Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Sunday defended criticisms of the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare by saying nobody will be “worse off financially.”
“I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through,” Price said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“Understanding that they’ll have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy.”
Opponents of the Republicans’ healthcare plan, which has been working its way through the House, have said it will devastate the insurance rolls, pointing to a Brookings Institute estimate that 15 million people will lose coverage.
Price disputed that number and said the GOP plan will offer better access to healthcare.
“Well, I’ll tell you that the plan that we’ve laid out here will not leave that number of individuals uncovered. In fact, I believe, again, that we’ll have more individuals covered,” he said.
Last week, House Republicans introduced a measure called the American Health Care Act that among other things ditches the individual mandate that requires people purchase insurance or pay a penalty.
While President Trump gave the plan a thumbs up, conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus initially balked, saying it doesn’t do enough to reduce premiums.
But on Sunday, Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the caucus, appeared to be softening that stance.
“I think what we’ll see at the end other day are modifications to the Ryan bill that is out there right now,” Meadows (R-NC) said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who’s been shepherding the plan thought the chamber.