HHS Secretary Tom Price to Congress: "Go Home And Talk To Your Constituents" About Obamacare

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price rejects the idea put forward in a Washington Post op-ed this weekend that 'Obamacare' is a myth and when we are dealing with health care we are dealing with a U.S. national health insurance system, in an interview with 'Meet The Press' host Chuck Todd:





CHUCK TODD: You know it's interesting, there was a headline this morning in the Washington Post that I'm curious if you accept the premise of. And the headline was simple. It's not Obamacare anymore, it's our national health care system. You accept that the attempts to repeal the affordable care act as we know it are dead and now your job and the job of Republicans is to make the system work better?



SECRETARY TOM PRICE: Well no, I don't accept the premise because we don't have a healthcare system. We've got about 5 healthcare systems. You've got Medicare for seniors, Medicaid for those individuals who are low income or vulnerable or disabled. You've got the employer sponsored coverage, where most individuals in this nation, about 175 million get their coverage. You've got the VA system and then you have the individual and small group market, where Obamacare focused its attention on setting up the exchanges. And it's that area where we've seen absolute failure. We've got 40% of the counties in this nation that only have one issuer, one insurance company providing coverage. So that's no choice at all. Next year you'll have dozens of countries that have nobody offering coverage. So this system is imploding, it is failing. And the president's passion, our passion, our concern is to make certain that we put in place a system that actually works for patients.



CHUCK TODD: Look, you were an elected official. You know how politics works. You know how to count votes. You know where the votes are. It's pretty clear a full repeal can't be done. It's pretty clear somehow rescinding the Medicaid expansion, that the support is not there. So what's realistic? What are you ask congress to do now? What is one thing that you want congress to do right now that's doable, that's realistic that can help you implement the affordable care act better?



SECRETARY TOM PRICE: Well, what we want congress to do is to go home and talk to their constituents. Talk to the families out there that are losing their coverage. Talk to the families that are making $50,000 dollars a year and have an insurance card through Obamacare but they don't have any care because they can't afford the deductible. Talk to the small businesses that are having to end their healthcare coverage for their employees because of the rules coming from Obamacare. Talk to the large businesses who are having huge challenges affording the health coverage for their employees. This is a system that is, that is imploding and has failed the American people. That's where the president's passion comes from. That's where my passion comes from, to move us in a direction where we actually put in place a system that works for patients, works for the American people.



CHUCK TODD: Alright, with all due respect, you gave me an explanation of what you'd like to see but you didn't give me a specific. And I want to ask you about a specific that the president tweeted about. He said his yesterday 'if a new health care bill is not approved quickly, bailouts for insurance companies and bailouts for members of congress will end very soon.' Now he appears to be referring to these payments that your department has been making monthly. And I know there is some legal questions about whether this is, been appropriated by the legislative branch or not. But the insurance companies have said this month to month reimbursement, of propping up the insurance markets, is creating more uncertainty and they would like to see some yearly--yearly certainty there. Can you say for certain that the, all of these insurance payments are going to be made every single month while the affordable care act is law?



SECRETARY TOM PRICE: Well, Chuck, as you know and your viewers know, this is a case that's in court and the case is House v Price. So I'm the defendant in that and therefore I can't talk about it. What I can tell you though is that the court has made a decision that those payments were made illegally and that's working its way through the, through the court system and it will. But again, what the president wants us to appreciate and wants everybody across this land to appreciate is that the system is being propped up in a way that makes it so it's not working for people. It's not working for those small businesses. It's not working for those families across this land. It's not working for patients. It's not working for physicians who are trying to care for those patients. So we're trying to put in place, trying to get a system that actually does work for patients and families and doctors so they're making decisions, not Washington DC.



CHUCK TODD: Do you feel it is your job at HHS to implement the Affordable Care Cct as it was meant to be or are you there to--some people think you don't want to see it work, so that's why we've seen cancelled tv advertising, the attempts to not get people to enroll, the cancelling of contracts that help with enrollment. And so some have accused that you do not want to see it work as it was intended. Can you explain?



SECRETARY TOM PRICE: Yeah, no, our job is to follow the law of the land and we take that mission very, very seriously. And the role of the health and human services department is to improve the health, the safety and the wellbeing of the American people. And what we understand, what the American people understand is that their health and wellbeing is being harmed right now by the current law. And so our goal is to make--is to put in place, as well as the president's goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients. You can't do that under the current structure. You can't do that just with regulation. It requires an act of congress and that's why the president has been so passionate about making certain that the, that the congress of the United States repeals and replaces Obamacare.



CHUCK TODD: But Secretary Price, I understand that, but it's clear the votes aren’t there. So if they come up with a fix that helps, essentially gives some certainty to the insurance companies to go into rural markets, are you then going to implement the affordable care act as it was meant to be, including encouraging people to sign up, encouraging enrollment, encouraging Medicaid expansion?



SECRETARY TOM PRICE: Well, our, as I said, our responsibility is to follow the law and again we take that responsibility very seriously and we will continue to do so. But remember that the current law right now is failing the American people. As I mentioned, I think, we've got 40 counties across this--40 counties that will no longer have any insurance company next year. That's not a choice for anybody. You've got a third of the counties right now that only have one insurance company providing coverage. That's not a choice for anybody. You've got premiums that are up, deductibles that are up, people having that insurance card and no care, got insurers fleeing the market. 83 insurance companies fled the health insurance market last year. That's before this administration came in. This system is imploding upon itself and that's what we're trying to care of. That's what the president has said. That's why we need repeal and replace.