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President Trump Issues America First Health Care Plan Executive Order

Written by Ken Zastrow | Oct 1, 2020 5:37:32 PM

1.5 minute read

President Trump recently introduced an executive order which outlines a new plan for affordable health care and medical billing. It’s called the America First Health Care Plan. The goal of the plan is to protect those with pre-existing conditions and to combat surprise medical billing.

Highlights of the America First Health Care Plan include:

  • Expanding options for affordable health care
  • Reducing fraud, abuse, and waste in the health care system
  • Expanding access to affordable medicines (accelerating approvals and importing affordable drugs from abroad)
  • Ensuring consumers have access to meaningful price and quality information before delivery of care

The executive order does direct the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work with Congress to reach a legislation solution about surprise billing by December 31, 2020. If no decision is made, the HHS can take administrative action to prevent unreasonable out-of-pocket expenses.

Executive orders are not laws but rather a board policy directive. The order does direct federal agencies to issue new guidance to implement the order’s policies. It’s unclear what the specific impact will be until further guidance is issued or Congress takes action in response to the order.

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This blog is intended to be a compilation of information and resources pulled from federal, state, and local agencies. This is not intended to be legal advice. For up to the minute information and guidance on COVID-19, please follow the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and your local health organizations.