Most Americans Back Trump’s ‘Radical’ Actions To Reform Health Care Industry

The vast majority of Americans support President Donald Trump’s actions to make medical prices more transparent, according to an exclusive poll shared with The Daily Wire.

The poll from Echelon Insights found that most Americans, including Democrats and independents, support Trump’s February executive order that requires hospitals and insurers to display the actual costs of treatment, not just estimates. Of those surveyed, 74% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 91% of Republicans said they supported Trump’s policy proposal.

“Voters overwhelmingly think that patients should get real, actual prices for healthcare services before they receive them – and also don’t think that is currently what patients get in our healthcare system,” pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote in a memo shared with The Daily Wire. “As a result, they strongly support leaders trying to do something about the issue, enforcing radical price transparency measures and going bold on this issue.”

Echelon Insights.

The poll, commissioned by PatientsRightsAdvocate.org, surveyed over 2,000 likely voters from April 21-23. The organization previously rolled out a billboard campaign in Times Square and outside the Department of Health and Human Services, which thanked Trump for the executive order.

In the executive order, Trump directed his administration to ensure that hospitals make “more meaningful price information available to patients to support a more competitive, innovative, affordable, and higher quality healthcare system.” Trump directed the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services Secretaries to come up with guidance to enforce the transparency regulations intended to increase competition among health care providers. The goal is to mandate that hospitals list more explicitly the price of different treatments and care.

The poll also found that 96% of Americans agree that they “deserve to know the price of their healthcare before they receive it,” and over 90% agree that it wasn’t fair to require financial agreements to cover all medical costs not covered by insurance before having an accurate estimate of the cost.

Republican strategist David Kochel said that the issue of pricing transparency could be a winning issue for Republicans, saying his family was charged $15,000 for a $170 EpiPen for his son.

“Voters are tired of being blindsided by outrageous hospital bills and hidden costs,” he said. “They want real accountability and the power to make informed choices about their care. The GOP should be shouting this from the rooftops: we’re the party that fights for fairness, choice, and affordability in healthcare. By championing transparency, we side with consumers over special interests, with small businesses over big industry, and with families over the status quo.”

Last week, Trump took more executive action on health care, signing a directive seeking to make drug prices in America comparable to the rest of the world by slashing bureaucracy.