For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kelly Broadway, 202-808-8853
[email protected]
Washington, D.C. – Skyrocketing health care costs are unsustainable for American families, workers, and taxpayers and pose a growing threat to the U.S. economy, Joel White told the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, in a hearing titled “Reverse the Curse: Skyrocketing Health Care Costs and America’s Fiscal Future.”
White warned lawmakers that health care costs have doubled in recent years, with large insurance companies emerging as the primary beneficiaries. He argued that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Inflation Reduction Act have weakened competition, driven up prices, premiums, and out-of-pocket costs, while limiting consumer choice.
“Congress needs to restore competition, align incentives, and empower consumers so health care markets can function again,” said Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC). “That means breaking up insurance and hospital monopolies and ending policies that reward profits over patients.”
White highlighted inefficiencies within the ACA marketplace, noting that more than a third of enrollees generate no health care claims while insurers still receive subsidy payments. At the same time, small businesses face increased regulatory burdens that make offering coverage more expensive and less viable, often forcing workers into higher-cost ACA plans with fewer choices than their employer-sponsored coverage previously provided.
He urged committee members to pursue reforms that strengthen private coverage, lower the cost of health services and prescription drugs, and direct taxpayer-funded subsidies to consumers rather than insurance companies. Among the dozen reforms outlined in his written testimony, White called on Congress to use budget reconciliation to:
- Break up insurance and hospital monopolies
- Expand price and quality transparency
- Empower consumers to choose lower cost plans
- Create subsidy portability so consumers can use their subsidies on lower cost plans
- Enact a small business tax credit and new plan options
- Allow all health plans to include an HSA account
- Provide access to TrumpRx discounts to anyone with a health plan
- Stabilize and reform Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage
White explained that restoring competition and expanding choice would allow individuals greater flexibility to select lower-cost health plans, noting that current law restricts subsidies to a limited set of high-cost ACA plans, undermining access and affordability.
“By reforming the ACA and Medicare, addressing consolidation, and utilizing reconciliation to advance cost-lowering reforms, Congress can bend the health care cost curve while improving access and affordability for Americans,” said White.