Trump Unveils “great Healthcare Plan” Aimed at Lowering Costs

Former President Donald Trump released a healthcare⁢ plan on January 16, 2026, outlining proposals to lower prescription drug costs and health insurance premiums. The plan, ⁤dubbed the “Great Healthcare Plan,” has drawn scrutiny from healthcare leaders who question its feasibility and lack of specific details.

Key Proposals of the Great Healthcare Plan

The plan centers⁤ around several key initiatives:

• Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) Deals: Codifying MFN deals, which aim to align U.S. drug prices with those paid in other developed nations. The centers for medicare & medicaid Services (CMS) initially proposed the ⁢MFN rule in 2020, but its⁢ implementation faced legal challenges and was ‍ultimately paused.
• Redirecting Subsidy Payments: Shifting federal subsidy payments currently directed to insurance⁣ companies to individual health savings accounts ⁢(HSAs), allowing Americans to directly purchase their own health insurance.
• Cost-Sharing reduction Program: Funding ⁤a cost-sharing reduction (CSR) program to help lower out-of-pocket costs for ⁣health plan enrollees.
• Eliminating PBM Kickbacks: Ending financial incentives (kickbacks) paid by ⁣pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to brokerage middlemen.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently investigating PBM practices, focusing on their⁢ impact on drug prices and access to care.
• Transparency Requirements: Mandating health insurers to publish clear,easy-to-understand rate and coverage comparisons on their websites,avoiding complex⁢ jargon. Insurers would also be required⁢ to disclose the‍ percentage of revenue allocated to claims versus overhead and profits, along with claims denial rates and average wait times.

Reactions from Healthcare Stakeholders

The plan has elicited mixed reactions from healthcare industry experts.

Ari Hoffman,‍ SVP and chief ⁣clinical officer at Collective Health, acknowledged ⁢the goals of lowering ⁢costs but expressed ‍concerns about the lack of concrete details. “Everyone wants to see drug prices and ‍premiums ‍come down,” Hoffman stated.”The challenge ⁢is how you ⁢get there, and the plan⁣ released by the White House has almost no details on how.Insurance ⁢pricing is too sensitive to uncertainty, and when policies change in ways the market can’t predict, that risk ends up getting baked into premiums.”

Dr.Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, echoed these concerns, stating, “We have been trying to