Rep. Goldman Introduces Better Care, Better Cost Act to Reward Top Medicaid Plans
The Better Care, Better Cost Act is in the early stages of the legislative process. It was sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on June 17, 2026, and the committee must review it before it can move forward. Since that date, no further action has occurred, and most bills do not advance past this committee stage.
The bill is in the early stages of the legislative process and currently lacks bipartisan cosponsors or a companion bill in the Senate.
Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works
Medicaid enrollees who do not actively choose a managed care plan would be more likely to end up in a higher-performing plan under this system. Currently, many states distribute these "default" enrollees more or less evenly across plans regardless of quality. By steering people toward plans with better outcomes, lower avoidable ER visits, and higher patient satisfaction, enrollees could receive meaningfully better care. The effect is strongest for the roughly 54 million Medicaid beneficiaries in managed care, particularly those who are auto-assigned rather than choosing their own plan.
“the performance score of such entities, as determined under the system established by the State under subparagraph (E).”
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Congressman Craig Goldman (R-TX) introduced the Better Care, Better Cost Act to implement market-based incentives in Medicaid. The bill requires states to assign enrollees who don't choose a plan to the best-performing insurers based on quality and cost, potentially saving $9 billion annually.
Rep. Craig Goldman introduced the Better Care, Better Cost Act (H.R. 9336), a federal bill modeled after Texas' Medicaid system. The legislation aims to replace arbitrary auto-assignment with a performance-based model that rewards health plans delivering better patient outcomes and lower costs.
No votes or related bills recorded for this bill yet.
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Better Care, Better Cost Act
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