Ron Wyden Grills HHS Nominee About ‘Cutbacks In Essential Healthcare Services’

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During Tuesday's Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) questioned HHS Nominees about service cuts and supporting American's healthcare.

Transcript

00:00Senator Wyden, do you want to ask a final question?

00:03I have one question that I'm going to brief for closer.

00:06Mr. O'Neill, I saw a comment you made about wanting every American, this is your quote,

00:13every American to wake up vibrant, energetic, and free of disease.

00:20And that that's President Trump's vision to make America healthy again.

00:27But what we have seen in the last three months, and what we have talked about this morning

00:32as recently as my colleague talking about the safety of firefighters, is we have seen

00:39unprecedented efforts in one way or another to derail the ability of Americans to get

00:48good health care.

00:50So if Republicans are gutting Medicaid, terminating coverage for millions of children and family

00:58and seniors, and just in that discussion with my colleague about firefighters, those firefighters

01:04and people going to wake up the next morning feeling vibrant?

01:08Senator, as I told your colleague, I have not a chance to review that particular program.

01:15But in general, to answer the first part of your question, it's been frustrating to a

01:20lot of people for years that junk food is cheaper than healthy food, that nutritional guidelines

01:29are confusing.

01:30I didn't mention junk food.

01:31I talked about the programs that are being cut, that are being waylaid, the programs that

01:37used to help people, but now they're being studied.

01:41You said that Americans ought to wake up, you know, vibrant.

01:45I'm, of course, excited about that.

01:47That would be a great idea.

01:48I just don't see how that's consistent with all these cutbacks in essential healthcare services.

01:54So maybe you can tell me specifically how those two are reconciled, that everybody's going

02:00to be vibrant when their healthcare is cut, measles, all these kinds of programs.

02:03How does that work?

02:04I'd be happy to try, Senator.

02:06So the vision the Secretary laid out for the proposed reorganization was that functions

02:13of HHS be preserved and be carried forward in the most efficient way possible, sometimes

02:20by combining related functions into the same place, by reducing duplication, by eliminating

02:26middle management where that is not a good use of money.

02:29And leveraging the department's money and people towards succeeding in the most essential functions.

02:37And from what I can tell on the outside, that is the vision that has actually guided the proposed

02:42reorganization.

02:43Mr. Chairman, we've got colleagues on the way.

02:47I just want to say for this last area of questioning, I think what the witness and both of them are

02:56really doing is they're ducking on the question of whether anything is actually going to be

03:01done to make America healthy again.

03:04And I think what they're offering up is an approach that's going to leave people sicker,

03:09a nation living in fear, confusion with unprecedented levels of disease in a modern era.

03:15We're supposed to be making progress, guys, in terms of people dealing with these dread diseases.

03:21And what we have cited from the time of my opening statement are areas where it's getting worse.

03:28And you all are doing studies and you're looking at various agencies and like.

03:33Meanwhile, people are getting sicker.

03:35And that's not what we want in America.

03:37That's not what we were told we were going to get.

03:39It certainly doesn't seem to me to be consistent with making America healthy again.

03:43And I appreciate your courtesy, Mr. Chairman, with respect to my colleagues.

03:46I believe at least one is on the way and and and that should be resolved quickly.

03:53Well, we will pause for a few minutes to see if if another colleague shows up for questioning.

03:57If if we don't get some attendance soon, we will wrap up.

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