House Health & Human Services

Tuesday, February 17, 2026·3h 21m·▶ Watch / Listen

The House Health & Human Services Committee cleared a dental network-leasing reform and reworked a nursing-home transition bill into a study, but killed Rep. Ken DeGraaf's own prescription-drug transparency bill after patient advocates warned it functioned as a coverage carve-out. A Medicaid primary-care bill also advanced over three Democratic no votes.

Key Actions

·Long-term Care Services for Nursing Home ResidentsPassed

+ 4 more actions

Notable Quotes

“the insurance companies under the network leasing agreement forced my small practice to erroneously write off over $30,000 to my practice because the carrier disregarded my illegal request to leave their network.”
Dr. Jillian Horkin (dentist, Montrose) · witness — A frontline example of the harm the network-leasing reform bill aimed to address — dentists locked into leased-out contract rates without consent.

+ 5 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction

Yes (12)Carlos Barron, Mary Bradfield, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Dusty Johnson, Karen McCormick, Lesley Smith, Katie Stewart, Dan Woog, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist

No (1)Ken DeGraaf

Postponed indefinitely — bill killedAction

Yes (10)Carlos Barron, Mary Bradfield, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Dusty Johnson, Karen McCormick, Katie Stewart, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist

No (2)Ken DeGraaf, Dan Woog

Excused (1)Lesley Smith

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (10)Mary Bradfield, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Dusty Johnson, Karen McCormick, Lesley Smith, Katie Stewart, Dan Woog, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist

No (1)Ken DeGraaf

Excused (2)Carlos Barron, Regina English

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (9)Carlos Barron, Mary Bradfield, Ken DeGraaf, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Dusty Johnson, Dan Woog, Sheila Lieder

No (3)Karen McCormick, Katie Stewart, Lindsay Gilchrist

Excused (1)Lesley Smith

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TranscriptPreview

Okay. The Health and Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Shidoum, please call the roll. Representatives Baron. Here. Bradfield. Here. DeGraff. I'm here. English. Excused. Ray. Here. Amrick. Here. Johnson. Excused. McCormick. Here. Smith. Here. Stuart. Here. Woog. Here. Leader. Excused. Madam Chair. Present. We wanted to welcome Representative DeGraff and Representative Smith who are subbing in today. We have a full load today, so we are going to limit testimony to two minutes per witness and questions to 10 minutes for each panel. Appreciate everyone's patience with us today. We just want to make sure we get to everyone that will be the same for tomorrow as well. I also wanted to make a quick announcement that the members on the committee have gotten a few educational memos from our amazing fellow nonpartisan fellow. Those should be passed out today. There were a few memos that were passed out a couple weeks ago. So just want to make sure that you all know that that is coming from a nonpartisan staff. It's just to educate members on some of the issues that we are facing in this committee this session. Just wanted to make sure everyone knows…

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