Key Health Care Priorities Passed in Government Funding Package

02.03.2026 /Statement

Honest Hospital Billing and PBM Oversight Included with HHS Funding, Rebuffing Proposed Trump Cuts. At the Same Time, Urgent Needs Such as Premium Tax Credits and Broader Affordability Agenda Ignored.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congress passed a five-bill package to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, including funding for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The package includes some long-sought policies that start to counter high health care costs, but also ignores urgent needs, including the extension of premium tax credits and broader reforms to address the rising cost of health care.

"We appreciate that the government funding package includes some initial steps on honest hospital billing and oversight of the middlemen who negotiate prescription drug prices, but we have so much more to do to provide real relief for Americans struggling with health care costs," said Anthony Wright, executive director, Families USA. "Congress appropriately rejected many of President Trump's proposed cuts to public health, research and services and extended funding for community clinics, but did not help more broadly on health care affordability that is desperately needed."

The package included bipartisan health care priorities long advocated for by Families USA, including transparency measures for hospital billing known as "honest billing" and better oversight of pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs) to help lower drug costs. The package also includes critical funding extensions for community health centers and will fund HHS at a total of $116.8 billion, an increase over FY 2025 funding, rejecting several cuts and restructuring efforts to eliminate key public health, research and other programs that were proposed in President Trump's budget.

"The initial affordability steps will help prevent the overcharging based on where care is provided and begin to rein in corporate price gouging in our health system. Policies that mandate fair pricing and hold health care corporations accountable are a key step toward taking on the root causes of rising health care costs.

"Despite the inclusion of these policies, the package fails to stop the massive premium spike in the individual insurance market by not extending the enhanced premium tax credits, and did not include any broader reforms needed to bring real relief to millions of Americans struggling with high health care costs," said Wright.

"We are in a health care affordability crisis, and the overwhelming majority of Americans want bold action to hold health care corporations accountable. Critically important cost-savers and price cutters were left out of the bill, including stronger price transparency measures and requirements that ensure health care corporations charge the same price for the same service, regardless of where it is delivered.

"Most urgently, millions of people are now paying hundreds or thousands of dollars more per month because Congress still refuses to revive the ACA enhanced premium tax credits that could bring real and immediate relief to people and families struggling to afford their premiums. Congress needs to extend the tax credits as an entry point to pass more comprehensive, bold reforms so that families don't continue to pay the price for a health care system that costs too damn much."