How did the Trump administration perform on health policy in its first 100 days? A flurry of activity is not the same as progress.
President Trump has taken positive steps on health policy, such as withdrawing former President Biden’s unlawful plan to have Medicare cover weight-loss drugs. But he has been unforgivably AWOL on the dire need for fundamental reform of Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, Obamacare, the VHA, and the FDA. And his administration has intemperately cast doubt on the efficacy of vaccines, the most beneficial medical interventions in human history.
Many Trump actions that could potentially be positive, such as reducing the HHS workforce, may actually prove negative by paradoxically increasing government interference in health care markets.
Many otherwise positive steps—including many spending and job cuts—appear to be ephemeral at best and, at worst, illegal. Even when the president or his advisors are trying to implement good policy, it would be better if they did nothing rather than violate the law to do it.
Unfortunately, the president and his advisors are perpetuating a vicious and dangerous cycle of successive administrations violating the law to reward their friends, punish their enemies, and achieve ideological goals that lack democratic support.