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Statement

“We Have Too Much at Stake to Trust Rep. Tom Price with our Health Care”

January 25, 2017
Health Care

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families
“Rep. Tom Price demonstrated again that he would be a terrible choice to serve as the nation’s next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services at the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions) Committee hearing today. He supports the deplorable action by the new Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a replacement, which puts at risk the health insurance that 30 million people, including four million children, rely on.
 
“It is simply wrong to destroy our health care system without a replacement plan that will keep families healthy and financially secure – and Rep. Price refused to be transparent about the policies he would support to keep the nation healthy and insured.
 
"But Rep. Price’s record is very clear: He would replace the ACA with measures that gut access to health insurance and eliminate access to essential health services. He has cast votes to cut funding for Medicaid, which covers vital health services for millions of low-income children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, and the elderly, including seven in ten nursing home residents.
 
“It also is profoundly disturbing that Rep. Price refused to answer questions today about whether he used his powerful role in the congressional leadership to line his own pockets. While moms around the country are asking urgent questions about the future of the health coverage their families need, he spent the day dodging questions about his own actions.
 
"We simply have too much at stake to trust Representative Tom Price with our health care. We need an HHS Secretary who demonstrates concern for families’ health and rejects measures that have failed in the past. We hope that the Senate Finance Committee will demand answers from him at its hearing next week and will urge the Senate to refuse to confirm him for this critical post.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.