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Doctor Emory Lewis gives a memory test to new Medicare patient, Helen Kinne, 88-years-old, while a concerned daughter, Deborah Kinne, looks on, at the family clinic in Reedville, Virginia, Monday, December 12, 2011. With approximately 65 percent of his patients insured by Medicare, Doctor Lewis, is closely watching the upcoming DocFix vote in Congress. (Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Sanders, Warren Lead Call for Biden to Embrace 'Historic' Medicare Expansion
"Lowering the Medicare eligibility age is not only the right thing to do from a public policy perspective," stated a letter to Biden on Sunday, "it is also what the overwhelming majority of Americans support."
Apr 25, 2021
President Joe Biden's top challenger in last year's Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, spearheaded a letter sent to the White House on Sunday urging the president to embrace an "historic opportunity" and include key expansions to the U.S. Medicare program when he announces a detailed vision for a major federal investment and tax reform plan later this week.
"Researchers have found that there is a massive spike in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been diagnosed much earlier if the Medicare eligibility age had been lower." --Letter From SenatorsThe two-page letter (pdf) from Sanders and 16 Democratic senators--including other 2020 presidential candidates Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts--asks Biden to "propose reducing the Medicare eligibility age, expanding Medicare benefits to include hearing, dental, and vision care, implementing a cap on out-of-pocket expenses under traditional Medicare, and negotiating lower drug prices" as part of the president's "American Families Plan" that he is expected to showcase during his first address to Congress Wednesday night.
Calling Medicare, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, "one of the most successful and popular federal programs in our nation's history," the letter argues "the time is long overdue for us to expand and improve this program so that millions of older Americans can receive the healthcare they need, including eyeglasses, hearing aids, and dental care."
The lawmakers argue that lowering the Medicare eligibility age--currently set at 65--down to 60, 55, or even 50 would be a way to expand coverage, save lives, and enact a broadly popular reform to a program that is already wildly popular by a majority of the American people across the political spectrum. The letter states:
Lowering the eligibility age for Medicare would help [millions of uninsured or under-insured older Americans] significantly. Twenty-seven percent of adults age 50 to 64 are not confident that they can afford health insurance over the next year, and more than a quarter report issues with navigating health insurance options, coverage decisions, and how their choices will affect their out-of-pocket costs. Researchers have found that there is a massive spike in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been diagnosed much earlier if the Medicare eligibility age had been lower. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 could expand Medicare coverage to 23 million people, including nearly 2 million uninsured people, while lowering it to 55 could give over 42million people access to the program, and lowering it to 50 could cover 63 million Americans. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age is not only the right thing to do from a public policy perspective, it is also what the overwhelming majority of Americans support. According to a recent Gallup poll, 65 percent of Americans support lowering the Medicare eligibility age.
In addition to Sanders, Booker, and Warren, the letter sent to Biden on Sunday was signed by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Biden's proposal for an approximately $1.8 trillion spending plan, the Washington Post reported Saturday, is expected to devote "hundreds of billions of dollars to national child care, prekindergarten, paid family leave and tuition-free community college, among other domestic priorities." On healthcare reforms specifically, however, the White House has not finalized how far it is willing to go.
According to the Post:
In a potential last-minute change, White House officials as of Friday were planning to include about $200 billion to extend an increase in health insurance subsidies through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been the key driver in Congress pushing for increased federal subsidies to private insurers under the Affordable Care Act in order to make the program created under the Obama administration more affordable and widely available, but Sanders has been leading the charge on the call to expand Medicare.
"Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on healthcare policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular."
--Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)"We cannot continue to deal with millions and millions of seniors--primarily low-income seniors--who cannot afford to go to a dentist, so cannot ingest the food they eat, or the millions of seniors who live in isolation because they can't hear," Sanders told the Post earlier this month.
On Friday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus backed a both/and, as opposed to an either/or, approach when it comes to healthcare expansion under the Biden plan.
"Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on healthcare policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the CPC, said in a statement.
