The Race to Fix America’s Healthcare System …
The Race to Fix America’s Healthcare System Policy experts, industry leaders, and lawmakers are currently debating the most effective policies to reduce healthcare costs.
Last week, President Donald Trump delivered a speechon the economy at the Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, Georgia. The conversation about what to do about rising costs has spurred a shift in the Trump administration’s messaging, a shift expected to continue in tonight’s State of the Union address.
For Americans, healthcare is top of mind, ahead of worries about groceries, housing, or gas. A majority of the public, 66 percent, “worry about being able to afford health care for them and their family,” according tohealth policy organization KFF. In 2024, healthcare spending increased by 7.2 percent, totaling $5.3 trillion, about $15,474 per person or 18.0 percent of the nation’s GDP.
At a recent healthcare policy forum hosted by the Daily Caller, the conversation centered on reducing the soaring costs of prescription drugs and medical care without sacrificing the principles of the free market. (RELATED: Is Healthcare ‘Burning’ Yet?)
Panelists acknowledged that rising health care costs have become burdensome for seniors and working families. Still, they warned that price controls — such as the Trump administration’s “Most Favored Nation” executive order, which ties U.S. drug prices to those paid by other countries — carry serious long-term risks.
Charlie Sauer, president of the Market Institute, says that price controls lead to pharmaceutical companies making “fewer investments in new drugs,” and that while he agrees prescription drug prices were too high, the best way to fix the market would be to “get the money to the patients.” Sauer further explained the risk of adopting foreign price controls: “If we imported foreign price controls … we would hurt the longevity of human lives, and that’s because we have less innovation that will happen in the future.” (RELATED: Washington’s Reverse Midas Touch)
A sense of urgency would be prudent. Per capita health spending is projected to grow at an average rate of 5 percent annually from 2023 to 2032. Already, 55 percentof American adults say their health care costs have increased in the past year, while 56 percent expect healthcare to be “even less affordable in the coming year.” (RELATED: Empowering Patients in a Broken System)
While lawmakers agree on the need to reduce healthcare costs, they’ve been unable to reach a consensus on an effective policy approach. In January, the Trump administration released its “Great Healthcare Plan,” an outline for congressional action to lower prescription drug prices and health insurance premiums. (RELATED: How Great Is the Great Healthcare Plan?)
Similarly, House Republicans on the Republican Study Committee released their own proposal to cut costs by creating accounts for Americans to receive health insurance subsidies directly.
Beyond drug pricing, panelists argued that intermediaries create a structural problem that inflates costs and reduces transparency for consumers. Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, pointed to reform of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and expanded consumer choice as the most immediate steps lawmakers could take. (RELATED: Trump’s Pivot Could Make Health Care Affordable Again)
He argued, “PBMs are just added costs to the cost of goods.” Anuzis also emphasized that choice and transparency “are probably two of the greatest factors that will help [consumers] … in the short term and long term.”
A panel discussion at the USA 250 healthcare forum, which was hosted by the Daily Caller (Photo credit: The American Spectator)
Panelists also addressed the growing issues facing rural hospitals. Brent Yessin, founder of AMC Healthcare, noted that dozens of rural hospitals are facing severe financial distress. “Most rural hospitals are losing money, and some of them — 30 percent of them, probably — are losing 10 percent or more a year. So we have a crisis in rural health,” he said.
Drawing on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s recent AI adoption framework, Neil Chilson, head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute, argued that AI tools are “amplifiers for human intelligence” and could soon enable mass “information distribution” that will improve healthcare efficiency nationwide.
Because these tools excel at vocabulary, Chilson explained, they can “empower” patients and their caregivers without medical education to better communicate their medical needs to their healthcare providers, rather than having to “blindly trust” them. He added that instead of regulation, the focus should be on “What are the harms we’re worried about?”
With healthcare consuming nearly one-fifth of the U.S. economy, the debate over how to balance innovation, affordability, and government oversight is far from settled.
Free-market advocates, like those at the forum, believe the answer lies in restoring competition, transparency, and patient-centered incentives to a system that has grown too dependent on government control.
As Yessin said, “Put wind at our backs instead of wind in our face, we will get this done a lot faster and a lot better on our own.
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