Healthcare policy in the House of Representatives is going to experience massive turnover when Democrats assume control in January.
Top Democrats on key committees who have languished in the minority for eight years will be eager to try to oversee big drugmakers, protect Obamacare, and generally fight the Trump administration.
Here are some of the likely key chairmen in the next Congress and their top priorities for healthcare:
Elijah Cummings
House Oversight Committee
Started in Congress: 1997
Cummings has said since the election that a top priority during his tenure on the House Oversight Committee will focus on raking pharmaceutical company CEOs over the coals for high drug prices.
He recently told the Washington Examiner that he wants to bring in drugmaker CEOs to explain why prices are so high. Cummings has been railing against high drug prices for years, joining with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to single out any egregious price hikes from drugmakers.
But now Cummings, a lawmaker from Maryland, will likely have the power to subpoena and call up as many pharmaceutical CEOs as he wants. The last time that there was a major hearing in oversight on a drug CEO was in 2016 when the committee brought up Heather Bresch, CEO of the drugmaker Mylan that got into hot water for steadily raising the price of the allergy drug EpiPen.
Frank Pallone
House Energy & Commerce Committee
Started in Congress: 1988
The House Energy & Commerce Committee is one of the most powerful in the House, overseeing a broad array of topics that range from the environment to Medicaid.
Pallone, who represents New Jersey, has served as the ranking member of the committee since 2014.
Shortly after the election, Pallone announced his intention to be chairman of the powerful committee and outlined his priorities. The healthcare priorities include tackling high drug prices and working to protect Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Pallone led the Democrats’ efforts on the committee to fight Obamacare repeal last year. He led a record 27-hour markup of the American Health Care Act, the GOP’s repeal bill that the House eventually passed in May.
Investigations of Health and Human Services’ stewardship of Obamacare under the Trump administration could also be on the table. Pallone has been a frequent critic of HHS and has charged the agency with working to “sabotage” the healthcare law by cutting ad and outreach funding, cutting the open enrollment time and pushing cheaper plans that compete with Obamacare but offer far fewer benefits.
Pallone would also take the lead if Democrats push any bill for ‘Medicare for all,’ as it would have to get through his committee. Pallone is a member of the progressive caucus but he did not sign on to the House version of a ‘Medicare for all’ single payer bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., last year.
Pallone could also take up other healthcare items like cosmetic reform. He held a meeting with popular reality star Kourtney Kardashian over how to reform the regulation of the creation of cosmetics.
Richard Neal
House Ways & Means Committee
Started in Congress: 1989
Neal has served on the House Ways & Means Committee for more than 20 years and now has the chance to assume the chairmanship. He told a Boston radio station after the election that healthcare will be one of his top priorities if and when he assumes the chairmanship.
He told WBUR in Boston that he is going to focus on enshrining “the principle of pre-existing condition as a guarantee of our national network through the Affordable Care Act.” Democrats pilloried Republicans over their vote to repeal Obamacare, and in doing so allowing states to waive pre-existing condition protections, throughout the 2018 midterm election campaign.
Other major priorities for Neal will include protecting safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
