10/3/2019

HEALTHCARE/HHS/MEDICARE/SENATE/SENIORS/TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS: “The proposed Medicare for All Act of 2019, as introduced in the Senate (‘Medicare for All’) would destroy our current Medicare program, which enables our Nation’s seniors and other vulnerable Americans to receive affordable, high-quality care from providers of their choice. Rather than upend Medicare as we know it, my Administration will protect and improve it.

America’s seniors are overwhelmingly satisfied with their Medicare coverage. The vast majority of seniors believe that the program delivers high-quality health outcomes. Medicare empowers seniors to choose their own providers and the type of health insurance that works best for them… ‘Medicare for All’ would take away the choices currently available within Medicare and centralize even more power in Washington, harming seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries. Throughout their lives, workers and their employers have contributed their own money to the Medicare Trust Fund. It would be a mistake to eliminate Americans’ healthcare choices and to force them into a new system that is effectively a Government takeover of their healthcare.

‘Medicare for All’ would not only hurt America’s seniors, it would also eliminate health choices for all Americans. Instead of picking the health insurance that best meets their needs, Americans would generally be subject to a single, Government-run system. Private insurance for traditional health services, upon which millions of Americans depend, would be prohibited. States would be hindered from offering the types of insurance that work best for their citizens. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) would have the authority to control and approve health expenditures; such a system could create, among other problems, delays for patients in receiving needed care. To pay for this system, the Federal Government would compel Americans to pay more in taxes. No one — neither seniors nor any American — would have the same options to choose their health coverage as they do now.

Instead of ending the current Medicare program and eliminating health choices for all Americans, my Administration will continue to protect and improve Medicare by building on those aspects of the program that work well, including the market-based approaches in the current system. The MA component, for example, delivers efficient and value-based care through choice and private competition, and has improved aspects of the Medicare program that previously failed seniors. The Medicare program shall adopt and implement those market-based recommendations developed pursuant to Executive Order 13813 of October 12, 2017 (Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States), and published in my Administration’s report on ‘Reforming America’s Healthcare System Through Choice and Competition.’ Doing so would help empower patients to select and access the right care, at the right time, in the right place, from the right provider…

It is the policy of the United States to protect and improve the Medicare program by enhancing its fiscal sustainability through alternative payment methodologies that link payment to value, increase choice, and lower regulatory burdens imposed upon providers…

Within 1 year of the date of this order, the Secretary shall propose a regulation and implement other administrative actions to enable the Medicare program to provide beneficiaries with more diverse and affordable plan choices.”

-Donald Trump, “Executive Order on Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation’s Seniors,” whitehouse.gov, Oct. 3, 2019

[Note: Read the full Executive Order signed by Donald Trump.]