After promising to help President-elect Donald Trump rewrite the Affordable Care Act, Florida Gov. Rick Scott met Tuesday afternoon with the incoming secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Scott, a former health-care executive, was slated to meet at 2 p.m. with U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., in Washington, D.C. Price, a physician who will take over as head of the Department of Health and Human Services next month, has been a longtime critic of the federal law commonly known as Obamacare and as a congressional member has advanced legislation to replace it.
Under Price’s “Empowering Patients First Act,” Obamacare would be replaced with a measure that would offer age-adjusted tax credits for the purchase of individual and family health-insurance policies. It also would let individuals contribute to health-savings accounts, allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines and offer subsidies to states that have programs for “high-risk populations.”
In 2016, 1.5 million Floridians signed up for Obamacare, the most in any state. Through Nov. 26, some 514,000 Floridians had signed up for 2017 coverage, with a Dec. 15 deadline looming, according to HealthCare.gov. Before Trump picked Price to lead the federal health-care agency, Scott was considered to be a contender for the appointment, although he said he wanted to remain as Florida’s governor.
“I’m interested in doing whatever I can to help him rewrite Obamacare, redesign the government and help him work with the 33 Republican governors that have great ideas to help him be successful,” Scott said in a Fox News interview in mid-November.
