Trump’s Next Phase on Health Care: Everywhere and Nowhere
A scattershot and at times contradictory approach to fixing the system is impeding progress.
Trump’s health-care policies are working at cross purposes.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images North AmericaA hodgepodge of news this week is telling the confusing and contradictory story of President Donald Trump’s efforts to change American health care.
On Monday, a federal judge blocked the administration’s efforts to force drugmakers to disclose the often astronomical list prices of medicines in their TV ads. It was intended to shame pharma into lowering prices, and would have been the first of the Trump administration’s major drug-cost initiatives to actually take effect. On Tuesday, oral arguments were set for a Department of Justice-backed case that could wipe out the Affordable Care Act. Wednesday will reportedly see the president reveal an ambitious set of initiatives intended to rein in spending on kidney costs.