Transcripts For WCAU Meet The Press 20170731 : comparemela.c

Do it. Let obamacare implode. Will President Trump try to push obamacare over the edge . Ill ask hhs secretary tom price collins, one of the republican no votes. And red blue divide. Candidate trump broke down the democrats midwestern blue wall. Is it still holding, and could we be seeing cracks in the republican southern red wall. Joining me for insight and analysis are hugh huewitt, helee cooper, democratic pollster and nbc news political analyst cornecor Cornell Belcher and iliana johnson. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. Celebrating its 70th year, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Pick your cliche of choice. The wheels came off the bus, circular firing squad, pressing the reset button. With the effective sacking of both his press secretary and his chief of staff in a sevenday span, President Trump did little to blunt the idea that his is a white house in a perpetual state of chaos. As of this morning, the notable got you a departures include acting attorney general sally yates, National Security advisor mike flynn, fbi director james comey, Communications Director mike dubke, sean spicer, then on friday, Reince Priebus. Not to mention the public trashing and cyberbullying of attorney general Jeff Sessions who does still have a job. That means President Trump is now on his second chief of staff, second Communications Director, second National Security advisor and second press secretary and its day 192. Now throw in a public display of infighting by the new Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, so vulgar we cant even hint at some of the things that were said and the dominoslike collapse of the republican efforts to repeal obamacare was the exclamation point. Voters say they chose President Trump to shake up washington and end business as usual. On that score at least the president has certainly delivered. But to what end . Reince is a good man. John kelly will do a fantastic job. General kelly has been a star. President trump ended a week of bitter infighting, dysfunction and a major legislative defeat with a very conventional washington move. A white house staff shakeup. I think its a good time to hit the reset button. I think he was right to hit the reset button. Retired fourstar marine general john kelly replaces priebus after just 189 days in office. John kelly is one of our great stars. Its an attempt to bring order to a west wing which even Rupert Murdochs New York Post compared to the reality show survivor. In a profane rant to the new yorker on wednesday night, mr. Trumps new Communications Director called priebus an expletive paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoic. Some brothers are like cain and abel. If reince wants to explain hes not a leaker, let him do that. Im not going to get into the mud on those sorts of things. But its unclear whether kelly will be given the authority to rein in chaos, which emanates from the president himself. This week the president repeatedly attacked his own attorney general. I am disappointed in the attorney general. He should not have recused himself. If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. Priebus ouster came just hours after the colossal failure of the republicans best hope for a policy success, and priebus was playing point for the white house. Senator john mccain joined senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to defeat an already watereddown bill that didnt repeal the law, it was only going to repeal the mandate. Dealing a blow to Senate Republicans hopes of passing something, anything. This is a disappointment. And denying the president a critical legislative win. Secretary tom price is also here. By the way, you going to get the votes . He better get them. Oh, he better otherwise ill say, tom, youre fired. Well, joining me now is that tom from atlanta, the secretary of health and Human Services, tom price. Secretary price, welcome back to the show, sir. Hey, chuck. Thanks. Good to be with you. You still have a job. I assume the president was a little bit tongue in cheek. But let me ask you, start there, ask yourself this, what could you have done differently . Im sure youre asking yourself that, considering what happened this past week. What could you have done differently to have a different outcome . Well, i think what the president has explained and punctuates is his seriousness about this issue and his passion for turning the Health Care System in a direction that puts patients first, not government and not Insurance Companies. Weve all got a lot of work to do. We continue to work with members of the United States senate. We look forward to continuing to work with them and our house partners as well to make certain that we move this Health Care System in that better direction where patients and families and doctors are in charge, not washington, d. C. You know, its interesting, there was a headline this morning in the Washington Post that im curious if you accept the premise of. The headline was simple, its not obamacare anymore, its our National Health care sym. Attem to repeal the Affordable Care act as we know it are dead and now your job and the job of republicans is to make this system work better . Well, no, i dont accept the premise because we dont have a Health Care System. Weve got about five Health Care Systems. Youve got medicare for seniors who are low income or vulnerable or disabled, youve got the employersponsored coverage where most individuals in this nation, about 175 million, get their coverage. Youve got the va system and ndividual Small Group Market where obamacare focused its attention on setting up the exchanges. And its that area where weve seen absolute failure. Weve got 40 of the counties in this nation that only have one issue or one Insurance Company providing coverage, so thats no choice at all. Next year youll have dozens of counties that have nobody offering coverage. So this system is imploding, it is failing. And the president s passion, our passion, our concern is to make certain that we put in place a system that actually works for patients. Look, you were an elected official. You know how politics works. You know how to count votes. You know where the votes are. Its pretty clear a full repeal cant be done. Its pretty clear somehow rescinding the Medicaid Expansion, that the support is not there. So whats realistic . What do you ask congress to do now . What is one thing that you Want Congress to do right now thats doable, thats realistic . That can help you implement the Affordable Care act better . Well, what we Want Congress to do is to go home and talk to their constituents. Talk to the families out there that are losing their coverage. Talk to the families who are making 50,000 a year and have an insurance card through obamacare but they dont have any care because they cant afford the deductible, talk to the Small Businesses that are having to end their Health Care Coverage for their employees because of the rules coming from obamacare, talk to the Large Businesses who are having huge challenges affording the Health Coverage for their employees. This is a system that is imploding and has failed the American People. Thats where the president s passion comes from. Thats where my passion comes from, to move us in a direction that we actually put in place a system that works for patients, works for the American People. All right. With all due respect, you gave me an explanation of what youd like to see but you didnt give me a specific. I want to ask you about a specific that the president tweeted about. He said this yesterday. If the new Health Care Bill is