Tom Price, President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, vowed on Tuesday to make certain every American has access to affordable health care.
Testifying at his second confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, the congressman from Georgia was asked about Trump's executive order regarding Obamacare, his solutions to provide a stable transition period after repeal, and his dealing in health care stock trades.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) asked Price whether he would commit to ensuring that no American would be worse off or lose coverage following the president's executive order that instructed agencies to do everything to roll back the Affordable Care Act.
Price declined to give a yes or no answer and instead committed to work with Congress to make certain that every single American has access to affordable health care coverage.
"I guarantee you that the individuals that lost coverage under the Affordable Care Act, we will make a commitment to making certain they don't lose coverage under whatever replacement plan comes forward," Price said. "That's the commitment that I provide to you."
Price also assured lawmakers that he would protect those individuals with preexisting conditions: "Nobody, ought to be priced out of the market for having a bad diagnosis, nobody," Price said. "I believe firmly that what we need is a system that recognizes that preexisting conditions do indeed exist and that we need to accommodate it and make certain that nobody loses their insurance or is unable to gain insurance because of a preexisting condition."
Price was also asked about how he could improve the individual insurance markets and provide stability as Republicans attempt to transition away from Obamacare and into a replacement plan.
"One of the goals that I have is to lower the temperature in this debate, is to say to those providing the insurance products across the country, we understand, we hear the challenges that you have, they're already exiting the market," Price said.
"What we need to do is to say, there's help on the way to allow us to reconstitute the individual and small group market that allows for folks to gain the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family," the congressman continued. "So there are so many things that we ought to be focusing on to make certain again that the American people have access to the highest quality care that's affordable for them."
Price was also questioned about his trading in health care stocks.
"You heard about the stock from a House colleague who is a board director of the Australian drug company and the largest shareholder," said Sen. Wyden. "You got in on private placements not available to the public."
"In these private placements, you bought over 400,00 shares at discounts that were as much as 40 percent cheaper than the price on the Australian stock exchange," Wyden went on. "And you were sitting at the time on committees that have jurisdiction over major health care programs and trade policy."
Price maintained that his actions did not show bad judgment and said that the stocks were available to every individual that was an investor at the time.
"The reality is that everything that I did was ethical, above board, legal and transparent," Price said.