Wyden, Warren, Sanders Launch Investigation into Credit Contractor’s Scheme to Profit from Republican Cuts to Medicaid, SNAP

Wyden, Warren, Sanders Launch Investigation into Credit Contractor's Scheme to Profit from Republican Cuts to Medicaid, SNAP

Equifax CEO calls work requirements created under Trump's Big Ugly Bill "a big positive" new business opportunity, as millions of Americans lose health care and food assistance

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said today that alongside Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., he is launching an investigation into a credit contractor's plan to profit off Republican policies designed to make it harder for Americans to get Medicaid coverage and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Republicans' Big Ugly Bill now forces states to determine whether low-income adults qualify for Medicaid and SNAP based on their work, volunteer and/or school attendance. Currently, the overwhelming majority of Medicaid recipients are working, taking care of a loved one, in school, or dealing with a long-term illness. With roughly half of states relying on Equifax, the company maintains monopolistic dominance in the employment verification market.

Wyden raised concerns about Equifax seeing this process as a money-making opportunity that would rip away health care and food assistance from millions of Americans.

"[Republicans' work requirements ] will ensure more Americans get tangled up in red tape and lose essential health care coverage and food assistance as a result," Wyden and other senators warned Equifax CEO Mark Begor in a letter. "That these requirements could allow Equifax to profiteer off of this 'solution' make them even more egregious."

Equifax's monopolistic dominance in the employment verification market has led to the contract not only blocking competitors from acquiring critical data but also insufficiently investigating errors in its credit reports. With roughly half of states relying on Equifax, along with its repeatedly anticompetitive behavior, the letter spotlighted "serious concerns about the company's potential moves to price gouge states and taxpayers. Equifax appears poised to squeeze states even more thanks to President Trump and Republicans' new red-tape requirements."

The text of the letter is here.