STAT+ John Wilkerson, March 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) slammed seven different Medicare Advantage insurers for lobbying against proposed rate cuts to the program while their executives still collected “exorbitant salaries” and gave “massive payouts” to their shareholders.

The strong language came in a series of letters from the two key Senate Democrats to Humana, Centene, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna CVS Health, Molina Health, Elevance Health and Cigna — which collectively account for 70% of the market for Medicare Advantage, a private alternative to traditional Medicare. Nearly all of those companies, along with the insurance industry’s major trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, have been pushing back against a Biden administration proposal that would cut baseline payments to the plans by 2.3% in 2024.

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