House, Senate Committee Leaders Call on Verma to Explain Offer of Backroom Deal with Insurance Companies

WASHINGTON, May 22 -- Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., ranking Democratic member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued the following news release:

The Ranking Members of four congressional committees today sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma demanding an explanation of recent reports that she sought political support from insurance companies for the American Health Care Act, also known as Trumpcare, by offering a quid pro quo deal to continue paying congressionally mandated cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments.

"Your reported actions suggest you are using the operation of the American healthcare system as a tool to gain leverage in political negotiations," the Ranking Members wrote. "It is wholly inappropriate for you to use federally appropriated money intended to lower the cost of quality, affordable healthcare as a bargaining chip to garner political support for unpopular legislation being negotiated behind closed doors by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans."

The letter, written by House Energy & Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., House Ways and Means Ranking Member Richard Neal, D-Mass., Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray, D-Wash., comes as the Trump Administration continues to leave working Americans in doubt about the future of their health care by threatening to sabotage health insurance markets and pushing a Trumpcare bill that would increase health care cost and leave millions uninsured.

The full letter can be found here: https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/052117%20-%20Seema%20Verma%20-%20CSRs.pdf