At her press briefing Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the plan will lower costs for all Americans and significantly improve our health care system through four "common sense" pillars.
The first involves lowering drug prices. "Congress can get this done,” Leavitt said, “by codifying President Trump's historic most favored nation initiatives into law to guarantee Americans the same low prices for prescription drugs that people in other countries around the world pay.”
The second pillar involves lowering insurance premiums by stopping taxpayer-funded subsidy payments to major insurance corporations. That money should instead go directly to Americans, she said.
Leavitt said The Great Healthcare Plan also "holds big insurance companies accountable" by requiring them to publish rate and coverage comparisons upfront on their websites and in plain English.
The idea is so that "consumers and everyday Americans” can make the best purchasing decisions for themselves and their families.
Meanwhile, The Great Healthcare plan will maximize price transparency by requiring any health care provider or insurer who accepts either Medicare or Medicaid to publicly and prominently post their pricing and fees to avoid surprise medical bills.
Reacting to the outline of health care changes, economist Jeremy Nighohossian of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said the plan offers a mixed bag of reforms.
"Some will have a positive but small effect on healthcare prices,” he said in a statement, “while others will accomplish nothing.”
Nighohossian added that Trump's outline compels Congress to allow Americans to buy the health insurance of their choice.
"Congress should lean heavily into that and significantly deregulate the exchanges so that Americans can choose from plans beyond those that past legislators deemed acceptable," he said. "It should be Americans themselves that make that determination. It is those requirements that are driving up the costs for enrollees and taxpayers."
