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by apiimporter 1974 days ago
And by "current" administration you mean the Trump administration because people here don't like to give credit where credit is due.
2 comments

I mean, we can discuss how much credit and where it's due, but I'm pretty sure "current administration", on a given date, makes it kinda apparent?
Given that all the current HHS political appointees have handed in their resignation letters for use in less than two days, "current administration" will become inaccurate during the lifecycle of these comments - maybe that's the reason for clarification
I think the idea is that the poster wants people aware that at least once in his administration Trump has done something remotely correct.

Of course the fact that he did this after spending 3 years trying his damndest to gut our already mediocre public healthcare system makes it a bit of a eye roller, but you know, even a broken clock is right and all that.

For completeness, a couple of other health related actions by the current administration:

- 'Most Favored Nation' drug pricing. Also as of 1/1, big pharma has to charge US payers the same price as the lowest price they charge to other countries. One example cited is insulin. Apparently, the price of Insulin from the same pharma is 10% the price in Canada as it is in the US. Now that this law is enacted, that pharma has to charge the same in the US as they charge in Canada.

- 'Right to Try'. Greatly reduces restrictions on terminally ill patients' access to experimental treatments.

- Removed the mandate on the affordable care act. People who do not have any health insurance were liable to pay a fine. That fine was removed.

- eHealth across state lines. Doctors were not permitted to see patients via video calls across state lines. During the pandemic, that restriction was removed.

We should not ignore the attempt to relax restrictions on Association Health Plans in 2019, which would have made it easier for small businesses to band together to negotiate insurance terms using combined group numbers on par with that of larger corporations. This was struck down by a federal court[0], but would have moderately improved one of the biggest barriers to small business ownership/employment - unobtanium health insurance. This was a huge loss of something almost great.

[0]https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pa...

The better, and simpler option is to remove employers from the equation entirely. Either go with taxpayer funded healthcare, or force everyone to buy from healthcare.gov where they can choose whichever insurance company they want.
In terms of moderate tweaks to an enormous problem, AHP reform for small businesses is comparatively low-hanging fruit that could help businesses today meet the minimum requirements for attracting talent - health insurance. Your proposal may be better in the long term, but the journey there is not simple by any means.
'Most Favored Nation' drug pricing is currently blocked in court. We don't know how this will play, if it works.
Everyone knows who the current administration is, assigning a name of a bobble head to it doesn't mean anything.

The bill [1] was introduced by Mike Braun and others. None of which have anything to do with Trump or his "administration", these are voted governs who did this all on their own.

1 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/410...