Trumps principles for healthcare reform

One topic on the congressional floor is the president’s health care plan aptly titled “Trumpcare”. Most citizens have a difficult time getting the facts on Trump’s policy. What exactly does trump want to replace in Obamacare?

Purchasing health care plans across state lines was Trump’s most important agenda on health care reform even before the election. What this means is that if a customer wishes to purchase insurance based in Ohio and he lives in Texas he will be able to do that under Trump’s vision. This policy is aimed to increase competition of health care by putting more market options in the hands of American consumers. The consumer in a state that has only two options within his state would now have the options of all 50. That proposal is an anti-oligopoly one.

The Trump administration also plans to enforce the false claims act more vigorously. Attorney Nick Oberheiden writes that the False Claims Act applies to false and fraudulent claims under Medicare. When customers lie about who they are on a Medicare form they can face civil and criminal charges. Trump’s attorney general pick Jeff Sessions says the FCA has saved the country valuable time and money with the benefit of making more companies conscious of whom they approve.

A proposal that has split Republicans in Congress is Trump’s plan to back tax credits on those that seek to purchase health care on the private market. Through this Trump seems to be leaning to partly government subsidized private health care as opposed to state run healthcare. This can lower the burden of cost combined with the competition while also allowing consumers to save on their healthcare plan. Another benefit is less government control over the consumer’s health which has worried the conservative base of Trump.

Trump’s most popular plan is to drive down regulations on the FDA to develop new drugs. Famously patients with rare diseases have died because pills were banned by the FDA in America while being widely used in other countries. Critics have often made the case that if someone is on the verge of death that they should be allowed to take unregulated pills if it presents the opportunity to save their life. Although some on Trump’s opposition have called the claim populist, Trump stated that as much as 75% of regulations could be cut without harm to society in his February 28th speech on health care.

The Trump administration has laid out more than a few goals when it comes to healthcare reform. His policy leans toward cutting state intervention while keeping affordability through tax cuts and in cases like deregulating the FDA actually increases accessibility in some areas. Trump’s ideal Trumpcare, if passed by Congress, will allow the doctor and government’s side to have more protection through enforcement of the False Claims Act while shifting the healthcare market away from a centralized model to a more decentralized one that still has government subsidization of the market for affordability. Some conservatives say Trumpcare does not go far enough toward the free enterprise side stating that government should leave the market entirely laissez-faire while some liberals state that either Obamacare should be more untouched or expanded on to include universal health insurance. There are three major sides to this debate including the president’s and Trump’s main challenge will be getting a compromise to be passed by all three equally contentious sides.

Adam Richards

About Adam Richards

Adam Richards is a semi-retired business professional originally from Bangor, Maine. He spent the majority of his career in sales and marketing where he rose to the marketing lead of a Fortune 1000 company. He then moved on to helping people as a career counselor that specifically helped bring families to self-sufficiency through finding them rewarding careers. He has now returned to Bangor for his retirement and spends his free time writing. This blog will be about everything he learned throughout his career. He'll write on career, workplace, education and technology issues as well as on trends, changes, and advice for the Maine job market and its employers.