The Remedy Room — Congressional Record
Congressional Voices
The case being made on the floor. Five members of Congress — three Republicans, two Democrats — arriving at the same structural diagnosis from opposite ends of the political spectrum. This is not partisan. It is documented.
The Cross-Spectrum Convergence
A Republican urologic surgeon says prior authorization is the practice of medicine and insurers should pay malpractice insurance. A second Republican urologic surgeon says he needed eight attempts to get his own prescription and calls for breaking up the industry entirely. A conservative senator co-authors the breakup bill with a progressive Democrat. That Democrat gets the CVS CEO on record defending a structure the FTC documented as harmful. And a former Republican congressman-podiatrist retires after 12 years, immediately launches a bipartisan advocacy coalition, and writes in The Hill that he has been asking the malpractice accountability question for 30 years.
None of these members or former members coordinated their statements. They arrived here from their own clinical experience, their own constituents, and their own reading of the evidence. That is the signal. Note: Brad Wenstrup is a former member — he retired in 2025 and now advocates post-Congress. He is not a sitting legislator.
Rep. Neal Dunn, MD (R-FL)
Prior Authorization Is the Practice of Medicine
A urologic surgeon in Congress states directly: prior authorization is the practice of medicine, and insurance companies should pay malpractice insurance just like physicians do. The legal foundation of Clinical Integrity Amendment § 5 — from the House floor.
"Prior authorization, whether on the part of an insurance company or whatever, is the practice of medicine. And I would invite them into the medical liability arena. You and I have to pay med-mal insurance, so should they."
Rep. Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC)
Eight Attempts & Break Them Up — Jan 22, 2026
A Republican physician-congressman needed eight attempts through CVS PBM to get his own medication — then told the insurance executives in the room to their faces that vertical integration has destroyed healthcare competition and they need to be broken up. 77K likes, 24K shares.
"It took me eight times through CVS to get that medication. I'm a physician and member of Congress. I didn't pull any strings. I did what I was supposed to do. Imagine the average person in the country."
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)
S.3822 Co-Author — Break Up Big Medicine Act
Republican co-author of the Break Up Big Medicine Act alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren — the most unusual bipartisan alliance on healthcare in recent Senate history. When a progressive Democrat and a conservative Republican write the same structural reform bill, the problem has escaped partisan framing.
"Health insurance companies are buying up PBMs, pharmacies, doctors' practices, and — in some cases — even hospitals. They're killing competition and making healthcare unaffordable. It's time to put patients first."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
S.3829 Lead Author · S.3822 Co-Author — Both Reform Tracks
The singular legislative architect connecting both reform tracks simultaneously. S.3829 criminalizes executive conduct and opens insurer records to investigators. S.3822 structurally separates insurers from providers. Neither alone closes the loop. Warren is building both.
"When private equity gets hold of health care systems, it is literally a matter of life and death."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
CVS CEO on the Record · Glass-Steagall for Healthcare
Put CVS CEO David Joyner on the record about vertical integration at the January 22, 2026 hearing — confirming Aetna + CVS Pharmacies + CVS Caremark under one parent — and called for a "Glass-Steagall for Health Care." The CEO's defense of the captive strategy was directly contradicted by the FTC's own findings on medication markups.
"Whether you're a blue blooded capitalist or a card carrying democratic socialist, I think corporate monopolies are a problem. And this vertical integration is destroying people's ability to access care."
Fmr. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, DO (R-OH)
30 Years Asking the Accountability Question — Now Asking It as an Advocate
A Republican physician-congressman retired after 12 years and immediately launched Americans for Health Excellence (AFHE). Then wrote in The Hill that he has been asking why insurers aren't liable for malpractice for 30 years — and that nothing changed medically when a denial was reversed, only that someone felt accountable. Not a sitting member.
"I once told an insurer that I hoped the call was being monitored for quality assurance. The next day, his company approved the care plan I had prescribed. Nothing had changed medically. The only thing that changed was that someone felt accountable."
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY)
Ryan's district watched Optum acquire 2,500+ physicians across two deals in two years. He ran a community inquiry that generated thousands of constituent responses — mothers waiting a year for cancer diagnoses, families hit with thousands in overcharges — then submitted the results to DOJ, HHS, and FTC. When Trump staff reductions threatened to delay the antitrust monopolization suit, he wrote to AG Bondi demanding action. He documented UHC paying its own Optum practices 41–91% above market rate to squeeze independent competitors out of existence.
"United owns the insurance company, they own your doctor, they own the pharmacy and they own the software that processes all of your information — and they use it all to keep prices high and drive quality down."
The Broader Congressional Record
Beyond individual members, the accountability argument has produced coalition actions and cross-party oversight that belong in the documented record.
Jayapal Leads 29-Member Amicus Brief — United States v. UnitedHealth Group
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) led 29 House members in filing an amicus brief in United States of America v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al — the DOJ case alleging UHC used inaccurate diagnosis codes to inflate Medicare Advantage payments. MedPAC estimates MA plans will be overpaid by $1.2 trillion between 2025–2034 without intervention. The brief documents that UHC knew $2.1 billion in payments stemmed from incorrect diagnoses and took no corrective action.
"Medicare DisAdvantage, as I like to call it, was initially created as a way to save taxpayer dollars, but in reality, it does the exact opposite. It costs more and consistently has worse patient outcomes. UnitedHealth must answer to a jury — to the allegations that its network of MA plans intentionally 'upcoded' to increase the payments it received from Medicare — taxpayer dollars that did not go to provide healthcare to patients, but rather to pad UnitedHealth's profits."
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal, May 16, 2025
29 Signatories
Yassamin Ansari (AZ), Becca Balint (VT), Greg Casar (TX), Steve Cohen (TN), Valerie Foushee (NC), Sylvia Garcia (TX), Jesús "Chuy" García (IL), Maggie Goodlander (NH), Val Hoyle (OR), Glenn Ivey (MD), Hank Johnson (GA), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA), Ro Khanna (CA), Greg Landsman (OH), James McGovern (MA), LaMonica McIver (NJ), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Ilhan Omar (MN), Chellie Pingree (ME), Delia Ramirez (IL), Pat Ryan (NY), Jan Schakowsky (IL), Mark Takano (CA), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Jill Tokuda (HI), Derek Tran (CA), Nydia Velázquez (NY), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ), Nikema Williams (GA)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — Senate Judiciary Chairman Demands Answers on Medicare Billing
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former Finance Committee Chairman, wrote directly to UHC CEO Andrew Witty demanding detailed information on the company's Medicare billing practices. Grassley cited reporting that UHC's upcoding practices resulted in $8.7 billion in extra payments in 2021 alone, calling it "apparent fraud, waste, and abuse" that "harms not only Medicare beneficiaries, but also the American taxpayer." Grassley noted he has been pressing CMS and DOJ on improper Medicare Advantage payments since 2015.
"Despite these oversight efforts, [Medicare Advantage Organizations] continue to defraud the American taxpayer, costing them billions of dollars a year… The apparent fraud, waste, and abuse at issue is simply unacceptable."
— Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), letter to UHC CEO Andrew Witty, February 25, 2025
Note: UHC called Grassley's concerns part of "an ongoing misinformation campaign by the WSJ." Witty stepped down as CEO on May 12, 2025.
Grassley press release — Full letter text →The Jan 22, 2026 Convergence
The January 22 House hearing produced Rep. Murphy's eight-attempt disclosure and AOC's CVS exchange simultaneously — two of the most widely shared congressional moments on healthcare in years, from opposite ends of the political spectrum, on the same day. The argument has escaped partisan framing. That is the precondition for legislation.