Families USA Hosts Action-Packed Health Care Affordability Week of Action

We have a health care affordability crisis in this country. Americans are being forced to choose between basic needs and paying for health care, including needed medications or doctor’s visits. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are commonsense, bipartisan solutions in Congress right now, and an overwhelming majority — 94% — of Americans want the President and Congress to take action to lower health care costs.

That’s why Families USA brought partners, advocates and health policy experts together for the Health Care Affordability Week of Action to urge Congress to act now and lower health care costs for millions of Americans.

From July 20 – 24, health advocates descended on Washington to ramp up the pressure for results in this fight for affordability. During the Week of Action, House and Senate committees passed several bills, including reforms that have broad public support and are part of Families USA’s affordability agenda. One of those reforms is the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, the strongest version of hospital price transparency legislation considered this year by Congress.

This is exactly the kind of policy action we can accomplish when we come together to advocate, and it’s why we are keeping up the fight for lower health care costs this summer and beyond. Please join us by calling on Congress to embrace bipartisan solutions that will bring down health care prices and save patients, families and taxpayers billions of dollars every year.

Health Care Affordability Policy Symposium

Families USA brought together leading health care experts from across the political spectrum, including staff from Capitol Hill and the administration, to speak on the root causes of the health care affordability crisis and solutions to rein in high and rising costs.

Speakers including Families USA Board Chair Deborah Bachrach, Executive Director of Healthcare Cost and Affordability at West Health Namrata Uberoi, Director of Health Policy at Center for American Progress Natasha Murphy, and Chairman and Founder of Patient Rights Advocate Cynthia Fisher delivered powerful remarks about the realities many Americans face as they struggle to access care and the devastating impact this can have on the lives of real people.

“For the first time since we began tracking in 2021, being able to afford health care in America is now a minority experience,” Uberoi said. “We are just putting things off longer, costs grow downstream, and issues become much larger.”

The Symposium emphasized not only the urgency of action on affordability issues including price transparency, site-neutral payments, and drug pricing, but also the strong bipartisan support for the proposals in front of us.

Families USA’s Senior Director for Health Policy Sophia Tripoli had a candid conversation with Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare Alec Aramanda about the Trump administration’s perspective on key health pricing reforms and where policymakers across the aisle might find common ground when it comes to hospital pricing and transparency.

Speaking on recent rules to further enforce federal price transparency regulations, Aramanda said, “I think we’ve made some significant progress on that role iterating and making it more clear to have actual prices. We’ve ramped up enforcement efforts to focus a lot on, frankly, larger well-resourced organizations who certainly have the capability to be in compliance.”

The breadth of expertise and experience from across the political spectrum showcased during the Symposium shows that progress is possible when it comes to lowering health care costs. As Anthony Wright stated in his remarks, “Families USA will work with anyone who is ready to tackle the health care affordability crisis and lower costs for America’s health care consumers.”

Digital Day of Action

The momentum continued with our Digital Day of Action as the message of #LowerHealthCareCostsNow reached over 20,000 people across social media platforms. Over 30 different health care organizations participated, including Blood Cancer United, Medicare Rights Center, Doctors for America, and Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. Partners across the country amplified the campaign’s message of advancing high-quality, affordable health care for all and motivated the public to jump into action on key legislative priorities.

Families USA on Capitol Hill

Families USA staff, advocates, and partners were on Capitol Hill during a busy week in Congress, as Members cast some of their last votes before leaving for August recess, and to make sure that lawmakers understood the need for action on high health care costs.

Advocates Kelly Gunn from Virginia and Renee Arnold from Pennsylvania came to Washington to share their personal health care stories directly with their representatives in Congress.

Kelly is a breast cancer survivor who, despite having private health insurance, still struggles to cover unexpected out-of-pocket costs for her care and treatment. “When I got my double mastectomy almost two years ago, I had to pay $800 before I could even go in to get my surgery the morning of,” Kelly shared in a meeting.

Renee and her husband can no longer afford health insurance premiums to keep him insured and now have to pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for the medication he needs to keep him from going blind. “How do I tell my husband that he’s going to go blind because I can’t afford his medication?” Arnold asked Congressional staff.

Stories like these are critical to urge leaders in Washington to take immediate action to pass legislation that will improve health care affordability.

Early in the week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee took a big step forward by advancing several bills strongly supported by consumer and patient groups, including Families USA. The bills included an updated and improved version of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act of 2026, as well as policies to improve Medicare Advantage data reporting, and to reduce prescription drug red tape and administrative barriers to allow more affordable medicines to reach patients. Additionally, the Committee advanced policies to improve oversight into ownership and other financial arrangements of health care corporations.

Not to be outdone, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act — the strongest version of hospital price transparency legislation discussed in Congress this year — as well as other policy proposals to strengthen oversight into ownership and other financial arrangements of health care corporations, and to improve access to and lower the cost of prescription drugs.

These wins mark important progress, but Committee votes are only a first step. Advocates and consumers must keep up the pressure and make sure Congress finishes the job and lowers health care costs for Americans.

You can join Families USA in this work by calling your Reps and demanding they pass legislation to lower health care costs, and follow along with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and all social platforms to help us #LowerHealthCareCostsNow.