Apparently, popular vote loser Donald Trump, Tom Price—his pick for heading up an Obamacare replacement effort, and congressional Republicans are all at odds on how to replace the law.
Donald Trump and his pick to lead the Obamacare repeal effort, Rep. Tom Price, share a vision that the current health care system needs to be completely uprooted.
But the two men have articulated wildly divergent visions for what comes next — and that's making it hard for Hill Republicans to figure out where to start on a coherent replacement plan once Obamacare is gone.
Over the weekend, Trump said he wants to substantially expand coverage once Price is confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary — "insurance for everybody" as he put it to the Washington Post. But as a House member and former chairman of the House Budget Committee, the Georgia Republican wrote one of the most conservative visions for health care, although his plan never included universal coverage as a stated goal.
Price's plan has little support in the Senate and supposedly hasn't come up in discussions with Trump. A senior transition official tells CNN that's because "the incoming administration wants Price to be inoculated from questions about what Trump's alternative to the Affordable Care Act looks like when he faces probing senators this week." Or perhaps it's because Trump is saying he wants beautiful health insurance for everyone which is definitely not what Price or any other Republican wants.
But that gives senators lots more time to ask Price about his ongoing ethics problems, like Monday's revelation that Price personally invested in a company, wrote legislation immediately afterward that would benefit that company, and then received campaign contributions from the same company, all in a matter of weeks. Senators could spend plenty of time exploring that, should they wish. They could also ask about the sweetheart deal he got on stocks with another health company, one which has given him "about a 400 percent paper gain in his investment in Innate Immuno, stock trading records show."
There's sure going to be plenty for the Democratic senators on the health committee to talk to Price about on Thursday, whether or not he's been helping Trump on a replacement plan.