The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Price’s health care plan,
Georgian’s plan relies on tax credits, grants, incentives.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary, has been one of the Affordable Care Act’s most vocal foes on Capitol Hill. He’s also one of the few congressional Republicans to author a comprehensive plan to replace the 2010 law.
The Roswell Republican has had no luck securing a vote on his proposal, the Empowering Patients First Act, which he has introduced at the start of every new Congress since 2009. But portions of the plan could see new life in 2017 after Trump is sworn into office.
Price has called the Affordable Care Act “too overreaching, too intrusive, too unworkable and too destructive to the American people.”
He’s described his alternative as a “carrot” approach to health care rather than a “stick,” offering incentives to people to get coverage without a government mandate. That tactic, Price says, gives patients more control and flexibility.
“With real, patient-centered reforms, we can build a more innovative and responsive health care system — one that empowers patients and ensures they and their doctor have the freedom to make health care decisions without bureaucratic interference or influence,” Price said in 2015.
Price’s 242-page Empowering Patients First Act would:
Fully repeal Obamacare, trashing the law’s mandate that requires every person to buy health insurance and eliminating the exchanges.
Give people tax credits ranging between $900 and $3,000 based on how old they are to help them buy insurance on individual markets.
Direct the Department of Health and Human Services to give grants to states to set up high-risk and reinsurance pools that would subsidize insurance for people with pre-existing conditions.
Offer incentives to use health savings accounts by granting a one-time $1,000 tax credit, raising the annual contribution limit and expanding eligibility.
Allow people to opt out of Medicare, Medicaid or veterans benefits and instead receive tax credits for a private plan.
Grant insurers the ability to sell insurance across state lines.
Bar any of the federal funding, tax credits or deductions to be used for abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother.
Critics warn that Price’s plan would weaken health care protections and leave many of the estimated 20 million people who gained insurance under Obamacare with insufficient coverage.
“It would let insurers once again exclude coverage of many people’s pre-existing conditions and charge them much higher premiums,” Edwin Park, a health policy expert at the left-of-center Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wrote in a blog post on the think tank’s website. “And it would likely seriously disrupt employer-based coverage by encouraging employers to drop coverage on the assumption that workers would buy it on their own.”
Price’s bill is similar to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” plan, which the 62-year-old has also endorsed.
Trump himself has offered only broad outlines about what he would like to see in an Obamacare replacement, which gives congressional leaders and Price flexibility to build a new plan. While they will be able to repeal and rebuild broad swaths of the health law without the help of congressional Democrats, the GOP will need some buy-in later in the process.
“I think what you’ll see Price work to do is to try to take the best of (congressional health care replacement) plans and develop a consensus and be very practical about getting something done,” said Kelly McCutchen, the president and CEO of the right-leaning Georgia Public Policy Foundation. “I think you will see him listen to everyone, all parties that have an interest in this bill.”