Sens. Casey, Murray, Wyden Demand Information on Backroom Deals Trump Administration Has Made with Insurers
Senators: Release Documents and Communications between HHS and Health Insurance Companies Related to ACA Modification or Replacement
Americans Should Know About Secret Deals That Could Affect Their Health Care
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ranking Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance, called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to be transparent and provide any documents and communications related to promises that were made to insurers in an effort to secure their support or lack of opposition to the Republican health care bill.
“While we know the administration has had multiple meetings with health insurers over the last few months, including at least private meeting you attended between President Trump and a health insurance CEO, we do not know what backroom deals have been made at those meetings,” the senators wrote.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times last month, in one such meeting, Seema Verma, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, reportedly promised that the administration would continue to make cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act if insurers supported the Republican bill.
“We are deeply concerned by the secretive process Republicans are using to develop their health care legislation,” the senators wrote. “The public stands little chance of evaluating how the Senate health care bill might affect them, given that a small, all-male group of Republicans is negotiating the bill in private, and Administration officials continue cutting deals behind closed doors.”
“These actions are appalling and the American people deserve better.”
