Kean Joins Bipartisan Group of 35 House Members Announcing New Health Care Framework
“CommonGround 2025” Addresses Skyrocketing Health Insurance Premiums for American Families
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, December 4, 2025, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) joined a bipartisan group of 35 total House Members, co-led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Jen Kiggans (VA-2), announcing a new health care framework, CommonGround 2025. The bipartisan framework includes a two-year extension of health insurance premium savings for American families, including a year of the enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs), with targeted modifications, to be voted on by December 18, 2025, in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
The Members backing the framework have also co-signed a letter urging House and Senate leadership to meet with them to discuss the framework and a constructive pathway forward in both chambers.
“Today, I joined both Democrats and Republicans to advance a new, bipartisan framework to make healthcare more affordable for New Jersey families,” said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. “Our CommonGround 2025 plan responsibly extends Premium Tax Credits and pairs them with targeted modifications, including PBM reform, guardrails against fraud, greater transparency, and other critical improvements.
“We need to reduce health insurance premiums for every family and we need to hold accountable drug-pricing middlemen and fraudsters who are abusing our health care system,” Kean continued. “Through bipartisan action, I am fighting for the people of New Jersey and driving forward a solution that Congress can deliver now.”
Find the CommonGround 2025 framework here and the bill text here. Find the letter to House and Senate leadership here.
Top-line Summary.
- Extension of the ePTCs for enrollees earning less than 600% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and a phase out of the ePTCs for enrollees earning between 600% FPL and 1000% FPL.
- New guardrails to prevent “ghost beneficiaries” and crack down on fraud, including:
- Implementing the Insurance Fraud Accountability Act to crack down on civil & criminal penalties for fraudulent agents / brokers;
- Codifying part of CMS’s marketplace integrity rule to remove bad actors from ACA marketplaces;
- Directing ACA marketplaces to regularly confirm enrollee eligibility with the Death Master File; and,
- Requiring marketplaces to better notify recipients of the amount of PTCs they are receiving from the federal government.
- Extension of open enrollment until March 19, 2026, and requiring HHS to notify qualified individuals of the extension of open enrollment.
- PBM reform (provisions included in the bipartisan Continuing Resolution from December 2024 and featured in the PBM Reform Act and Bipartisan Health Care Act) which:
- Bans “spread pricing” in Medicaid.
- Reforms Medicare Part D by delinking PBM compensation from the cost of medications.
- Promotes transparency for both employers and patients in their prescription drug plans.
- Option for consideration: Medicare physician fee schedule (from December 2024 CR).
- Boosts the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
- Option for consideration: Hospital billing transparency.
- Requires hospitals to disclose prices, including negotiated rates and cash prices.
- Option for consideration: Give Kids A Chance Act (from December 2024 CR).
- Accelerates pediatric cancer treatments and expands access to life-saving therapies for children battling rare diseases.
- Option for consideration: Elimination of zero-dollar premiums with minimum monthly payments, but with need-based hardship support for those who cannot afford this payment.
- Option for consideration: HSA Accounts (Sen. Cassidy proposal).
- Shifts funding that would have paid for the ePTCs to HSA accounts.
- Anti-Fraud provisions of IFAA, HOPE Act: not yet scored, but substantial.
- PBM reforms: as delineated in the December 2024 CR.
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