Trump Is Making Healthcare A Winning “80/20” Political Issue For GOP

President Trump has pledged to provide Americans with a vastly reformed healthcare system that’s affordable, innovative and elevates patient care above anywhere else in the world. Despite the political shell games being played by liberal Democrats, the media and even some Republicans, much of President Trump’s policy agenda has broad public support and is largely on track to succeed if enacted.

For example, recent polling from McLaughlin & Associates shows well over 85% of likely voters favor his policy to bypass costly middlemen fees by allowing direct sales of medicines to patients. Across the board, his policies—from requiring foreign countries to pay their fair share for U.S. medical innovations, to securing unprecedented domestic drug manufacturing investments in the face of emerging threats from China, to ensuring Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) corporations can’t pocket large drug discounts meant for patients—have approval ratings of 80% or more.

Who would’ve thought Donald Trump could make healthcare an “80/20” political issue for conservatives? The bigger question, however, is whether congressional Republicans, long considered disadvantaged among voters on the issue, will embrace his agenda and help pass it.

Make no mistake, the opportunity is directly in front of them. Most Americans would probably agree that no one would design a healthcare system that looks anything like the one we have. It’s confusing, rife with red tape, waste, fraud and abuse, manipulated by corporate middlemen and is far too expensive for patients, employers and taxpayers to sustain. At the same time, however, the U.S. system develops, manufactures and delivers the most cutting-edge medical treatments in the world. It doesn’t add up that America can be at the forefront of innovation and investment, while drowning in antiquated systems that bankrupt families and fleece taxpayers of billions of dollars.

These are complicated problems that too often have led to overly complicated and often self-serving politically directed policies that have made problems far worse for patients and families. President Joe Biden’s changes to Medicare—part of the Democrats’ ridiculously named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) spending bill—are a perfect recent example. In addition to raiding billions of dollars in so-called Medicare savings to fund unrelated subsidies for big insurers, electric vehicle buyers and other special interests, the IRA’s drug-price control measures led to massive premium spikes, kicked countless seniors off their Part D drug plans and stifled needed R&D investments in new cures and cutting-edge medicines.

To be fair, President Trump has also threatened the use of heavy-handed price controls on prescription drugs. However, his aggregate policy proposals, which call for greater accountability, competition and transparency in healthcare—along with the force of nature he brings to the negotiating process—are set to achieve even greater results, to the point of making such price controls unnecessary. We should assume he knows this because during his first four years in office increases in drug prices remained at historic lows.

Only eight months into his second term, President Trump has already applied unprecedented pressure on foreign governments to pay their fair share for U.S. drug innovations, worked to expose and rein in costly insurer middlemen and helped secure a record $300 billion in new domestic pharmaceutical R&D manufacturing and workforce investments.

In short, President Trump is proving to be the ultimate price control in healthcare. And he’s doing it without actually implementing such unnecessary measures—and he shouldn’t—thus avoiding the negative access and innovation-killing impacts they’d have on patients, families, innovators and workers.

Additionally, there are several other Trump-aligned policies being considered to help move America forward. They include requiring other countries to set NATO-like investment thresholds to ensure the U.S. doesn’t bear the world’s costs for medical innovation, expediting FDA reviews for lower-cost prescription drug and leveraging AI to power accelerated innovation discoveries and root out waste fraud and abuse.

Taken together, these “80/20” healthcare proposals and other free-market reforms serve as the foundation of the “Most Favored Patient” project (I’m one of the principals) [mostfavoredpatient.org], a Trump-aligned agenda made up of commonsense solutions and innovative policies to address the everyday healthcare problems and costs impacting nearly every family. Now, thanks to President Trump, Republicans in Congress have a unique opportunity and platform to turn an issue that has historically been viewed as a primary weakness into a winning agenda that appeals to all American patients, taxpayers and voters.

Here’s some advice: Don’t hesitate.