"We must immediately lower the cost of prescription drugs and use the massive savings from this to lower Medicare's eligibility age and improve benefits while at the same time ensuring the permanent affordability of health plans obtained through the Affordable Care Act," Jayapal said. "These necessary policies that are supported by large bipartisan majorities of the American people enjoy the strong support of our Democratic Caucus, and can be accomplished simultaneously."
Citing the American Rescue Plan signed into law as Biden's first major piece of legislation earlier this year, Jayapal argued passage of that Covid-19 recovery and stimulus legislation should be a lesson to Democrats "that American people of all parties support us when we enact bold, populist policies that deliver for them."
Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works, struck a similar message when speaking to the Post earlier this month about the competing plans in Congress and what Democrats should understand about what's at stake in terms of healthcare policy and reforms.
"Before the next election, we need the American people--and particularly seniors, who have suffered so much during this pandemic--to see that this government is working for them," Lawson advised. "People would get hearing aids, get their teeth checked, before the next election. That will show them Biden is on their side. Democrats have to deliver for seniors if they are going to win."
And as Sunday's letter to Biden concluded, "We have an historic opportunity to make the most significant expansion of Medicare since it was signed into law. We look forward to working with you to make this a reality and, in the process, substantially improve the lives of millions of older Americans and persons with disabilities."
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Senators that signed the letter.
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President Joe Biden's top challenger in last year's Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, spearheaded a letter sent to the White House on Sunday urging the president to embrace an "historic opportunity" and include key expansions to the U.S. Medicare program when he announces a detailed vision for a major federal investment and tax reform plan later this week.
"Researchers have found that there is a massive spike in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been diagnosed much earlier if the Medicare eligibility age had been lower." --Letter From SenatorsThe two-page letter (pdf) from Sanders and 16 Democratic senators--including other 2020 presidential candidates Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts--asks Biden to "propose reducing the Medicare eligibility age, expanding Medicare benefits to include hearing, dental, and vision care, implementing a cap on out-of-pocket expenses under traditional Medicare, and negotiating lower drug prices" as part of the president's "American Families Plan" that he is expected to showcase during his first address to Congress Wednesday night.
Calling Medicare, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, "one of the most successful and popular federal programs in our nation's history," the letter argues "the time is long overdue for us to expand and improve this program so that millions of older Americans can receive the healthcare they need, including eyeglasses, hearing aids, and dental care."
The lawmakers argue that lowering the Medicare eligibility age--currently set at 65--down to 60, 55, or even 50 would be a way to expand coverage, save lives, and enact a broadly popular reform to a program that is already wildly popular by a majority of the American people across the political spectrum. The letter states:
Lowering the eligibility age for Medicare would help [millions of uninsured or under-insured older Americans] significantly. Twenty-seven percent of adults age 50 to 64 are not confident that they can afford health insurance over the next year, and more than a quarter report issues with navigating health insurance options, coverage decisions, and how their choices will affect their out-of-pocket costs. Researchers have found that there is a massive spike in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been diagnosed much earlier if the Medicare eligibility age had been lower. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 could expand Medicare coverage to 23 million people, including nearly 2 million uninsured people, while lowering it to 55 could give over 42million people access to the program, and lowering it to 50 could cover 63 million Americans. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age is not only the right thing to do from a public policy perspective, it is also what the overwhelming majority of Americans support. According to a recent Gallup poll, 65 percent of Americans support lowering the Medicare eligibility age.
In addition to Sanders, Booker, and Warren, the letter sent to Biden on Sunday was signed by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Biden's proposal for an approximately $1.8 trillion spending plan, the Washington Post reported Saturday, is expected to devote "hundreds of billions of dollars to national child care, prekindergarten, paid family leave and tuition-free community college, among other domestic priorities." On healthcare reforms specifically, however, the White House has not finalized how far it is willing to go.
According to the Post:
In a potential last-minute change, White House officials as of Friday were planning to include about $200 billion to extend an increase in health insurance subsidies through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been the key driver in Congress pushing for increased federal subsidies to private insurers under the Affordable Care Act in order to make the program created under the Obama administration more affordable and widely available, but Sanders has been leading the charge on the call to expand Medicare.
"Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on healthcare policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular."
--Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)"We cannot continue to deal with millions and millions of seniors--primarily low-income seniors--who cannot afford to go to a dentist, so cannot ingest the food they eat, or the millions of seniors who live in isolation because they can't hear," Sanders told the Post earlier this month.
On Friday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus backed a both/and, as opposed to an either/or, approach when it comes to healthcare expansion under the Biden plan.
"Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on healthcare policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the CPC, said in a statement.
"We must immediately lower the cost of prescription drugs and use the massive savings from this to lower Medicare's eligibility age and improve benefits while at the same time ensuring the permanent affordability of health plans obtained through the Affordable Care Act," Jayapal said. "These necessary policies that are supported by large bipartisan majorities of the American people enjoy the strong support of our Democratic Caucus, and can be accomplished simultaneously."
Citing the American Rescue Plan signed into law as Biden's first major piece of legislation earlier this year, Jayapal argued passage of that Covid-19 recovery and stimulus legislation should be a lesson to Democrats "that American people of all parties support us when we enact bold, populist policies that deliver for them."
Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works, struck a similar message when speaking to the Post earlier this month about the competing plans in Congress and what Democrats should understand about what's at stake in terms of healthcare policy and reforms.
"Before the next election, we need the American people--and particularly seniors, who have suffered so much during this pandemic--to see that this government is working for them," Lawson advised. "People would get hearing aids, get their teeth checked, before the next election. That will show them Biden is on their side. Democrats have to deliver for seniors if they are going to win."
And as Sunday's letter to Biden concluded, "We have an historic opportunity to make the most significant expansion of Medicare since it was signed into law. We look forward to working with you to make this a reality and, in the process, substantially improve the lives of millions of older Americans and persons with disabilities."
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Senators that signed the letter.
President Joe Biden's top challenger in last year's Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, spearheaded a letter sent to the White House on Sunday urging the president to embrace an "historic opportunity" and include key expansions to the U.S. Medicare program when he announces a detailed vision for a major federal investment and tax reform plan later this week.
"Researchers have found that there is a massive spike in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been diagnosed much earlier if the Medicare eligibility age had been lower." --Letter From SenatorsThe two-page letter (pdf) from Sanders and 16 Democratic senators--including other 2020 presidential candidates Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts--asks Biden to "propose reducing the Medicare eligibility age, expanding Medicare benefits to include hearing, dental, and vision care, implementing a cap on out-of-pocket expenses under traditional Medicare, and negotiating lower drug prices" as part of the president's "American Families Plan" that he is expected to showcase during his first address to Congress Wednesday night.
Calling Medicare, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, "one of the most successful and popular federal programs in our nation's history," the letter argues "the time is long overdue for us to expand and improve this program so that millions of older Americans can receive the healthcare they need, including eyeglasses, hearing aids, and dental care."
The lawmakers argue that lowering the Medicare eligibility age--currently set at 65--down to 60, 55, or even 50 would be a way to expand coverage, save lives, and enact a broadly popular reform to a program that is already wildly popular by a majority of the American people across the political spectrum. The letter states:
Lowering the eligibility age for Medicare would help [millions of uninsured or under-insured older Americans] significantly. Twenty-seven percent of adults age 50 to 64 are not confident that they can afford health insurance over the next year, and more than a quarter report issues with navigating health insurance options, coverage decisions, and how their choices will affect their out-of-pocket costs. Researchers have found that there is a massive spike in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been diagnosed much earlier if the Medicare eligibility age had been lower. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 could expand Medicare coverage to 23 million people, including nearly 2 million uninsured people, while lowering it to 55 could give over 42million people access to the program, and lowering it to 50 could cover 63 million Americans. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age is not only the right thing to do from a public policy perspective, it is also what the overwhelming majority of Americans support. According to a recent Gallup poll, 65 percent of Americans support lowering the Medicare eligibility age.
