Senators scrutinize nominee for HHS,
At hearing, Tom Price gives few details on replacement for ACA
The Affordable Care Act replacement plan that President Trump said he is working on with his nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary appeared far less imminent Tuesday.
Trump’s pick, Rep. Tom Price, R- Ga., sounded unfamiliar with the legislation that Trump said would be released after Price is confirmed by the Senate when he was asked about it by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D- Ohio, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
“It’s true that he said that,” Price said to laughter. “I’ve had conversations with the president about health care.”
To a barrage of questions about what will replace the ACA from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Price said, “I look forward to working with the president.”
“I hope I have input,” Price said after McCaskill called HHS secretary the top job in U.S. health care.
Price’s hearing was as clearly divided as his nomination and the fight over the future of former president Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Republican members of the committee, especially Chairman Orrin Hatch, strove to defend Price particularly against the ongoing allegations surrounding stock purchases in health care companies.
Ranking member Ron Wyden, D- Ore., made new charges that Price had understated by about half the value of his investment in an Australian biotechnology company. Price said it was a mistake.
Senate Ethics Chairman Johnny Isakson, R- Ga., a longtime friend of Price’s, reprised his role as the chief defender of Price’s morality. It’s a job he says he has grown weary of since he spoke on Price’s behalf at another Senate hearing last week.
He feels like “a character witness in a felony trial during the sentencing phase,” Isakson said.
To Hatch, it couldn’t be more unnecessary as he noted, “I’ve never had a witness who performed as well as you have.”
No matter what the question or the questioner, Price answered most with a version of this: “Every single American will have access to coverage that is affordable.” He often referred to people having the “option” or “opportunity” for care, which is different than a guarantee.
Trump has given conflicting signals about his plans for health care if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. He has said that all Americans will have health insurance that is better and less expen- sive than current plans, but he has also scaled back that claim in other comments.
Price noted often that with Medicaid currently it isn’t always true that “coverage equals care” as many doctors won’t accept it because of low reimbursement.
Pressed on whether he would require Medicare beneficiaries to pay for more of their care, as he has advocated in the past, Price didn’t back down.
Medicare trustees “have told all of us that Medicare, in a very short period of time, will be out of resources” to continue to provide services to those older than 65, he said. It would be an “irresponsibility for us as policymakers” not to act, he added.
Three days after about a halfmillion women marched in Washington to protest Trump’s inauguration, Price declined to pledge to continue no-cost contraceptive coverage as allowed in the ACA.
Contraception is “imperative for many, many women,” Price said, adding they should be able to “purchase what they desire.”
Other issues: uPre- existing conditions. Price continued Republican support for ACA replacement measures that don’t discriminate against them for their health conditions. “Nobody ought to be priced out of a market for having a bad diagnosis,” he said. And he expressed support for “pooling mechanisms” like the high-risk pools that the sickest patients could buy insurance through before the ACA. uIndividual mandate. Price skirted questions as to whether he would move to remove penalties for people who don’t buy insurance.