Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Sunday that Republican governors who oppose the Trump administration’s healthcare bill can expect to see greater flexibility on Medicaid.
“I hate to sound like a broken record, but what they’re looking at is not the plan,” Price told CNN’s Jake Tapper, referring to a group of four GOP governors who came out against the replacement legislation last week.
“As you and they know, you can’t put the kind of flexibility that is necessary for them to be able to fashion their program for their vulnerable population in the way that they see fit in the first piece of legislation,” Price explained.
“Which is why it’s this three-phase or three-part or three-legs-of-a-stool plan,” he added.
The four governors — John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Brian Sandoval of Nevada, and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas — penned a letter to congressional leaders in which they claimed that “the current version of the House bill … provides almost no new flexibility to the states.”
“We’ve talked to countless governors, including the four that signed that letter, and talked about the kind of flexibility that they want and they desire to make certain that they’re able to put in place a plan that allows them to care for their vulnerable population,” Price said Sunday, defending the administration’s efforts to work with state leaders on healthcare reform.
“They’re incredibly supportive of the kinds of things that we’re talking about in that administrative phase and in that third phase,” he said.
