{"id":251470,"date":"2026-01-18T18:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251470\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:15:10","slug":"what-we-know-about-trumps-great-health-care-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251470\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about Trump\u2019s \u2018Great Health Care Plan\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Seeking to show Americans that he\u2019s concerned about affordability<\/a>, President Donald Trump on Thursday released his long-awaited plan<\/a> to tackle the high cost of health care.\n <\/p>\n

\n Light on details, the proposal is largely a broad framework of the president\u2019s health care priorities, including reducing drug prices, lowering health insurance premiums and increasing price transparency. It punts the hard work of coming up with specific legislation to Congress, though the White House said it will work with lawmakers.\n <\/p>\n

\n What the plan does not recommend is extending the Affordable Care Act\u2019s enhanced premium subsidies<\/a>, which expired at the end of last year and sent premiums soaring for more than 20 million Americans for 2026. The Senate is currently wrestling with whether to renew the subsidies.\n <\/p>\n

\n It also does not make changes to Medicare or Medicaid, which cover nearly 150 million people.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s promise to lower health care costs comes as premiums are jumping in Medicare<\/a> and employer plans<\/a>, in addition to the Obamacare exchanges<\/a>. The president has also said he will meet with insurers soon to discuss lowering premiums, much as he has pressured drugmakers<\/a> to reduce prices.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can have great health care at a much lower price,\u201d President Donald Trump said at a White House event on rural health care on Friday. \u201cThis is the biggest thing to ever happen to health care in our country.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Here\u2019s what\u2019s in Trump\u2019s health care plan:\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump is calling on Congress to codify the \u201cMost Favored Nation\u201d deals<\/a> he signed with 16 drugmakers in recent months. Under the voluntary agreements, manufacturers will provide their products to Medicaid and launch new medicines in the US at \u201cMost Favored Nation\u201d prices, which are the lowest prices available in peer countries. (Other nations\u2019 governments often negotiate or set prices they will pay for medicines.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Also, the drugmakers have agreed to sell certain medications at a discount to patients willing to pay cash through TrumpRx<\/a>, which is expected to launch soon. And they will beef up their investments in US manufacturing in exchange for three-year reprieves from tariffs on pharmaceutical imports.\n <\/p>\n

\n While these agreements might reduce patients\u2019 prices for certain medicines, experts have questioned how much it will move the needle on drug costs for most Americans.\n <\/p>\n

\n The framework also aims to allow more prescription drugs to be sold over the counter. These could include gastric ulcer and higher-dose nonsteroidal medications, according to Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.\n <\/p>\n

\n Following Trump\u2019s repeated demands, the plan calls for sending federal subsidy payments directly to consumers, instead of insurers, to allow them to buy health insurance on their own.\n <\/p>\n

\n Healthier people could potentially find less expensive, less comprehensive policies outside of the Affordable Care Act marketplace. But if they leave Obamacare, it could greatly raise the cost of coverage for the sicker enrollees who remain, potentially cratering the exchanges.\n <\/p>\n

\n The plan also asks Congress to restore federal funding for a second set of Obamacare subsidies that help lower-income enrollees with out-of-pocket costs. Trump eliminated this support in his first term, which led insurers to raise premiums on silver-level plans on the exchange. That, in turn, led to larger premium subsidies. (There are four main metal tiers in Obamacare, ranging from bronze to platinum.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Funding the cost-sharing subsidies would save taxpayers $36 billion over a decade and reduce premiums for certain silver plans, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But many enrollees would wind up paying more for other plans on the exchanges.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s plan would also \u201cend the kickbacks\u201d paid by pharmacy benefit managers<\/a>, known as PBMs, to large brokers that lead to higher health insurance costs. Congress has been working on reforming the opaque PBM industry \u2014 which serves as middleman between pharmaceutical companies and insurers \u2014 for years, but has yet to approve legislation. PBMs say they are an essential player in lowering drug prices for their clients and place the blame on pharmaceutical manufacturers for keeping costs high.\n <\/p>\n

\n Insurers would have to publish their rate and coverage comparisons in plain English, and the share of their revenues paid out to claims versus overhead costs and profits on their websites, under the framework.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers are required to spend 80% to 85% of premiums on policyholders\u2019 medical care. Known as the medical loss ratio, this data is already publicly available.\n <\/p>\n

\n Also, insurers would have to publish the share of claims they reject and the average wait times for decisions. Denials of prior authorization requests<\/a> is a hot-button topic for many patients and providers, and insurers have already promised the Trump administration that they would improve.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s unclear what the wait times provision entails since insurers don\u2019t control providers\u2019 schedules. CNN has reached out to the White House for more details.\n <\/p>\n

\n Any health care provider or insurer that accepts Medicare or Medicaid would have to post their prices and fees in their place of business, according to the plan.\n <\/p>\n

\n The first Trump administration required hospitals and insurers<\/a> to post certain prices, but experts say that most patients don\u2019t shop for care and the data is difficult to navigate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Also, some hospitals have used the pricing information to try to negotiate higher payment rates from insurers and employers, even as they push to lower how much they pay providers.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seeking to show Americans that he\u2019s concerned about affordability, President Donald Trump on Thursday released his long-awaited plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-251470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}