Finding bipartisan consensus will be tricky for two parties that have spent recent months talking past each other on the issue.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will take “action” on President Donald Trump’s newly announced health care plan, HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy said in a Thursday afternoon statement first shared with National Review.
Cassidy’s mid-January pledge to advance Trump-backed health-care legislation follows the White House’s decision to unveil a new legislative framework on Thursday focused on lowering prescription drug prices, boosting price transparency, and exploring ways to direct health care funding directly to American consumers rather than insurance companies. The Trump-backed plan also pledges to “end kickbacks from pharmacy-benefit managers to the large brokerage middlemen” and “make more verified safe pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase.”
Finding bipartisan consensus will be tricky for two parties that have spent recent months talking past each other on the issue. Congressional health-care negotiations have stalled in recent months as both parties remain dug in on their preferred legislative strategies: Senate Democrats favor a clean extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired at the end of December, whereas Senate Republicans have tried and failed to push through a Health Savings Account–centered legislation that didn’t include legislative language to extend the now-expired Obamacare credits.
Seventeen House Republicans notably joined their Democratic colleagues earlier this month in advancing a clean three-year extension of the subsidies. But that legislation is not expected to gain much traction in the upper chamber, where a bipartisan group of senators are struggling to find consensus on a separate Obamacare subsidy-focused framework.
Cassidy, a physician who is up for reelection in 2026, is hopeful that the president’s new plan can garner bipartisan support in the new year.
“Cassidy is spearheading efforts to send money directly to families to purchase health care, not giant insurance companies,” the Louisiana senator said in a statement to NR. “He is also leading the PBM Reform Act to address misaligned incentives affecting PBMs [pharmacy benefit managers] and to lower the price patients pay for their prescriptions. This legislation includes key reforms to improve transparency into PBM practices and ensure employers, not middlemen, receive rebates from drug companies. “
“Additionally, Cassidy plans to advance legislation through the HELP Committee to codify President Trump’s price transparency rules, requiring hospitals and insurers to publicly post the prices they charge patients in a machine-readable format,” Cassidy’s statement added.