House Republicans have asked the leaders of some of the nation’s largest health insurers to testify before Congress at the end of January as scrutiny intensifies over rising healthcare costs and industry profits.
On Jan. 22, the CEOs of UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Elevance Health, The Cigna Group, and Ascendiun (parent company of Blue Shield of California) will appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in the morning, and the House Committee on Ways and Means in the afternoon, according to a Jan. 8 statement from the committees.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) said the hearing will address “rising costs, the current state of healthcare affordability, and the role played by large health insurers.”
The hearing comes as President Donald Trump said Jan. 6 that he plans to meet with 14 insurers, placing blame on them for rising healthcare prices.
“We’re trying to solve the healthcare problem. We’re trying to get better healthcare at a lower price,” Mr. Trump said during a speech to House Republicans. “Let the money go not to the big fat cats and the insurance companies that made 1,700% over the last short period of time. Let the money go directly to the people where they can buy their own healthcare.”
The political focus on insurance costs follows the longest government shutdown in U.S. history last year, triggered by a standoff over enhanced ACA subsidies that expired at the end of 2025. The annual premium for marketplace coverage is projected to rise from an average of $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026 due to the expired subsidies, according to KFF.
House lawmakers voted Jan. 8 to extend the subsidies for three years. Though the extension is not expected to pass in the Senate, a bipartisan group of senators are working on their own draft legislation that would extend the subsidies for two years.
In 2026, employers are experiencing the steepest rise in costs for health benefits in more than a decade, with some estimates putting average increases near 10% nationally. Multiple surveys of thousands of employers have largely attributed rising costs to the coverage of chronic and high-cost conditions, more stop-loss claims, and greater care utilization and drug spending, particularly on GLP-1 medications.
