February 10, 2017
Ken Pease About the Importance of Medicare
Alliance member Ken Pease from Fairfax, Virginia, joined senators and other seniors in stating his concerns about Price’s nomination at a Facebook Live event on Capitol Hill. Mr Pease was joined by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as Debbie Stabenow (MI), Ron Wyden (OR), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Mazie Hirono (HI), Patty Murray (WA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Gary Peters (MI), and Maggie Hassan (NH) also spoke at the event and all voted against confirmation.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), despite intense opposition. Price has tried to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and replace guaranteed Medicare health care benefits with a coupon to use to purchase insurance.
Besides wanting to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid, the confirmation process revealed that Price repeatedly bought and traded pharmaceutical stocks and then introduced legislation affecting those companies. He often misstated the timing of these stock purchases or did not disclose them at all resulting in numerous probes by federal securities regulators and the House Ethics Committee.