President Trump doesn’t think letting the healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act implode is the right thing to do, but will continue to threaten to do so because he doesn’t think Obamacare is working for the American people, Tom Price said Sunday.
Price, the secretary of health and human services, was shown a clip of Trump speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference arguing that the best thing to do politically was let Obamacare implode, but it wasn’t the right thing to do. Price was asked if Trump still feels the same way after making multiple threats to let the system fall apart after Senate Republicans couldn’t pass a healthcare bill earlier this month.
“It’s not the right thing to do because it hurts people,” Price said.
When asked why Trump threatens to let the system implode if he believes it will hurt people, Price said it “punctuates the concern he has about getting this moved in the right direction.”
“He understands this system may be working for Washington, it may be working for insurance companies, but it’s not working for people and that’s where his passion is,” Price added.
Price said the Department of Health and Human Services takes its mission very seriously and wouldn’t do anything to harm the American people. However, that doesn’t mean Price won’t work unilaterally in order to take away some parts of the Affordable Care Act.
He said the law allowed for HHS to impose more than 140 rules and regulations and he’s going to review each of them.
“We’re going to look at every single one of those rules and regulations, and determine if it’s going to drive up costs or lower costs, does it help patients or does it hurt patients,” he said.
