Health insurance executives pressed on affordability in Congress

By Ahmed Aboulenein and Amina Niasse

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Top executives from five of the nation’s largest health insurers began testifying on Thursday to lawmakers in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate about the rising costs of Americans’ healthcare and declining affordability.

Insurance executives, including leaders of CVS Health CVS.N, Cigna CI.N, UnitedHealth UNH.N and Elevance ELV.N, have been called as millions of Americans face a tripling of Obamacare insurance premiums following the expiration of extra COVID-19 era tax credits.

Annual premiums for U.S. families with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2025 rose 6% to nearly $27,000, according to a survey by health-policy organization KFF. And medical costs have risen more than 7% in recent years, U.S. government data shows.

President Donald Trump has said he does not want to reinstate the Obamacare subsidies and instead pitched direct payments to customers shopping for health insurance that could be put into a health savings account. Affordability is seen as a key election issue.

In written testimony for the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, UnitedHealth said on Wednesday the company would provide rebates to customers enrolled in its Obamacare plans for 2026.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington D.C. and Amina Niasse in New York City; Additional reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline Humer and Chizu Nomiyama )

((amina.niasse@thomsonreuters.com;))