Trump Announces ‘America First’ Health Care Plan
President Donald Trump on Thursday evening signed a series of executive orders which he said constituted part of a long-promised health care plan.
Speaking before a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., Trump said that his plan would would offer “better care, with more choice, at a much lower cost, and working to ensure that Americans have access to the care they need.” He detailed a set of concrete policy goals: affordable insurance, cutting prescription drug costs, ending surprise billing, increasing price transparency, and protecting patients with preexisting conditions.
How the administration will achieve those goals, however, remains unclear. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told reporters earlier in the day that the orders would make it the “policy of the United States” that individuals will not be denied insurance coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions, and calls on Congress to produce legislation to that effect. Absent such legislation, Azar would be required to investigate regulatory alternatives—although what those would be remains undefined.
Text of an Executive Order released Thursday evening is similarly light on details. The order establishes preexisting condition coverage as official policy of the United States, alongside “more choice, lower costs, and better care.” It instructs the secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to find ways to pursue these goals, including calling on Congress to end surprise billing. The order’s sole concrete action requires Azar to add information about hospital billing quality to Medicare.gov’s Hospital Compare service. (Read more from “Trump Announces ‘America First’ Health Care Plan” HERE)
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