To pave the way for the mid-term elections, Trump unveils a new healthcare reform plan to lower drug prices

The midterm elections in the United States are approaching. President Trump is urging Congress to pass legislation to implement a healthcare reform framework, attempting to alleviate the political pressure on the Republicans regarding healthcare issues by lowering drug prices and healthcare premiums.

Bloomberg reported that this proposal outline suggests "legalizing" the voluntary price reduction agreement reached between the Trump administration and pharmaceutical companies, and making more drugs available for sale as over-the-counter drugs. The proposal also suggests directly distributing billions of dollars in subsidies to consumers for purchasing health insurance, rather than subsidizing insurance companies as is currently done to lower premiums.

This plan also targets the middlemen in the prescription drug sector, stating that it will end the payment of kickbacks to large brokerage intermediaries, arguing that these practices "unfairly inflate healthcare costs".

Furthermore, the government also hopes that insurance companies will increase transparency in aspects such as denial of claims, waiting times, and prices, and use more straightforward language to help the public better understand their choices.

At this point, Trump announced the new healthcare reform plan, aiming to alleviate voters' anxiety over the high cost of living, including housing, groceries, and utility bills. Polls show that these issues are undermining voters' perception of Trump's economic agenda, and healthcare is at the core of many of their dissatisfaction.

Recently, the Democratic Party has used the upcoming expiration of the healthcare subsidy as an opportunity to strongly criticize the Trump administration's performance in terms of healthcare affordability. This once again highlights the predicament of Trump, who has long attempted to overturn the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare), but has always been thwarted.

Trump believes that Obama's healthcare plan provided funds to insurance companies through tax credits, failing to truly reduce the medical costs for the public and causing the government to intervene too deeply in the market. However, he has been unable to propose within the Republican Party a plan that can replace Obama's healthcare plan while also effectively controlling costs.

The analysis states that as the subsidies expire and insurance premiums are likely to rise significantly, this structural contradiction is evolving into a highly sensitive political risk, forcing Trump to make a difficult choice between persisting in his opposition to Obamacare and avoiding a backlash from voters. Moreover, the split within the Republican Party over whether to restore the subsidies has increased the difficulty of legislation.