Price Urges Medicare Reforms, Breaking With Trump

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, said Tuesday he’d favor reforms to Medicare that would ensure the program’s viability.

“The Medicare trustees … have told all of us that Medicare, in a very short period of time, less than 10 years, is going to be out of the kind of resources that will allow us as a society to keep the promise to beneficiaries,” Price said Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee. “We will not be able to provide the services to Medicare patients at that time — which is very, very close — if nothing is done.”

Price supports turning Medicare into a premium support system, giving eligible beneficiaries a set amount to buy coverage. GOP leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan have also backed this idea in the past.

Trump, on the other hand, vowed during his campaign not to cut Medicare and Social Security, pointing out that this position set him apart from other GOP candidates during the primary. Democrats are now trying to hold him to that promise.