Will the President Socialize Healthcare Today?
In Charlotte this afternoon, President Trump is set to announce a series of healthcare policy initiatives. While there are several issues he will address, details from the White House have thus far been scant. But rumors abound that the president might announce a flawed executive order to ban surprise medical bills as part of his “America First Health Care Plan”. If he does, he will, in no uncertain terms, socialize our healthcare system.
How will this happen? Apparently, the executive order that is being deliberated for possible inclusion in today’s event would outlaw surprise bills (i.e., balance bills) conditioned upon Medicare participation. This might have escaped the Administration, but virtually every physician in the country sees Medicare patients. Additionally, there has been speculation that this potential ban would only apply to hospitals. Again, the folly here is all physician work that unfortunately results in a surprise bill – thanks to health insurers’ refusal to cover the charges – occurs at a hospital.
The consequences of the president moving forward with this executive order would be disastrous and would destroy our healthcare system as we know it. Broadly speaking, handing health insurance companies a huge stimulus check by punting all details of healthcare control and payment rates to government regulators is the very definition of socialist price controls. What is more, health insurers are already recording record profits, and, as shocking as it sounds, are actually benefitting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Digging down further, the outcomes of such executive action would be terrifying for patients and their physicians. If hospitals must put most physicians in-network, then physicians will have no leverage to negotiate with insurance companies. These insurers already wield enormous power over physicians. This executive order, as rumored to be, would be the final nail in the coffin, removing any remaining vestige of their negotiating power. Moreover, independent medical practices – the physicians that patients have gone to for years, if not generations – will become a thing of the past.
Thankfully, the president does not have to do the insurance companies’ bidding with an executive order. There is a reason why legislative solutions in the Congress to address surprise medical bills are continuing to be negotiated. This is a complex, nuanced, and technical issue. It must be given its proper consideration, in full light, with all affected parties having their voices heard. To outlaw surprise bills – and thus radically alter our healthcare system in favor of health insurers – with the stroke of a pen is horrible governance. Such action would also betray the millions of patients and hundreds of thousands of physicians that have supported the Administration’s productive healthcare initiatives.
Everyone wants to solve the scourge of surprise bills; and everyone agrees that patients should be taken out of the middle of these disputes between insurers and physicians. If President Trump wants a win on healthcare, he should use this opportunity in North Carolina to instruct Congress to pass a bill that uses the proven method of an equitable independent dispute resolution (IDR) process. In fact, a fair IDR bill is already before Congress, H.R. 3502. This bill is the most widely supported solution to tackle surprise medical bills, and it is based off the extraordinarily successful models used in Texas and New York.
To wreck our healthcare system at the last minute before November’s election, while stabbing in the back the healthcare heroes who are risking their lives during this pandemic, is a losing proposition to say the least. It is hoped that President Trump does not make this awful mistake this afternoon. If he does, he will not only put his re-election in further peril, but also usher in a new era of socialized medicine in America. We will then have a healthcare system where physicians do not get paid and patients are left to suffer.
Christopher Sheeron is President of Action for Health
