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There are a lot of economic issues that President Trump and Congress will have to address this year, and one of the biggest by far is the cost of health care. One of the best solutions to the health care price problem is ending health care subsidies.
We’ve already made progress on that issue, with Congress failing to extend COVID-era Obamacare subsidies. Brian Phillips with the Texas Public Policy Foundation says that should just be the start.
Phillips says we need to do more to crack down on—and eventually eliminate—Obamacare. He explained: “Obamacare has always been an unholy alliance between the federal government, the insurance companies, and the hospital systems.”
He says Obamacare and other health care subsidy programs enable both health care companies and hospital systems to demand blank checks from both the government and their customers—and those checks are always backfilled by the taxpayer.
Phillips went on to say that, on top of cutting off those subsidies, we need to increase price transparency in the health care industry. “If you’re going to have a cyst removed or have a hip replacement,” he said, “you should be able to shop around for the provider that gives you the best service at the best cost.”
Sadly, fixing health care in any way is often easier said than done—especially when you’re doing it by cutting subsidies—because voters often see that as something being taken away from them and aren’t willing to bear the short-term cost increases that might come from eliminating subsidies.