HHS secretary Tom Price defends Trumpcare plan, says ‘nobody will be worse off'

The new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, defended the Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, in an exclusive interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

"I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we're going through," Price told host Chuck Todd.

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House Republicans unveiled the American Health  Care Act, already being called Trumpcare, early last week amid a firestorm of criticism. The legislation would freeze Medicaid expansion, eliminate the individual mandate and replace low-income subsidies with limited tax credits, according to the bill. Opponents also contend millions would lose their insurance under Trumpcare.

But Price, a former doctor and Republican congressman from Georgia, told NBC the plan would not adversely affect anyone.

"They'll have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy."

"There's cost that needs to come down, and we believe we're going to be able to do that through this system," the longtime opponent of Obamacare added.

"There's coverage that's going to go up," he said.

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The bill has come under intense criticism from medical, doctors' and patient groups, and even Republicans, since it was introduced last week.

The Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its analysis of how much the American Health Care Act would cost on Monday.

Cox Media Group