Price nomination, i wanted to see if i could put a little perspective on the upcoming debate. Focusing on bipartisanship has always been important to me. I know many of my colleagues on the Senate Finance committee on the democratic side share that view. And in 2009, the nominations of democrats tom daschle, tim geithner and ron kirk were all handled in a bipartisan way. Issues came up in the vetting process in each of these cases, and both sides of the committee took the investigation seriously. Unfortunately, mr. President , that has not been the case in 2017. P while congressman price served on the powerful ways and means i committee, he traded in healthcare stock, push policies that help his portfolio, and got special access to a promising stock deal. I asked th the congressman direy in his finance Committee Hearing whether he got a special deal. He said that he did not. I dont think you could be much clearer than the following passage from a recent report by a pulitzer prizewinning reporter at the wall street journal. He wrote, and i quote, rep tom price got a privileged offer to buy a biomedical stock at discount that Company Officials said contrary to his congressional testimony this month. And i want to repeat that, mr. President , because i think it goes right to the heart of why finance Committee Democrats feel that the effort to do the to congressman price is not pu a pulitzer prizewinning reporter at the wall street journal, i have just read it again. Wrote rep tom price got a privileged offer to buy a biomedical stock at a discount,o the Companies Officials said, contrary to his congressional testimony this month. So as i indicated my democratic colleagues and i on the Committee Said it was importantd to take more time to look into this issue. L but the majority when we said we needed to take more time to look at it, they decided to look the other way. Thats the first reason for concern on my side. The second is how congressman price would manage health and Human Services, a department that is really all about people. Services for seniors, services for the poor, for the disabled, for children and families. These are the powerful threads of our safety net. If the safety net is not there, for those who have nowhere else to turn. P those poor will suffer greatly. E now, mr. President , the debate on congressman prices nomination come in my view, is i referendum on the future of healthcare in america. And in short, its a debate about whether it makes sense for our country to go back to the dark days when healthcare worked only for the healthy and the wealthy. Based on the Public Record, medicare is a program congressman price doesnt believe in and it guarantees services he doesnt believe seniors should have. On the Affordable Care act, he is the architect of repeal and run. He wrote the bill himself. He proposed weakening protections for americans with preexisting conditions. He would slash medicaid, shredding the healthcare safety net for the least fortunate in our country. He would take away healthcare choices for women across the c country. Look for the common thread, mr. President , and colleagues, among the price proposals. They take away coverage for our people, make healthcare more expensive for individuals, or we both. Thats where congressman price stands when it comes to americans healthcare. Every senator who cast a voteany for congressman price has to stand by that agenda. And the island what this means for the future of american healthcare, there is the and lingering specter of syrias legal and ethical issues. Tonight and in the hours ahead, this debate is going to tackle each of those issues, and more. As he gets underway, mr. President , im going to beginn medicare. In my view, medicare has been a historic achievement in the way policy is made in our country. In any debate like this one, i pant codirector of the panthers when life couldnt imagine life without medicare. But ill tell you, mr. President , they told me stories about what it was like for their grandparent when there wasnt medicare. There were poor farms, literally poor farms, were older people who had served our country, served our country and the armed forces, very often spent the last days in what amounted to squalor at these poor farms. And then medicare came along, and for millions of older people it was a godsend. So i want to start my discussion with respect to medicare from a comment that congressman price made about medicare in 2009. And it is a quote, mr. President , that speaks volumes about the price perspective on the Medicare Program that is so treasured by millions of older people. Congressman price wrote in 2009, and again im going to quote, nothing has had a greaterative negative effect on the delivery of health care than the federalc government intrusion into medicine through medicare. I would just say to my friend, the president of the senate, i know this is how seniors in oregon see this, seniors in oregon consider medicare to be a godsend, not an intrusion into medicine, as you see from the price perspective. Ent, a so heres the bottom line, mr. President , and colleagues, as we begin this debate. Medicare is a promise. Medicare is built on a promise of guaranteed benefits. Guaranteed benefits that it will be there for you. Its not a voucher. Its not a slip of paper. Guaranteed benefits that you can count on. And its a promise that congressman price has indicated, and its a matter of Public Record, its a promise that congressman price is more than willing to break. Now, its a promise that when you turn 65 you will be guaranteed health care benefits, regardless of your economic station in life or the status of your health. And the reason medicare was built with this special guarantee is straightforward. No american knows how healthy they will be when they reach age 65. Perhaps you are