Sanders, Wyden Demand Senate Hearings to Hold Insurance CEOs Accountable for their Greed amid Growing Health Care Crisis
WASHINGTON, April 2 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, today called on committee leadership to hold hearings with the CEOs of the nation’s largest health insurance companies to address a fundamentally broken health care system that is failing millions of Americans.
In a letter sent to HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sanders and Wyden wrote: “While our health care system is failing ordinary Americans, it is working exceptionally well for big insurance companies. While 42% of cancer patients go bankrupt within the first two years of their diagnosis, last year the seven major health insurance companies in America made over $54 billion in profits … Against the backdrop of a system that leaves working families paying higher and higher medical bills, the nation’s top insurers paid their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages.”
As the senators highlighted in their letter, more than 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured; over half a million people face bankruptcy due to medical debt; and more than 60,000 Americans die each year because they cannot afford timely care. At the same time, Americans pay nearly $15,500 per person for health care — far more than any other wealthy nation — yet experience worse outcomes, including lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates.
“The American public deserves to know why the big insurance executives that testified before the House earlier this year continue to get richer and richer, while over one-third of people with health insurance have been forced to skip or delay getting the care they need because of the outrageous cost,” Sanders and Wyden wrote.
The letter also raised concerns about industry consolidation and vertical integration, noting that large insurers have acquired extensive control across the health care system — from physician practices to pharmacies — allowing them to maximize profits at every stage of patient care.
For example, UnitedHealth Group now owns thousands of subsidiaries, enabling it to profit from multiple points within a single patient’s care. Meanwhile, companies like UnitedHealth, Cigna, and CVS/Aetna have spent billions on stock buybacks and dividends to further enrich their wealthy stockholders.
“It is time for our committees to hold the chief executives of the major health insurance companies accountable for their greed and to address the health care crisis in America, as our colleagues in the House did earlier this year on a bipartisan basis,” the senators concluded.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-wyden-demand-senate-hearings-to-hold-insurance-ceos-accountable-for-their-greed-amid-growing-health-care-crisis/
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