President Trump is deploying an agenda of “radical transparency” across government bureaucracies, ranging from the State Department to the Internal Revenue Service. A similar strategy—combined with deregulation—is also the key to reforming America’s healthcare system. The White House is already moving in the right direction, but more needs to be done.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order aimed at “empowering patients with clear, accurate, and actionable healthcare pricing information.” Specifically, that means hospitals are required to publish a menu of the health services they provide along with the price tag. Insurance companies must also share the rates they negotiate with health providers.
In practice, the changes will empower small businesses and individuals to more easily shop around for the best healthcare deal. As with most other areas of the U.S. economy, more transparency and competition equals lower prices.
The policy was initially announced during Trump’s first term in office but implementation stalled under the Biden administration—leaving Americans in the dark about the true cost of care. How bad is compliance? According to a government inspector general, less than half of hospitals are currently following the transparency rules. The new executive action emphasizes that the healthcare industrial complex needs to step it up.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also supported injecting transparency into the bureaucracy of HHS. It's important this transparency also extends to the process of reviewing vaccines. Like any new medicine approved by the federal government, vaccine reviews should unfold in the light of day rather than in a black box.
Instead of canceling or postponing advisory panels, the Trump administration should focus on ways to better educate Americans about how these review systems work, who is leading them, and opportunities to get involved. Sunlight is the best disinfectant to restore trust, accountability, and confidence throughout America's healthcare system.
Finally, policymakers should thin the government’s regulatory jungle that is strangling patient choice and inflating prices. Americans and small businesses should be free to access a wide range of healthcare options and medicine that best fit their unique circumstances—without the government getting in the way. Walking back a Biden-era regulation dubbed the “pill penalty” is low-hanging fruit that has bipartisan support.
The harmful policy—which didn’t receive a single Republican vote—leverages the heavy hand of government to tip the scales in favor of certain classes of medication over others. In short, small molecule drugs—or medicine typically taken in pill form—are subject to government price controls quicker than biologic products.
The policy runs afoul of the free market and allows government bureaucrats to control research and development projects that are exploring new treatment and therapy options for patients. Bipartisan legislation has already been introduced in both the House and Senate this session to eliminate this “pill penalty” and level the playing field to protect patient choice. Passing it should be a no-brainer.
As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to air the dirty laundry of the federal bureaucracy, Americans are getting a rare peek into the inner workings of Washington. A similar strategy should be deployed to improve America’s healthcare system. Transparency and deregulation is just what the doctor ordered.
Elaine Parker is the President of the Job Creators Network Foundation.
