A road map for health care reform in the Trump era – Daily News
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A road map for health care reform in the Trump era – Daily News

In January, the Trump White House and a Republican-controlled Congress will have the opportunity to push a conservative health care agenda. From the perspective of small businesses, there are three policy segments to prioritize.

First, the number of health care options should increase for small businesses and their employees—a dynamic that will promote competition to lower costs.

To get it done, policymakers can thin government regulations associated with Obamacare that limit patient and employer choices. Americans should be free to access health plans that best fit their unique circumstances—everything from fully loaded Cadillac policies to highly catastrophic coverage. One-size-fits-all mandates limit options and balloon prices for everyone.

While most agree that pre-existing conditions should not be a determining factor in health coverage, other current provisions are less logical. Should insurance for a woman in her twilight years have to cover birth control? Should coverage for a healthy twenty-something be the same as insurance for a gentleman nearing retirement? Of course not.

The Trump administration should also review expanding association health plans, which will allow small businesses to band together to access more affordable coverage similar to their corporate competitors. And officials should explore expanding the use of personal health management accounts to give Americans more control over their health care dollars.

Next, policymakers should demand more price transparency among insurance companies, large hospital networks and pharmaceutical intermediaries. The pricing systems for these devices are largely hidden, making it impossible for small businesses or patients to shop around.

Most Americans know the out-of-pocket costs associated with a checkup or annual screening. But few are aware of how much the hospital charges or what insurance companies pay for these visits. Therefore, there is little incentive to keep prices low—a system that forces large expenditures on small businesses and employees.

By giving small businesses and patients a clearer window into the pricing structures used by members of the healthcare mob, it will help lower costs. The process of choosing health care or buying medicine should be closer to ordering food from a restaurant menu than negotiating complex stock options.

Three, the Trump administration—and its allies in Congress—needs to defuse the ticking health care inflation bomb. Since Obamacare went into effect, average premiums have nearly doubled. Some states have even experienced threefold increases in costs — proving that the status quo is not viable in the long term.