Matthew Fiedler’s testimony on reducing private health insurance premiums

Matthew Fiedler testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee to discuss how policymakers can reduce premiums for private health insurance, including plans obtained from employers and on the individual market. His testimony made four main points:

• Substantially reducing health insurance premiums—without shifting costs onto enrollees or excluding high-cost people from coverage—requires reducing either health care prices or utilization.
• Increasing competition in health care markets could reduce prices, although achieving large reductions would likely require more aggressive steps.
• Saving money by reducing utilization may be more challenging.
• Efforts to reduce insurance premiums, while valuable, are not a substitute for extending the enhanced premium tax credits.

Read the full testimony here