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HHS nominee Tom Price dodges questions on Trump's Obamacare replacement

The Affordable Care Act replacement plan that President Trump said he is working on with his nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary appeared far less imminent Tuesday.

Thomas Price, US President Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee.(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Affordable Care Act replacement plan that President Trump said he is working on with his nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary appeared far less imminent Tuesday.

Trump's pick, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., sounded unfamiliar with the legislation that Trump said would be released after Price is confirmed by the Senate when he was asked about it by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

"It’s true that he said that," Price said to laughter. "I’ve had conversations with the president about health care."

To a barrage of questions about what will replace the ACA from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Price said, "I look forward to working with the president."

"I hope I have input," Price said after McCaskill called HHS secretary the top job in U.S. health care.

Price's hearing was as clearly divided as his nomination and the fight over the future of President Obama's signature health care law. Republican members of the committee, especially Chairman Orrin Hatch, strove to defend Price particularly against the ongoing allegations surrounding stock purchases in health care companies.

Ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., made new charges that Price had understated by about half the value of his investment in an Australian biotechnology company. Price said it was a mistake.

No matter what the question or the questioner, Price answered most with a version of this: "Every single American will have access to coverage that is affordable." He often referred to people having the "option" or "opportunity" for care.

He noted often that with Medicaid currently it isn't always true that "coverage equals care" as many doctors won't accept it because of low reimbursement.

Three days after about a half million women marched in Washington to protest Trump's inauguration, Price didn't pledge to continue no-cost contraceptive coverage as allowed in the ACA.

Contraception is "imperative for many, many women," Price said, adding that should be able to "purchase what they desire."

And he warned that if the law isn't replaced, all consumers "are going to have nothing because of the collapse of the market."

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