Price Grilled On How GOP Will Measure Success In O’Care Replacement

prepares to give testimony before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on his nomination to serve as US Secretary of Health and Human Services on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Tom Price ... prepares to give testimony before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on his nomination to serve as US Secretary of Health and Human Services on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Tom Price Confirmation Hearing, Washington, USA - 18 Jan 2017 (Rex Features via AP Images) MORE LESS

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) attempted to pin down Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, on how Republicans would measure success in their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. Price first pointed to “cost,” “access” and the “choices” for individuals, before saying “absolutely” that policymakers should try to increase the number of people on insurance.

“So from where we are today, if you look at the things that many of us believe have been harmed by the Affordable Care Act, I hope that we’re able to turn that around and decrease the out-of-pocket cost for individuals, increase choices for individuals, increase access to the doctors and providers that the patients want, as opposed to what’s happened over the past few years,” Price said at his hearing Wednesday in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

“Increase the number of people who have insurance?” Murphy followed up.

“Absolutely,” Price said. “As I mentioned over here — we still have 20 million individuals without coverage. I think as policy makers, it is incumbent upon us to say, what can we do to increase that coverage?”

12
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. “As I mentioned over here – we still have 20 million individuals without coverage. I think as policy makers, it is incumbent upon us to say, what can we do to increase that coverage?”

    DON’T let the Rethugs con you into believing that expanding “coverage” is an acceptable metric. Neither is the term “cost.”

  2. Avatar for win win says:

    Price and the Republicans STILL don’t have a plan for healthcare, but back in 2010 one Republican did:

    Meet Republican politician Sue Lowden, a wealthy casino owner. . . . in 2010 she was the main contender for Nevada Senator Harry Reid’s seat – until she started propounding her chicken-based healthcare plan.

    “You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I’ll paint your house… In the old days that’s what people would do to get health care with their doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system.”
    – Sue Lowden, 2010 Nevada Republican candidate for US Senate

  3. IF they repeal at all, they will dump this on the states with block grants and attempt to wash their hands of responsibility by saying, “these are choices made at the state level where these decisions should be made”.

    I do think it is finally sinking in that ACA has more fans than they allowed themselves to believe.

    We’ll see,…

  4. But you still won’t know how many chickens you need to come up with for your heart surgery until you see the EOB.

  5. Avatar for edhedh edhedh says:

    addition by subtraction? WTF?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

6 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for charliee Avatar for brooklyndweller Avatar for bjones1024 Avatar for brd813 Avatar for menocchio Avatar for edhedh Avatar for canyoncountry Avatar for jakebarnes Avatar for win

Continue Discussion