Price: ‘No guarantees’ people won’t fall through cracks of healthcare bill

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on Sunday the goal of the Republicans’ healthcare plan is to make sure that no one falls through the cracks, but cautioned there are no guarantees.

“That is the goal of the plan, to make certain that any transition from Medicaid to the individual market, from Medicaid to the employer-sponsored market, from Medicaid to Medicare, and the other ways that nobody falls through those cracks, that that is a seamless transition. That doesn’t occur right now, but that’s the goal of the plan,” Price said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

{mosads}When pressed on whether he or President Trump could guarantee Americans would not fall through the cracks, Price pivoted to what the Obama administration guaranteed in terms of healthcare.

“The previous president guaranteed that premiums were going to go down — in fact, they’ve gone up by 3,000 bucks. The president guaranteed you could keep your plan — in fact, you couldn’t keep your plan. So there are no guarantees in life,” he said.

Price’s comments come as the Senate GOP’s proposed legislation faces bipartisan pushback for its deep cuts to Medicaid and Planned Parenthood, among other concerns.

The legislation does not have enough votes to pass through the Senate, according to The Hill’s Whip List. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can only afford two defections from the Republican conference. Five Republican senators have said they cannot vote for the bill in its current form.