HHS Secretary Tom Price on the health-care overhaul: 'I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially'

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price made a bold endorsement of House Republicans' health-care bill Sunday, telling NBC's Chuck Todd he is positive the proposal will not increase financial insecurity as compared to ObamaCare.

"Can you say for certain that once this bill is passed, nobody will be worse off financially when it comes to paying for health care?" Todd asked. Price replied strongly in the affirmative. "I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we're going through," he said during the Meet the Press interview. "They'll have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy."

Price defined success as "more people covered than are covered right now at an average cost that is less," a goal he argued the new bill can achieve. He emphasized the problems of the Affordable Care Act system currently in operation, highlighting states where the insurance exchanges offer plans from just one insurer as evidence of the lack of choice ObamaCare provides.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

For a rundown of the problems Price says the new bill will fix, see this guide to ObamaCare's troubles from The Week. Watch an excerpt of Price's remarks below. Bonnie Kristian