The confirmation of Tom Price as Health and Human Services secretary should accelerate Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, an effort that is moving slower than some conservatives prefer.
Senior Republicans said Thursday that healthcare reform has been on hold for several weeks as they wait for Price, a Republican Georgia congressman and medical doctor, to be installed atop the Health and Human Services Department.
The Senate voted early Friday morning to confirm Price. Democrats had filibustered, forcing the Republican majority to hold the full amount of floor debate time allowed under Senate rules on his nomination, even though his confirmation wasn’t in doubt.
With Price as President Trump’s point man on health policy, Republicans expect to pick up the pace with a negotiating partner in the administration whom they trust and who is intimately familiar with the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans are counting on Price to clarify Trump’s bottom line position, freeing them to pursue Obamacare replacement legislation that doesn’t risk rejection by the White House.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of Energy and Commerce, a key committee with jurisdiction over healthcare, said the main vote to repeal Obamacare could occur in the next six weeks. The replacement will take the form of multiple pieces of legislation and be phased in over a period of about a year or more.
“We’ve made it clear we’re gong to repeal and replace Obamacare. And, that’s what we’re going to do — period,” Walden said.
The possibility the White House won’t go along with them has been a major source of anxiety for Republicans. Indeed, it’s among the biggest reasons why the Republicans’ complicated effort to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system has stalled out.
“We’re not going to get anything done without President Trump being for what we’re for, so we need to know what he’s for,” said Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, who, as chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on healthcare, is a key player in the process.
Several factors have contributed to the Republicans’ hesitancy on Obamacare. They’re hardly at a loss for ideas, but they have been unable to reach a consensus.
Mindful of how politically disastrous healthcare reform turned out to be for the Democrats in 2010, Republicans have slow-walked repeal.
They’re looking for Price to jumpstart the process by using the president’s executive authority to immediately begin unwinding the law, given that so much of it was constructed with administrative power under President Barack Obama.
That matters, congressional Republicans say, because anything that Price does, they don’t have to do. That alone will begin to bring structure to their legislation.
“It’s important to have executive leadership, and having Dr. Price on board, helping President Trump provide that leadership, will help us do our job,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Trump has not been a stalwart conservative on healthcare policy; at one point he supported government-run, single payer insurance.
Late in the presidential campaign, Trump incorporated a rant against Obamacare into his stump speech and promised to replace the law.
But his stance has been unclear since, prodding Republicans to move quickly but warning them not to get it wrong and repeat the mistakes the Democrats made. Recently, Trump sounded like a Democrat, saying that his goal was “insurance for everybody.”
In Price, Republicans are dealing with a committed conservative whom they know and trust. Price is personally close with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Vice President Mike Pence, whose old Capitol Hill office he once occupied.
For years, House Republicans leaned on Price, the Budget Committee chairman until he was nominated, to develop Obamacare alternatives. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., supported one of Price’s proposals, introducing it as a companion bill in his chamber.
