by Joe DeSantis
President Trump has made it clear that he wants to make Republicans the “party of health care.”
He has issued several executive orders that have made more affordable health coverage options available to Americans, both by stabilizing the broken Obamacare individual market and by giving Americans more alternative health plan choices. He also issued a price transparency order that is overwhelmingly popular and made several changes during the pandemic, such as expanded telehealth availability, that will have many long term benefits.
Still, the Republican effort on health care is hampered by two big obstacles.
First, because these executive actions have taken place over several years, it has been difficult to put together a big picture for Americans that describes the total impact.
Second, campaigns are about the future and executive orders can only do so much. Congressional action is required for more fundamental change and candidates need to run on what they will do, not just what they have done.
For this reason, at Gingrich 360, we have been working with several groups, including The Job Creator’s Network, The Galen Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and Physicians for Reform to try and develop a consensus statement on health care for the center-right. It doesn’t require everyone to agree on a specific plan or piece of legislation. Instead, it is designed to be a clear statement of the benefits of patient-focused, free market approach to improving our health care system.
The framework is called Health Care for You: Personalized Care that Puts You and Your Doctors in Charge. It empowers you by:
- Protecting you if you get sick, have a pre-existing condition, or need financial help with better options, including plans that cover the doctors you need to get and stay healthy.
- Saving you money on health care and drugs with price transparency for easy comparison shopping, more choices for health coverage, ending unnecessary tests and procedures that increase the costs of care, and allowing you to benefit financially when you choose lower cost care.
- Eliminating your risk of surprise medical bills with price and coverage transparency and truth in advertising.
- Keeping your health coverage and doctors when you change or lose your job by giving you more control over your health care dollars and employer benefits.
- Modernizing your health care and coverage with personalized medicine, including telehealth and plans that help you stay healthy and take care of you when you are sick.
- Empowering you to choose a personal primary care doctor directly, who is independent of your insurance coverage and can advocate for the care you need.
This path moves power and control away from Washington and insurance companies and toward an innovative, patient-centered approach that gives you more control and better choices at lower costs, all while protecting the vulnerable. That’s health care for you: personalized care that puts you and your doctors in charge.
