By Catherine Dunn

The CEOs of five large health insurance companies are set to testify Thursday on Capitol Hill as concerns over healthcare affordability become a focal point for Republicans and Democrats in a midterm election year.

Witnesses scheduled to appear before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in the morning, and the House Ways and Means Committee in the afternoon, include the chief executives of UnitedHealth Group, Aetna parent company CVS Health, and The Cigna Group, publicly traded firms that operate health plans for private employers as well as government-backed programs like Medicare Advantage for seniors.

The three companies also run large pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, through which millions of Americans receive health coverage for prescription drugs.

UnitedHealth's stock is up 3.4% so far this year, while CVS has risen 1.7%. Cigna shares are down 1.5% on the year. The S&P 500 is up 0.4%. The insurers will report their latest financial results to Wall Street investors in the coming weeks.

On Thursday, they'll face members of Congress with questions about rising costs in a healthcare system where spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, up 7.2% from the year prior, according to government figures released this month.

Insurers, which charge premiums, are just one facet of U.S. health spending that encompasses hospitals, doctors' offices, and pharmaceutical companies. The insurance executives appearing Thursday, who submitted written remarks in advance, will point to pricing and costs stemming from those other actors in the system, and insurers' own efforts to negotiate discounts and savings.

News about higher premiums, however, has been in the public eye, largely because certain government subsidies expired in 2025 for health plans purchased under Obamacare.

Without the subsidies, premiums are expected to more than double on average, according to estimates by KFF, a health policy research group. A partisan fight about whether to renew the subsidies, which many Republicans oppose, drove a 43-day government shutdown last fall.

President Donald Trump last week unveiled the Great Healthcare Plan, his proposal to lower prices for both prescription drugs and insurance premiums. That plan calls for subsidy payments sent directly to consumers to use for purchasing health insurance and would require insurers to "publish the percentage of insurance claims they reject" on their websites.

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January 22, 2026 09:16 ET (14:16 GMT)

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