WASHINGTON — House lawmakers grilled five health insurance CEOs at a hearing Thursday, with Republicans and Democrats agreeing that U.S. health care costs are rising, particularly after the expiration of COVID-era tax credits.
The CEOs hailed from UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Elevance Health, Cigna Group and Ascendium, among the nation’s largest health insurance companies.
Ascendium CEO Paul Markovich and UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley broke with their peers, arguing that higher input costs, not insurer behavior, are driving price increases. When asked if his firm is actually doing enough to lower prices for consumers, Markovich said, “No, because it just costs too much.”
“The cost of health care insurance fundamentally reflects the cost of health care itself,” Hemsley said. “It is more an effect than a cause.”
Lawmakers pushed back, citing vertical integration, which is when a single company controls multiple parts of the health care supply chain. Rep. Greg Murphy, R-MD., called the practice “disastrous and criminal.”
“I don’t want to hear about the fact you’re not taking profits,” Rep. Murphy said. “We know how money gets moved around in these companies. The C-suite executive salary compensation is a slap in the face to the average American who goes bankrupt because they cannot afford health care.”
Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., pressed the executives on their multimillion-dollar pay.
“I’m wondering if you support the notion of, say, a public option where we’d have some bureaucrat making, say, $250,000 a year, 1% of the $25 million you guys make,” Rep. Moore said.
All five CEOs said they support Trump-backed transparency reforms aimed at cracking down on fraudulent enrollments and holding insurers accountable for coverage denials. Still, the committee chairman rebuked them.
“Its a shame it’s taken a congressional testimony for you all to put patients over profits,” Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo.
Despite bipartisan agreement that costs are rising, lawmakers split sharply over the cause. Democrats argued that prices have climbed since Republicans, at President Trump’s urging, allowed federal health care subsidies to expire.
“A theme of this Congress has been Republican silence,” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. “As our colleagues on the other side rubber-stamp everything that the president says and does.”
Republicans blamed health care costs on the Affordable Care Act, enacted under President Barack Obama in 2010.
“After 15 years of a Democrat-created health system under Obamacare, prices have only gone up, not down,” said Rep. Smith. “To be fair, blame can also be directed at federal mandates, draconian pricing rules and open-ended subsidies intended to expand coverage and make it more affordable. Over time, these policies in many cases have had the complete opposite effect.”
In its written testimony submitted ahead of the hearing, UnitedHealth said it will provide rebates to customers enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans in 2026.
