Tom Price’s second HHS Secretary hearing: 'Lower the temperature’ on ACA repeal debate

President Donald Trump’s selection to run HHS, US. Rep. Tom Price, MD, R-Georgia, dealt with Democrats’ accusations of ducking policy questions while criticizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mandatory CMS programs and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the second hearing on his nomination.

This grilling took place before the Senate Finance Committee, which will vote on whether to send his nomination to the Senate floor. Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, mentioned the endorsements of Price by major medical associations as reasons he should be confirmed.

On the Democratic side, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, R-Oregon, questioned Price about the direction of healthcare reform under Trump, particularly the executive order directing agencies to find ways to exempt people from the ACA’s individual mandate. Price declined to offer any details about Trump's promised ACA replacement plan, and when Wyden asked him to commit that “no one would be worse off” because of the order’s effects or delaying the order until a replacement for the ACA is ready, he didn’t answer one way or the other.

“Independent experts say that this is going to destroy the market on which millions of working families rely to buy health coverage,” Wyden said.

Price was repeatedly asked about past healthcare proposals he’s favored. On some, like turning Medicaid into a block grant program, he wouldn’t give a clear indication on what he’d advocate as HHS Secretary. On others, such as easing requirements of meaningful use and EHRs, he was more direct on his position.

“We’ve turned physicians into data entry clerks,” Price said. “If you talk to patients, what they recognize is when they go into see their doctor, they see the top of his or her head as they’re punching the data into a computer as opposed to that sharing of information that’s so vital and necessary, between the physician and the patient, for quality healthcare.”

In one testy exchange with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, Price argued his legislative proposals on healthcare aren’t necessarily what he’ll advocate if confirmed as HHS Secretary.

“I appreciate and understand that’s a completely different role than as a legislator,” Price said.

McCaskill interjected by saying, “That’s not what I’m asking you about the difference in your roles. What I’m asking you is: What do you believe in?”

Price reiterated his broad goal is to improving “access” to care, arguing as he did in his first hearing that high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, which he blamed on the ACA, have forced the newly insured to put off healthcare services to avoid those expenses. While he did assert the ACA was “not working,” he also cautioned that the debate over repealing and replacing the law has gotten too heated.

“One of the goals I have is to lower the temperature in this debate, is to say to those providing the insurance products across this country: we understand, we hear the challenges that you have,” Price said. “They’re already exiting the market. What we need to do is to say there’s help on the way.”

That help, according to Price, means “reconstituting the individual and small group market” while allowing customers to “gain the kind of coverage they want,” not “what the government forces them to buy.”

In the closing remarks, Wyden said from the Democrats’ perspective, Price’s policies would return the U.S. to the “days where healthcare was for the healthy and the wealthy.” Hatch pushed back, saying Democrats are pushing policies without a way to pay for them, while defending Price from accusations that he ducked questions.

“I wonder how many of my colleagues on the other side are going to vote for you,” Hatch said. “And if they don’t, it kind of says something about what’s happening in this country.”