Un-health-y ‘swamp’ rat

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Josh Earnest warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services appears to be the opposite of “draining the swamp” in his final White House press conference on Tuesday.

The spokesman questioned whether Rep. Tom Price’s purchase of health care stocks — before introducing legislation that would help those companies — should disqualify him from the job.

“Given the incoming administration’s priority that it has placed on ‘draining the swamp,’ I think they have a unique obligation to explain what happened, because the facts of the report don’t appear to be that complicated,” he said.

Earnest was referring to CNN’s report that Price (R-Ga.) bought shares in a medical device manufacturer just days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, then received a campaign donation from that company the week afterward.

“This doesn’t seem like a complicated scheme. This seems like exactly the kind of financial entanglement that’s left a lot of people feeling alienated from Washington, D.C., that’s left a lot of people questioning the motives of members of Congress,” Earnest said.

That and other financial entanglements have cast a pall over Price’s confirmation hearing, which is slated to begin Wednesday. A rep for Price maintains his broker bought the stock and he didn’t know about it.

Meanwhile, Price’s fellow Republicans’ plan to repeal Obamacare could cause major health care cost spikes and leave as many as 32 million Americans without health care coverage by 2026, according to a new report.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office crunched the numbers and found that if Republicans repeal Obamacare without having a replacement ready, 18 million people will lose coverage in the first year, and 32 million by 2026.

Health care costs would also rise sharply, increasing by 25% in the first year and doubling by 2026, according to the report.