Trump allies pour cold water on his insurance demands

Before meeting with health insurance executives to pressure them into lowering prices, Trump administration allies are acknowledging the president will likely achieve minimal results.

According to Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett, the president has announced plans to "strong arm" the insurance industry to assist in addressing the affordability crisis that has plagued his administration.

In late December, Trump stated, "I'm going to call a meeting of the insurance companies. I'm going to see if they get their price down, to put it very bluntly."

Trump allies in Congress and at conservative think tanks expect the president will encounter significant obstacles to achieving his goals.

The strategy of pressuring insurers—whom Trump has characterized as "fat cats"—reflects mounting pressure to address voter concerns about rising healthcare costs. However, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who praised Trump as a "pretty good deal guy," acknowledged substantial resistance will likely emerge.

Scott, former CEO of hospital chain HCA Healthcare, explained the fundamental constraint: "Insurance companies are dependent on what hospitals charge. I used to run the largest hospital company so I can tell you, insurance can't charge a whole bunch less if the hospitals charge more."

Ed Haislmaier, a health policy research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, agreed with this assessment. "The answer is, could they shave some off it? Possibly. Is it going to be a significant reduction? No. It's not going to be a significant reduction until there is a way that [insurers] are paying the providers less."

Bharat Ramamurti, formerly of the National Economic Council, expressed skepticism about meaningful outcomes.

"Maybe [insurers] come up with some way for the president to save face, you know, throw him a bone that's a little bit of cost savings, or maybe it's very temporary, or maybe there's some kind of small concession that they make, but it's not a way of addressing the underlying problem, which is that there is sort of structural forces that are pushing up the cost of health insurance," he predicted.

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