Trump’s New Health and Human Services Secretary Is a Joyful Regulator

Article is dissappointing - it stops short of clarifying the scope of what he is trying to regulate and how... except a mention about Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Azar weakening rules that require coverage for cancer drug= Republican “death panel.”

Tinkering around the edges of a horrible healthcare "system" is not going to make much difference. Medicine is driven by profit in this country . Doing more and more that provides less and less value to the patient. Doctors make more money the more they do to a patient. Same with hospitals, physical therapy, etc.etc. It's ever been about health. It's always been about money.

This sounds more like an expert lobbist sung his powered for evil than a competent regulator action in the interest of the health and safety of all Americans. Perhaps he should re-read the mission statements of HHS —that is, those without all of the new Orwellian edits. At this rate, I have no doubt population health measures will decline (get worse) under his tenure.

Will Mr. Azar wield his mighty pen for patients or for Big Pharma and other medical companies? It's totally unclear to me. Seniors, who have had little in the way of cost of living raises over the past decade, but who are paying more for even the most common medications, would like to see Mr. Azar consider Medicare negotiating drug prices just like commercial companies do. I paid over $100 last month for an allergy medication and levothyroxine, a generic thyroid medication. Since last year, levothyroxine has risen at least 50%. That's ridiculous.

Azar needs to learn and soon that while Viagra is cheap and readily available for men, birth control pills and estrogen products necessary for women like those who suffer painful endometriosis and infertility are outrageously expensive. Why is this? When does he plan to take on the chauvinistic Drug companies who are over pricing women’s medical necessities?

I am sure I disagree with many of Mr. Azar's policies, but I am relieved a little to see an actual functioning adult working in one of these influential jobs. Dr. Price was nothing more than a vandal with no ideas. Smash everything in the place, let the sick die unless they're rich and leave everyone to their own devices when it comes to elder care. Frankly, I despise that people like that happily regulate pregnancy but not childhood or beyond, and then have the crust to call themselves "Pro-life" when actually its just Pro-existence at best.

Planned Parenthood is an organization of inestimable value to American women, especially the minority and impoverished. Birth control pills and abortion are readily available to women of means both here and abroad but for the underprivileged there is little.. Ironically it is this last minority group, despised by the GOP Congress that without Planned Parenthood aid, will be the most productive—even thriving. From a purely practical and financial point of view the GOP Congress will cut off its own nose if they fail to Support Planned Parenthood. Surely Azar, Trump, Ryan, and the Pro-lifers Will finally come to realize their political folly: the money and the number of votes they will inevitably lose.

While Azar is at it he should encourage support for Planned Parenthood, an admirable organization that has saved women from death by breast, cervical and uterine cancer. He has a lot of tasks ahead. Will he be up to them? Or will the GOP fail the American public again?

How much stock (and stock options) does he still have in Eli Lilly?

The Trump Administration merely changed out the band aid with out solving the underlying problem.

Direct Primary Care for Medicaid + Medicare patients. Direct Primary Care option (DPC) for ACA patients with "wrap-around" catastrophic care coverage administered by MUTUAL Health Insurance Companies. HSA's with progressive subsidies with origination at birth, tax free in and tax free out, used for DPC 24 x 7 subscription care, used for education funding with bonuses for fitness and wellness, used for pension subsidization via safe investments of choice through HSA bank. Direct Primary Care for ALL rural patients living in areas of Primary Care physician scarcity. Incentives for primary care physicians to set up practice in counties with high patient to primary care physician ratios Support Comparative Effectiveness studies through inter-state networked DPC practices CMS support cost-benefical population care combined with personal care that accounts for individual's epigenetic events. Encourage research that integrates care across the continuity of primary care along with mesh-networked Direct Specialty Care (DSC) independent of Hospital Systems. Physician-friendly EMR - EHR - HIE - Clinical Decision Support System CDSS capable of supporting inductive (personalized) and deductive (population health) care approaches with value-focused care & DPC links from the hinterlands to the VA . Support implementation of VA's VisTa 2.0 in all of rural health. COMMUNITY training of CMA's, CHW's, Psychiatric Social Workers, Comparative Effectiveness Facilitators......

Let Azar go after the unethical drug companies then. Zovirax, a simple drug that aids immensely in the treatment of cold sores costs $300 here in the States and $8-10 in Europe. Estrace, an important medicinal cream for women also costs $300 here in the States and 1/10 that price in Europe. Why is that and who is pocketing the profits here in America? Drug companies in the US are no better than the NRA. Both have paid off the Republican Congress via their lobbies. This is obscene.

I don't get the sense that he's using his power to benefit patients. How does offering skimpier health plans benefit people? And he talks about changing how drugs are covered or paid for under Medicare Part B. Part B covers only a tiny number of drugs; most are covered under Part D. It sounds like he knows the system well enough to say things that sound impressive but are not actually helping many people and may hurt them. I am highly skeptical of anything that any Trump appointee does or says.