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health insurance
Insurance CEO Testimony ‘Made Case for Medicare for All Better Than Almost Anyone'
"Under Medicare for All, these insurance vultures who profit from the suffering of everyday Americans would all be out of a job—bringing down costs across the health system—which should be reason enough to support it," said one advocate.
Jan 23, 2026
If you want a compelling case for Medicare for All, just listen to the ultra-rich CEOs of the insurance companies profiting off the United States' disastrous for-profit status quo.
That was Public Citizen healthcare policy advocate Eagan Kemp's takeaway from congressional testimony delivered Thursday by the top executives of UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Aetna owner CVS Health, Elevance, and Ascendiun, some of the largest beneficiaries of a system under which millions of Americans face massive costs, care denials, and labyrinthine administrative hurdles.
"In both of today’s House hearings, health insurance executives’ devil-may-care attitude towards Americans’ health made the case for Medicare for All better than almost anyone I have ever seen," Kemp said in a statement following the hearings held by the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee's healthcare panel.
"Rarely has there been a more feckless, uncaring, and unsympathetic group of paper pushers," said Kemp. "Under Medicare for All, these insurance vultures who profit from the suffering of everyday Americans would all be out of a job—bringing down costs across the health system—which should be reason enough to support it. We need Medicare for All to finally put us on par with every other comparably wealthy country by guaranteeing everyone in the U.S. can get the health care they need, throughout their lives."
The executives faced angry grilling from both Democrats and Republicans during Thursday's hearings, which came as health insurance premiums are skyrocketing due to the GOP's refusal to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that lapsed at the end of 2025.
"Do you understand why the American people are not a fan of UnitedHealthcare and big healthcare companies?" Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) asked UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley, telling the story of a 3-year-old girl whose family was forced to take on more than $1 million in medical debt and declare bankruptcy because the insurance giant would not cover doctors' recommended treatment for a tumor in her bladder.
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), who recently underwent brain surgery, told the insurance executives that he faced eight care denials for necessary medication.
"You have put profits above patients, and you have put profits above those who care for patients," said Murphy, a physician. "If it were up to me, I would throw out all for-profit systems in this country and turn everybody into nonprofit. It has gotten that bad."
"If I had my way, I'd turn all of you guys into dust," he added. "We'd start back from scratch."
The @WaysandMeansGOP held a hearing on the impact of rising health care costs on patients and families.
We have to have serious reform of health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and their subsidiaries to reduce the cost of healthcare. pic.twitter.com/pQEE4WgQtk
— Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. (@RepGregMurphy) January 22, 2026
The insurance executives attempted to shift the blame for high costs and other systemic issues onto hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies, while offering Band-Aid solutions.
UnitedHealth Group's CEO pledged during his testimony to return its 2026 Affordable Care Act profits to consumers in the form of rebates.
"If you’re feeling a little misty-eyed about this sudden burst of corporate altruism, let me save you the trouble. This isn’t a moral awakening. It’s a PR maneuver and narrative control being implemented in real-time," said Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who now supports Medicare for All, which would virtually eliminate private insurance and provide comprehensive health coverage for everyone in the US for free at the point of service, for a lower overall cost than the for-profit status quo.
"UnitedHealth’s pledge is just a long, desperate PR pass into the end zone, praying lawmakers and reporters will focus on the gesture instead of the business model that allows them to gobble up those dollars in the first place," Potter added. "This isn’t a gift. It’s a distraction."
Kemp of Public Citizen said Thursday that “in the short term, the Senate must pass a clean three-year extension of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits to address runaway premium increases for millions of Americans."
"In the long run," he added, "we must continue building the movement that will pass Medicare for All and make it the law of the land."
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It's Obvious the US Healthcare System Isn't Working, So Why Not Try Medicare for All?
In a moment when the boundaries of what is “reasonable” or “possible” have been completely blown open, universal healthcare no longer seems so unrealistic.
