A Doctor’s Perspective on Trump’s 'Great Healthcare Plan'

And the president is calling on lawmakers to support his plan to lower health care costs called the great the great health care plan Dr. Josh mcconkie joins us now with more good to have you with us this morning doctor as a physician yourself. What do you make of the plan? I have been reading up on this extensively since it was announced yesterday and looking at everything that they've addressed from health care the premium cost to the cost of Medications and then holding these insurance companies Accountable this has the potential to be one of the largest most impactful pieces of legislation should this pass in in a decade or more Okay. So as you mentioned it covers price transparency cost sharing drug pricing What what's new in this plan or what stands out to you? so They want to codify the favored nation status that they've given prescriptions to other nations for for several years There um, there was an executive order in may of 2025 that the president had signed He would like that to be passed on to the american people and should this legislation pass that would be codified and become law And personally myself i've lived overseas when I was in australia and new zealand I have a I have a esophageal reflux and the medication that I take cost me twenty dollars Got on a plane flew back home to the united states the exact same medication the same manufacturer cost $300 So the american people have been paying extremely high costs for those medications This will be the most impactful piece of legislation for families. Yeah, there's so many ways to tackle a problem, but one thing families may be facing especially at this point in time is changes to their health care Premiums are people likely to see changes to those as a result of this plan The congressional budget office has already estimated a 36 billion dollar decrease almost 10 And the cost of those obamacare subsidies for the insurance premiums and taking that money from obamacare And then giving it right back to the american people to put in the health savings account. That's going to be tax deferred So that money coming directly to you tax deferred is going to be tremendously powerful and families getting to choose the health care coverage for them And for several reasons obamacare it just has been it's unsustainable when you look at the overall numbers 17 of our entire gdp almost five trillion dollars is spent on health care And the obamacare subsidies alone were seven percent of gdp 1.8 trillion dollars So it's not sustainable. It was expected to grow As much as 14 over the next several years, so clearly not sustainable We need something and this is what they were talking about getting this new legislation passed This is going to be a huge impact. Wow, and I do want to talk definitely about Congress's process to get us there because it's just a start It's a plan right now, but just on the in terms of the health care premiums or just the cost of health care Of course that varies Individual to individual according to their plan and also to their needs but on the whole how much do you think? Um, this might change people's um The cost of health care for them Yeah, there's there's a lot of work to do. So the overall plan the the foundation Is great and it's going to be it's going to be very impactful It's going to have a big impact on the relieving that financial stress that a lot of families have right now when you talk about That affordability and that affordability crisis But there's a lot of work to do that big piece of legislation in the house in the senate The devil will definitely be in the details. And so i'm waiting like everyone else on bated breath to read that legislation Yeah, when do you expect to see changes? It was a huge sticking point just even in the very last moments of last year. So um This is reading the tea leaves a little but what what do you think when we when will we see some change? Yeah, there's been support in the senate Uh, I think senator cassidy is a physician as well and he's come out with support for that in the house Uh, speaker johnson has not announced when they're going to address that legislation He's announced that he certainly is supportive of that. But it you know, this was just released yesterday So i'm sure we'll find out if not today, but early next week I'm sure they'll be able to address that to the public and when they're going to attack this legislation For sure, and what kind of key issues? Do you think lawmakers will be tackling as they try to work on some kind of bipartisan agreement here? They're going to be fighting those insurance companies So when you look at the transparency laws that they have talked about with claims And having to advertise or at least put out there that transparency the number of claims that they're denied And how much profits they're making off of premiums? Those are things that these insurance companies have held very close to the vest for decades now And forcing them to put that out there puts a lot of pressure on them They're not going to like that. So there's going to be a tremendous fight with those lobbyists and those companies on this legislation Yeah to that point many people have hailed the plan as really changing the fundamental dynamic between the u.s Government the health care system and the american people finally your thoughts on that Yeah, it is a complete game changer in many respects And so when you look at legislation that has would you talk about your families and you're sitting at the dinner table? And you're talking about finances and how do we get through this? How do we pay this? This piece of legislation has the potential if it passes to be the single biggest impact on american families in recent memory Well, there's so much happening. Um, not just this but also later this month the administration plans to launch trump rx Which is the direct to consumer website. Yeah with discounted rates, um broadly just lastly Um, what do you think the impact of that could be and how soon might people see it? Well, I I did read an article and they had done an interview with secretary oz, you know Who's a physician as well with health and human services and laying out the groundwork for that? There's going to be some medications that will be much lower pricing and then they've even talked about having some medications that are traditionally Prescription only be made over the counter at some of these preferred pharmacies as well And so you talk about saving doctor visits and having to run to urgent care for sniffles and colds as an emergency physician that Takes up a large part of what I do every day at work and if you can actually let people go and pick up some of those medications or go to some of these pharmacies pharmacies not only knowing that it's going to be the guaranteed lowest price, but it's going to save you some time and a doctor visit it's It's it's tremendous. I'm really excited to see how this plays out and you know We have a long way to go and a lot of work, but this is uh, this is big With that thank you so much for your time this morning. Dr. Josh mcconkie good to speak with you. Hey, thank you