Senator hatch ok. The committee will call to order. Well first listen to the senator from oregon. Who has to go to another committee hearing. But i welcome everybody to this mornings hearing on the president s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 with specific intention to the department of health and Human Services. So let me and i want to thank secretary price for being here. These hearings are an annual event for the finance committee. Secretary price, since this is your first time around, ill just warn you that these hearings can be a little grueling. So of course you already know that. Im grateful that the president and h. H. S. Are eager to work with congress to fix our Health Care System in order to ensure americans are able to access Affordable Health coverage. And with that i am going to turn to the Ranking Member who needs to get to another hearing and well show that deference. Senator wyden mr. Chairman, thank you very much for this courtesy. I know this is a busy morning an
Business washington impact campaign, which is a yearlong programming series. For more information on this series, view the url on the back of the card. Grateful tolarly the person who runs Public Policy and was instrumental in organizing todays conversation. Now i would like to introduce the global and u. S. Managing harder for health care. She will be offering a few remarks before we begin. She has been representing Health Care Clients for more than 25 years. She has worked with Academic Medical Centers and managed care organizations. Please join me in welcoming and anne. [applause] thank you eric for cohosting this. The space is gorgeous. We are pleased at how everything turned out. This is the first one of this kind that we have posted and we would like to do more in the future. I am pleased to present our two moderators. They will introduce the two senators. We have mary hamrick. She is our National Managing principal for Public Policy initiatives. As such, she leaves the Public Po
Called and texted and tweeted their opposition to an abomination of a health plan, that plan is not going to be on the senate floor this week. Thanks to grassroots america, it is so appropriate at this hour. I also want to make clear that weve got a bottom line for the next two weeks. Weve got an incredible amount of heavy lifting that weve got to do to make sure that working families and seniors get a fair shake from the American Health care system. I say that because, as we speak, Senate Republicans are at the white house strategizing with the president. The horse trading has already begun, and the Senate Republicans have a slush fund paid for by working families that contains hundreds of billions of dollars that can be used for sweetheart deals that would get them the 51 votes needed to pass this horrendous health bill in the United States senate. Now ill turn to what we need to focus on in the next two weeks at town hall meetings, civic group lunches, discussions with Rural Health
Mr. Hatch mr. President. The presiding officer the president pro tempore. Mr. Hatch mr. President , the final pieces of obamacare care were signed into law a little over seven years ago. Since that time republicans not just in congress, but throughout the country have been united in their opposition to the law and our commitment to repeal it. This hasnt been simply a political or partisan endeavor. Were not just trying to take a notch out of president obamas win column. The simple truth is that obamacare is not working. The law was poorly written and the system it created was poorly designed. Even a number of obamacare supporters have come to acknowledge that it hasnt been working the way it was promised to work. As a result, millions of americans have suffered astronomical increases in their Health Insurance premiums, and fewer and fewer Insurance Options to choose from. That is obamacares great irony. The law requires people to buy Health Insurance while also making it impossible to
Political or partisan endeavor. Were not just trying to take a notch out of president obamas win column. The simple truth is that obamacare is not working. The law was poorly written and the system it created was poorly designed. Even a number of obamacare supporters have come to acknowledge that it hasnt been working the way it was promised to work. As a result, millions of americans have suffered astronomical increases in their Health Insurance premiums, and fewer and fewer Insurance Options to choose from. That is obamacares great irony. The law requires people to buy Health Insurance while also making it impossible to do so. For . Efn and a half years for seven and a half years republicans fought to expose the failures of obamacare and have pledged time and time again to repeal it. Every single republican member of the senate has expressed support for repealing obamacare. Most of us have made promises to our constituents to do just that, and those promises coupled with the obvious