HHS Secretary Nominee Price’s Health Plan Would Severely Weaken Health Coverage and Consumer Protections
BY EDWIN PARK President-elect Trump’s selection of House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services should focus attention on Price’s health plan, [1] which to date has received little scrutiny. THE PRICE PLAN WOULD REPEAL THE ACA AND REPLACE IT WITH HIGHLY INADEQUATE FINANCIAL HELP TO ENABLE FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS TO BUY HEALTH COVERAGE. Like other Republican congressional health plans, it would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with highly inadequate financial help to enable families and individuals to buy health coverage — likely leaving many of the 20 million people who have gained coverage under the ACA uninsured or without needed care. [2] By repealing the ACA, the Price plan would eliminate its market reforms and consumer protections and even likely result in states having weaker insurance regulations than before the ACA. It would let insurers once again exclude coverage of many people’s pre-existing conditi