Sean Spicer opened Tuesday’s White House press briefing by handing the microphone to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who expanded on the rollout of Republicans’ Affordable Care Act replacement plan.
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“There are three phases of this plan,” the former Georgia congressman told the room full of reporters. “One is the bill that was introduced last evening in the House of Representatives, that’s the start of all of this.”
“Second are all the regulatory modifications and changes that can be put into place,” he continued. “As you all well know the previous administration used regulations to a fare-thee-well. There were 192 specific rules that were put out as they relate to Obamacare, over 5,000 letters of guidance and the like, and we are going to go through every single one of those and make certain that if they help patients, then we need to continue them.”
“If they harm patients or increase costs, then obviously they need to be addressed,” Price added. “And then there’s other legislation that will need to be addressed that can’t be done through the reconciliation process.”
“The goal of all of this is patient-centered healthcare, where patients and families and doctors are making medical decisions and not the federal government.”
During a question and answer session, Price pointed to a table next to the podium, on which sat both the original text of the Affordable Care Act and the GOP replacement plan, to illustrate the obvious differences between the two plans.
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