Trump Unveils 'The Great Healthcare Plan' He Wants Congress to Consider

President Donald Trump announced a health care plan on Thursday that the White House said would lower drug prices and insurance premiums, make prices more transparent, and hold insurance companies accountable.

The plan calls on Congress to pass legislation codifying his most-favored-nation drug price deals and making more medicines available for over-the-counter purchase.

Trump's framework, dubbed "The Great Healthcare Plan" and outlined in a White House fact sheet, includes an insurance cost-sharing reduction program that could reduce the most common Obamacare plan premiums by over 10 percent and replaces government subsidies for insurance with direct payments to Americans.

The plan also targets pharmacy benefit managers and requires insurance companies to make public the profits they take out of premiums and the frequency of denials.

Companies would publish their rate and coverage comparisons on their websites in "plain English," as well as the percentage of revenues paid out to claims compared to overhead costs and profits. They would also be required to publish the percentage of claims they reject and the average wait times for routine care.

Providers and insurers who accept Medicare or Medicaid money would also have to post their pricing and fees.

In a video statement, Trump called on lawmakers to enact the plan, which excluded a Democrat-backed extension of Obamacare tax credits.

"The government is going to pay the money directly to you," Trump said in the video. "It goes to you, and then you take the money and buy your own health care."

The president's proposal lacks support for the extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced tax credits, according to text of the plan released by the White House. Those subsidies emerged as a major point of contention between Republicans and Democrats and prompted the longest government shutdown in history.

Enhanced ACA tax credits expired Dec. 31 and led to higher premiums for millions of Americans.

Trump's announcement comes as open enrollment for ACA ends in most states. Instead of routing subsidies to insurers, Trump said, funds would go directly to Americans who purchase health care.

Meanwhile, Republicans have been in negotiations for a bill to extend the enhanced ACA tax credits.

On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that he brought legislation to the Senate floor to restore ACA tax credits for three years. The legislation, Schumer said, passed the House with bipartisan support but Senate Republicans later opposed it.

“Senate Republicans said NO, ensuring health care costs continue to spike for millions of Americans,” Schumer said. “We're not going to stop fighting."

But the White House on Thursday maintained that Trump’s proposal makes health care affordable again and puts money back into the pockets of hard-working Americans.

"The big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win," Trump said.

Nonprofit organization Protect Our Care released a statement shortly after Trump announced his plan, saying that the solution to ending high premiums "isn't rocket science," but a three-year, clean extension of ACA tax credits that the House already passed.

"This commonsense solution that Trump callously threatened to veto is now sitting on Senate Republican Leader John Thune’s desk," it said.

Trump's health care proposal outlined broad policy goals but did not include specific details.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, described Trump's new plan to reporters on a telephone briefing as a “framework that we believe will help Congress create legislation.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if any lawmakers in Congress were working to introduce the president’s plan, which mirrors one floated among GOP senators last year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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