HHS Secretary Tom Price won't commit to ACA insurer payments

HHS Secretary Tom Price testified before Senate Finance Committee on the president’s proposed 2018 budget request for the department on Thursday.

Speaking to members of the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price declined to say whether the Trump administration would continue to fund cost-sharing insurer subsidies, the uncertainty of which has prompted some insurers to consider increasing their rates.

Price faced particularly pointed questions from Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who argued that the health exchanges may evaporate unless the federal government continues to fund those subsidies.

"The basic assumption is that the (Affordable Care Act) is falling apart," said Stabenow. "To me, it's like pulling the rug out from under someone and going, 'Oh my God, they fell down.' … The uncertainty is one of the top reasons insurers have cited when explaining whether they're posting higher rates for the next year or leaving the markets altogether. If we spent a tenth of the time we've spent undermining the healthcare system to improving it, we could me making unbelievable gains."

"Nobody is interested in the system dying," Price responded. "We're interested in making sure the system works for families and those who are dying. Nobody is cheering the challenges we have in the system."

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Stabenow pressed on, referring to Pennsylvania insurers' proposal to boosyt rates about 9 percent next year. If the cost-sharing reduction payments aren't made, that number would jump to about 30 percent.

Price responded by saying the insurer markets were in jeopardy before Trump's inauguration, repeatedly referencing an HHS report showing rising premiums in individual markets under the Obama administration.

Senators also pressed Price on matters relating to the American Health Care Act, the GOP bid to repeal and replace the ACA, with Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, honing in on coverage for pre-existing conditions and the individual mandate that Americans purchase health insurance -- ideas he said had their genesis in Mitt Romney's approach to healthcare reform in Massachusetts.

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"The reason the markets aren't working is because of undermining the individual mandate," said Carper. "We've taken off the training wheels to stabilize the marketplaces, and insurance companies lost their shirt because of it. They raised their rates, they raised their deductibles."

Price said there were "significant challenges out there, and there were so before this administration started."

The insurance industry has implored the Trump administration to commit to the payments mandated under the ACA, and with a deadline for raising the 2018 rates approaching, some have proposed releasing two sets of rates -- one in the event the administration follows through on payments, and one in the event it doesn't.

Twitter: @JELagasse