For years, Americans have struggled with high health insurance premiums, high prescription drug prices, and a lack of competition in the healthcare market. To solve these longstanding problems and bring relief to consumers, the Trump administration has focused on promoting price transparency, stopping fraud, negotiating lower drug prices, and ending Obamacare subsidies.
One of the first things President Donald Trump did was sign the “Making America Healthy Again by Empowering Patients with Clear, Accurate, and Actionable Healthcare Pricing Information” executive order. It requires providers to reveal exact prices instead of estimates, directs the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury to ensure compliance, and expands reporting requirements to diagnostic labs, imaging centers, and ambulatory surgical centers.
The Trump administration has improved transparency and established a new anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance and Mehmet Oz, who runs the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The task force has already suspended 447 supposed hospice and home health providers in Los Angeles alone, and hundreds more throughout the Golden State.
HOW CONGRESS CAN DELIVER HEALTHCARE AFFORDABILITY
This federal pressure appears to have forced California Attorney General Rob Bonta to take action. The state Attorney General’s office recently announced the dismantling of a $267 million hospice fraud ring and charged 21 people involved in the scheme. This action came on the heels of an exposé by Chris Rufo claiming that California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) tenure.
The task force has also focused on Minnesota, withholding over $259 million in federal Medicaid matching funds due to the state’s unwillingness to police against fraud. While politicians in Minnesota have sued the Trump administration, states such as Florida, Texas, and South Carolina are working with it to stop fraud and punish perpetrators. This is par for the course under Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) failed leadership. The soon-to-be former governor decided not to run for reelection after investigative journalist Nick Shirley exposed a billion-dollar Somali daycare fraud scheme centered in Minneapolis.
The administration has also focused on addressing the global disparity in prescription drug costs. For years, the United States has subsidized drug costs for the rest of the developed world by paying significantly higher prices. To confront this imbalance head-on, TrumpRX, a drug discount website, was launched this past February to put an end to this madness. The administration negotiated Most Favored Nation pricing with major pharmaceutical companies to offer discounts on many widely used drugs. This approach aligns drug prices here with lower prices in other developed nations and is putting an end to a global system that long has benefitted everyone but Americans.
Another factor driving high healthcare costs? Obamacare. When it was signed into law in 2010, Obamacare was hailed as a historic achievement that would provide low-cost, high-quality coverage. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case. Instead, costs skyrocketed. This has been crushing for those who don’t qualify for subsidized plans and burdens taxpayers who have to pay for those subsidies. Competition decreased as insurers exited the market, and access suffered. People who were used to paying a few hundred dollars per month for plans that suited them were forced to shell out double or even triple that amount.
Obamacare subsidies expiring earlier this year exposed the system for the Ponzi scheme it is. These subsidies funneled money to giant health insurers to artificially manipulate the cost of insurance. To fix this, the White House unveiled the Great American Healthcare Plan. The plan would give money directly to the American people, empowering them to make their own healthcare decisions.
UNINSURED AMERICANS WANT HEALTH COVERAGE WORTH BUYING
As Americans begin to see real transparency in healthcare pricing, and as more cases of fraud are exposed and tax dollars are rescued from outright theft, the best is yet to come. There is simply no reason for Americans to pay more and get less while generating innovative drugs and other therapies that benefit the rest of the world.
The Trump administration’s hard work is already bearing fruit, lowering costs for millions while bringing justice to fraudsters who have long exploited the system, and ending some of the taxpayer subsidies for large health insurers. While many Republican candidates have been accused of offering no real solutions for healthcare, Trump may have changed that narrative for good.
Harry Roth is Director of Outreach at Save Our States.