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From Jim Write Stonekettle
Gonna drain the swamp.
Gonna clean up Washington.
Going get rid of corruption and cronyism and crooked politicians.
Gonna Make America Great Again. It's gonna be so great. You won't even believe how great it's gonna be. People are saying it's gonna be great, so great, they're saying it. Great!
A year ago, Representative Tom Price (GA-R) invested in a company called Zimmer Biomet. Price bought $15,000 worth of stock in the company, which makes medical devices.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that, nothing unethical about a congressman investing some of his money in an American company. Happens all the time.
No, the unethical part came less than a week later.
When Price introduced the HIP Act.
H.R. 4848, the Healthy Inpatient Procedures Act of 2016.
What's that?
I'm glad you asked. You see, it's simple, really, you can sum the whole thing up in one line: "This bill delays and suspends implementation of Medicare's Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model, which tests episode-based payment and quality measurement for care associated with hip and knee replacements."
HIP Act. Get it? Hilarious.
Basically, H.R. 4848 would delay until 2018 implementation of new rules governing how Medicare (you know, the healthcare insurance used mostly by old people) will pay for hip and knee replacements (you know, an operation common to, yep, older people).
What's that have to do with Zimmer Biomet, a company that makes medical devices?
Guess what they make.
Go on. Guess.
Industry analysts warned that the new regulations would SIGNIFICANTLY impact Zimmer Biomet's bottom line.
Significantly.
So, Price invested in a company.
And then a week later he introduced legislation that would delay implementation of regulations designed to increase safety and reliability of medical devices and save taxpayer money, a delay which would coincidentally also SIGNIFICANTLY increase the income of the same company he'd just invested in.
Cute, right?
No no, don't laugh. Not yet. We haven't got to the punchline.
You see, Tom Price is Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, the department which oversees implementation of Medicare and the regulation of medical device manufacturers.
And you wondered why Republicans want to rush Trump's cabinet picks through without an ethics review.
Bazinga!
Gonna drain the swamp.
Gonna clean up Washington.
Going get rid of corruption and cronyism and crooked politicians.
Gonna Make America Great Again. It's gonna be so great. You won't even believe how great it's gonna be. People are saying it's gonna be great, so great, they're saying it. Great!
A year ago, Representative Tom Price (GA-R) invested in a company called Zimmer Biomet. Price bought $15,000 worth of stock in the company, which makes medical devices.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that, nothing unethical about a congressman investing some of his money in an American company. Happens all the time.
No, the unethical part came less than a week later.
When Price introduced the HIP Act.
H.R. 4848, the Healthy Inpatient Procedures Act of 2016.
What's that?
I'm glad you asked. You see, it's simple, really, you can sum the whole thing up in one line: "This bill delays and suspends implementation of Medicare's Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model, which tests episode-based payment and quality measurement for care associated with hip and knee replacements."
HIP Act. Get it? Hilarious.
Basically, H.R. 4848 would delay until 2018 implementation of new rules governing how Medicare (you know, the healthcare insurance used mostly by old people) will pay for hip and knee replacements (you know, an operation common to, yep, older people).
What's that have to do with Zimmer Biomet, a company that makes medical devices?
Guess what they make.
Go on. Guess.
Industry analysts warned that the new regulations would SIGNIFICANTLY impact Zimmer Biomet's bottom line.
Significantly.
So, Price invested in a company.
And then a week later he introduced legislation that would delay implementation of regulations designed to increase safety and reliability of medical devices and save taxpayer money, a delay which would coincidentally also SIGNIFICANTLY increase the income of the same company he'd just invested in.
Cute, right?
No no, don't laugh. Not yet. We haven't got to the punchline.
You see, Tom Price is Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, the department which oversees implementation of Medicare and the regulation of medical device manufacturers.
And you wondered why Republicans want to rush Trump's cabinet picks through without an ethics review.
Bazinga!
