President-elect Donald Trump has outlined some pieces of his health care plan, which largely follows ideas he laid out during his campaign, from a repeal of the Affordable Care Act to language indicating opposition to abortion.
Bloomberg reports the brief 310-word document, posted to the presidential transition website, is the first look at Trump’s plan since the election. It includes protecting “innocent human life from conception to natural death,” and gives states a big role in regulating health insurance and in running their Medicaid insurance programs for the poor.
The brief offers few details about how Trump will replace the ACA, except to say that it would include health savings accounts and provide the ability for insurers to sell coverage across state lines.
Trump does hint at softening the coverage guarantee for those with pre-existing conditions under the ACA, saying high-risk pools—state insurance programs for individuals who are sick or otherwise unable to get coverage—would cover those with large medical expenses who have “not maintained continuous coverage.” Repealing the ACA, a law passed in 2010 that brought insurance to about 20 million people who previously lacked it, could leave those with pre-existing conditions without insurance.
The plan also does not address the rising cost of prescription drugs, which has been under intensifying scrutiny in the past year in the U.S., nor the possibility of reimporting safe, cheaper medicines from abroad
Trump also is calling for a reform of the Food and Drug Administration “to put greater focus on the need of patients for new and innovative medical products,” and says he will “modernize” Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly.
