Last week, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees summoned five of the most powerful executives in the American health insurance industry to answer for their outsized roles in the U.S.-health ecosystem. And how their roles are leaving Americans increasingly sicker and poorer while they turn a profit.
For starters, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that the hearing was unprecedented. Even in the days leading to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we didn’t see a panel of Big Insurance CEOs being hauled before Congress like we saw last week. Until recently, these executives (and the companies they lead) have largely dodged Congressional scrutiny and accountability.
But the hearings were proof of something more and more folks are beginning to realize: Big Insurance has monopolistic control of our health care system and enormous influence on American life. And Americans — and, increasingly and at long last, the lawmakers who represent them — have had it.