Pelosi Statement on Nomination of Chairman Tom Price for HHS Secretary

"In Chairman Tom Price, President-elect Trump has a Secretary of Health and Human Services who has long dedicated himself to weakening the health care and human services of hard-working families.  The budget is a statement of values, and in years of extreme House GOP budget proposals, Chairman Price has made his radical, destructive values perfectly clear.

"With Chairman Price at HHS, Speaker Ryan moves closer to realizing his dream of shattering the Medicare guarantee that has protected generations of American seniors.  If Tom Price has his way with the Affordable Care Act, millions of families who have finally found affordable coverage for themselves and their children will be pushed back into the cold.  Doctors would be hounded out of lifesaving research and women would be denied their right to contraception and comprehensive health care.  Chairman Price has even opposed expanding the overwhelmingly bipartisan Children's Health Insurance Program, and pressed for devastating cuts to Medicaid – a critical support for families and seniors in long-term care.

"Seniors, women, children and hard-working Americans deserve an HHS Secretary who protects them, not one eager to attack the bedrock of Americans' retirement security.  If Chairman Price and Speaker Ryan move forward with their plan to end Medicare as we know it, they will find Democrats will fight relentlessly to defend it.  On Medicare and Medicaid, on the Affordable Care Act, on women's rights, the American people will hold Republicans accountable."