a marathoner at age 50 and you develop arthritis or alzheimers or cancer a decade and a half later. Furthermore, no one knows what the economy is going to look like years ahead, or decades ahead into the future. So the less fortunate, high inflation or stock market crash could all but wiped out what they are set aside over a lifetime of work. Seniors could find their benefits exposed to new danger every time there is a financial downturn. Now during the recent campaign, the American People heard a standard trump pledge no cuts to medicare. But when you look at the price record and the promise of President Trump, there is a big gap between the two. When you look at congressman prices plan, its clear that the child pledge was on the ropes the minute he was nominated child pledge. In fact, congressman price said admi within the first six to eight months of the administration. Let me repeat that again, mr. President. Stateme some of these statements that the congressman has made are soa farfetched that once in a while im going to have to repeat them so that people really get a sense of why we are so he concerned. Congressman price said that heir wants to voucherize medicare within the first six to eight months of the administration. So what that would mean is right out of the chute, the medicare promise, the promise of guaranteed benefit, congressman price wants to break the promise. In his budget the congressman called for privatizing medicare and cutting it by nearly 500 billion. He also championed legislation to allow a practice called balanced billing in medicare. That means seniors could be forced to cover extra charges above what the program pays for the services they receive in the Doctors Office. Older americans on fixed incomes would be forced to pay more for their care. Colleagues, i believe that congress has no greater dutyf than to uphold the promise of medicare. And in my view, there is no need to mince words. Privatizing medicare as congressman price has sought to do things and and, and and to the Program Guaranteed health benefits. It would break the medicare promise, a promise of guaranteed benefits and services and in the medicare as our country knows it. Now let me turn to thehe Affordable Care act. When it comes to the Affordable Care act, for years now there is been a steady drumbeat coming from my colleagues on the other side, repeal and replace, repeal and replace. I think its gotten to the point where children sing it almost as a jingle, repeal and replace. Its been said so many times. Dozens of show boats, hundreds of hearings and press conferences, a government shutdown, all built around that slogan repeal and replace. 1. The president elect said repeal and replace would happen come in his words, simultaneously. Shortly before inauguration, he said they would come within the same hour, and he said congressman price was riding the replacement plan and it was nearly ready to be unveiled. But the public heard a different story. During congressman prices finance Committee Hearing. At that hearing our colleague, senator brown of ohio asked, asked the president said hes working with you on the replacement plan for the Affordable Care act, which is nearly finished, and it will be revealed after your confirmation. Stion. Is that true . That was the question. Posted by senator brown to congressman price. The congressman said, its true that he said that, yes, that he said that, yeah. A moment later he added, ive had conversations with the president about health care, yes. So if anybody is waiting for thi curtain to rise on the price replacement plan, it sounds like you are going to have to wait a while longer. In fact, the president said this weekend, just this weekend, americans might have to wait t until next year to see the the replacement. But the uncertainty about what comes next sure hasnt slowed down the charge of many towards repeal. F in fact, the president issued au day one executive order instructing the executive branch to roll back the Affordable Care act in any way possible. So i thought given these developments, mr. President , the fact that congressman price is the architect of a repeal and run bill, that the president immediately on day one tr triedo set in motion a strategy to get some of the key protections in t the Affordable Care act, ih thought i ought to follow this r up with congressman price during his nomination hearing in the finance committee. So i asked congressman price during his finance nomination hearing whether the congressmand would state that nobody would be worse off under the president sot executive order. Er not real complicated. There has been all this talk to the campaign about how now mon President Trump can do a betters job, less money, that was the constant refrain. I decided given these ominous developments that i just described since the beginning of this year, i thought i would just ask congressman price whether anybody would be worse off under the executive order. He ducked the question. And i remember asking him about whether people would be worse off with respect to coverage, and i remember, and he said something about how people would have access to health care. Well, ill tell you, hearing the word access rather than coverage means that somebody is walking back a commitment to people really getting care. Everybody pretty much cannot access. Everybody can say for sure, if i had the money i could get it. Its about coverage. So we asked congressman price whether people would be worse off, and he ducked the question. So then i asked if he would commit that no one would lose coverage. Ore. He ducked once more. Then i asked if he would commit to holding off on implementing the executive order until a so he ducked. So the congressman was given an opportunity to in effect say that he would honor what the American People were told by