Gerrard Kaonga
Donald Trump has certainly made some waves since return to the White House and one of his latest new executive orders could shift things significantly in the healthcare industry.
Donald Trump signed the new executive order in hopes it would increase transparency for patients when it comes to costs.
Healthcare providers and insurers must publicly disclose their prices so that patients can now weigh up the costs of receiving treatment in one place over another.
Currently, healthcare prices have traditionally been had behind close doors between doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurers.
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Trump has garnered some support from this move and it marks a more aggressive approach to boost compliance with regulations that Trump introduced in 2019 that Biden threw out.
Donald Trump defended the new executive order as he signed it in front of reporters earlier this week.
He said: “It is one of the biggest things that can happen to reducing cost and healthcare.
“It takes a little while to kick in but Biden ended it immediately upon coming in which was a terrible travesty in my opinion.
“We are going to start up and we have even made it stronger by a couple of major factors.
He continued: “It allows people to go out and negotiate with price, you are not even allowed to talk about it when you go to a hospital and see a doctor.
“This allows you to go out and talk about it and it is actually one of the biggest... there are a couple of people that go back a long way that feel that there are real pros of this, this is the biggest thing you can do for cutting prices.”
Trump did admit that this move has proven unpopular in some circles but ultimately argued it would be better for patients.
He added: “It is not so good for the pharmaceuticals, the companies that make the drugs, I guess you could say it isn’t great for hospitals but they say if you have a great hospital that really knows what it is doing, it is actually great for the hospital because everyone wants to go there."
Despite Trump’s claims this would ultimately lower prices, insurance industry groups have argued the opposite is true. They have said that regulations on costs would actually raise premiums.
As well as this, during Trump’s last presidency, hospital groups said that declaring prices for every item and service violated their First Amendment Rights.
They said the policy stripped them of their negotiating power to haggle prices when dealing with insurers.