Merkley, Warren, Hoyle, Ryan, Jayapal Introduce New Bill to Crack Down on Health Insurers Buying up Clinics Across the U.S.

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Massachusetts’ U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren teamed up with U.S. Representatives Val Hoyle (OR-04), Pat Ryan (NY-18), and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) to introduce new legislation in response to billionaire health care corporations buying up independently owned clinics across the nation to pad their own pockets and leave patients out in the cold.

The Patients Over Profits Act prevents large insurance companies and their subsidiaries, such as UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary Optum, from buying up clinics. Out-of-control consolidations in health care have jeopardized patients’ access to care nationwide—with UnitedHealth-owned Optum gobbling up dozens of clinics in Oregon, New York, and Washington.

“Your doctor’s office should be in the business of making sure you get the best possible care, not functioning as a profit center for billionaire health care corporations,” said Senator Merkley. “In Oregon and nationwide, greedy executives are using sick people to turn healthy profits—with one Oregon clinic reportedly losing dozens of physicians and subsequently kicking out thousands of patients after it was purchased by Optum. The Patients Over Profits Act reins in these out-of-control consolidations, which are great for corporate greed and a bad deal for patients.”

“Across the country, insurance companies are buying up doctors’ offices, driving up costs, and putting insurance company profits over patients. Our bill cracks down on greedy insurance companies’ attempts to control doctors and squeeze patients for every cent,” said Senator Warren.

“When you get sick, you should be able to receive the treatment and care that you need. For too long, Wall Street has made that harder by buying up local clinics and care facilities and then focusing on turning a profit instead of delivering care. The Patients Over Profits Act stops multi-billion-dollar companies from buying up every part of the system and tying our health care access to their profit margins and shareholder returns. The message we are sending in response is clear: Americans should be able to expect quality, affordable, and appropriate care when they need it and that should be the focus of our health care system,” said Rep. Hoyle.

“UnitedHealth has gobbled up our local healthcare practices, creating a monopoly that directly hurts everyone in our community. In their greedy pursuit of profits, they now own the insurance company, they own your doctor, they own the pharmacy and they own the software that processes all of your information – and they use it all to keep prices high and drive quality down. Enough – it’s time to break up UnitedHealth and put you back in control of your own healthcare,” said Congressman Ryan. “We need to bring back the local, independent doctors offices and pharmacies whose sole priority is caring for you and your family – not United’s quarterly earnings report. We need to bring down the price of your care, and make sure you’re not billed a dime more than you owe. We need to build a system where patients can quickly access quality care right here in the community, without facing endless roadblocks, and healthcare workers get the fair wages they deserve for their heroic work. Breaking up UnitedHealth’s insurance and physician businesses is the first step toward building something better, where every American is able to get the care they deserve at a price they can afford.”

“UnitedHealth and other major corporate health care giants clearly cannot be trusted to put the needs of patients over profits, as they show time and time again. As they consolidate the market around them, they are also creating a structure that denies people the ability to visit a physician of their choice. This is absolutely unacceptable, and it allows them to jack up already absurdly high health costs, deny necessary treatments if they’re too expensive, and keep wages low for doctors, nurses, and the staff that keep hospitals running. I’m proud to co-lead the Patients Over Profits Act to break up this corporate ownership and ensure that all people can access care when and where they need it,” said Rep. Jayapal.

According to the Center for Health & Democracy’s Sunlight Report on UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealth employs or contracts with over 90,000 doctors—roughly 10 percent of the U.S. physician workforce—and owns over 750 clinical subsidiaries nationwide. The report underscores how this consolidation has shifted UnitedHealth’s profits and obscured transparency, blurring the lines between insurer and provider and leaving patients to suffer.

The Patients Over Profits Act is supported by the American Economic Liberties Project, Center for Health and Democracy, Health Care for America Now, Just Care, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, MoveOn, Physicians for a National Health Program, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, and Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action.

“Large healthcare conglomerates that own insurers and doctors’ practices jack up prices and reduce the quality of care seniors receive,” said Emma Freer, Senior Policy Analyst for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project. “We applaud Senator Merkley and Representative Hoyle for introducing the Patients Over Profit Act to ban this integration and take an important step towards breaking up Big Medicine.”

“Big Insurance is rapidly consolidating and creating monopolistic companies that control virtually every part of our health care system. It is a system now rigged to ensure their profits, not our care,” said Rachel Madley, PhD, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Center for Health and Democracy. “Our health care system should focus on care, not shareholder wealth. This is vital legislation that will protect patients and rein in Big Insurance.”

“Consolidation of actors in various parts of the healthcare system, including increasing vertical integration by insurers buying up provider groups, threatens to further increase corporate profits at the expense of patients. We need a rational approach to healthcare that would make patients’ wellbeing the focus instead of profit,” said Lisa Gilbert, Co-President of Public Citizen. “The Patients Over Profits Act would end key incentives for such abuses and crack down on the worst actors. These are important steps as we work to reform our broken health care system.”

In addition to Merkley, Warren, Hoyle, Ryan, and Jayapal, the Patients Over Profits Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14).

Full text of the Patients Over Profits Act can be found by clicking here.

A one-page summary of the Patients Over Profits Act can be found by clicking here.