Trump nominates former pharma exec as next health secretary
US president, Donald Trump, has nominated Alex Azar — a former pharmaceutical executive — as his next health secretary.
Several news reports have revealed that if Azar accepts, the former pharma and government exec will oversee the $1 trillion department, the Health and Human Services (HHS) agency, replacing Tom Price who was ousted in September for his over spending on private travel.
Azar represents an unusual choice for this position as it has been common practice for presidents to make a nomination from elected officials rather than industry. Although, the BBC reported that Azar was deputy health secretary under George W. Bush, so has some experience with the HHS department.
According to The Independent, Trump, who has a history of making industry-friendly nominations, tweeted about Azar: “He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!”
However, the US president has been damning of the pharma industry and the cost of medications both during his candidacy and presidency so far, making statements such as ‘the industry has been getting away with murder’ when discussing pricing issues.
Until January this year Azar has been a top level executive of pharma giant Eli Lilly and so if his nomination is approved by the senate and he heads up the HHS agency, which regulates the pharma industry, he will need to be careful to avoid any conflicts with the company.
It is predicted that Azar, who recently described the Affordable Care Act a ‘fundamentally broken system’ has been nominated to use his knowledge of the law and experience within healthcare to progress Trump’s agenda to scarp Obamacare.
“Much of the focus will likely be changing the ideology under which the existing law will be administered,” said Mike Leavitt, a former secretary of health and human services who was Azar’s boss during the Bush administration when speaking to the New York Times. “I’m confident that he would like to see the way the law works change.”
In the same report Kathleen Sebelius, who was HHS secretary under president Obama commented: “He [Azar] may be the only secretary in modern history other than Tom Price to be given the job to take away people’s health care. Alex is a smart guy. He clearly has watched the last year or so. I assume his agreement to come in means that he’s OK with enforcing or trying to promote the president’s agenda.”