![Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price. / [Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/7/16/660x290/b_502x220x82/secretary-of-health-and-human-services-tom-price-image-by-gage-skidmore-via-flickr-cc-by-sa-20_1447979.jpg "Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price. / [Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0]")
When the Secretary of Health and Human Services tom price was on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday, he said that the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) that Senate Republicans were trying to pass was not the entire bill.
This was Price's response when he was confronted with the numbers and statistics that showed how devastating the new bill would be to those who are currently covered under Obamacare. Specifically, when he responded to the fact that some of the nation's largest insurers were showing their opposition to the Republican-led bill.
Forcing Americans to accept vague health care without details
On July 14, two major insurers sent a letter to the Senate opposing an amendment that was submitted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) which promised to lure those insurers away from the Obamacare a.k.a the Affordable Care Act (ACA) market place's regulations. The amendment got the support of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and the Trump administration. It appeared that it was accepted enough to become part of the BCRA. The insurers against the amendment were America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association, which said that premiums would sky rocket for those with pre-existing conditions and would leave more people uninsured.
Vast criticism of the bill is often deflected by Republicans using vague details, with requests made to those critics to ignore the estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and followed by promises that any new bill will be better than Obamacare.
There are hardly any details given to instill any confidence in those critics, only the forced assumption that any new bill will work over time. Tom Price's defense that everything that has been reported on or seen in public was not the entire bill, is simply another way for him and the Trump administration that he works for to deflect criticism.
Vapid rhetoric and misinformation
Tom Price has made very little effort to give any details to the American people as to what they should look forward to in the BCRA. This is certainly still the case as the bill is likely to return sometime in the future, according to vague sentiments from Senate Republican leaders. In fact, during his interview on This Week, he repeated the same ideological rhetoric that other Republicans have repeated about the "freedom" Americans will have to be able to choose their own plans.
When this isn't the case, Republicans refer to their united view that the ACA is in a death spiral -- even though that isn't necessarily true -- and claim that they have to prevent it from collapsing in on itself to protect those who need coverage.
If there is any indication from the letters sent by insurance providers, it at least shows that there are providers who are not interested in leaving the ACA. For instance, in an article by Bloomberg titled: "Failing or Doing Fine? How Obamacare’s Marketplaces Are Shaping Up for 2018", it said that Medica was expanding coverage in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. This applies to other insurers who will either expand or remain in the market place for 2018, while major providers such as Aetna, Humana and Anthem leave.
Republicans defy great opposition
It also shows that the regulatory aspects of Obamacare are not a complete deal breaker for those insurers who slammed Sen. Cruz's amendment. But Tom Price went further in the interview to say that people did not have enough choice beyond one provider in the market. This goes with the Republican view that a health care system that is mandated and provided for by the government is "over reach" and proof that the government was forcing themselves on "freedom loving" Americans.
During a press briefing on July 11, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said that with limited options for insurers, Obamacare coverage was not a market place but a monopoly. Even while very influential insurers appear to be taking a stand against the BCRA, Republicans have for the most part fallen in line with supporting Trump within limits. This means that the ideological support for his agenda to repeal the ACA, no matter the cost, is still acceptable.
