Health Care

House Democrats are committed to expanding access to quality, affordable health care coverage, strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and lowering prescription drug prices and the cost of health care overall.

House Democrats are committed to expanding access to quality, affordable health care coverage, strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and lowering prescription drug prices and the cost of health care overall.
 
Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the uninsured rate is at an all-time low. While Republicans vote against legislation to lower health care costs, House Democrats are working to bring down the overall costs of health care and increase access to health care coverage.
 
With the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, House Democrats took direct action to reduce health care costs for millions of Americans. For the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices for high-cost drugs. The law also caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients at $2,000 annually and establishes a $35 cap for a month’s supply of insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act also protects progress made under President Biden to expand access to quality, affordable health care coverage by continuing the expanded premium tax credits originally passed in the American Rescue Plan, which lowered health care premiums for millions of working families.
 
This built upon the Affordable Care Act – enacted by President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2010 – that has put American families in control of their own health care and ended a system that put profits ahead of patients. Since its enactment, 35 million Americans have gained access to quality, affordable health coverage. Americans with pre-existing conditions can no longer be discriminated against by insurance companies. Parents can now keep their children on their insurance plans up to age twenty-six. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to put annual or lifetime limits on coverage or drop people when they get sick. Additionally, thanks to the law, Medicare costs – from premiums and deductibles to overall program spending – have slowed to well below the levels projected before the law passed.
 
These reforms were crucial, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck but more action was needed.  That’s why House Democrats worked to enact legislation right away - without any Republican support - to ensure that testing, treatment, and vaccinations for COVID-19 would be covered with no out-of-pocket costs to Americans.

House Democrats remain committed to the goal of affordable, accessible health care for all.  

Related
Hoyer Op-Ed: Health Reform Too Good to Pass Up
History shows that the chance to reform the American health care system is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. So reform is absolutely worth the time it takes to get it right.
Hoyer Op-Ed: Health reform too good to pass up
History shows that the chance to reform the American health care system is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. So reform is absolutely worth the time it takes to get it right.
Hoyer Statement on the 44th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid
On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, providing a lifeline to millions of elderly Americans and low-income families who would otherwise not have been able to afford health care
UPDATE: Progress on Health Insurance Reform Legislation
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and house Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued the following joint statement this afternoon about progress on the health insurance reform legislation.
Pelosi and Hoyer Statement on Progress of Health Reform Legislation
Congress is closer than ever before in history to passing comprehensive health insurance reform.
Small Businesses, Middle-Class Families Need Health Care Reform
The rising cost of health care is one of the biggest drags on our economy, and small businesses and middle-class families are struggling to keep their heads above water.
U.S. Pays $2.5 Trillion for Care Costing $912 Billion
The last time a president tried to overhaul U.S. health care, Americans were spending $912 billion on the system and 40 million were uninsured. Today they’re spending $2.5 trillion and almost 50 million lack coverage.
Democrats Continue to Work on Health Care Reform
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Caucus Chairman John Larson, Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra, and Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen held a press availability on health insurance reform.
Hoyer Op-Ed: Health care status quo would be disaster for middle class
How’s this for a health care plan? It will make your premiums go up—in fact, it will double health costs over the next ten years. It will strip millions of Americans of their coverage. It will send our deficit through the roof.
Hoyer Remarks at Democratic Leadership Press Conference on Health Care Reform
We’ve heard a lot of wild claims about health insurance reform from our Republican colleagues.