"Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: Examining Policies to Increase Health Care Transparency."
10 June 2026
Contents updated on 15 Jun 2026
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House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health U.S. House of Representatives
Follow its sittings16:12 - 21:19
Speaker 1
Subcommittee will come to order. The chair recognizes himself for five minutes for an opening statement and we'll let the witnesses come in. I had to run from another committee. All right, today's hearing will examine ways we can work to improve healthcare price transparency. Healthcare affordability has long been a priority for this committee and Congressional Republicans.
Building on the foundation established by President Trump's transparency initiatives, we have focused on policies that increase competition, expand consumer choice, reduce regulatory burdens, and strengthen transparency throughout the healthcare system. While there is no single solution to addressing rising healthcare costs, empowering Americans with better information and transparency data remains a critical step toward a more efficient, accountable, and affordable healthcare landscape. For too long, patients, families, and employers have faced a health system where the cost of care is often unclear, sometimes even unclear after the care is delivered. As we have seen throughout our affordability series, healthcare pricing, medical bills, and coverage information can be complex and opaque. But it does not have to be that way.
Greater transparency is essential to creating a more consumer-driven marketplace where patients have the tools needed to make more informed care decisions. When patients have a better understanding of the costs associated with medical treatments, procedures, and services, they are better positioned to compare options, seek high-value care, and avoid unexpected medical bills. Increased transparency is also critical to bringing healthcare disruptors into the marketplace and promoting competition amongst insurers and providers, where we continue to see consolidation that contributes to higher healthcare costs. It is important that we strive to foster a health system that not only delivers high-quality care at a more affordable cost, but also increases accountability across the sector. This administration, both in President Trump's first term and this current term, has prioritized bringing more transparency to healthcare.
Some of the proposals today build off the transparency work that President Trump has implemented through regulatory pathways, meaning a different administration can come in and change or reverse course on those pathways. That's why codification, codification is so important, as it aims to allow for a more standardized format and implementation of rules for hospitals and insurers to follow. During this hearing, we'll explore a range of legislative proposals aimed at strengthening transparency requirements and providing patients with upfront, clear information about health care prices. One of the bills we will consider is an updated version of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which was led by former Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and passed the House on the floor back in 2023. The bill aims to increase price transparency throughout the health care system, including hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and clinical labs and imaging testing.
Additionally, some of the proposals today look at ways we can empower the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, with the tools they need to improve price transparency data and accountability. Further, we look at ways participants can be more fully informed, as one of the discussion drafts requires Medicare Advantage and commercial health plans to publicly post their prior authorization data so individuals can view the plans' approval and denial rates for health claims. Another bill we will discuss is H.R. 5582, the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, championed by Representative John James from Michigan. This bill takes a slightly different approach compared to the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, but shares the same goal of bringing more transparency into the marketplace. I am proud of this subcommittee's commitment toward working to lower health care costs for all Americans, and I am eager to examine these proposals so we can continue to look for ways to make health care more affordable and more transparent.
I thank the witnesses for being here today, and I look forward to the discussion our committee will have. With that, I now yield back, and I now recognize the ranking member, Representative DeGette, for her five minutes for an opening statement. Ms. DeGette.
21:19 - 24:14
Speaker 2
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we both agree that health care is too expensive and too complex. Looking after your health, finding a doctor who takes your insurance, scheduling, figuring out exactly what it's going to cost you, and figuring out how to pay for it is difficult at best, if not impossible. Now, I've long supported price and policy transparency throughout the health system, and I look forward to bringing more of it. We need transparency to inform policy next steps and to help researchers to understand exactly how prices got so out of control and how we're going to work together to bring them down.
Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant, and on that, we all agree. So, I'd like to have a little sunlight on H.R. 1, which was passed last summer, which I always call the Big Bad Bill. Last year, when we were considering the bill, my Democratic colleagues and I warned that it would result in sick people losing their health care and more uninsured Americans. In particular, we warned that the new paperwork requirements would simply add red tape for people who need health care. The majority said that that was an exaggeration, they accused us of engaging in scare tactics, and they even called us liars.
For example, on June 22nd in 2025, a piece from the New York Post which Chairman Guthrie wrote said, and by the way, Mr. Chairman, I believe that you thought this, quote, you're exempt if you're medically frail, which includes anyone who's blind, disabled, battling a chronic substance use disorder, or living with a serious and complex medical condition like cancer. Okay, so this is what the chairman said to the New York Post after the bill passed. But then when you look at the rule implementing the chairman and Donald Trump's bill, it specifically states in section 435.554 C5I that, quote, we considered including specific conditions within our definition of serious or complex medical condition, including human immunosuppressive virus and acquired immunosuppressive virus, HIV AIDS, end-stage renal disease, cancer, and sickle cell disease, but we do not believe it is reasonable to categorically consider conditions as serious or complex without factoring in criteria such as the severity of the condition. In other words, if you just have cancer, you still are subject to this. And I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter this newspaper article into the record, Mr. Chairman.
24:15 - 24:18
Speaker 3
And the date is June 22nd.
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