By Bobby Jindal & Hannah Anderson

The Trump administration’s Great Healthcare Plan marks a shift to prioritize American patients above systems, proposing actionable reforms to realign healthcare around patient needs. Congressional support through a future reconciliation package can cement this patient-first direction.

For decades, the American healthcare system has relied on giant systems to manage and pay costs. As a result, healthcare now consumes nearly one-fifth of the economy and costs up to $15,000 per person each year. Over time, government priorities shifted from patient advocacy to supporting bureaucratic programs and increasing government involvement in every aspect of healthcare spending and decision-making. Combined, these trends have created a system where patients come last. Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan seeks to alter that equation.

Rather than follow the example of his predecessor, Trump called for an end to the Obamacare subsidies to health insurance companies and directed those dollars to the patient instead. Ninety-three percent of Affordable Care Act enrollees receive federal subsidies, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Congress can shift the requirements in the tax code to allow these tax credits, which go from the Treasury to insurance companies, to be given to patients, giving them more flexibility and control over how they spend their health dollars.

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