Congressional Voices — Democrat · Washington WA-7 · House
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
U.S. House · Washington's 7th District · Led 29-Member Amicus Brief in DOJ UnitedHealth Case · May 16, 2025
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Rep. Jayapal led 29 House members into federal court to hold UnitedHealth accountable for Medicare fraud — that's what advocacy looks like. Contact her to express your support and urge her to push S.3822 and S.3829 forward. Every constituent call counts.
What This Action Means
Filing an amicus brief in a federal DOJ case is not a press release. It is a formal legal filing that enters the congressional record into court proceedings. When 29 House members tell a federal court that the conduct being prosecuted harms their constituents and the American public, they are doing something beyond advocacy — they are putting themselves on the record in a way that matters to judges, to the public, and to history.
Jayapal chose to lead this action when UHC was facing the most significant federal prosecution in its history. That is the context in which this brief was filed.
The Amicus Brief — United States v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal 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 (D-WA-7), May 16, 2025
What the Brief Documents
- →UHC knew $2.1 billion in Medicare payments stemmed from incorrect diagnoses and took no corrective action
- →MedPAC projects MA plans will be overpaid $1.2 trillion between 2025–2034 without intervention
- →29 House members went on record in federal court — not just a press statement
- →Documented that MA "costs more and consistently has worse patient outcomes"
The 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)
Why this connects to S.3822 and S.3829:
The conduct Jayapal brought to federal court — deliberate upcoding to extract taxpayer money — is exactly what S.3829 would criminalize at the executive level. The structural incentive that makes upcoding profitable is what S.3822 would remove by separating insurers from the providers they pay. The amicus brief and the legislation are two tracks attacking the same problem from different angles.
The Cross-Spectrum Convergence
On the same day Jayapal was leading Democrats into federal court on UHC Medicare fraud, Republicans like Grassley were writing to the same CEO from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The diagnosis is the same across party lines: UHC used Medicare Advantage to extract taxpayer money it did not earn, at a scale that damages both patients and public finances.
The fact that this convergence is happening simultaneously — Democrats in court, Republicans in Senate hearings — is what makes reform legislation viable. Neither side can be accused of partisanship when both sides are documenting the same conduct.
Other Members in This Series