Inside Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan: Drug Prices, Premiums, and Transparency Explained
- ipharmaservices
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
President Donald J. Trump has formally urged Congress to pass the Great Healthcare Plan, a sweeping package designed to cut prescription drug prices, lower health insurance premiums, rein in powerful insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, and expand price transparency across the U.S. healthcare system.
The White House frames the proposal as a way to send money “directly to the American people” instead of funneling extra taxpayer subsidies to large insurance companies, while locking in lower prices for medicines and making real prices visible to patients up front.
How the Great Healthcare Plan Reduces Drug Costs?
A central pillar of the Great Healthcare Plan is a strategy to push down prescription drug costs by tying what Americans pay more closely to prices in other advanced economies. The administration is calling on Congress to write into law its Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) approach, under which U.S. prices are benchmarked to the lowest amount charged for the same drug in comparable countries.
fficials say this would build on a 2025 executive order on MFN pricing and a series of voluntary agreements that have already been negotiated with major pharmaceutical manufacturers, which the plan proposes to grandfather into any new statutory framework. In addition, the plan envisions expanding the range of medicines that can be bought safely over the counter, arguing that more OTC access can increase competition, strengthen price transparency, and reduce the need for costly and time‑consuming doctor visits for common conditions.
How the Plan Cuts Insurance Premiums?
On the insurance side, the Great Healthcare Plan proposes a significant reworking of how federal subsidies flow through the system, promising to reduce premiums and increase consumer choice. Instead of routing billions of dollars in extra payments to health insurers, the proposal would channel that funding directly to eligible individuals, who could then use those dollars to purchase the coverage they prefer.
The package also includes a cost-sharing reduction mechanism that, drawing on figures referenced from the Congressional Budget Office, is described as saving taxpayers at least 36 billion dollars and trimming premiums for common Affordable Care Act marketplace plans by more than 10 percent.
Another key element is a crackdown on the rebate and kickback structures involving pharmacy benefit managers and broker middlemen, which the administration argues quietly inflate health insurance costs and distort formularies to the detriment of patients.
How the Great Healthcare Plan Hold Insurance Companies Accountable?
The plan also aims to change how health insurers communicate with the public by introducing a “Plain English” standard and new disclosure requirements. Under the proposal, insurers would have to present rate and coverage information on their websites in clear, accessible language rather than dense technical jargon, allowing consumers to compare options more easily.
Companies would additionally be required to report the share of premium revenue that is spent on medical claims versus overhead and profits, alongside metrics such as the percentage of claims they deny and average wait times for routine care.
Price Transparency for Hospitals and Insurers
Another major strand of the Great Healthcare Plan focuses on price transparency for hospitals, clinics, and insurers, particularly those participating in Medicare and Medicaid. The proposal would require providers and insurers that accept federal health coverage to clearly display their prices and fees in their facilities and online, making it possible for patients to see what they can expect to pay before receiving care.
What the Great Healthcare Plan Means Going Forward
Supporters of the Great Healthcare Plan present it as the culmination of a series of steps Trump has taken in his second term to address healthcare costs and transparency. They highlight the Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing order, which the administration says has already produced double‑digit agreements with manufacturers to bring U.S. prices closer to those in peer countries, as well as an executive order on empowering patients with clear pricing.
At the same time, the plan still requires congressional approval, and policy experts note that many details have yet to be tested in legislation or implementation. Questions remain about how the implmentation of MFN.
Nevertheless, the Great Healthcare Plan marks one of the comprehensive and politically significant healthcare proposals of Trump’s presidency, signaling a renewed push to reshape the economics of U.S. healthcare around lower list prices, more direct financial support for individuals, and far greater visibility into how money flows through the system.
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