In addition to Sanders, Booker, and Warren, the letter sent to Biden on Sunday was signed by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Biden's proposal for an approximately $1.8 trillion spending plan, the Washington Post reported Saturday, is expected to devote "hundreds of billions of dollars to national child care, prekindergarten, paid family leave and tuition-free community college, among other domestic priorities." On healthcare reforms specifically, however, the White House has not finalized how far it is willing to go.
According to the Post:
In a potential last-minute change, White House officials as of Friday were planning to include about $200 billion to extend an increase in health insurance subsidies through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been the key driver in Congress pushing for increased federal subsidies to private insurers under the Affordable Care Act in order to make the program created under the Obama administration more affordable and widely available, but Sanders has been leading the charge on the call to expand Medicare.
"Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on healthcare policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular."
--Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)"We cannot continue to deal with millions and millions of seniors--primarily low-income seniors--who cannot afford to go to a dentist, so cannot ingest the food they eat, or the millions of seniors who live in isolation because they can't hear," Sanders told the Post earlier this month.
On Friday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus backed a both/and, as opposed to an either/or, approach when it comes to healthcare expansion under the Biden plan.
"Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on healthcare policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the CPC, said in a statement.
"We must immediately lower the cost of prescription drugs and use the massive savings from this to lower Medicare's eligibility age and improve benefits while at the same time ensuring the permanent affordability of health plans obtained through the Affordable Care Act," Jayapal said. "These necessary policies that are supported by large bipartisan majorities of the American people enjoy the strong support of our Democratic Caucus, and can be accomplished simultaneously."
Citing the American Rescue Plan signed into law as Biden's first major piece of legislation earlier this year, Jayapal argued passage of that Covid-19 recovery and stimulus legislation should be a lesson to Democrats "that American people of all parties support us when we enact bold, populist policies that deliver for them."
Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works, struck a similar message when speaking to the Post earlier this month about the competing plans in Congress and what Democrats should understand about what's at stake in terms of healthcare policy and reforms.
"Before the next election, we need the American people--and particularly seniors, who have suffered so much during this pandemic--to see that this government is working for them," Lawson advised. "People would get hearing aids, get their teeth checked, before the next election. That will show them Biden is on their side. Democrats have to deliver for seniors if they are going to win."
And as Sunday's letter to Biden concluded, "We have an historic opportunity to make the most significant expansion of Medicare since it was signed into law. We look forward to working with you to make this a reality and, in the process, substantially improve the lives of millions of older Americans and persons with disabilities."
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Senators that signed the letter.
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LATEST NEWS
Omar, Ramirez Among First in Congress to Decry 'Unconstitutional' Trump Strike on Boat
"They're now using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law," the Minnesota progressive said of the Trump administration.
Sep 04, 2025
Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Delia Ramirez on Thursday strongly condemned the Trump administration's deadly attack on a boat allegedly trafficking cocaine off the coast of Venezuela as "lawless and reckless," while urging the White House to respect lawmakers' "clear constitutional authority on matters of war and peace."
"Congress has not declared war on Venezuela, or Tren de Aragua, and the mere designation of a group as a terrorist organization does not give any president carte blanche," said Omar (D-Minn.), referring to President Donald Trump's day one executive order designating drug cartels including the Venezuela-based group as foreign terrorist organizations.
Trump—who reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat cartels abroad—said that Tuesday's US strike in international waters killed 11 people. The attack sparked fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US interventions over the past 200 years, and against a country that has suffered US meddling since the late 19th century.
"It appears that US forces that were recently sent to the region in an escalatory and provocative manner were under no threat from the boat they attacked," Omar cotended. "There is no conceivable legal justification for this use of force. Unless compelling evidence emerges that they were acting in self-defense, that makes the strike a clear violation of international law."
