The House Energy and Commerce Committee has advanced a sweeping package of health legislation, including an amended version of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, toward the House floor.
The markup considered 29 bills in total, with 20 focused on healthcare, marking one of the most significant congressional health policy sessions of the year.
Ten bills were added to HR 9393, the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, through an amendment in the nature of a substitute, with some bills slightly modified from their original versions.
Among the bills incorporated were HR 5526, the Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act, and HR 9396, the Prior Authorization Accountability Act, both addressing longstanding cost and access concerns.
The final expanded version of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act passed by a unanimous vote and now moves to the House floor ahead of a potential end-of-year legislative package.
However, the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate HELP Committee have also advanced competing transparency bills, which could complicate efforts to reach consensus on comprehensive healthcare transparency reform.
The Senate HELP Committee separately advanced 11 bills, including S. 2355, the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, which passed by a 21 to 1 vote, with Sen. Paul of Kentucky as the sole no vote.
The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act was sponsored by Sens. Marshall and Hickenlooper, who had previously sought stakeholder feedback on the bill before it received broad bipartisan support in the markup.
HHS announced the deferral of $867.5 million in federal Medicaid payments for California’s in-home care programmes due to concerns that spending grew faster than national trends, alongside $199 million in deferrals for Minnesota.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that federal subsidies for health programmes including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Marketplace premium tax credits will total $33.6 trillion from 2026 to 2036.
Almost half of all those subsidies, approximately $16.1 trillion, are attributable to the Medicare programme alone, underscoring the scale of federal healthcare commitments over the coming decade.
CMS issued a proposed rule to implement section 71115 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which freezes Medicaid provider taxes at rates that existed as of the legislation’s passage on July 4, 2025.
Starting in fiscal year 2028, expansion states must reduce the hold-harmless threshold by 0.5% each year until it reaches 3.5% in fiscal year 2032, effectively reducing provider tax revenue available to fund state Medicaid obligations.
The House has begun its August recess after passing a preemptive stopgap continuing resolution and the reconciliation 3.0 budget resolution, with members scheduled to return on August 31, 2026.
The Senate will remain in session next week, with the HELP Committee scheduled to hold a markup on education legislation, a health information privacy bill, and nominations.