Those struggling to afford health care coverage are getting a helping hand from President Donald Trump.
Despite the controversy swirling around Trump’s plans to cut government spending — and worries about how those efforts might negatively affect many Americans — Trump has recently taken steps toward lowering the costs of medical care.
Here are some surprising ways the president is trying to make health care more affordable.
Defending coverage of preventive care
The federal law known as the Affordable Care Act requires that health insurance companies cover more than 100 preventative services at no out-of-pocket cost to patients. In April, the legality of this policy will go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The administration of former President Joe Biden defended the requirement — and in a move that has surprised some people, the Trump administration has announced that it plans to continue to fight for the policy.
Some have speculated that Trump might have ulterior motives, such as helping to give the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., more control over an independent task force that decides what is — and is not — required to be covered.
Increasing pricing transparency
Trump has signed an executive order demanding that hospitals and insurance companies clearly state how much they charge for tests, procedures and other services.
The goal is to help patients and employers compare prices so they can get the best deal on health care. The White House cites the example of one patient in Wisconsin who found a $1,095 price difference for a pair of tests at two different hospitals in the same region.
The executive order tasks the departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services with making sure hospitals and insurers abide by new rules. According to the White House:
“The departments will ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices, not estimates, and take action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices.”
The effort to increase pricing transparency dates back to the first Trump administration, which adopted a federal regulation requiring hospitals to list their standard charges online. However, the current White House contends that the Biden administration “slow walked” implementation and enforcement of that regulation.
Expanding access to IVF
Trump also issued a separate executive order that expands access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which refers to a complex series of medical procedures that facilitate pregnancy, typically for people who are unable to conceive a child on their own.
The order eases statutory or regulatory rules that it says are “unnecessary,” with the goal of making IVF treatment “drastically more affordable.”
The order requires the president’s assistant for domestic policy to draft within 90 days a list of policy recommendations for “protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.”
A White House fact sheet notes that the cost of IVF can range from $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle and that multiple cycles are often required before pregnancy is achieved. In many cases, health insurance does not cover these costs.
