Story highlights Price said the administration believes the plan will reduce costs for patients

"This is a work in progress," Price said

Washington (CNN) Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, pitching the GOP plan to replace Obamacare Tuesday, avoided repeating the Obama-era promise that if patients like their current doctor they'll be able to keep that doctor under the Republican measure.

"Our goal is absolutely to make certain that individuals have the opportunity to select their physician," Price told reporters at the White House Tuesday.

It's an example of one of the ways the Trump administration seeks to thread the messaging needle on House GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Price and White House press secretary Sean Spicer both praised the bill during the White House press briefing but stopped short of offering full-throated endorsements, leaving the door open to potential changes to the bill.

Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, said plainly that President Donald Trump supports the GOP plan, which Pence helped broker during regular trips to Capitol Hill over the past month.

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