FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 3, 2025 

Contact: Jack Cardinal, jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org, Pablo Willis, pwillis@americansfortaxfairness.org 

New investigative report shows how the 2017 tax law let major corporations dodge $34B in taxes while denying care, cutting staff, and hiking patient costs 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new investigative report released today by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and Community Catalyst reveals how the 2017 Trump tax law opened the door for eight major health care corporations to avoid $34 billion in taxes, all while hiking costs, denying care, and cutting staff.  The report was released by Community Catalyst and Americans for Tax Fairness at a virtual press briefing earlier today. The briefing was attended by Senator Ron Wyden, former healthcare executive Wendell Potter, and People’s Action Institute volunteer health advocate Robin Ginkel, an early childhood special education teacher in Minnesota’s Twin Cities area.

The report, Sick Profits: How Health Care Companies & Billionaire Investors Have Gotten Richer from the Trump Tax Cuts, details how insurers like Elevance, Centene, and Humana, hospital and behavioral health chains like HCA Healthcare and Universal Health Services, and health conglomerate CVS Health leveraged tax loopholes to enrich shareholders and executives – rather than invest in patient care and improve health outcomes. Since the law passed, their profits surged 75%, while care denials rose, staffing dropped, and patient costs climbed.

“After decades of trickle-down policies gifting trillions in tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy and cutting critical programs, we are all paying the price,” said David Kass, ATF Executive Director. “Make no mistake, we’ve lost lives, families have been bankrupted, and frontline health workers pushed to the brink so billionaires and millionaires could further enrich themselves. For decades, we’ve been told that tax cuts for corporations will trickle down to benefit us all. This report makes it plain – that was never the plan. Now with the passage of Trump’s big ugly bill that made these tax cuts permanent, millions more will lose access to life-sustaining healthcare, adding to the dark and damaging history of trickle-down economic policy.” 

This isn’t just corporate greed – it’s a policy failure. The tax code was re-written in 2017 to favor the wealthy and powerful at the expense of working families. Now, history is repeating itself: Congressional Republicans and the president have doubled down with a new tax plan that again indefinitely prioritizes billionaires and big corporations, paying for it by terminating care for millions. 

“The 2017 Trump tax law supercharged corporate profiteering in health care. Now, Republicans are making it even worse by passing new legislation that hands permanent tax breaks to billionaires, carves out more special deals for big corporations, and does so by gutting health care for millions.,” said Mona Shah, Senior Director of Policy and Strategy at Community Catalyst. “While health care CEOs bought yachts with their tax windfalls, cancer patients were denied lifesaving treatment. While shareholders celebrated record profits, families had to choose between insulin and rent. This is the predictable – and morally bankrupt – result of a system that rewards profit over people at every time. We need a health system that puts people over profit, not one that treats human suffering as a business opportunity.” 

“Big Insurance in this country exists to appease their shareholders, not care for patients,” said Wendell Potter, President of the Center for Health and Democracy. “The name of the game is maximizing profits, not maximizing care. And gaming the tax system is one key way they do this. Congress should be passing laws to make health care more affordable and accessible and rein in Big Insurance, not giving them bigger tax breaks.”

The investigation found that as profits soared, these corporations: 
  • Denied many Medicare Advantage prior authorization requests, delaying or preventing necessary care for older adults.
  • Cut nursing staff at hospitals while safety violations mounted.
  • Raised costs for hospital patients, for instance by needlessly activating “trauma” care for patients who did not require such intensive treatment.
  • In one case, purchased $3 billion of its own stock instead of paying out more in health insurance claims.

If you would like a recording of the press call, please contact Angelina Edwards at aedwards@communitycatalyst.org.  

Additional Background:

The report comes as Congress and the president have just rubber-stamped a reconciliation bill that doubles down on an unjust status quo – delivering even more tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations while millions face losing their health care. This is the exact opposite of what people across the country want. 

Health care affordability consistently ranks as one of the top concerns for voters across the political spectrum – just behind the cost of living and the broader economy. More than half of the people in this country, especially those in states without Medicaid expansion – report struggling to afford health insurance and related care. When asked what Congress should prioritize, lowering health care costs was among the most frequently cited responses, with the least partisan division. Seventy-three percent of voters – including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – want the health care system fundamentally changed or rebuilt to serve people, not corporate shareholders. Yet the priorities of Republicans in Congress and the president do the opposite. 

The findings in Sick Profits show how corporate tax avoidance directly undermines patient care while enriching executives and shareholders – exactly the kind of profit-over-people policies that voters are demanding we change. 

Nicknamed the “Big Beautiful Bill” by its proponents, the recently passed reconciliation package is projected to strip health care from more than 15 million people, shutter rural hospitals, and hike premiums for people in the Marketplace – harms that will ripple across the country. At the same time, it delivers an average tax cut of $12,000 to the wealthiest 10%, while the lowest-income households stand to lose $1,600. The message is clear: corporate tax breaks are still being paid for by cutting essential care for the rest of us.

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About Community Catalyst: 

Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at www.communitycatalyst.org.

About Americans for Tax Fairness:

Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) is a diverse campaign of more than 420 national, state and local endorsing organizations united in support of a fair tax system that works for all Americans. It has come together based on the belief that the country needs comprehensive, progressive tax reform that results in greater revenue to meet our growing needs. This requires big corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share in taxes, not to live by their own set of rules. ATF is a project of the New Venture Fund – a section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.