By Julie Rovner September
29, 2017
Health
and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned Friday, amid controversy over
his use of private jets for official and personal business. He promised a day
earlier to pay back some of the $400,000 spent on those flights, but the
offer came too late for the Trump White House.
In
a statement released Friday afternoon, the White House said President Donald
Trump intends to designate Don Wright of Virginia to serve as acting secretary,
effective at midnight Friday. Wright serves as the deputy assistant
secretary for health at HHS and he directs the Office of Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion.
Price’s four-paragraph resignation letter stated,
in part: “I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting
people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from
these important objectives.”
Price,
an orthopedic surgeon and former House Budget Committee chairman, was
surrounded by controversy since his nomination to the nation’s top health post
in January. He made questionable stock trades in health care
companies while a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee
and interceded on behalf of donors with
federal agencies. Democrats in the Senate fought his confirmation, charging
that he was too ethically challenged to serve as HHS secretary.
This
summer, Price was increasingly viewed by President Donald Trump as ineffective
in helping to push a GOP plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act
through Congress.
Price
had been under pressure since Sept. 19, when Politico broke the news that
he had taken numerous official trips via private jet, costing tens of thousands
of dollars more than commercial flights.
One
of those trips involved a charter flight to Philadelphia, which can be reached
by car from Washington in just over two hours. Subsequent reporting by
Politico revealed that Price’s more than two dozen private plane trips cost in
excess of $400,000, and that some of the trips included personal as well as official
business.
He
also traveled with his wife to such international destinations as Africa,
Europe and Asia on military flights at a cost to
taxpayers of more than $500,000 — bringing the total expense to taxpayers since
May to more than a million dollars, according to Politico.
Price
said last weekend he
would stop using private planes pending an investigation by the HHS Inspector
General, but he and his staff have repeatedly defended the trips as necessary
to get him to events in a timely manner.
Pressed
by reporters Wednesday about the spreading scandal, Trump said he was “not
happy” about the private plane travel “and I let him know it.” Asked if he
would fire Price, Trump responded, “We’ll see.”
On
Thursday, Price released a statement saying
he would “take no more private charter flights as Secretary of HHS. No
exceptions.” Price, whose net worth has been estimated at $13.6 million, also
said he would “write a personal check to the US Treasury for the expenses of my
travel on private charter planes.” He added that taxpayers would not “pay a
dime for my seat on those planes.”
His
offer for the domestic flights — about $52,000 — was a fraction of what
taxpayers paid for his entourage.
House
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Price was “a leader in the House and a superb
health secretary. His vision and hard work were vital to the House’s success
passing our health care legislation.”
Democrats
had a different view.
In
a statement, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance
Committee, said Price has “repeatedly abused the public trust and betrayed the
agency’s mission to improve Americans’ health care.” Wyden said he hopes this
will mark “the beginning of a new chapter” for the Trump administration’s
health care agenda and that Price’s replacement will “be focused on
implementing the law as written by Congress.”
The
new HHS secretary should keep “the president’s promise to bring down the high
cost of prescription drugs,” Wyden said.
Wright,
Price’s interim replacement, has worked for the federal government since at
least 2003. A physician, he served in high-level positions at HHS under the
George W. Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, according to his LinkedIn
profile. At HHS, Wright oversaw many public health duties including development
of the national dietary guidelines for Americans and the department’s health
literacy agenda. He has also spearheaded efforts to reduce adverse drug
interactions.
Wright
represented the United States at the World Health Organization’s executive
board and served on the National Cancer Institute Advisory Board.
According
to the profile, he held management positions in the Office of the Surgeon
General, National Vaccine Program Office, Office of HIV/AIDS Programs, Office
of Minority Health, Office of Population Affairs, Office of Women’s Health and
President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
From
2003 to 2007, Wright was director of the Occupational Medicine at the Office of
Safety and Health Administration.
Wright
has a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Texas Tech University and holds a
medical degree from the University of Texas-Galveston. He completed a residency
in family medicine at Baylor University in Dallas and practiced for 17 years in
Texas as a doctor. He also holds a master’s in public health from the Medical
College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Leah
Binder, president of the Leapfrog Group, a patient advocacy organization, said
she was hopeful about Wright’s new role.
“I
am cautiously optimistic the appointment of Don Wright signals a resurgence of
federal leadership on patient safety,” she said in an email. “Don Wright led
development of the influential National Action Plan on Healthcare Acquired
Infections in 2013. … His work galvanized infection prevention and led to
significant improvements … that saved many lives. He has also been influential
in the movement to measure the problem and tie Medicare payments to hospital
safety.”
KHN
correspondents Phil Galewitz and Mary Agnes Carey contributed to this report.
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