Tom Price, the former Trump administration health secretary who resigned following revelations about his private jet travel, will be joining the transition team of Georgia Gov.-elect Brian Kemp.
As a member of the transition team, Price will have a say in crafting healthcare policy for the state and in advising Kemp on which officials should join the governor’s office. One of the first items Kemp will put forward is the governor’s budget request.
Price was the first member of Trump’s cabinet to resign. He stirred up public and congressional outrage, and drew the ire of the president, by using close to $1 million in taxpayer money to pay for travel on private jets. Past health secretaries took commercial flights for official business.
Price, an orthopedic surgeon and six-term Georgia GOP congressman who spoke out against wasteful government spending, resigned from his post in September 2017. He was replaced by the current Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, in January.
Price supported the dismantling of Obamacare and was an early supporter of Trump. Kemp, the two-term GOP secretary of state, has vowed not to expand government-funded Medicaid to residents, which would otherwise roll 500,000 low-income people into the program. Kemp said that he opposed expansion because it would be too costly to Georgia taxpayers. Most states have opted to expand the program, but just over a dozen have not.
Kemp’s Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams — a candidate who had the support of media executive and TV personality Oprah Winfrey — had vowed to expand Medicaid.
