We all know that Donald Trump will be occupying the White House on January 20, 2017 and the GOP will control both the houses of Congress. Trump has already selected Congressman Tom Price as the Secretary of HHS and Seema Verma as the Administrator of HHS.
Before being elected to the Congress, Price was practicing as a successful orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta. It is also noted that Price was a critic of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), and he introduced many detailed bills to revoke and replace ACA. In 2015, Price spearheaded the first bill to revoke ACA and the bill was passed by both Senate and House. However, the bill was vetoed by President Obama later. It is expected that Price will lead Trump Administration’s plans to revoke and replace ACA.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Seema Verma as his nominee for administrator of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Seema holds an undergraduate degree in life sciences from the University of Maryland. She also holds a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Before starting her own health policy consulting business, she worked for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Verma founded SVC in the year 2001 and is the president and CEO of the company. SVC has done works for the states of Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Maine, Tennessee, and Ohio, helping them to redesign the Medicaid programs.
Healthcare Reform Proposals By Trump
- Revoke Obamacare completely and start over. Also, Trump plans to eliminate employer mandate, individual mandate and all taxes that are imposed as part of the Affordable Care Act.
- Modify the current law that inhibits sale of healthcare insurance policies across states. As long as the insurance plan complies with at least one of the requirements of the state, any vendor should be able to sell insurance in the state.
- Allow health insurance premium payments to be fully deducted from tax returns under current tax system. At present, businesses are allowed to have these deductions, so Congress is planning to allow individuals to have the same exemptions.
Medicaid Reforms - Ensure that no one slips from insurance coverage, as they cannot afford to pay for it.
- Offer individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and have a better price transparency from all healthcare providers including hospitals, clinics, doctors, and individual practitioners.
- Block-grant Medicaid to the states.
- Avoid and remove barriers to entry into free market for those drug providers who offer cheap, safe, and reliable products.
These proposals are almost certain to be put into practice, the Republicans being in control of both the Senate and the House. There might be even more affects of the new Trump Administration on healthcare, but that would only be revealed next year.
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