Mr. Azar, a former drug company executive, immediately confronts two huge challenges: how to rein in drug prices and how to administer the Affordable Care Act.
The Trump administration has unveiled a Medicare program that closely resembles the Obama-era efforts to change the way doctors and hospitals are paid.
People with Medicaid and employer plans need not worry about big policy changes. But the individual insurance market will be marked by high prices and limited choices next year.
A lawyer and an epidemiologist who fought against the Affordable Care Act’s rule on contraception coverage from the outside are now the architects of the president’s reversal.