The Trump administration has missed the “root cause” of ongoing health care costs, an economics expert warned.
Vivian Ho, the chair of health economics at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, suggested costs are running so high in health care because of policies brought in by President Donald Trump and his team. Speaking with Politico, Ho suggested there’s “been no break” for health care to recover from the turbulent economy under the Trump administration.
“It’s just accumulated over time, and there’s been no break,” Ho said. “The Trump economy is not focusing on the root causes of why health care costs are so high in this country.”
Amandu Chu, who wrote the Politico piece, shared that Trump’s administrative choices had led to a spike in financial assistance from the HealthWell Foundation. It marks a 23 percent rise in year on year requests. Chu wrote, “Requests swamped the fund it launched this month to help consumers offset higher Obamacare premiums that are likely if the subsidies expire, prompting it to stop taking new applicants after just two days.”
“The Colorectal Cancer Alliance has seen a 26 percent increase in requests year-over-year, and CancerCare, another charity, has seen a 10 percent increase in year-over-year requests.”
HealthWell chief executive Michael Heimall has said these spikes will increase in future. He said, “I don’t see the demand curve flattening out in the foreseeable future.”
“As economic things tighten, your donors have to make decisions about if they are going to donate to a charity or are they going to invest in some of the things they need to invest in?”
White House spokesperson Kush Desai has blamed the Democrats for higher health care costs. Desai said, “Democrats’ push to maintain these high prices by giving more money to insurance companies is not a real solution for President Trump.”
“The President has instead focused on lowering prescription drug costs by hammering out deals with pharmaceutical companies, as well as taking on waste, fraud and abuse in the system to deliver results for patients.”
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