Health Secretary Tom Price appeared on Sunday’s Meet The Press to sell the short(er) stack of paper that he hopes will replace Obamacare. Despite Paul Ryan’s riveting Powerpoint presentation on the subject, many Americans remain concerned about the multiple reasons why this bill could increase coverage cost and out-of-pocket costs for those who pay premiums. Host Chuck Todd grilled Price over claims that the bill won’t adversely affect American’s finances, and Price’s casual attitude won’t win him any new fans. First, he tried to pull a Kellyanne Conway by slamming Obamacare, and when Todd steered Price back on track, he spoke only in generalities:
“I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through, understanding that they’ll have choices, that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not that government forces them to buy. So there’s cost that needs to come down, and we believe we’re gonna be able to do that through this system. There’s coverage that’s gonna go up.”
In response to the Brookings Institution’s new assessment that up to 15 million Americans could lose coverage under the American Health Care Act, Price says this isn’t the case. Yet Price didn’t go into specifics to back up his claims and simply acted as a cheerleader. Todd then inquired whether Price was serious about previous claims that 20 million more Americans would be insured under Trumpcare, and Price simply chirped, “We have a great opportunity to increase coverage over where we are right now.”
Well, this won’t do much to convince those who aren’t already siding with the Obamacare repeal, especially after Price came out in favor of increasing women’s premiums because they’re the ones who have babies, and some members of Congress sounded even more clueless on the subject. If the GOP is keen on raising premiums on roughly half of subscribers, they can’t seriously claim that no one will be “worse off financially” by the new plan.