Until that concern has been rebutted, I think it stands plainly as a logical concern.

Sheldon Whitehouse has been an advocate on these issues from well before I was in the Senate, and I want to thank him particularly for his leadership.

Thank you, Senator Whitehouse. We wish you well on your long drive back to Rhode Island, and thank you so much for your leadership in this area.

Thank you very much.

I am going to close the hearing.

You cannot have a network that is at once designed to dump your more expensive patients and at the same time is designed to be the high-value network.

I will just tell you that my office has been dealing with tens, if not hundreds, of inquiries...

Doing something about that cost problem is vital.

I should say that both Senator Murphy and Senator Whitehouse, along with myself, are members of a task force on health care delivery.

I would like to get some sort of notification in writing saying what I can do.

Thank you everyone for being here.

All of those factors make it very, very difficult and different to receive health care under those terms.

There are really two elephants in this room. One is United Healthcare, and the other is CMS and why it has not taken more effective action.

United Health Group is, in fact, the largest Medicare Advantage provider, at least in Connecticut.

I think then back to the three points that Senator Whitehouse made; I think the advance notice by September 30th would make a big difference...

Well, consumer choice is an extraordinarily valuable feature until there is bait and switch, and then consumers may choose but may find that their choices put them in a position they had not expected.

These network changes have real-life practical consequences for your treatment--where it is done, by whom and so forth.

Thank you very, very much.

You begin at the bottom of the list in terms of eligibility for the transplant.

United owes its Medicare enrollees and providers at least timely notice and a fair remedy when significant network reductions like these are planned.

United's health care actions would be bold in the private health insurance market. They should not be tolerated in the public Medicare arena.

UnitedHealthcare Group was invited. I did invite them to this hearing. They have declined to appear.

I think it is more like a cannon burst so far as possible illegality here is concerned.

In conclusion, Connecticut's older and disabled community, and our Nation's older and disabled community, deserve better treatment than they have received from UnitedHealthcare's Medicare Advantage plan.

I thank the chairwoman for her remarks. I wish to express to her, as I do to all of my colleagues, that agriculture and farming really are a way of life. We need to make sure our family farms and all farms are sustained. We sometimes tend…