HHS Price: Healthcare Bill 'Not the Entire Plan'

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Sunday the Senate's healthcare bill "itself is not the entire plan," and that the administration will take a close look at "rules and regulations."

In an interview with ABC News' "This Week," Price said healthcare ultimately will be moved "in a better direction."

"The challenge that we have is that the bill itself is not the entire plan," he said. "It is a significant and an important and integral part of the plan. It's not the entire plan."

"What we're doing over at Health and Human Services is going through all the rules and regulations that were promulgated… does it help patients or harm patients?" he continued. "Increase costs or decrease costs? Where … wrong, we'll move it in a better direction."

He also pushed back on the hesitation of GOP governors about the Senate bill – and said what they ultimately want is what the bill addresses.

"What they'll tell you, the vast majority of them, almost to a person, is that what they need is flexibility," he said "They need to be able to design a Medicaid program that works for their population. 'Don't dictate to us from Washington, D.C… We know how to do it better than you.' ...That's what the governors are calling out for."

"So what we have heard from the governors … on that kind of flexibility that doesn't exist to the degree now that the bill would provide, would allow for. That's what the governors are calling out for."

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