On the eve of the next GOP debate, the front-running real estate mogul advanced several ideas that align with many conservative proposals to replace the health care law. He calls for Medicaid to be transformed into a state block grant program and for the tax exemption on employer-based health insurance plans to be extended to individuals who purchase coverage on their own — both longstanding GOP ideas.
Trump would also allow prescription drugs to be imported and for full transparency of health care pricing, although he offered few details about how that — or any of the proposals — might work.
Democratic National Committee Communications Director Luis Miranda derided the plan as simply another GOP ruse "to take health care away from millions of Americans without offering any substantive alternative."
"As Democrats have said all along, Donald Trump is not an outsider engaging in a hostile takeover of the GOP — in fact, he embodies the Republican Party. The fact [is] that his health care 'plan' is clearly cribbed from worn-out and false GOP talking points," Miranda said.
Trump's blueprint comes after he stumbled badly in a debate last week when he attempted to describe his plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare. The billionaire businessman repeatedly cited his proposal to allow health insurers to sell plans across state lines, drawing mockery from rival Marco Rubio for not having any other ideas.
In some of his previous remarks on health care, Trump has defied GOP orthodoxy on health care issues. He’s flirted with support for a single-payer system, although ultimately renouncing it, and has repeatedly insisted that no one will "die in the streets" because they can’t afford health care if he becomes president. Lately, rival Ted Cruz has stepped up his attacks on Trump for his seeming embrace of universal access to care.
In addition to the proposals laid out on his website, Trump wants to keep Obamacare’s prohibition on insurers denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions. But he also promises to strike the individual mandate, which many economists believe is necessary to make such a system work. Trump also wants to expand tax breaks for health savings accounts in order to broaden their use.
“We will work with Congress to make sure we have a series of reforms ready for implementation that follow free market principles and that will restore economic freedom and certainty to everyone in this country,” the plan posted on Trump’s website states.
“The reforms outlined above will lower healthcare costs for all Americans,” Trump’s plan claims. "They are simply a place to start.”
Conspicuously missing from Trump’s new health care proposal is any mention of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies — a longstanding Democratic idea reviled by Republicans. Trump had previously claimed the federal government could save $300 billion annually through such negotiations, a figure that fact checkers have pointed out is preposterous.