Dec 18, 2025
Between the (likely) expiration of the Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, and the decade-long efforts to undermine and dismantle the ACA, the casualties and costs of our current healthcare system continue to grow as Americans continue to wait for a better option. Nearly 45,000 Americans aged 17-65 die each year due to lack of insurance, a number that could rise to over 51,000 preventable deaths in the coming years.
Yet, the Senate has failed to pass either healthcare plan proposed to keep health insurance premiums from skyrocketing in the New Year and the Medicare for All bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and US Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) in April 2025 has not advanced in Congress. Ideas like Medicare for All or universal healthcare often make eyes roll. “That’s unrealistic,” we’re told.
But is it? Universal healthcare is, after all, the reality for most other high-income countries. And yes, it might be disruptive, but Americans have lived through unprecedented changes and significant events in the past five years: the Covid-19 pandemic, the January 6 insurrection, and the rapid development of generative AI. Throughout history, major healthcare reforms have been born from disruption; Medicare is rooted in the civil rights movement, and the ACA passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Now, as the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, our foundational rights and institutions are being tested in ways that once would have been unthinkable. In a moment when the boundaries of what is “reasonable” or “possible” have been completely blown open, universal healthcare no longer seems so unrealistic.
Do we accept being the only high-income country where getting sick can cost you your home, your job, or your life?
We certainly can’t continue as we’ve been going. As a nurse scientist and postdoctoral fellow, I have a front-row seat to the healthcare crises we are facing: unaffordable medical bills, growing healthcare costs, long waits for specialty and even primary care appointments, and the growing burden of chronic illness and mental health crises. Employers are now shifting employees into high-deductible plans with high out-of-pocket costs. People are effectively locked into jobs they cannot leave because losing coverage, even temporarily, can be a significant financial risk—especially for those covering spouses and children.
We have extensive evidence, both internationally and within the US, showing what strategies produce better results. Any meaningful reform should include:
- Universal population coverage: Federal requirements must guarantee that every person living in the US has insurance that covers necessary healthcare services, including primary care, specialty care, mental health, reproductive health, preventive care, and hospitalizations.
- Care that is free or affordable: A largely single-payer financing model like Canada, Australia, and most high-income countries (as proposed in the “Medicare For All” bill) or a hybrid public-private system, where private insurance is still available but federally regulated to ensure cost containment, limit out-of-pocket costs, and eliminate catastrophic medical expenses, protecting families from significant medical debt.
- A focus on prevention and primary care: Meaningful investment in preventive services, primary care, and care coordination to reduce costs, prevent unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and improve long-term health.
But people remain skeptical that we can achieve these goals in the US—largely because of public opinion and political will, both of which are significantly influenced by private health corporations, including insurance companies, large hospital systems, pharmaceutical companies, and other obscure middlemen that profit from the status quo.
For decades these corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and advertising to the public to protect their revenue and discourage solutions that most of us agree with and would benefit from. President Donald Trump himself criticized health insurers as “money-sucking,” calling them “BIG BAD insurance companies.” If policymakers on both sides of the aisle agree that corporate interests are getting in the way of healthcare reform, why do we continue to defer to them?
Opponents of single-payer, universal healthcare cite the costs, but the US already spends more on healthcare than other high-income countries with universal healthcare—and better health outcomes. It is expensive to maintain a broken system.
Major change is challenging but not impossible. Most Americans are dissatisfied with the costs, shortcomings, and complexities of our current healthcare system and support the idea of universal healthcare. We have the resources, expertise, and innovation to create a healthcare system that works for everyone. What we have not yet shown is the courage to do it.
As the country approaches its 250th anniversary, we should be asking what kind of nation we want to be. Do we accept being the only high-income country where getting sick can cost you your home, your job, or your life? Or do we finally build a system that treats healthcare as a public good rather than a commodity?
If the president really wants to “make America Healthy Again,” he can—through real healthcare reform. And for the rest of us, instead of just waiting to see what happens with the ACA subsidies, we can all work to build broad coalitions and support politicians who have a bold vision for healthcare and the courage to actually make a change.
