Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said the Republican healthcare plan in Congress would provide more funding for women's healthcare while not paying for abortion services through Planned Parenthood.
"People have said they didn't want their federal tax dollars to be used for the provision of abortion services," Price said at a town hall meeting hosted Wednesday by CNN in Washington. "The bill that is before Congress right now actually increases money for women's health services.
"We do so by providing those monies through community health centers."
Price said more than 13,000 community health centers are located across the country, with hundreds of them being in Planned Parenthood centers.
"What we're trying to do is respond to the American people and their concerns of their federal tax dollars used for abortion services and make certain that women not only have more ability to get to a health center but more resources to be able to do so," Price said.
"There are other avenues to be able to get services for women," Price said. "There are community health centers, county health centers.
"But what we want to make certain is that we are responding to the concerns of the majority of American people."
More broadly, Price emphasized the Republican proposal, the American Health Care Act, will lead to lower costs and provide more individualized coverage than under Obamacare.
"What we want to make certain is that we put a system in place that will work for everybody," he said. "We're not interested in having anybody lose coverage that they want for their family, not that the government forces them to buy."
He said preexisting conditions "ought to be covered" under AHCA.
"The fact of the matter is that preexisting conditions ought to be covered," he said in response to a question from a New York woman who had recently been cured of breast cancer. "We believe strongly, the president believes strongly, that nobody who gets a bad diagnosis shouldn't be priced out.
"That may work for the government and insurance companies, but not for people. It doesn't work for patients.
"When we drive down the cost of health coverage, it makes it possible for every single American to purchase the coverage that they want."
Regarding Medicaid expansion, Price said the healthcare proposal would include "advanceable, refundable credits" that would be used to create "a type of coverage that [Americans] choose for their family, not that the government forces on them."
As for the resistance to the GOP plan by conservatives, Price expressed confidence that the healthcare proposal would pass Congress.
"The way to get it through is to pay attention to the American people," he said. "People want the same thing in healthcare: affordable for everyone, accessible for everybody.
"Highest quality that incentivizes everybody to do that and provides choices.
"Those of us privileged to implement the policy, we need to listen to the principles that the American people have told us that are dear to healthcare.
"That's what the president said."
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