Assessing President Trump’s Plan to Lower Health Care Costs
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TL;DR
- The White House released a healthcare cost reduction plan with populist and libertarian themes.
- The plan lacks actionable legislative steps, suggesting minimal impact on current healthcare costs.
- Nine proposals focus on transparency, cost reduction, and consumer control, including insurance disclosure requirements and encouraging over-the-counter drugs.
- A proposal to fund ACA cost-sharing subsidies would correct an error but might increase federal costs through 'silver loading' workarounds.
- Banning rebate payments by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) is proposed, though evidence of its effectiveness is weak and a ban could backfire.
- Limiting drug prices to 'most favored nation' levels offers potential savings but faces political opposition.
- Giving individuals direct control over ACA subsidies and maximizing price transparency are proposed, but lack sufficient detail for evaluation.
- The plan omits potentially impactful proposals like 'site neutral' payments to avoid controversy and deflection of political attacks.