In a speech before Congress in which he promised “Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed,” President Donald Trump laid out some expected goals for health care, without much detail about how to achieve those goals. (For comparison, see President Obama’s first congressional address.)
On Tuesday night, Trump talked about bringing drug and insurance costs down, giving states flexibility with Medicaid, tort reform and expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts.
Specifically:
- “repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and, at the same time, provide better healthcare.”
- Lower the cost of health insurance to make it available to everyone
- “ensure that Americans with preexisting conditions have access to coverage, and that we have a stable transition for Americans currently enrolled in the healthcare exchanges.”
- Use tax credits and expanded Health Savings Accounts to help people choose and purchase their own health insurance.
- Give states “the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out.”
- Bring drug prices down
- “implement legal reforms that protect patients and doctors from unnecessary costs that drive up the price of insurance.”
- Allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines.
Here are some AHCJ blog posts, tip sheets and other materials that address some of Trump’s proposals:
- Actuaries’ analysis of ACA alternatives can inform news coverage
- Health policy experts weigh in on ACA alternatives
- How Congressional Republicans plan to gut the ACA
- How ACA repeal could impact mental health care
- Selling insurance across state lines: What reporters need to know
- AHCJ’s Health Policy core topic
Here is a selection of coverage of the health care aspect of Trump’s speech:
- Trump lays out health insurance reform plan, calls for streamlined FDA, MedCity News
- Trump proposed 5 specific policies to replace Obamacare. Here’s how they work, Vox
- Trump just moved the GOP’s health care consensus permanently to the left, Vox
- Trump used a rare disease survivor to take a shot at the FDA, Vox
- THE MEMO: Five takeaways from Trump’s big speech, The Hill
- Trump and health care: President gives Congress five principles for Obamacare replacement, CNBC
- Transcript And Analysis: President Trump’s Speech To Congress, NPR
- Republicans fight over what Trump meant on Obamacare, Politico
- Democrats’ response to Trump: ‘Reckless’ president will ‘rip’ health care away from working class, Politico
- No, Steve Bannon is not going to save your health care, The Washington Post
- Health Care Front and Center in Democrats’ Response, The New York Times
- President Trump’s speech to Congress: A big shift in tone, but tough choices left to Congress, Los Angeles Times
- Trump Delivers a Republican Case for Big Government: More hints about Medicaid in his address to Congress, The Weekly Standard
- The National Academies Guide to President Trump’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress, annotated
Earlier stories:
- Cost of the Cadillac: The Obamacare story reporters are missing, Columbia Journalism Review
- Doctor who helped shape Obamacare warns of drop in quality of care if law is scrapped, inewsource.org
- The Adults a Medicaid Work Requirement Would Leave Behind, The New York Times
- Trump says Obamacare ‘is collapsing.’ Here’s what he’s getting wrong, Los Angeles Times
- President Obama’s February 2009 speech to the joint session of Congress, in which he laid out his Health Policy goals
- Obama’s health care speech of September 2009
Deborah Crowe contributed to this report.
