Labor and Commerce Subcommittee #1

Tuesday, February 3, 2026·3h 38m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Labor and Commerce Subcommittee #1 advanced a sweeping set of health care, insurance, and financial regulation bills, including a controversial prescription drug cost-sharing bill (HB 625) that initially failed 4-5 before passing 6-3 on reconsideration with a reenactment clause, while laying on the table a non-opioid drug parity bill (HB 516) by a vote of 5-3 over concerns about sole-source pharmaceutical pricing.

Key Actions

·HB 625 – Flat Copay Drug Cost-Sharing PlansPassed

+ 12 more actions

Controversies

HB 625 – Cost shifting and market stability of flat-copay drug plans

Doug Gray (Virginia Association of Health Plans) testified the bill would shift $183.8 million within individual and small group markets per the BOI's assessment, with rates already up 22% and a loss of 100,000 members from the individual exchange. Delegate Sullivan argued HERC had declined to endorse the bill and voted no on those process grounds. Delegate Henson countered that HERC members in the Senate had passed the same bill, and Molly Montague (American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network) argued several other states have done this and the sky has not fallen. Tim Connell (Bureau of Insurance) stated it is hard to see a destabilization outcome but noted adverse selection effects, if any, would not be visible until plan year 2029.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“There wasn't oversight, and therefore there was a $7 million embezzlement. And a lot of the provisions that are in this legislation we work with Delegate Tran to put together are putting in safeguards so things like that won't happen again.”
Ann Jones, lawyer, Fairfax, Virginia (supporting HB 1007) — Jones, who has represented over 140 children admitted to the Birth Injury Program over more than 30 years, explained the underlying failure that motivated HB 1007's governance reforms.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

HB 625 – Initial motion to reportFailed

No (1)Delegate Sullivan (confirmed in transcript)

HB 625 – Motion to reconsiderPassed

HB 625 – Final motion to report with reenactment clause amendmentPassed

HB 516 – Motion to lay on the tablePassed

HB 677 – Motion to report with substitutePassed

No (1)presiding chair (self-identified in transcript)

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TranscriptPreview

Subcommittee one will come to order. All right, thanks, everybody, for your patience. Looks like we got an extra five minutes in for folks who also needed a little extra breather. Let me go ahead and open. Do we have enough? Yes, ma'. Am. Okay, we have a quorum. Let's go ahead and take attendance. Mr. Clark. All right, thank you very much. We have a quorum, and we will begin today. I just want to take care of an administrative item briefly, and that is with HB 826. By request of the patron, we're going to take that bill by for the day. I believe that requires a voice vote. All in favor? Any opposed? All right, we will take HB826 by Freddie Day. Thank you. Anybody else? Not today. All right. Okay. We're going to go a little bit out of order because we have some folks that need to get to other committee meetings. So first up, I'm going to ask Delegate Watts to come forward and speak to her bill. HB 476. HB 476. Thank you. Delegate Watts, you have the floor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Madam Chairman, I have a substitute. I believe…

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