NBC NEWS – As President Donald Trump’s health care agenda for a second term takes shape, it’s becoming clear that many Joe Biden-era policies won’t make the cut.
On Monday, Trump signed a sweeping order aimed in part at reversing several Biden administration executive orders on health care, including efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, enhancing the Affordable Care Act and increasing protections for Medicaid enrollees.
The so-called initial rescissions order, according to the Trump White House, is aimed at Biden policies that it says are “deeply unpopular” and “radical.”
One Biden effort overturned by Trump had directed Medicare to look at ways to lower drug costs, including whether to impose a $2 monthly out-of-pocket cap on certain generic drugs.
That initiative, however, was only in the development stage, said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and it was unclear whether it would be implemented at all.
Biden’s bigger health care initiatives, such as a $35 monthly cap on insulin, a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs and Medicare’s negotiating drug pricing provision weren’t affected by Trump’s executive actions Monday.
“When administrations change over, many of them want to undo some of the actions of other presidents, even when those are more symbolic,” Dusetzina said.
Still, she said, Trump’s move signals that the incoming administration may be unwilling to move forward on any policies laid out by its predecessor.
“It could mean that the Trump administration is not interested in pursuing any of the work that has since developed out of these executive orders,” she said …
