who has invested in an outpatient surgery center where you plan to do a lot of pricey surgeries. Who needs hospitals with emergency room and ICUs when an orthopedist can give you a shiny new hip to enjoy as your heart, lungs and kidneys fail? And who needs a government regulator to test their new hip or knee for them? If the surgeon says the artificial joint will work just fine, he should know. He’s the doctor.

What about Zimmer, number three on the list? Ooops. They’re not number three anymore. Zimmer has been snatching up other companies and they are the number one manufacturer of artificial knees and hips this year.

Oh, and in case you are keeping track, when he was an attorney general, Chris Christie prosecuted all three of these companies for illegal kickbacks to orthopedists. Another reason he is no longer welcome at Chez Trump. And another good reason to dismantle Medicare and hand out vouchers that people can use to get new knees and hips without any federal government oversight to get in the way of the sweet deal that manufacturers and surgeon have going.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/business/28devices.html

[annabanana]

1. Yet another fox with a hen-house key. . . n/t

[UTUSN]

2. R&K for, fits right in with the group, but good to fill out the details n/t