Omar continued:
They're now using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law. The US posture towards the eradication of drugs has caused immeasurable damage across our hemisphere. It has led to massive forced displacement, environmental devastation, violence, and human rights violations. What it has not done is any damage whatsoever to narcotrafficking or to the cartels. It has been a dramatic, profound failure at every level. In Latin America, even right-wing presidents acknowledge this is true.
The congresswoman's remarks came on the same day that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated a pair of Ecuadorean drug gangs as terrorist organizations while visiting the South American nation. This, after Rubio said that US attacks on suspected drug traffickers "will happen again."
"Trump and Rubio's apparent solution" to the failed drug war, said Omar, is "to make it even more militarized," an effort that "is doomed to fail."
"Worse, it risks spiraling into the exact type of endless, pointless conflict that Trump supposedly opposes," she added.
Echoing critics including former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth, who called Tuesday's strike a "summary execution," Ramirez (D-Ill.) said Thursday on social media that "Trump and the Pentagon executed 11 people in the Caribbean, 1,500 miles away from the United States, without a legal rationale."
"From Iran to Venezuela, to DC, LA, and Chicago, Trump continues to abuse our military power, undermine the rule of law, and erode our constitutional boundaries in political spectacles," Ramirez added, referring to the president's ordering of strikes on Iran and National Guard deployments to Los Angeles, the nation's capital, and likely beyond.
"Presidents don't bomb first and ask questions later," Ramirez added. "Wannabe dictators do that."
'Cruelty': US Appeals Court Blocks Order to Shut Down Alligator Alcatraz
"The fact that a facility embedded in so much pain is allowed to reopen is absolutely disheartening!" said Florida Immigrant Coalition's deputy director.
Sep 04, 2025
Two judges appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by President Donald Trump issued a Thursday decision that allows a newly established but already notorious immigrant detention center in Florida, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, to stay open.
Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida sought "to halt the unlawful construction" of the site. Last month, Judge Kathleen Williams—appointed by former President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida—ordered the closure of the facility within 60 days.
However, on Thursday, Circuit Judges Elizabeth Branch and Barbara Lagoa blocked Williams' decision, concluding that "the balance of the harms and our consideration of the public interest favor a stay of the preliminary injunction."
Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee, issued a brief but scathing dissent. He wrote that the majority "essentially ignores the burden borne by the defendants, pays only lip service to the abuse of discretion standard, engages in its own factfinding, declines to consider the district court's determination on irreparable harm, and performs its own balancing of the equities."
The 11th Circuit's ruling was cheered by the US Department of Homeland Security, Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declared in a video that "Alligator Alcatraz is, in fact, like we've always said, open for business."
Uthmeier's communications director, Jeremy Redfern, collected responses to the initial ruling by state and federal Democrats, and urged them to weigh in on social media. Florida state Sen. Shevrin "Shev" Jones (D-34) did, stressing that "cruelty is still cruelty."
In a Thursday statement, Florida Immigrant Coalition deputy director Renata Bozzetto said that "the 11th Circuit is allowing atrocities to happen by reversing the injunction that helped to paralyze something that has been functioning as an extrajudicial site in our own state! The Everglades Detention Camp isn't just an environmental threat; it is also a huge human rights crisis."
"Housing thousands of men in tents in the middle of a fragile ecosystem puts immense strain on Florida's source environment, but even more troublesome, it disregards human rights and our constitutional commitments," Bozzetto continued. "This is a place where hundreds of our neighbors were illegally held, were made invisible within government systems, and were subjected to inhumane heat and unbearable treatment. The fact that a facility embedded in so much pain is allowed to reopen is absolutely disheartening! The only just solution is to shut this facility down and ensure that no facility like this opens in our state!"
"Lastly, it is imperative that we as a nation uphold the balance of powers that this country was founded on," she added. "That is what makes this country special! Calling judges who rule against you 'activists' flies in the face of our democracy. It is a huge tell that AG Uthmeier expressed this as a 'win for President Trump's agenda,' as if the courts were to serve as political weapons. This demonstrates the clear partisan games they are playing with people's lives and with our democracy."
