Council calls on Congress to lower health care costs through greater transparency, competition

WASHINGTON, DC – The American Benefits Council is urging Congress to act now to pass bipartisan policies that lower health costs for employers and working families by addressing the root causes of rising health care costs.

In a written statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, the Council urged lawmakers to “advance bipartisan policies that target the root causes of rising health care costs, namely a lack of transparency and competition and misaligned incentives that drive higher-cost care.” The subcommittee held a hearing on March 18 focusing on health care affordability, featuring witnesses from the health care provider community, among others.

Providing health coverage to more than 181 million Americans, employers are deeply concerned about rising health care cost that are placing an increasingly large burden on American employers and workers. The Council’s written statement emphasizes that hospital spending is the largest health spending category in the United States, and hospital prices are a primary driver of rising health care costs for employers and workers. Examining and addressing the factors fueling higher hospital costs is therefore essential to lowering health care costs for all Americans. The statement also highlights that employers remain deeply concerned about prescription drug costs.

“While employers continue their efforts to lower health care costs, federal legislative solutions are needed to create a more competitive, transparent health care marketplace and to remove payment distortions that drive higher-cost care. Employers want Congress to act now to lower health care costs,” the Council’s statement said.

Specifically, the Council commended recent legislative action to require transparent hospital billing practices and greater transparency and accountability for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Moving forward, the Council strongly supports legislation to:

• Expand site-neutral payment reforms.

• Ensure greater transparency in the health care system.

• Restrict anti-competitive contracting provisions (through legislation like the bipartisan Healthy Competition for Better Care Act (H.R. 6248)).

• Modernize the 340B drug pricing program (as outlined in the Council’s February 2025 report, Growth Unchecked: A Call to Action for Policymakers to Reform 340B, to Stop It from Driving Up Health Care Costs for Employers, Working Families and Taxpayers).

The Council’s statement closely tracks similar written comments provided to the  House Ways and Means Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year.

In addition to the Council’s statement, the Alliance to Fight for Health Care – a diverse coalition established by the Council to support and promote employer-sponsored health coverage – filed its own statement for the hearing record.

“We remain committed to promoting policies that address health care affordability at the root level and we urge policymakers to do so through meaningful, bipartisan action,” said Ilyse Schuman, senior vice president, health and paid leave policy.

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