Trump's big government health care plan for COVID-19
“President Trump is probably now overseeing one of the biggest expansions in government health spending in one year ever,” says one expert.
After spending much of his presidency trying to upend a government health care program put in place by his predecessor, President Trump is now overseeing a massive expansion of the federal government’s role in health care.
“President Trump is probably now overseeing one of the biggest expansions in government health spending in one year ever,” Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, tells Politico.
Related: What would a Trump health care plan look like?
The expansion includes an estimated $50 billion increase in federal support for state Medicaid programs, a $100 billion “provider relief fund” aimed at helping hospitals deal with the crisis and waiving cost-sharing requirements for Medicare enrollees getting COVID-19 tests.
The administration has said that hospitals that treat uninsured patients will be fully reimbursed for their care. In other words, say some analysts, the Trump administration is creating a single-payer program for the coronavirus.
Some conservatives, who have cheered Trump’s attempts to undermine Obamacare, worry that the response to the virus will lead to an increased government role in health care that will be difficult to undo even after the crisis is over.
“There’s an institutionalization effect,” said Thomas Miller of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “Once you get to a certain point, it’s very hard to go backwards.” Indeed, that is what seemed to happen with Obamacare. Although Republicans came into power in 2017 determined to repeal the landmark legislation, they soon discovered much fiercer resistance from their constituents who had come to appreciate many of the law’s benefits, including protections for those with pre-existing conditions.
The same could be said of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, three major government programs that movement conservatives have long believed should either be eliminated or significantly pared back, but which remain extremely popular among the public.
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