Cassidy says White House in talks on health insurance cost cuts
Cassidy said he was “absolutely in communication” with the White House as Senate Democrats and Republicans brace for a vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Bill Cassidy said the White House was in talks with him on a plan to cut health insurance costs, a signal that negotiations over Affordable Care Act subsidies are still alive inside Washington’s health-care machinery.
Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana and chairman of the Senate health committee, discussed the issue in an interview on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan that aired June 28, 2026. CBS News said the conversation was conducted June 25 and updated the transcript at 8:21 a.m. EDT on June 28.
The most revealing line came in Cassidy’s earlier Face the Nation appearance, when he said he was “absolutely in communication” with the White House on a proposal to reduce health insurance costs. That exchange was tied to a planned Senate vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits that Republicans had said would come the following month, placing Cassidy at the center of a fraught policy fight with direct budget and coverage consequences.
Cassidy’s role matters because he is not speaking as a rank-and-file lawmaker. As the Senate health committee chairman, he sits at the intersection of congressional procedure, health policy, and intraparty dealmaking, with leverage over how any subsidy or cost-cutting package could move through the chamber.
The White House talks also expose the unresolved politics inside the Republican Party. Cassidy has framed the issue as one where a bargain remains possible, even after previous GOP plans faltered in the Senate. That posture puts him in the narrower lane of lawmakers trying to shape policy rather than simply score partisan points, while also acknowledging that any durable deal will need to clear the Senate’s procedural and ideological hurdles.
CBS News keeps a 2026 archive of Face the Nation transcripts online, and Cassidy’s interview arrived amid a busy Sunday show schedule that has recently included discussions of Iran, Ukraine, trade and polling. Against that backdrop, his comments stood out for their concrete policy stakes: whether Washington can restrain health insurance costs without blowing up the fragile coalition around ACA tax credits.
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