The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 12-11 along party lines Thursday to recommend that Brian Christine, MD, be confirmed as assistant secretary for health at HHS, in addition to five other Trump administration nominees.
“These nominees are vital to advancing President Trump’s pro-worker, pro-family, pro-patient agenda,” HELP Committee Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), said in a statement. “As chairman of the HELP Committee, I am committed to getting President Trump’s team in place as quickly as possible.”
Christine was asked about a wide variety of topics last week at his HELP Committee confirmation hearing, including transgender care, COVID-19, and vaccines, among others.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the committee’s ranking member, asked Christine about the reconciliation bill President Trump signed into law July 4. Sanders wanted to know whether Christine, a urologic surgeon from Mountain Brook, Alabama, thought the law would “help make America healthy again” if it throws 17 million Americans — many of whom are on Medicaid — off of their health insurance.
“No one wants to remove Medicaid benefits from truly deserving beneficiaries,” Christine said. “However, we do know that there are inefficiencies in the system. We know there are costs…”
“Seventeen million people are going to be thrown off of healthcare they have. Is that making America healthy again?” Sanders pressed.
“The individuals who are most deserving and truly deserve Medicaid will continue to be covered,” Christine said. Experts have suggested that some of those likely to be disenrolled from Medicaid under the new law — which includes a work requirement — will include people who are eligible for the program but will have trouble completing the required paperwork to prove that they are working, in school, or volunteering.
Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) asked Christine about his position on treatment of minors for gender dysphoria. “These individuals suffer; they deserve compassion,” Christine said. “They deserve love. The best treatment for these individuals — in my opinion and according to science — is that they be treated with compassionate counseling, expert counseling, and they be treated with support and care and love. We know that if you treat minors with gender dysphoria in that way, the vast majority of them, by the time they reach their late teens, will no longer suffer from gender dysphoria. They’re happy in their own skin.”
“The point of that is, first, do no harm,” he added. “The way to treat them is not with chemicals and puberty blockers and hormones and surgeries that do irreversible damage. The best way to treat them is with counseling, compassion, and care. That’s what I recommend. That’s what I would intend to do.”
Cassidy asked Christine about his views on vaccines, noting that two unvaccinated children have died in the recent measles epidemic in West Texas. “Are you willing to be an evangelist to tell people that vaccines have … been shown to be safe, and that, by golly, you should be vaccinated so we don’t lose another child?” Cassidy asked.
“I will absolutely be an evangelist that vaccinations are important,” Christine said. “Vaccines do save lives. I personally would recommend the measles vaccine … I will use [my] position to be an evangelist, to help individuals understand and to bring them to want to pursue the appropriate vaccination schedule.”
Now that the HELP Committee is sending Christine’s nomination to the Senate floor, it will have to be voted on by the full Senate. That vote has not yet been scheduled. The Senate is currently scheduled to begin its month-long summer recess on Aug. 2.
Please enable JavaScript to view the