WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement on Health and Human Services nominee Congressman Tom Price. Price’s nomination is currently being considered on the Senate floor.
“If confirmed, Tom Price would be America’s 23rd Secretary of Health and Human Services, but he would be the first ever who has made it his mission to take away health care from middle class Americans.
“As a Congressman, Price has been a leading proponent of the ‘repeal and run’ strategy to leave tens of millions of Americans who have gained access to health care through the Affordable Care Act back out in the cold. He wants to ensure that the countless Americans with preexisting conditions go back to a health care system in which they either can’t afford coverage or are denied it altogether.
“But he isn’t content to stop there. He also wants to break our commitment to affordable health care for seniors by ending Medicare as we know it, and wants to undermine Medicaid by block granting it and cutting it by over a trillion dollars. He believes so fervently in destroying these programs that he even contradicted the President’s own commitments in his confirmation hearing, refusing to back Trump’s explicit promise not to cut Medicare or Medicaid.
“On top of all of this, Price has yet to explain his highly disturbing conduct of trading in health care stocks at the same time as he was authoring legislation that would affect the value of the stocks.
“The bottom line is that Tom Price cannot be trusted to stand up for working Americans’ health or financial well-being. He is absolutely the wrong choice for this office.”
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