Colonel Josh McConkey, MD, an emergency room physician and former combat flight doc, provides a practical patient-care view breakdown
WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump has introduced a sweeping new healthcare initiative, dubbed the Great Healthcare Plan, which aims to lower prescription drug prices, cut insurance premiums, and improve transparency across the American healthcare system.
Legislatures debated for months the future of subsidies under President Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act. The plan is a broad healthcare initiative that will slash prescription drug prices, reduce insurance premiums, hold big insurance companies accountable, and maximize price transparency in the American healthcare system.
In a video address and accompanying White House fact sheet, President Trump outlined the Great Healthcare Plan, a new framework intended to cut healthcare costs and “hold big insurance companies accountable.”
“I am thrilled to announce my plan to lower healthcare prices for all Americans and truly make healthcare affordable again—we’re doing things that nobody’s ever been able to do, we’re calling it The Great Healthcare Plan,” President Trump said.
Response from the Medical Community
Air Force Colonel and Combat Physician Josh McConkey, the author of the award-winning, best-selling book Be The Weight Behind The Spear, told
“I have not been a big fan of Obama’s Affordable Care Act,” McConkey said. “As a physician and for myself, I have only seen those insurance premiums rise, which for patients it makes things very difficult. The more government we have in our healthcare generally doesn’t end well.”
Col. McConkey’s military service includes providing critical medical support in both wartime and peacetime operations, with over 340 hours as a flight surgeon and 90 combat hours in rotor-wing medical evacuation and air assault missions in the Middle East. He is an Air Medal and Army Commendation Medal recipient for exemplary service during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“This is a pretty comprehensive reform where it’s lowering the cost of medications, lowering premiums, and putting that money back in the pocket of Americans instead of lining the pockets of the insurance companies.”
How drug kickbacks work
Drug manufacturers pay large rebates to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) or health plans in exchange for putting their drugs on a preferred tier of the formulary (the plan’s covered drug list). Kickbacks in healthcare usually show up as “rebates” and other hidden payments that drug makers and insurers (or their middlemen) use to influence which drugs get covered and how much patients pay.
President Trump’s “Great Healthcare Plan” addresses kickbacks primarily by targeting PBMs and their secret deals with drug makers, aiming to end PBM rebates that inflate drug and insurance costs, redirecting funds to patients via direct subsidies, and increasing price transparency for insurers to stop deceptive practices that hide profits and costs.
“The kickbacks and benefit managers have a huge part to play in the skyrocketing insurance and healthcare costs,” McConkey added.
The Future of the Affordable Care Act
The proposal would also restore funding for the ACA’s cost-sharing reduction payments, which had been cut in 2017 during Trump’s first term. According to the White House fact sheet, reinstating these CSRs is expected to lower premiums for the most common ACA plans by about 10% and save taxpayers an estimated $36 billion or more.
The plan goes beyond ACA-specific changes by seeking to hold large insurers accountable, requiring them to post rate and coverage comparisons on their websites in plain English so consumers can more easily shop for coverage. It would also compel health plans to disclose what share of their revenue goes toward paying claims versus overhead and profits.
“I would love to see all this passed into legislation, but there is still a lot of work to do,” McConkey said.