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Let's Get Real: US Healthcare Is an Industry, Not a System
Insurance and hospital corporations embrace higher profits over patient safety.
Dec 05, 2025
This is your nurse. We called him Doug.
a camera monitor is used in patient rooms on August 2025 at HCA/Healthcare. (Photo by Donna Smith)
Some days we didn’t see a nurse for entire shifts—and only for medication delivery and scanning the bar codes for payment. This is also your patient technician. Oh, wait, techs are in short supply, and the robot camera doesn’t do hands-on patient care. This camera isn't even your fall-risk protection. The camera watches as you fall to record your missteps and guard against liability.
And with the help of every hospital administrator and every one of its complicit employees who have given themselves over to its inhumanity, the medical-financial-industrial complex (MFIC) has evolved to put patients in their places. It is an industry driving nearly one-fifth of the country’s economy—it is not a system.
Patients are widgets, at best, deserving of protection only to the extent that our profitability remains intact. Once the costs of delivering care exceed the revenue generated by our health insurance coverage or bank balances, the MFIC finds ways to turn that equation back to solid gold. The profits are dear. Your health is not the goal. That’s an industry, not a system.
We have an industry that uses patients as widgets and counts profits as the only desired measure of success.
Calling the US healthcare mess a system is the softening of economic terminology that drives the health industry ever forward to higher profit margins. Patients receiving care are medical losses to the insurance side of the house, while those same patients are revenue line items for hospitals and clinics. Our lives are not being protected, and our personal resources are often drained. Industry and greed do that, not health systems designed to heal and serve.
This year is on track to bring record profits to hospitals in Denver like the one in which my husband was trying to heal from complications of hip replacement surgery. Denver area hospitals did great this year and last, even if they try to dance around the facts behind their business successes, and corporate public relations staff work hard to keep the public out of that loop.
Look at the newspaper’s description of the profits. Do you see or hear the measures of how many patients were made healthier by their care? Nope. The measures are almost all business and economics—this is an industry, not a system.
Denver hospitals, in 2024, per the Denver Post:
- AdventHealth: $68.6 million loss, -4.5% margin
- CommonSpirit Health: $222.2 million profit, 9.2% margin (Kaiser patients must now use this hospital too)
- Denver Health: $52.9 million loss, -4.1% margin
- HCA HealthOne: $616.8 million profit, 21.3% margin (my hubby helped boost this number for 2025)
- Intermountain Health: $138.3 million loss, -6.5% margin
- UCHealth: $1.2 billion profit, 17.9% margin (nonprofit, for sure, eh?)
If you choose any city in the country, the consolidation of business interests in healthcare is rapidly making the measure of success one of profits built on the backs of the patients-widgets, their home caregivers who are used in hospital settings as unpaid staff, and taxpayers giving tax breaks to large hospitals corporations to build and expand their services to more paying customers—patients-widgets.
For many years, I have advocated for an expanded and improved Medicare for All coverage plan for all of us. We all pay in already, yet we still pay huge insurance premiums to health insurance companies that simply process paper. Why are we doing that? The coverage we all already pay for in payroll and other taxes is not a welfare plan or socialized medicine. I dare say we’d all be healthier if it were. Medicare as it stands covers our elderly and many disabled people through taxes.
If we improved that and expanded Medicare, private premiums would go away and we could all choose whoever and wherever we wanted to seek care. No government hospitals or doctors to screen care—that’s a lie the profit engine needs to push out. I am 100% in favor of getting the profit motive out of hospital care as much as possible. Greed knows no limits, and greed does not belong as a measure of our health.
This health industry is a largely unregulated mess. You know it, and I know it. It’s time to speak the truth about it—the United States does not have a health system. We have an industry that uses patients as widgets and counts profits as the only desired measure of success. Making money is a fine thing so long as it doesn’t mean lying about how we do it. We fuel our economy on suffering and illness, and without the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act-ACA-Obamacare subsidies, the health industry will be even more attentive to their bottom line. You ready?
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