For Immediate Release
Linda Benesch, lbenesch@socialsecurityworks.org
Xavier Becerra for HHS: Great News for Seniors, Terrible News for Big Pharma
WASHINGTON - The following is a statement from Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, on Joe Biden’s selection of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services:
“We have been proud to work with Attorney General Becerra for many years. As a member of Congress, Becerra was a leader in the fight to protect our earned Social Security benefits from cuts and a supporter of Medicare for All. At HHS, he will be perfectly positioned to strengthen Medicare and undo the Trump Administration’s attacks on the program.
As Attorney General of California, Becerra has fearlessly taken on Big Pharma monopolies. He co-led a bipartisan letter from 31 state attorneys general calling on HHS to allow generic competition of remdesivir, a COVID treatment. Doing so would increase supplies of the medication and lower its price. Now, Becerra will be in a position to make that happen for all prescription drugs.
Becerra’s selection is terrible news for greedy Big Pharma CEOs, but it is great news for seniors.”
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The mission of Social Security Works is to: Protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations; Safeguard the economic security of those dependent, now or in the future, on Social Security; and Maintain Social Security as a vehicle of social justice.