Elizabeth Warren

Medicare Advantage plans must be required to meet network adequacy standards for outpatient mental health and substance use disorder care.

Okay, so it is a way to defraud consumers, to say you have this really big list of people you could go to if you had a problem.

This can be especially devastating for seniors or for people with disabilities who are more likely to be living on fixed incomes.

So that is one way it is to the advantage of the Medicare Advantage plan, in order to be inaccurate.

America is facing a mental health crisis. One in five Americans live with a mental illness.

So look, what we are really saying here is that it is in the financial interest of these Medicare Advantage plans to discourage beneficiaries from accessing care.

If these Medicare Advantage plans continue to mislead beneficiaries about covered providers, at the same time that they are overcharging taxpayers for this crumby coverage, then we should be taking another look at whether or not MA plans…

This is the part that just drives me crazy. People look at the regulation, they think, 'Oh, well we are going to be okay, because this is regulated.' But we are not okay if there is no enforcement.

Federal law requires Medicare to cover mental health services in both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

Majority Study Findings: Medicare Advantage Plan Directories Haunted by Ghost Networks

For too long front-line communities have been disproportionately impacted by the devastating effects of natural disasters.

The Biden administration has made important reforms to address inequities in Federal disaster management programs, but there is more to be done.

So a year and a half ago, FEMA introduced Risk Rating 2.0, which is a new risk rating methodology for the National Flood Insurance Program.

Over the last 25 years, 99 percent of U.S. counties experienced at least one flooding event.

It is time to start holding every link in this chain accountable, and that includes the credit reporting agencies.

So if the Federal Consumer Protection Agency said, 'These data are so inaccurate they should not be on credit reports,' would you then remove them from the credit reports?

If the CFPB were to conclude that data on medical debt is so full of errors that it does not belong on credit reports, would you support all credit reporting agencies removing it entirely?

It is really important that the data is right.

So the three of you who are testifying here today are the CEOs of the largest credit reporting bureaus in the Nation.

It is time to start holding every link in this chain accountable, and that includes the credit reporting agencies.

So you are going to wait to be ordered. That is what you are saying? You do not do anything unless you are ordered to do it?

So if the Federal Consumer Protection Agency said, 'These data are so inaccurate they should not be on credit reports,' would you then remove them from the credit reports?

If the CFPB were to conclude that data on medical debt is so full of errors that it does not belong on credit reports, would you support all credit reporting agencies removing it entirely?

Look, the reason that medical debt is a poor predictor of creditworthiness is our medical system is a mess.

That is not the question I asked you. Do you want me to repeat the question?