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Health insurers’ $1.7 trillion revenue sparks concern

by Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), opinion contributor – 07/13/26 1:00 PM ET

For 35 years, I have dedicated my life to caring for patients. Now, as a physician-legislator in Congress, I am taking on the most powerful and self-serving lobby in Washington, health insurers.

In 2025, the seven largest for-profit health insurance conglomerates took in nearly $1.7 trillion in total revenues, yielding at least $54 billion in profits. It figures that the profits are much higher given their ability and proclivity to shift and hide financial gains.

Unlike some movements around the country, I don’t believe there is inherently any evil in profit — I am a capitalist at heart. However, insurers overwhelmingly rely on taxpayer dollars.

For example, UnitedHealthcare, the greatest behemoth in healthcare, now receives more than 77 percent of its revenue from government programs, which makes little sense given that it covers almost twice as many people in its commercial plans. Color me astonished that they lobbied so hard to preserve ObamaCare subsidies.

Since 2015, the top seven companies have spent more than $137 billion buying back their own shares. Why is this problematic? Because as they buy back their own stock, they drive up their share prices, artificially inflating executive pay and masking underlying financial weaknesses.

In fact, for most of the 20th century, stock buybacks were largely illegal because they were legally classified as a form of stock market manipulation. Earning a profit and delivering to shareholders is expected, but these companies use their excess profits to buy back their own stock rather than lowering insurance premiums. Subsequently, it augments the upward spiral of patient financial distress as they try to pay for healthcare.

As it stands, we are witnessing an oligopoly take almost $2 trillion annually from the American people while increasingly denying care to those who most need it. As their profits climb, we are seeing an increasing morass of pre-authorizations, denials, and out-of-network fights that do very little to help get people well. All of these strategies, just to enrich their executives and shareholders, make care more expensive and harder to access.

The explosion of vertical integration, and its subsequent price tag, coincides nicely with ObamaCare, a law written by insurance companies for insurance companies. If it were up to me, I would break up these giants and eliminate for-profit health insurance. The American patient simply cannot afford to feed this bloated bureaucracy that adds very little to their wellness.

A visit to the emergency room should not be a life-altering financial burden, nor should therapy for a cancer we know how to treat or a common lifesaving medicine be out of reach because of the cost of care.

When it comes to the problems in American medicine, I am an equal opportunity offender. I will go after any sector that is making life harder for the American patient. There are numerous entities to blame, but the greedy and egregious practices of our health insurance giants top the list. The American people are waking up to their nonsense, and folks across the spectrum, even in Congress, are taking notice too.

Greg Murphy, M.D., represents North Carolina’s 3rd District. He is co-chair of the Congressional Doctors Caucus.

Continue/Read Original Article: Physician-legislator targets for-profit health insurers