not approved quickly, bailouts for Insurance Companies and bailouts for members of congress will end very soon. Now, he appears to be referring to these payments that your department has been making monthly. And i know there is some legal questions about whether this has been appropriated by the legislative branch or not. But the Insurance Companies have said this monthtomonth reimbursement of propping up the Insurance Markets is creating more uncertainty and they would like to see some yearly yearly certainty there. Can you say for certain that the all of these insurance payments are going to be made every single month while the Affordable Care act is law . Well, chuck, as you know and your viewers know, this is a case thats in court and the case is house v. Price, so im the defendant in that and, therefore, i cant talk about it. What i can tell you, though, is that the court has made a decision that those payments were made illegally, and thats working its way through the court system and it will. But again, what the president wants us to appreciate and wants everybody across this land to appreciate is that the system is being propped up in a way that makes it so its not working for people. Its not working for those Small Businesses. Its not working for those families across this land. Its not working for patients. Its not working for physicians who are trying to care for those patients. So were trying to put in place, trying to get a system that actually does work for patients and families and doctors so theyre making decisions, not washington, d. C. Do you feel it is your job at hhs to implement the Affordable Care act as it was meant to be or are you there to some people think you dont want to see it work so thats why weve seen cancelled tv advertising, the attempts to not get people to enroll, the cancelling of contracts that help with enrollment, and so some of the cues that you do not want to see it work as it was intended. Can you explain . Yeah. No, our job is to follow the law of the land. And we take that mission very, very seriously. And the role of the health and Human Services department is to improve the health, the safety and the wellbeing of the American People. And what we understand, what the American People understand is that their health and wellbeing is being harmed right now by the current law. And so our goal is to make is to put in place as well as the president s goal, is to put in place a law, a system that actually works for patients. You cant do that under the current structure. You cant do that just with regulation. It requires an act of congress. Thats why the president has been so passionate about making certain that the congress of the United States repeals and replaces obamacare. But secretary price, i understand that. But its clear the votes arent there. So if they come up with a fix that helps essentially gives some certainty to the Insurance Companies to go into rural markets, are you then going to implement the Affordable Care act as it was meant to be, including encouraging people to sign up, encouraging enrollment, encouraging Medicaid Expansion . Well, our as i said, our responsibility is to follow the law. And again, we take that responsibility seriously and we will continue to do so. But remember that the current law right now is failing the American People. As i mentioned, weve got 40 counties that will no longer have any Insurance Company next year. Thats not a choice for anybody. Youve got a third of the counties right now that only have one Insurance Company providing coverage. Thats not a choice for anybody. Youve got premiums that are up, deductibles that are up, people having that insurance card and no care, youve got insurers fleeing the market. 83 Insurance Companies fled the Health Insurance market last year. Thats before this administration came in. This system is imploding upon itself and thats what were trying to take care of. Thats what the president has said. Thats why we need repeal and replace. Secretary price, im going to have to leave it there. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your views, sir. Thanks so much. Joining me now is one of the republican senators who consistently voted against her partys Health Care Bills, the various repeal and replace aumg options. Its Susan Collins. Senator collins, welcome back to the show. Thank you, chuck. Let me ask you this, one of the same questions i asked secretary price. Do you accept the premise that the efforts to repeal obamacare are fully dead and it is now time to refer to this as our national Health Care System and it is his job and your job to make it work . I dont accept the premise that we should not proceed to reform the law. There are some very well problems in the law, secretary price is right about that and he identified them. The problem is that congress as my friend and colleague Lamar Alexander has often said does not do comprehensive well. What we need to do is to go through the normal process, identify the problems, have hearings, hear from experts, hear from all the stakeholders, and produce a series of bills to fix the real flaws in the Affordable Care act. First on my list would be to stabilize the Insurance Markets to make sure that people access to insurance. Are you confident, though, that secretary price at hhs is implementing is trying to keep this law afloat, that is doing everything he can to create certainty, or are you concerned that there are some aspects of hhs implementation right now that are actually undermining the law, attempting to create more problems in order to, say, force congress to act . Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration when it comes to the subsidies that are given to very low income people to help them with their copays and their deductibles. I hear this described by some as an Insurance Company bailout. Thats not what it is. It is vital assistance to people who make between 100 and 250 of the Poverty Level and allows them to afford their out of pocket costs. The uncertainty about whether that subsidy is going to continue from month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of the Insurance Markets. And thats one thing that Congress Needs to end. We need to make very clear that that subsidy is important to those very lowincome people and we need to appropriate the money to ensure that it continues. Do you think senator mcconnell needs to give up the reconciliation aspect of trying to deal with health care, that he should pledge, okay, im done trying to jam health care through in this way. The process is back to the regular order. Are you there not only encouraging that but will you tell senator mcconnell your vote will never be there for him on any of these reconciliation Health Care Bills until he opens up the process . Ive made very clear that i believe we would produce far better legislation if we went through the normal process of having committee hearings, hearing from health care providers, from insurance regulators, from advocacy groups, from governors, from everyone involved and then produce Bipartisan Legislation with input from both democrats and republicans. Thats how we get the best legislation and that is the best path forward to mix the very real flaws that democrats and republicans alike see in the Affordable Care act. So thats the path that i want to take and that means not going through reconciliation but going through the normal committee processes. Ive been urging all along and senator john mccain urged in his very eloquent speech on the senate floor. It was something you were quoted this week in another report as saying that while Vice President pence lobbied you and some other Administration Offic