President Donald Trump on Thursday introduced the Great Healthcare Plan, a comprehensive healthcare plan to lower drug prices and health insurance premiums, hold big insurance companies accountable, and increase price transparency.
“Instead of putting the needs of big corporations and special interests first, our plan finally puts you first,” Trump said in a video announcing the Great Healthcare Plan. “It puts more money in your pocket. The government is going to pay the money directly to you. It goes to you, and then you take the money and buy your own health care.”
Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan comes at a time that Congress has yet to find a solution to address the rising cost of healthcare. Democrats shut down the government for weeks over enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which were first enacted during the pandemic era through Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. They continued the subsidies through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump’s plan would codify many of the policies that his administration has already taken to lower drug costs and institute healthcare price transparency.
The Great Healthcare Plan would seek to lower prescription drug prices for Americans by codifying Trump’s Most-Favored-Nation deals to get Americans the same low prices for prescription drugs that people in other countries pay. It also makes more verified pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase.
The president’s plan would stop sending billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidy payments to health insurers and instead send them directly to the American people to purchase a health insurance plan that aligns more with their choice. The plan would fund a cost-sharing reduction program to bring down health insurance premiums by at least 10 percent and save taxpayers at least $36 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The Big Beautiful Bill was designed to include cost-sharing reduction payments — until Senate Democrats objected, believing it violated the Byrd Rule, and thus required 60 votes to be included in Trump’s signature legislation this term.
Trump’s plan would also end kickbacks paid by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to large brokerage middleman that “deceptively raise the cost of health insurance.”
The Great Healthcare Plan would require that insurance companies prominently post the profits they take out of premiums as well as publish rate and coverage comparisons so that consumers can shop for the best healthcare service with the insurance coverage they have. It would also require insurance companies to publish the percentage of claims they reject and average wait times for routine care.
On the other side, healthcare providers that accept Medicare or Medicaid must post pricing in their place of business and ensure insurance companies are complying with price transparency requirements.
In 2024, then-Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) said that codifying Trump’s healthcare price transparency rules would be “bigger than Obamacare.”
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