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GOP takes aim at hospital CEOs over affordability crisis

House Republicans at Tuesday’s hearing blamed hospitals and health systems for high healthcare costs and castigated a group of CEOs for exorbitant benefit packages, huge profit margins and mergers.

“Our communities are better off having hospitals, but large health systems have taken advantage of that reality,” said Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “Simply put, hospitals charge incredible amounts for care.”

Hospitals are a major driver of rising health care spending, accounting for about 31 percent of all health care costs, according to the most recent federal data. Smith noted that hospital prices have increased by 300 percent in more than two decades.

“Without competition for hospitals, it’s no surprise that the sky seems to be the limit on prices,” Smith said.

Smith even floated the idea of a facility-neutral payment policy that would lower the hospital’s outpatient Medicare payments to the same level as a doctor’s office.

Previous field neutral legislation was bipartisan, but hospitals argued it would cost them billions of dollars and fought tooth and nail to defeat the proposals.

The hearing was attended by the CEOs of HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit health system; CommonSpirit Health, the largest Catholic hospital chain; New York-Presbyterian, one of the wealthiest health systems; and ECU Health, a large rural system in North Carolina.

It was the latest in a series of GOP-led hearings that have pressured different representatives of the healthcare system over high prices. Earlier this year, lawmakers questioned executives from insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry who blamed hospitals.

The hearings show that Republicans are acutely aware that affordability is a top issue among voters ahead of the midterm elections and are eager to show they are holding accountable the companies and executives they once allied with.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R.N.C.) asked the chief executive of HCA Healthcare “why we should allow for-profit systems to exist.”

Murphy, a urologist and co-chairman of the GOP Physicians Caucus, said he understands that costs are rising and care is not being compensated.

But executive pay has also increased, he said, and there is no excuse for companies to make exorbitant profits for shareholders who have no connection to health care.

“I don’t want to sound like a communist; I’m not. I’m a capitalist at heart,” Murphy added. “But if we now have institutions that prioritize profits over patients…we need to rethink that model.”

But Democrats cast the hearing as an attempt by Republicans to distance themselves from the massive Medicaid cuts that paid for last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Families will not be fooled that easily. They know Republicans are desperate to distract from their record of failure,” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the panel’s ranking member.

“They ripped off insurance coverage for more than 15 million people and pushed hundreds of hospitals to the brink — and now they’re asking for loans as states scramble for crumbs from the Ugly Act’s so-called rural hospital fund, an inadequate lifeline that wouldn’t make up for their losses and wouldn’t have been needed if Republicans hadn’t gutted the system in the first place,” Neal said.

Hospital administrators argued that the higher reimbursement was necessary simply to cover overhead costs.

Executives blamed insurance companies for high costs due to low reimbursement rates, especially amid rising inflation.

“When it comes to fixing the system, the one thing you all actually agree on is that there are other people, other problems, that is the increase,” Smith said.

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