Health insurance CEOs to face daylong grilling on Capitol Hill

Modern Healthcare – Wednesday, January 21, 2026
By Michael McAuliff

Congress has agreed on little after a year of sparring over escalating healthcare costs and shrinking subsidies, with a notable exception: Big health insurance companies are not helping.

On Thursday, the CEOs of five of major insurers will face a daylong grilling on Capitol Hill, where they will get to make their case before two separate House committees, and likely be targets for pent up anger from both sides of the aisle.

UnitedHealth Group CEO and Chair Stephen Hemsley, CVS Health President and CEO David Joyner, Elevance Health President and CEO Gail Boudreaux, Cigna CEO and Chair David Cordani, and Ascendiun President and CEO Paul Markovich are scheduled to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee and the Ways and Means Committee.

Modern Healthcare reporters will provide real-time updates throughout the hearings, which begin at 9:45 a.m. EST on Thursday. Check modernhealthcare.com for the latest news.

The two-part summit promises to be an epic showdown during which the line between left and right will sometimes blur.

Democrats have long villainized health insurers, with many on the left arguing for a universal healthcare system that diminishes or excludes private insurance, which Republicans deride as socialism.

But as healthcare costs have continued to surge, Republicans — facing a tough election year after President Donald Trump enacted a tax law that cut more than $1 trillion from the healthcare system — also have been raising complaints about consolidation and what they say are excessive profits of “Big Insurance.”

Trump lately has been pointing the finger at insurers, saying rather than renew the enhanced subsidies for health insurance exchange plans, the government should be sending money to consumers through health savings accounts.

“We cut out the insurance companies,” Trump said last Thursday after releasing his own healthcare framework. “They’re making a fortune, and you know, they’re good people, they’re businesspeople — I don’t blame them — but we cut them out. We pay the money directly to the people. The people love it.”

It is true the healthcare sector has grown increasingly consolidated as conglomerates have acquired assets across the spectrum, including medical practices, pharmacy services providers, and payment and data processing companies.

But the insurers will likely point out that over the past several years, profits have not been their rosiest. Companies have struggled with persistently high utilization across all the lines of their business, and they have pledged to restore profit margins this year by shrinking their memberships, cutting benefits and marketing, and narrowing provider networks.

Moreover, most credit ratings agencies predict health insurance finances will deteriorate this year amid the tax law’s healthcare cuts, uncertainty about state Medicaid payments and potential changes to Medicare Advantage policy.

The CEOs will have to tread carefully to explain their challenges while lawmakers will likely point to the crushing impacts of soaring healthcare costs on their constituents.

Republicans, whose recent legislative actions in letting generous exchange subsides lapse and cutting Medicaid spending have put pressure on patients as well as insurers, are likely to echo Trump and claim the problems are primarily due to the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Democrats, who are leaning into healthcare messages for next fall’s elections, are likely to press executives on the impact of letting enhanced subsidies expire.

There are also likely to be bipartisan attacks, including over PBMs, prior authorizations, and Medicare Advantage costs and marketing practices.

Wherever the salvos come from, the insurance bigwigs can count on a trying day in Washington.

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