By Ed Diokno
Views from the Edge
Rep. Tom Price, the man who will lead the charge in doing away with the Affordable Care Act, was approved by the GOP-dominated Senate late Thursday night when most Americans were fast asleep.
Price won confirmation on a party-line vote of 52-47, which came around 2 a.m. Friday. Senate Democrats, united in their opposition to him as the government’s top health official, argued that the intersection of his personal investments and legislative behavior warranted deeper scrutiny of his ethics.
“The Asian American and Pacific Islander community has seen the greatest decrease in our uninsured rate–by 59 percent–under the ACA, the largest of any racial group nationally,” said Doreena Wong, director of Advancing Justice-LA’s health access program.”
“And consistently, AAPIs have expressed significant support for the ACA, even across party lines — for example, a poll in Spring 2016 found that 76 percent of Asian American voters supported the ACA, including 60 percent of those identified as Republican. A repeal of the ACA means that hundreds of thousands of our community members stand to lose critically needed health coverage,” said Wong.
The nomination of the Georgia congress member was opposed by the Congressional Tri-Caucus – which is composed of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The three groups sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), urging them to oppose the nomination of Rep. Tom Price to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“Throughout his career in Congress, Rep. Price’s words and actions have not aligned with the health priorities of minority communities. He has consistently supported changes to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid that will have devastating impacts on the communities that we represent,” the members wrote.The letter discussed Rep. Price’s strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act, a critical piece of legislation that has allowed millions of African Americans, Latinos, and AAPIs to gain access to quality, affordable health care. The congressional members also highlighted Price’s proposals to make drastic changes to Medicare and Medicaid that would disproportionately hurt communities of color.
I voted against Rep Price’s nomination to HHS because his efforts to try to raise health care costs, privatize Medicare & slash Medicaid…
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) February 10, 2017
Scheduling votes in the middle of the night to conceal the process from Americans is wrong. We need more transparency, not less.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 10, 2017
Last night, the Senate voted to confirm Rep. Price to head @HHSGov. I voted NO because we need someone who will #SaveACA, not dismantle it. https://t.co/wItM0Gj3gS
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 10, 2017
Price, an orthopedic surgeon, claims that “nothing has had a greater negative effect on the delivery of health care than the federal government’s intrusion into medicine through Medicare.” Of course, the exact opposite is true. Medicare saves lives. It allows seniors and people with disabilities, those with the greatest health needs, to obtain life-saving health care.
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