President Trump is expected Thursday to put forth a healthcare plan that draws on executive actions on price transparency and rebate reform, with a pledge to protect people who suffer from preexisting conditions.
Trump will discuss the health plan in Charlotte, North Carolina.
These orders "were rolled out individually and piecemeal," Indiana GOP Sen. Mike Braun told the Washington Examiner Wednesday. "This is going to be a more coordinated approach, so we have a better response to well, 'If you don't have Obamacare, what is your plan?'"
"You're going to see uniformity among all Republicans that it does cover preexisting conditions," he added.
The effort comes as Democrats charge Americans will lose health coverage if the Trump administration's court challenge to the Affordable Care Act moves forward.
The remarks will showcase how "you reform a broken healthcare system to avoid the Bernie plan, or one payer system," said Braun, who has introduced legislation on price transparency in the Senate and lobbied the White House on the issue.
"It's the No. 1 issue out there," Braun said. "We've got to have a plan because it's the No. 1 issue on everybody's mind: the high cost of healthcare. And, 'Am I going to have access to healthcare that covers preexisting conditions?'"
Of preexisting conditions, Braun said, "That's the major concern, and that is embedded in the Affordable Care Act. And, of course, that's the problem when you've been trying to overturn it through the courts. That shows the peril of having a potential vote on the Supreme Court as well."
Though Braun said he would not be in North Carolina with the president on Thursday, he and other Republican senators will be discussing "what we as Republicans intend to do."
Trump Thursday will "defend what he has done and lay out his vision for the future and contrast it with the Biden approach, which is empowering government, more government rules, more government subsidies, and really more bureaucracy in the system,” said Brian Blase, a former Trump healthcare adviser.
Katy Talento, another former Trump healthcare adviser, said the president has tried to go as far as he could in some of his executive orders, including on tax-advantaged medical savings. “But, ultimately, legislation is the real answer,” Talento said, citing a bill by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that expands the system for all people.
Joe Grogan, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council until late May, argued that a host of "fundamental" flaws continue to plague the ACA and said if the president wins reelection, to expect rapid movement on healthcare.
"There will be a big bill that will move on healthcare if President Trump wins in the first six months of the second term, and it would be something that would try and restore markets, for all those for whom markets can work," Grogan said.
"But for those who have preexisting conditions, the focus will be on giving them the financial support and the medical care that they need in order to get treated and not go uninsured."
Anne Shoup of the pro-Obamacare organization Protect Our Care said Republican proposals so far had failed to address preexisting conditions satisfactorily.
“It's not just about waving a wand and saying, ‘Oh, you have to cover preexisting conditions.’ And that's it,” said Shoup. She said that in order to cover people meaningfully, plans would need to forbid insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions, prevent them from charging those individuals more, require coverage for essential benefits, such as prescription drugs, mental healthcare, and maternity care, and end lifetime caps on coverage.
“None of the bills that we've seen so far from the Republicans accomplish those things,” she said.
"All the fundamental problems with the ACA are still there, the fundamental imbalances, the driving up of costs, the unintended consequences, the ballooning expenses," Grogan said. "None of the major private sector actors have really been hurt since the ACA — it's customers and taxpayers that have been hurt."
Cynthia Fisher, an advocate for greater cost transparency in healthcare and the founder of Patient Rights Advocate, framed the Trump administration's efforts as akin to "the Walmart model" of efficiently priced care. In Georgia, the supermarket chain helms three integrated care clinics with pricing available to see online. An X-ray would be $10, while a dental cleaning may be $25.
"This will change the game in healthcare," Fisher said, pointing to the low cost of care and the consumer's ability to compare services and prices.
Grogan said that the future of healthcare is likely to "hinge upon how the election turns out."
Trump "could unveil the perfect plan, but if Nancy Pelosi stays in control of the House of Representatives, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for him to get that done," he said.
"It doesn't really give him a lot of advantages to go out with the ideal, perfect plan right now until the makeup of the Congress is understood in November."
The Trump administration would then have time to devise a plan to restructure ACA spending "and all the misaligned incentives that drive up costs for payers, drive up costs for customers and patients and for taxpayers, and focus on people with preexisting conditions and the financially needy."
In a statement, a White House official pointed to the Trump administration's drug pricing and transparency orders and "reforms in areas such as opioid addiction, kidney care, and Alzheimer’s disease."
