HHS Chief Says Waiving The Individual Mandate Is On The Table

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Sunday that waiving Obamacare's individual mandate is on the table as President Trump and congressional Republicans look for a path forward on health care.

"All things are on the table to try to help patients," Mr. Price said on ABC's "This Week."

"What we're trying to do is to make it so we have a health care system that responds to the needs of the American people," he said.

"And when the federal government gets in the way of responding to those needs, allowing the American people to actually provide coverage and care for them themselves across this land, then it's incumbent upon us as policymakers and as individuals charged with [the] responsibility of leading to put in place a system that actually works for the American people," he said.

In January, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that includes wording that some interpreted as granting the administration the power to waive the law's mandate forcing people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

The latest Senate Republican health care bill, which failed in an early-morning Friday vote last week, would have repealed that mandate.