HHS SECRETARY TOM PRICE: THE SENATE PLAN TAKES A KEY STEP IN TURNING HEALTH CARE REFORM FROM VISION TO REALITY

“By its very own standards, the so-called Affordable Care Act has failed. The real work — and the real test of leadership — begins the moment when the question is no longer what you’re against, but what you’re for.”

U.S. Health And Human Services Secretary: New health care reforms are part of careful deliberation
By Tom Price
Deseret News
June 25, 2017

For much of the past seven years, patient-centered healthcare advocates have been united in opposition to Obamacare. Not just the law itself, but the damage it has inflicted on our health care system, the chaos it has sown in our insurance markets and the suffering it has caused in the lives of millions of Americans. But we have not put as much time into articulating to the American people what we are for.

Opposing Obamacare is easy. The facts and broken promises speak for themselves.

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By its very own standards, the so-called Affordable Care Act has failed.

The real work — and the real test of leadership — begins the moment when the question is no longer what you’re against, but what you’re for.

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President Trump wasted no time explaining to the American people what kind of health care system we are for. Within weeks of taking the oath of office, the president stood before the Congress and the country to lay out a positive vision for affordable, accessible and high-quality healthcare for all Americans.

At the center of this vision are individual patients and families in control of their healthcare dollars and decisions. They are empowered to purchase the plan that meets their needs — with the resources and freedom to shop for value in a truly competitive national marketplace — and to see the doctors of their choosing. They are secure in the knowledge that they will never again run the risk of being denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And the health care safety net, should they need it, is designed by those closest to them, at the state and local level, who know the unique health needs of their communities.

The health care reform proposal recently introduced in the Senate is a key step in turning this vision into a reality. Built on patient-centered reforms, the Senate plan would provide immediate relief to Utahns from the burdens of Obamacare by repealing the law’s most onerous taxes, rolling back its most costly regulations and revitalizing our hollowed out insurance markets.

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From your pioneering days, Utah has defined itself by what it’s for, not what it’s against. We need this same clarity of purpose in Washington today. The patient-centered proposals in Congress right now represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to undo the damage caused by an ill-conceived experiment in government-run health care. We’ve waited long enough. Now is the time to act.

Read the full op-ed here.