02.09.2017 / Press Release

Senate Confirmation of Price Puts Health Care for Millions in Jeopardy

Washington, D.C. – Following is the statement of Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, on the expected late night or early morning Senate vote confirming former Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“With this vote, Senate Republicans have placed the fate of the nation’s health care system in the hands of a man whose stated goal is to dismantle its very pillars and leave millions of people to the mercies of the insurance industry.

“As a Congressman, Secretary Price called for privatizing Medicare, which would take us back to the old days when seniors went without health care because insurance was unaffordable. He would eliminate the Medicaid expansion that offers health coverage to millions of working people in America. He has called for block-granting the traditional Medicaid program, which is just a backdoor way of gutting it. And he would eliminate the Affordable Care Act, with its subsidies and consumer protections that have helped millions of Americans gain and keep affordable health care coverage.

“As a physician, Secretary Price knows that his first obligation is to ‘do no harm.’ Unfortunately, the Secretary’s views about cutting Medicaid, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and privatizing Medicare would do immense harm, especially for the most vulnerable families in America. We intend to resist and avoid that harm.”