Senate health care bill fixes lack of coverage in US: HHS Secretary Tom Price
Senate GOP leaders delayed the vote on legislation to overhaul the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price says he's still confident the bill will pass.
Price told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that the Senate health care bill will help fix the lack of coverage facing “40% of the counties in this nation that will only have one insurance provider offering coverage on the exchange next year.”
“The fact of the matter is ObamaCare is collapsing before our very eyes," Price said. "You’ve got premiums going up, deductibles going up, a lot of people that have an insurance card but they don’t have any care because they can’t afford the deductible…What we’re trying to do again is to fashion a program that allows every single American to have access to the kind of coverage they want for themselves and their families, not what the government forces them to buy."
One of the most pressing issues, Price said, is the failing Medicaid entitlement program, which was initially intended only for “low-income seniors, disabled folks, and healthy moms and kids but with low income,” but now covers one in five Americans.
“Under the ObamaCare or the ACA, that was expanded significantly so now you have…healthy adults, both male and female, who are without kids, who we believe would best be suited in a more standard kind of insurance structure, but they’re on the Medicaid program now, and many of the resources being used there are crowding out resources [for those in need],” Price said.
Price emphasized the need to move Washington out of health care to give states the freedom and flexibility to provide the right coverage for their citizens.
“The federal government essentially tells the states you’ve got to treat every one of those individuals [seniors, disabled, healthy moms and kids] exactly the same, when in fact their health challenges are significantly different. So if the states were able to have the flexibility to provide the kind of coverage and care for each demographic within Medicaid, they would increase the kind of care being provided, and decrease the cost of that care.”