President Trump in the campaign, that the two would be handinhand, the replacement and repealed would go hand in hand. But he had a chance to say that at the nomination hearing, and he just docked and he docked and deduct some more. Americans are still being told that the Affordable Care act is the problem and its got to be repealed. It looks to me now that what republicans have on offer now isnt repeal and replace at all. Its what ive been calling since last year repeal and run. And architect of repeal and run is congressman price. In fact he wrote the bill, wrota the bill that would have guidedl the aca last time around. Gutted under the price of brent, 18 million americans would lose their Health Insurance in less than two years. By 2026 it would be 32 million who lose coverage. E, today, 26 million americans are uninsured. In a decade it would be 59 million. Working americans would make up four out of every five people who lose their coverage. These are folks struggling to climb the economic ladder. Con nocost contraceptive coverage for millions of women would be gone. We would have women losingst access to care, hundreds of thousands almost immediately, just by the defendant at planned parenthood. Hundreds of thousands more would lose their choice to see the doctors they trust. Just think about that. Legislation thats going to take away from american women the chance to see the doctor of their choosing, the doctor that they trust. W i dont know anybody in the last election, mr. President , who t thought that they were voting to see women lose the choice of the doctors that they trust. Mi under the price plan, premiums jumped by hundreds of dollars a year as the individual market for Health Insurance collapses. Health care costs skyrocket. Its a gut punch to all, even those who get their Health Insurance at work. Because what it would do, mr. President , is in effect it would shrink, it would shrink the Health Care Market in a way that they would be many more people who are seriously ill and had great expenses, and when you try to pass those on, that would mean people in the marketplace, and who had Health Insurance on their employer, would see increases. Off another issue in the price plan that ought to set off alarm bells, in my view, is what congressman price has proposed for those with preexisting health care conditions. This is especially important, in my view, mr. President. And when i proposed my ownrepubl health plan, eight democrats, at republicans, i was especially pleased that senators on both sides of the aisle understood that making sure that Insurance Companies could not knock the stuffing out of people with a preexisting conditions in the longer was central to reform. Because when you allow discrimination against those with a preexisting condition, what you are essentially saying is health care in america is going to be for the healthy and the wealthy. If youre healthy, no problem with a preexisting condition. If you are wealthy, again, no problem. So right at the heart of the Affordable Care act is a guarantee that Insurance Companies cannot discriminate against americans with preexisting conditions. And, frankly, i was very pleased to see that, mr. President , because as i indicated, 16 senators, eight democrats, eight republicans, on our bill said that that was right at the heart of what they wanted in health care reform. So the aca, the Affordable Care act, said no denying coverage to pregnant women, no denying coverage to cancer patients, no denying coverage to kids with autism under the Affordable Care act. That is the law of the land. It protects every singlery american. No american under the Affordable Care act should have to feel when they go to bed at night that they are going to get hammered like in the old days because they had a preexisting condition. Now, congressman price once again returning to the Public Record, its all in the Public Record here, mr. President , congressman price doesnt believe that the American People should have the protection of that kind of real band against discrimination for preexisting conditions. In fact, he was quoted in 2012rd saying that it was, in his words, a terrible idea. Lik so he would like the law changed, and his way to change a law that guarantees universalisg protection is to get rid of the guarantee, you are going to get discriminate against if you have a preexisting condition. Our colleague, senator ben nelson of florida, asked congressman price about the issue of making sure those with preexisting conditions dont get discriminate against wendy finance Committee Held the nomination hearing. Once again congressman price ducked and bobbed and weaved, and senator nelson asked if the congressman thought that the proposal to continue the ban on discriminating against people with a preexisting condition is a terrible idea. Heres what congressman price said. And ill quote. What ive always said about preexisting conditions is that nobody any system that pays attention to patients, nobody out to be priced out of the market for having a bad diagnosis. Nobody. , now, that probably is a pretty good soundbite. Its a good soundbite if you are trying to duck questions, but it is not a real answer to what senator nelson. And if you examine congressman prices own proposal when it comes to actually protecting people from discrimination with a preexisting condition, you can see why congressman price isnt very interested in getting a straight answer. Im going to turn now to one of the congressman said bills. Its ironically called empowering patients first. Instead of a ban on discrimination against thosetios with preexisting conditions, the price bill opened up loopholes to benefit insurancen companies. The price plan hinged on something called continuous coverage. And americans are going to probably hear a fair about about that in the mo