While Alligator Alcatraz has drawn widespread criticism for the conditions in which detainees are held, the suit is based on the government's failure to follow a law that requires an environmental review, given the facility's proximity to surrounding wetlands.
In response to the ruling, Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press that "this is a heartbreaking blow to America's Everglades and every living creature there, but the case isn't even close to over."
Healthcare Giants Have Raked in 'Sick Profits' From Trump Tax Cuts While Stiffing Patients: Report
The report found that seven of America's biggest healthcare companies have collectively dodged $34 billion in taxes as a result of Trump's 2017 tax law while making patient care worse.
Sep 04, 2025
President Donald Trump's tax policies have allowed the healthcare industry to rake in "sick profits" by avoiding tens of billions of dollars in taxes and lowering the quality of care for patients, according to a report out Wednesday.
The report, by the advocacy groups Americans for Tax Fairness and Community Catalyst, found that "seven of America's biggest healthcare corporations have dodged over $34 billion in collective taxes since the enactment of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law that Republicans recently succeeded in extending."
The study examined four health insurance companies—Centene, Cigna, Elevance (formerly Anthem), and Humana; two for-profit hospital chains—HCA Holdings and Universal Health Services; and the CVS Healthcare pharmacy conglomerate.
It found that these companies' average profits increased by 75%, from around $21 billion before the tax bill to about $35 billion afterward, and yet their federal tax rate was about the same.
This was primarily due to the 2017 law's slashing of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, a change that was cheered on by the healthcare industry and continued with this year's GOP tax legislation. The legislation also loosened many tax loopholes and made it easier to move profits to offshore tax shelters.
The report found that Cigna, for instance, saved an estimated $181 million in taxes on the $2.5 billion it held in offshore accounts before the law took effect.
The law's supporters, including those in the healthcare industry, argued that lowering corporate taxes would allow companies to increase wages and provide better services to patients. But the report found that "healthcare corporations failed to use their tax savings to lower costs for customers or meaningfully boost worker pay."
Instead, they used those windfalls primarily to increase shareholder payouts through stock buybacks and dividends and to give fat bonuses to their top executives.
Stock buybacks increased by 42% after the law passed, with Centene purchasing an astonishing average of 20 times more of its own shares in the years following its enactment than in the years before. During the first seven years of the law, dividends for shareholders increased by 133% to an average of $5.6 billion.
Pay for the seven companies' half-dozen top executives increased by a combined $100 million, 42%, on average. This is compared to the $14,000 pay increase that the average employee at these companies received over the same period, which is a much more modest increase of 24%.
And contrary to claims that lower taxes would allow companies to improve coverage or patient care, the opposite has occurred.
While data is scarce, the rate of denied insurance claims is believed to have risen since the law went into effect.
The four major insurers' Medicare Advantage plans were found to frequently deny claims improperly. In the case of Centene, 93% of its denials for prior authorizations were overturned once patients appealed them, which indicates that they may have been improper. The others were not much better: 86% of Cigna's denials were overturned, along with 71% for Elevance/Anthem, and 65% for Humana.
The report said that such high rates of denials being overturned raise "questions about whether Medicare Advantage plans are complying with their coverage obligations or just reflexively saying 'no' in the hopes there will be no appeal."
Salespeople for the Cigna-owned company EviCore, which insurers hire to review claims, have even boasted that they help companies reduce their costs by increasing denials by 15%, part of a model that ProPublica has called the "denials for dollars business." Their investigation in 2024 found that insurers have used EviCore to evaluate whether to pay for coverage for over 100 million people.
And while paying tens of millions to their executives, both HCA and Universal Health Services—which each saved around $5.5 billion from Trump's tax law—have been repeatedly accused of overbilling patients while treating them in horrendous conditions.
"Congress should demand both more in tax revenue and better patient care from these highly profitable corporations," Americans for Tax Fairness said in a statement. "Healthcare corporation profitability should not come before quality of patient care. In healthcare, more than almost any other industry, the search for ever higher earnings threatens the wellbeing and lives of the American people."
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