Lawmaker looks to lower premiums

HEALTH CARE | CONGRESS

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a physician and former state director of public health, is leading House Republican leadership's latest push to rein in health care costs, unveiling legislation she says targets the "root causes" of rising premiums rather than extending temporary subsidies.

Miller-Meeks introduced the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, a bill expected to be considered by the U.S. House later this week. GOP leaders say the package is designed to lower premiums by an estimated $750 to $900 per year by expanding insurance options for small businesses and the self-employed, clarifying the use of stop-loss insurance and increasing transparency around prescription drug pricing.

In a media call Monday, Miller-Meeks framed the legislation as a correction to what she described as systemic failures under the Affordable Care Act.

"I think the Democrats have taken a system that was ill and put it into the intensive care unit," she told reporters. "We can try to gloss over that and hide the fact that premiums are high, but I think addressing what's the root cause of the problem is what's most important."

The bill would expand access to association health plans, clarify that stop-loss insurance is not subject to certain state-level insurance restrictions and strengthen "choice arrangements" that allow employers to make defined contributions toward employee coverage. It also includes provisions requiring pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to disclose fees and rebate practices that Miller-Meeks argues drive up drug prices.

She pointed to a recent policy brief from the Paragon Health Institute, which uses Congressional Budget Office-informed modeling to argue that structural changes to how Affordable Care Act subsidies are delivered could reduce premiums nationwide.

House GOP strategy on health care

Miller-Meeks' call comes as House Republicans press their own health care package after Senate efforts to address rising costs stalled. GOP leaders are proposing changes that would allow small businesses and self-employed workers to band together through new association health plans, while imposing new disclosure and reporting requirements on pharmacy benefit managers aimed at increasing transparency around prescription drug pricing.

The House proposal does not extend enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits set to expire at the end of the year, a key point of contention with Democrats, but would direct new cost-sharing reduction payments beginning in 2027 for some lower-income enrollees, excluding plans that cover abortion.

"Extending tax credits doesn't do anything to lower health care costs or lower health care premiums. It just hides the fact that premiums are going up," Miller-Meeks said. "We want to work to lower premiums, and that's the genesis of this bill."

In Iowa, the looming expiration of the enhanced ACA subsidies has already triggered uncertainty and financial strain for families, farmers and small business owners who rely on the marketplace for coverage. More than 136,000 Iowans purchased insurance through the ACA this year, and many are facing premium increases of thousands of dollars for 2026, forcing difficult choices about cutting household budgets, delaying medical care or going without coverage altogether.

Farmers and small business owners interviewed by The Gazette said they were considering reducing their food budget or having medical procedures done in Mexico to account for the sudden increase in costs, while health care advocates warned that higher premiums increase the risk of delayed diagnoses, medical debt and avoidable hospitalizations.

PBM transparency

Miller-Meeks said that pharmacy benefit managers act as a largely opaque middleman in the drug supply chain, with limited transparency about where fees, rebates and pricing dollars ultimately go. She said PBMs have gained power through consolidation with insurers, contributing to rising drug costs, and that requiring disclosure of fees, rebates and list prices is a necessary first step toward lowering prices.

While she emphasized transparency alone will not solve the problem, Miller-Meeks said it would lay the groundwork for broader PBM reforms already underway at both the state and federal levels, including additional bipartisan bills addressing co-pays, deductibles and other pricing practices.

Stop-loss insurance

Stop-loss insurance is designed to protect small employers from catastrophic claims that could otherwise overwhelm a self-insured health plan.

Under Miller-Meeks' proposal, stop-loss coverage would be excluded from certain definitions of health insurance and states would be limited in their ability to block its use.

Supporters argue the change would make it easier for small businesses to self-insure while offering lower-cost coverage to employees. Critics, however, warn that expanded self-insurance could further fragment insurance markets.

Association health plans

Association health plans allow small businesses or self-employed workers in similar industries to band together and purchase coverage as a larger group, often with fewer regulatory requirements.

Under the Affordable Care Act, association plans were required to meet the same standards as individual and small-group plans, including coverage of essential health benefits and limits on age-based pricing. Those protections, consumer advocates say, prevent discrimination against older or sicker enrollees but also raise premiums for healthier participants.

Critics argue loosening those rules could siphon healthier individuals out of ACA-compliant markets, driving premiums even higher for people with preexisting conditions who remain.

Miller-Meeks defends approach

Miller-Meeks has been blunt in her criticism of extending enhanced ACA subsidies, which were enacted by Democrats and are set to expire at the end of the year.

"The enhanced premium tax credits are expiring because the Democrats put the expiration date in," she said. " … Remember, extending the subsidies does nothing to lower health care cost. It just shifts money to the insurance companies who have no incentive to lower cost. We need to lower health care costs for everyone, not just a select few, but for everyone. This is a bill that does that."

She said the proposal would reduce costs not only for people buying coverage on the exchanges, but also for small employers, self-insured companies and businesses with employer-based plans, arguing that rising health care costs affect all of them — not just marketplace enrollees.

Miller-Meeks said Republicans are unified around lowering overall costs and predicted the bill could attract some Democratic support.

"I think that it will get through the House, and I think it has an extremely good chance of getting through the Senate as well," she said.

Democrats push back

Democrats sharply disputed Miller-Meeks' claims, arguing the legislation does nothing to address the immediate impact of expiring ACA tax credits.

"Mariannette Miller-Meeks has spent her entire year attacking Iowans' health care, from voting for the largest Medicaid cuts in history that will decimate rural hospitals, to opposing plans to prevent Iowans' health care costs from skyrocketing," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Katie Smith said in a statement. "Now, Miller-Meeks has made herself the face of Washington Republicans' so-called 'plan' that does nothing to lower costs, and Iowans will hold her accountable for failing them next year."

As the House prepares to take up the bill this week, the debate underscores a widening partisan divide: Republicans arguing for structural changes they say will lower costs long term, and Democrats warning that failing to extend ACA subsidies will leave many Iowans facing immediate and steep premium increases.